Foreign news: UK Government criticised for sale price of RBS shares, call for clarity on who owns cu

The British Government is under fire for selling part of its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland for a substantial "loss", the Guardian reports. The Government owns 79 per cent of the bank, having paid 502 pence a share in 2008. On Monday it sold 5.4 per cent for 300 pence a share - a year low for the stock. One analyst criticised the Government for "selling the taxpayer short" to the tune of Â£1 billion.
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint has called for a public policy review of the ownership of consumer transaction data, Finextra reports. Speaking at the release of the bank's half-year results this week, Flint said enhancements in technology would soon allow banks to store and process a mass of customer data, which could be used for marketing and planning purposes. He said it would be good to have clarity about who owned the data before that process got underway.