The British government is to sell its majority stake in RBS, which was rescued during the financial meltdown with £45.5bn of public money.
Chancellor George Osborne said sales of the taxpayers' 79 percent stake in the bank will begin in the coming months, and may take "some years" because of the size of the holding.
"It's the right thing to do for British businesses and taxpayers," he said at his annual Mansion House speech to business leaders in London.
"Yes, we may get a lower price than Labour paid for it. But the longer we wait, the higher the price the whole economy will pay.
"And when you take the banks in total, we're making sure taxpayers get back billions more than they were forced to put in."
Mr Osborne said the "decision point" was reached after an independent review concluded that taxpayers' losses would be more than offset by profits on other bank share sales - including the stake in bailed-out Lloyds, meaning that they should walk away from the financial crisis with a profit.
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Lloyds Pharmacy Group, the country’s largest chain of retail pharmacy stores has announced its to open or buy up to 60 new shops around the country over the next three years.
The expansion, understood to involve an investment of around €50m will bring the group’s total number of stores close to 150 and add an additional 500 employees to the existing 1,000-strong workforce.
Lloyds, which formerly traded under the Doc Morris Group, also has operations in the UK and operates under both a directly-owned and franchise model.
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Alexis Tsipras's sideline-talks with the leaders of France and Germany yesterday may have nudged the country closer to a breakthrough in its drawn out negotiation process to secure access to fresh bailout funds.
Bloomberg reports that the German government is willing to back the release of new funds to Greece if it will accept even one of the reforms demanded by its creditors.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel reiterated yesterday that her goal is to keep Greece in the eurozone, saying, "Where there is a will, there is a way."
Taoiseach Enda Kenny also addressed the issue, saying that Greek politicians need to be "creative in the way they deal with the situation."
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With Apple now entering the music streaming game, Spotify has gathered a fresh war-chest to continue to compete in the growing market.
The company raised $526m (€466m) in new funding, this values the it at $8.5bn (€7.5bn). Goldman Sachs advised the company and has invested through its Global Private Opportunity Partners fund.
The Swedish company has more than 60 million active users, with 15 million paying premium subscriptions. Apple Music will go live at the end of this month.
Additional reporting by IRN
