The government has sold £1.24 billion worth of NatWest shares, accelerating the process of privatising the branch bank.

A statement on Friday confirmed that the state’s stake in the bank had fallen by about 3.5 percentage points to 22.5 percent.

NatWest received several bailout packages worth billions of euros during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, which gave the state an 84 percent stake in what was then the Royal Bank of Scotland.

But the Treasury has reduced its stake in the bank, which also owns Coutts.

This process has accelerated recently, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt reiterated the government’s plan to sell all of its shares in the bank by 2025 or 2026 in the spring budget.

A public share sale was originally planned for this summer as part of an attempt to attract a “new generation of retail investors”, but the plan has been put on hold due to the upcoming general election.

A Treasury spokesman said: “There will be no private offering during the election period.”

So far, the shares have been sold to institutional investors and the summer plans should be the first time that NatWest shares are sold to private individuals.

The election will take place on July 4. Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday, July 9.

The latest sell-off came via an over-the-counter purchase of more than 392 million shares by NatWest at Thursday’s closing price of 316.2 pence.

Paul Thwaite, Chief Executive of Natwest Group, said: “This transaction represents another important milestone for NatWest Group and builds on the recent momentum in reducing the UK Treasury’s stake in the bank.

“We believe this is a positive use of capital for the bank and our shareholders and represents further progress in achieving our objective of returning the NatWest Group to fully private ownership.”

“Our focus remains on delivering value for our customers, which in turn benefits our shareholders and the UK economy.”

In 2018, the state owned 62 percent of the group; in December, this share had fallen to 37.98 percent.

In March, this share fell below 30%, meaning that the state is no longer the majority shareholder of the credit institution.

Earlier this year, NatWest wrote a letter to its shareholders asking them to support an increase in the amount of shares the bank can buy back from the government within a year from just under 5% to 15%.