The 21pc holding, comprising nearly 110.5m shares worth a total of $2.7bn (£1.8bn), will be offloaded through a secondary stock offering. It subsequently sold a further 132m shares in March to bring its stake in Citizens to below 50pc, and a $2bn holding in July. Its gradual disposal is part of a major plan to cut RBS’s exposure to foreign markets and instead to focus on retail and business banking in the UK. Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and JP Morgan are acting as the underwriters of the offering. Last week, Citizens revealed that lower costs and higher interest rates had pushed up profits. Pre-tax profits came in at $220m in the third quarter, up 16pc on last year and 16pc higher than the previous three-month period. Citizens' interest rates on loans increased by more than the rise in deposit rates, leaving the balance 4pc higher at $856m in the quarter. Rising fee income from cards and investment services increased 4pc to $353m. At the same time, Citizens cut costs by 1pc to $798m as the bank continued with its plan to save $200m per year by the end of 2016.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that it will sell off the remainder of its stake in UK-based Citizens Financial; the sale is expected to worth $2.7bn, and will be offloaded through a secondary stock offering. RBS said it would also withdraw a board representative from Citizens when the sale completed.