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The
head of the National Audit Office, said in a letter to the
Treasury Select Committee, he is considering a review of the
government's handling of the taxpayer's investment in the
nationalized banks, including the advice given by UK Financial
Investments, the body that manages the stake in the bank, to
start selling the shares at a loss. "I am still finalizing the
exact scope and nature of my work in this area," Amyas Morse,
head of the National Audit Office, said in a letter to the head
of the Treasury Select Committee.
"It is also likely that this will extend to a number of case
studies, including the decision to sell RBS shares in August
2015."Politicians have previously questioned whether the advice
given by the UK Financial Investments was listened to and
whether restarting the sale when the shares were below the
amount the government paid for them represented the best
value.The British government said last month it faces an almost
27 billion pound loss from rescuing failed banks during the
2007-2009 financial crisis after a slump in the lenders' value
since Britain's vote to leave the European Union in
June.Taxpayers currently face a 32.4 billion pound loss on the
value of the government's shares in Royal Bank of Scotland,
according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Britain's
independent budget watchdog.UK Financial Investments declined to
comment.
(Reporting By Andrew MacAskill, editing by Anjuli Davies)
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