The U.K. government further cut its stake in Lloyds Banking Group Plc to below 7% after the latest round of share sales.

The Treasury now holds 4,943,698,490 shares and an equivalent number of voting rights in Lloyds, representing 6.93% of the lender's voting rights. It previously held 5,702,084,663 shares in the group.

The government noted that it has now recovered more than £17.5 billion of the £20.3 billion taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis. All proceeds from the sales are used to reduce the national debt.