Following the level of HM Government’s ownership of voting rights falling below 25%, the Office for National Statistics has reviewed the classification of the NatWest Group plc (NatWest) and its subsidiaries against international statistical guidelines. The review concluded that NatWest and its subsidiaries should no longer be classified to the public sector for statistical purposes from 1 June 2024.
NatWest was previously known as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group plc, before a name change took place on 22 July 2020.
In 2008, the RBS Group was reclassified from the private sector to the public sector, as a result of its recapitalisation by HM Government. The provision of capital was accompanied by the RBS Group agreeing to certain restrictions, including around shareholder distributions and directors’ remuneration. In addition, HM Government became a majority shareholder in the RBS Group.
Since 2015, HM Government has been selling the shares it owns in NatWest. On 1 June 2024, HM Government’s ownership of voting rights fell below 25%. This is a key threshold, because holdings at or above this level allow an investor to block the passing of special resolutions. The restrictions on shareholder distributions and directors’ remuneration had been removed by 2009.
As a result, NatWest Group plc will be reclassified from the subsector ‘public other financial intermediaries, except insurance corporations and pension funds’ (S.12501), to the subsector ‘private other financial intermediaries, except insurance corporations and pension funds’ (S.12502), backdated to 1 June 2024.
NatWest Group subsidiaries will be reclassified from the public sector category to the private sector category while retaining their broader subsector classification. The exceptions are ABN Amro Bank NV and Ulster Bank Ireland Limited, which have been reclassified as foreign controlled financial corporations.
This reclassification will have no impact on the headline measures published in our Public Sector Finances release, because these headline measures exclude public sector banks (including NatWest). The reclassification will, however, once implemented, reduce our measure of public sector net debt including public sector banks (by around £372 billion, based on today’s publication for July 2024). As NatWest was previously the last public sector bank, once the reclassification has been implemented in our statistics, the public sector net debt including public sector banks measure will for periods from 1 June 2024 onwards equal the measure excluding public sector banks.
If you require any further information on this classification assessment, please email econstats.classifications@ons.gov.uk.