Rallying share prices have helped trim paper losses on the UK Government’s ordinary shareholdings in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group by 40% over the past five months to less than £11bn (€12.8bn), although the body created to dispose of those stakes warned the sheer size of the holdings mean it is likely to be a “large, repeat user of the capital markets” for years as it sells them down.

The latest valuation of the unrealised losses on the Government's investments in the banks was contained in a keenly-awaited strategy and annual report publication from UK Financial Investments, which was founded in October last year and started operations the following month.