Greedy much?!

[flipx]

Ex-RBS chief vows to keep pension

BBC NEWS | Politics | Osborne responds to Darling statement

Ex-Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin has rejected calls to give up his £650,000-a-year pension.

Chancellor Alistair Darling had asked him to hand back his £16m pension pot amid anger about rewards for failure.
But Sir Fred rejected that request in a letter to the Treasury in which he also says ministers agreed to the deal.
Mr Darling says that the government had thought the deal was legally binding when it was agreed in October, but now realised they could have blocked it.



'Gestures made'


The pension row intensified after RBS revealed it had made a £24bn loss last year - the single largest in British corporate history - and would receive a further £13bn financial lifeline from the government.
Mr Darling has asked Sir Fred, who helped drive the bank to the brink of ruin, to hand back some of the pension money.

But in a letter to Treasury minister Lord Myners, Sir Fred rejects the chancellor's plea, saying: "I hope that you understand my rationale for declining your request to voluntarily reduce my pension entitlement".


Sir Fred says he agreed to a series of "gestures" in October, when he was negotiating his departure from the bank, such as foregoing the equivalent of 15 months salary.
But when it came to the issue of his pension "you indicated that you were aware of my entitlement and that no further 'gestures' would be required", writes Sir Fred.
At the time he stood down Mr Darling had hailed the fact Sir Fred had waived his contractual entitlement and decided "to do the right thing".



There was no mention of the size of pension he was going to receive.



Mr Darling, who had asked Lord Myners to speak to Sir Fred about giving up his pension, said that the government had been under the impression in October that the pension deal was legally binding.
But in the past week it had realised that that was not the case.
"It was only very recently that we became aware that the decision of the previous board of RBS to allow



Sir Fred to take early retirement had the effect of increasing his pension entitlement and that might have been a discretionary choice," Mr Darling told MPs.
He said the government was investigating the possibility of "clawing back" some of the money through legal action.



'Obscene'

Earlier, Gordon Brown said "nobody could support" pension entitlements of such a size when the company concerned was losing so much money and cutting jobs.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne described the pension agreement as "obscene" and said it would be "wrong" for Sir Fred to take the money.



Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said Sir Fred should be asked to "renounce" the entitlement and, if he refused, ministers should intervene to block it.
But the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston said there was very little that ministers could do, beyond asking Sir Fred to give up the arrangement, to recover the money.
He said it would be extremely difficult to prove that Sir Fred had stepped over the line in terms of acceptable behaviour while he was running the bank.
Tory MP Michael Fallon, deputy chairman of the Treasury committee, said the chances of recovering the money through the courts were slim.
Mr Fallon said the episode demonstrated the government's "sheer incompetence".
"I think it will be very hard to put this right unless Sir Fred does the decent thing," he told BBC News.

Fucking disgraceful!

 

[pjbleek]

^^ that's my employer....

 

[flipx]

Aye? lol.. I'm with RBS, think I'm going to switch to someone else though after this shambles.

 

[pjbleek]

what do you do for them?

 

[Minor Axis]

Overheard:

"Hey I won the CEO prize. Screw the company, GIVE ME MY MONEY!!!"

 

[flipx]

what do you do for them?

Eh? I'm with them, as in I have an account with RBS. =/

 

[pjbleek]

gotcha....I do indeed work for the sons of bitches

 

[flipx]

Can't get over the mentality of this, the lack of communication and judgment between the government, and the banks!
Taxpayers money is most definitely getting wasted.

 

[flipx]

Surprised this hasn't had more replies.

 

[Peter Parka]

Surprised this hasn't had more replies.

Thats because it isn't about USA politics, I find most Americans really dont seem to give a shit about what happens outside of things which dont directly affect their country.

Personally I think its disgraceful the way these bank fat cats have abused the bail out package.:thumbdown

 

[flipx]

Thats because it isn't about USA politics, I find most Americans really dont seem to give a shit about what happens outside of things which dont directly affect their country.

Personally I think its disgraceful the way these bank fat cats have abused the bail out package.:thumbdown

Yeah, that's completely true. Which is disheartening, but not surprising.

Indeed, I think there has been some progress with this issue regarding Harriet Harman. Nothing will come of it though, and I'm pretty sure Sir Fred has fled the country.

 

[dt3]

Thats because it isn't about USA politics, I find most Americans really dont seem to give a shit about what happens outside of things which dont directly affect their country.

Personally I think its disgraceful the way these bank fat cats have abused the bail out package.:thumbdown

I find most Europeans give way too much of a shit about our politics

 

[cam elle toe]

Greedy CEO's suck!

The CEO of Bonds, our iconic Aussie brand of underwear etc, gave herself a HUGE payrise and bonus before sacking thousands of workers, and moving the company to Asia.:thumbdown

Bitch now has her Melbourne mansion up for sale for something like 4 million

 

[Peter Parka]

I find most Europeans give way too much of a shit about our politics

Thats because the USA forces its politics on everyone else, whether they want them or not.

 

[flipx]

Thats because the USA forces its politics on everyone else, whether they want them or not.

Yeah lol.. Or maybe just because we are from a more educated nation, that cares about the entire world, rather than just our own country, pride, and patriotism.
Meh

 

[Strauss]

Overheard:
"Hey I won the CEO prize. Screw the company, GIVE ME MY MONEY!!!"

Said just before: "Hey I'm union you got to pay me whether I work or not!!!!."