Bank re-privatisation 'on its way'

A leading think-tank, the centre-right Policy Exchange, is recommending that every UK taxpayer should be given the chance to buy discounted shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking group without having to pay anything up front.

The government paid about £45bn to acquire more than 80% of RBS and almost 40% of Lloyds TSB in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008.

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston told the Today programme's business presenter Simon Jack that minsters would like to re-privatise the banks by 2015.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday 10 June 2013.