NatWest chair thanks UK taxpayers for bailout ahead of return to private ownership

Rick Haythornthwaite said bank was indebted to public for 46bn rescue package that kept it afloat in 2008

The chair of NatWest has thanked UK taxpayers for the bank's 2008 bailout weeks before the bank returns into private ownership, assuring shareholders that bosses had fixed the issues of the past" and would not open up floodgates of risk" despite government pressure.

Rick Haythornthwaite made the comments as a small group of shareholders gathered at the Gogarburn campus on the outskirts of Edinburgh on Wednesday for the bank's annual investor meeting.