Salvaged by a £45bn taxpayer-funded bailout following the financial crisis, the government now holds a 79 per cent stake in RBS. Last year, RBS accrued losses of £3.5bn; while a significant improvement on the £9bn loss recorded the year before, it was the seventh consecutive loss posted by the bank.

In the intervening period, RBS has been implicated in a number of high-profile controversies, including PPI mis-selling and foreign exchange rigging. It was also announced recently that the bank would withdraw from 25 overseas markets in the EMEA region to concentrate on national commercial and retail banking services, necessitating “substantial” staff cuts. Total losses by RBS post-bailout amount to £43bn.

In an interview this morning, Osborne declared he had made a “mistake” by not restructuring the bank when the Coalition came to power. “I did what I could,” Osborne says, but the focus now must be “getting rid of the stake…as quickly as we can.”

He went on to add that the public stake was “massive”, and sale could take “several years” to accomplish fully, following the model employed in the transition of Lloyds back “into the good hands of the private sector.”

In that instance, the public stake was incrementally pared down from 41 per cent to just under 24 per cent, via sale to institutional investors. The auction was also lossmaking; while £20bn was pumped into Lloyds to keep it afloat, only £8bn has been recouped to date.

For taxpayers not to lose out this time, RBS shares would need to be sold at roughly 455p; today, shares in the bank stand at 375.75p.