By Ian Walker

LONDON--Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has repaid GBP1.19 billion ($1.71 billion) to the British government and will retire the bank's so-called dividend access share, taking the 73% state-owned lender one step closer to paying dividends to its ordinary shareholders.

The dividend access share--giving the government preferential rights to RBS shareholder payouts--was issued in 2009 when the British Treasury rescued the troubled bank by providing GBP25.5 billion of equity capital in exchange for B shares.

"This is another important milestone in our plan to resume capital distributions to our shareholders, and represents one less hurdle in our path to build the number one bank for customer service, trust and advocacy," Chief Executive Ross McEwan said.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2016 04:34 ET (08:34 GMT)

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