LONDON, March 25 Reuters The British government is no longer the controlling shareholder in NatWest  the bank it bailed out at the height of the global financial crisis and has reduced its stake in the lender to below 30, the finance ministry said on Monday.

This is a significant milestone demonstrating we39;re making excellent progress on fully returning NatWest to private ownership, economic secretary Bim Afolami said in a statement.

The government39;s ownership of the former Royal Bank of Scotland dipped below 30 after the sale of further stock to institutional investors under the government39;s trading plan.

Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Iain Withers; editing by William James and Toby Chopra

Source Reuters