Following the 2008 banking crisis, governments around the world found themselves having to bail out large financial institutions by injecting capital to help those institutions continue to service their debts. In Europe, the most high profile of these bail outs were those in Greece, Portugal and Iceland. The UK also was affected with many of the UK's best known banks being included in a bank rescue package totalling some £500 billion (approximately $850 billion at the time, closer to $650 billion now). As banking institutions were bailed out by the government, it was, of course, the taxpayer who footed the bill and, as a result, Lloyds Bank PLC and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC remain partly owned by UK PLC even now.
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