Taxpayers no longer hold the largest single stake in NatWest after the government sold more shares in the bank.

A filing to the stock exchange showed the taxpayers’ holding fell to 5.93% from 6.98% as the bank heads towards full private ownership.

BlackRock, the US investment bank, is now NatWest’s biggest shareholder with a 6.4% holding.

The Treasury has held the taxpayers’ stake through UK Government Investments since Labour’s £45.5 billion bailout of the bank, then known as Royal Bank of Scotland, in 2008. It left the bank almost 85% in public hands.

Shares have been slowly offloaded on to the market until recent months when the pace of disposal has quickened.

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had planned to sell the remaining shares to the public in a process similar to the “Tell Sid” campaign used to privatise British Gas in the 1980s, but the plan was dropped by his successor Rachel Reeves.

NatWest chief executive Paul Thwaite, said recently that he expects the bank to be back in full private ownership this year.

Shares closed 8p higher at 478.75p.