NatWest has edged another step nearer returning to full privatisation after buying back £1 billion of its shares from the Government.

The taxpayer-backed lender said it bought 263 million shares from the Government at a price of 380.8p each, reducing the Government’s stake to around 11.4% from 14.81%, as at the end of October. NatWest has now bought back £2.2 billion of state-owned shares so far this year through two rounds of buybacks.