A year ago this week, the UK government sold its remaining shares in NatWest, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), stemming from the £45.5 billion (€52.7 billion) rescue in 2008 of what was then one of the largest banks in the world – with over 40 million customers and operations in more than 50 countries. The disposal brought the total recovery on the UK bank’s bailout bill to £35 billion – crystallising a £10.5 billion shortfall.That compares with the £900 million profit recouped from the sale of shares in Lloyds Banking Group, which returned to full private ownership in 2017, nine years after receiving £20.3 billion in state aid.The NatWest rescue “was the right decision then to secure the economy”, said UK chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves in a statement accompanying the sale of the last shares. “We protected the economy in a time of crisis nearly 17 years ago, now we are focused on securing Britain’s future in a new era of global change.”The uncomfortable truth for UK taxpayers is that the NatWest shortfall will almost equal the cash loss it ultimately faces on its £15 billion (€17.3 billion) Ulster Bank rescue. The company that now houses the remains of Ulster Bank – called Ulydien – disclosed in the recently-filed annual report for 2025 that it paid a €165 million dividend to NatWest earlier this year. That brings the total recovered from the former lender’s bailout to €5.25 billion. There is little scope for NatWest to scrape much more out of Ulydien, which became the name of the subsidiary a year ago when Ulster Bank handed back its banking licence as it headed towards the final stages of its wind-down. As of December, its net assets had fallen to €313 million. Deducting the subsequent dividend payment reduces the net position of the balance sheet to below €150 million. All of which is made more galling for UK taxpayers by the fact that Ulster Bank accounted for only around 3 per cent of NatWest’s assets when the crisis hit.