Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin has offered to reduce his highly controversial pension almost half.
The offer comes after the RBS Group exonerated him of wrongdoing at the bank that collapsed last year, a person familiar with the accord said.
Mr Goodwin has agreed to reduce his annual pension to £342,500 from £703,000, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information has not yet been released.
Goodwin wasn’t prepared to come to an agreement until RBS’s internal review of his conduct as chief executive officer was completed, the person said.
“This is an appropriate step for Sir Fred Goodwin to take and will help rebuild his reputation,” said John Mann, a member of Parliament who raised Goodwin’s pension during a February meeting of the Treasury Committee.
Legislators have urged Mr Goodwin to return part of his pension after he was ousted last year following a £20 billion state bailout.
About 90 per cent of shareholders voted against the payment in an advisory vote at the bank’s annual meeting in April.
Phil Hall, whom Goodwin hired as a public relations adviser earlier this year, said his client wouldn’t be making a statement today or in the foreseeable future.
Any statement would come from RBS, he said. A spokesman for the Treasury, which owns 70 per cent of the bank, declined to comment.
Mr Goodwin left the bank last year after presiding over the biggest loss in UK corporate history following the acquisition of ABN Amro Holding NV.
Bloomberg