The U.K. government further reduced its stake in Lloyds Banking Group Plc to less than 2%.

The Treasury now holds 1,410,483,319 shares and an equivalent number of voting rights, representing 1.97% of the lender's voting rights. It previously held 2,104,606,310 shares in the group.

The Treasury said it has now recovered more than £20 billion of the £20.3 billion that taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis.