The Government has raised £2.1bn by selling some of its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland, but has made a loss of around £1bn compared to the price it bought the shares for at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
UK Financial Investments, the body that holds the Government's RBS stake, sold 630 million shares - a 5.4% stake in the bank, at 330p each. That compares to the 502p price per share paid by the Government when it bailed out the bank.
Chancellor George Osborne has hailed the sale of a 5.4% stake in RBS as "an important first step in returning the bank to private ownership."
He said it was right to start selling the stake at a loss to the price paid for the shares in 2008.
"While the easiest thing to do would be to duck the difficult decisions and leave RBS in state hands, the right thing to do for the economy and for taxpayers is to start selling off our stake, he said.
"Now is the time for RBS to rebuild itself as a commercial bank, no longer reliant on the state, but serving the working people of Britain," he added.
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