Former RBS CEO Goodwin agrees to pension cut

British part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland said former chief executive Fred Goodin had agreed to more than halve his widely criticised 703,000 pound pension award. Goodwin will now receive an annual payout of 342,500 pounds, the bank said.
Chairman Philip Hampton said Goodwin had voluntarily approached the bank to alter his pension arrangements after an internal investigation found there were no grounds for reducing the award.
Goodwin's pension stoked investor and public resentment over bankers' bumper pay deals when detail of his retirement package emerged in February, prompting the government and RBS to explore ways of clawing back part of his award.
Shareholders rejected the bank's directors' pay report by a majority of over 90 percent at its annual general meeting in April, in a move widely interpreted as a protest against Goodwin's pension deal.
Goodwin quit as head of RBS last October after the bank was forced to surrender a majority stake to the government in return for a 20 bln pound taxpayer-funded bailout.
RBS, financially stretched by the 2007 acquisition of Dutch rival ABN Amro and hit by losses on risky credit-backed assets, last year reported a loss of 24.1 bln pounds, the biggest in British corporate history.