LONDON - The Royal Bank of Scotland has reached a deal with the British government that will pave the way for it to pay dividends in the future.
The bank, which is 81 percent owned by the British government, already has to pay dividends to the government on preferred shares that were a major part of its capital injection into the bank in 2009. This latest move opens the door to resume payouts to non-government shareholders, though no timetable has been set.
The move announced by the bank late Wednesday comes as the European Commission signed off on plan by Ross McEwan, the R.B.S. chief executive, to radically reshape the bank.
The commission had to determine whether the restructuring plan, including the move to eventually resume dividends to shareholders, complied with European rules for banks receiving state aid. R.B.S. received 45 billion pounds, or about $75.5 billion, from the British government during the financial crisis.
The British government is keen to reduce and eventually exit its stakes in R.B.S. and Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s other bailed-out bank.
But R.B.S. has a longer road ahead. The bank recently announced an £8.2 billion loss in 2013 and said it could be three to five more years before it is fully recovered.
R.B.S., based in Edinburgh, will pay  £320 million, or about $537.1 million, to the British government this year. It will pay another £1.18 billion to the government at a later date of its choosing. The amount will increase if not paid by Jan. 1, 2016.
The government program made it more expensive for R.B.S. to issue a dividend on its nongovernment shares because it essentially required two payments to the government for every one payment to regular shareholders.
The bank has already paid about £4 billion in fees to the British government related to two prior programs that were part of its government bailout.
It has exited those programs and now has the go-ahead to exit the government dividend program, and eventually issue payouts to institutional and retail investors. Those investors must approve this week’s deal.
“Today’s agreement is a vote of confidence in the progress we have made in rebuilding R.B.S. and in our plan for the bank’s future,†Mr. McEwan, the R.B.S. chief executive, said in a statement. “We now need to get on with building an R.B.S. that can earn the trust of our customers and help change U.K. banking for the better.â€
Lloyds Banking Group, which received a £17 billion bailout, has said it plans to seek permission this year to begin paying dividends to shareholders. In two sales in September and in March, the British government has reduced its stake in Lloyds to 24.9 percent from about 39 percent.
Mr. McEwan has said repaying the government the £45 billion and winning back the trust of the British public is a key step for the bank’s turnaround.
Mr. McEwan is in the process of reshaping R.B.S. from a bank with international ambitions to a “a smaller, simpler and smarter bank.†That include shrinking the investment bank, selling assets and changing its culture.
R.B.S. plans to publicly float its Williams & Glyn business, which was created out of the branches it was forced to divest as part of the bailout, by 2016. That was extended after the bank failed to meet a deadline to divest the business by the end of last year.
The bank also plans to spin off its Citizens Financial Group in the United States.
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