George Osborne has used the annual Mansion House State of the Economy speech, to outline his plans to divest the Government of it's banking portfolio of RBS and Lloyds bank shares, where we the public own 81% and 39% respectively.

Fortunately bullish global stock markets in recent months, that have chosen to ignore European capital issues and the US debt situation, has created an environment where an exit can be considered but timing is everything. Stock markets are very fickle and a bull market can become a bear market very quickly and the window of opportunity is suddenly gone.

The Lloyds bank shares are probably close to break even and the Government may well offer the shares to the general public, returning around £20 billion to the national purse but RBS will require a different strategy.

Breaking it up into a good and bad bank, is one option but there are others and although Osborne has stated there is no timetable for realising the funds injected into these banks, there is of course an election due in 2015