WELCOME to your very own version of the 30 per cent Club, NatWest Group. This week's milestone in Britain's relationship with the banks it bailed out in 2008 deserves more than a passing comment. On Monday, a trading plan launched to drip NatWest stock into the hands of private investors meant that taxpayers' stake in the company made infamous by Fred Goodwin fell below 30 per cent.

Amid the noisy preparations for Jeremy Hunt's retail offer of shares in the bank, slated for the summer, the crossing of this threshold is a key moment. For the first time in 16 years, the government is no longer a controlling shareholder in NatWest in the context of rules imposed by the UK Listing Authority.

In one sense, that's cosmetic, affecting matters like the separate disclosure of voting decisions at NatWest's annual meeting. In another, though, it's material - a clear sign that the end is in sight for taxpayers' too-intimate relationship with the high street bank.

Last week, NatWest asked shareholders to approve an increase in how much of its share capital it can buy back off-market from the Treasury in a 12-month period, from 4.99 per cent to up to 15 per cent.

Allied to a dual retail and institutional offering, it's not inconceivable that the government will have sold out more or less entirely by the end of next year.

That throws up another set of questions for NatWest's new management team, led by chairman Rick Haythornthwaite and chief executive Paul Thwaite.

Chief among them is their blueprint for growing a bank which has spent most of the last two decades shrinking. Investment bankers argue that Virgin Money's mix of SME lending and mortgage assets would make a ripe combination for NatWest, although I understand it is not on the board's agenda. I would be surprised, though, if a front-footed approach to M&A did not feature prominently under a leadership team with more of an opportunity to grow the company than any since the ill-fated days of Goodwin.

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper