Britain has begun talks with sovereign wealth funds and other foreign investors about selling stakes in its nationalised banks, in a sign of the market's growing confidence that the worst of the financial crisis is over.
UK Financial Investments, which manages London's 43.5 per cent stake in Lloyds and 70 per cent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland, could start selling tranches in both banks within a year, according to people briefed on the organisation's plans.
In the US, banks are scrambling to be in the first wave of lenders to repay government bail-out funds after the authorities told Wall Street executives they would allow five or six big financial groups to return taxpayers' money before the rest of the industry.