Fred loads 4 us too

FOUR more fat cats from Royal Bank of Scotland are today exposed for raking in multi- million pension pots after running the bank into the ground.

One ex-director is enjoying an annual pension worth DOUBLE that of shamed former chief Sir Fred "The Shred" Goodwin.

The bank had to be bailed out by the Government with billions of pounds of TAXPAYERS' money in October.

Yet the total pension pot for the five RBS executives on the board last year-including Sir Fred-is an incredible £47MILLION.

Last week Sir Fred refused to hand back a penny of his £693,000 a year pension.

But his £16 million nest egg is just the tip of the iceberg, according to company records seen by the News of the World.

LARRY FISH, 64, former head of RBS operations in the US, is raking in a pension of £1.4million a year-twice as much as Sir Fred. He has a pension pot of £16.8million.

GORDON PELL, 59, recently appointed deputy chief executive of RBS, is likely to enjoy an annual pension of £423,000 when he retires. He is sitting on a pension pot worth £8.4 million.

MARK FISHER, 48, former RBS chairman, is likely to rake in £337,000 a year on retirement. He has a pension fund worth £4.56 million.

JOHNNY CAMERON, 55, the former head of loss-making RBS investment banking division, enjoys a yearly payout of at least £57,000 after stepping down with a £1.5 million pension pot last October.

The pension bonanza is revealed in full for the first time today after the failed bank notched up a £24 billion loss for 2008.

The Government has directly appealed to Sir Fred, 50, to give up at least some of his monster pension.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has slammed the pension pots as "unjustifiable and unacceptable", and has vowed to claw back the cash.

Speaking at Labour's National Policy Forum in Bristol yesterday, he said: "Some of the practices now being discovered in our banks are not only unacceptable, they are indefensible and they have got to be cleaned up now.

"We are exploring all the legal action necessary to recover pension payments from people who received too much."

But last night experts claimed it will be impossible for the Government to claw back the cash because they cannot overturn a legally binding agreement.

Incredibly, two of the RBS chiefs shamelessly topped up their pensions by MILLIONS when they resigned last October.

Sir Fred Goodwin and Johnny Cameron cashed in when they were driven out of office for racking up the biggest loss in British corporate history, forcing the Government to nationalise RBS.

Sir Fred DOUBLED his pension pot from £8 million to £16 million because he took early retirement. He waived his £1.29 million salary and about £300,000 in shares, but squeezed an extra £8 million from his pen- sion-leaving him with a £7 million profit.

Mr Cameron, who joined RBS in 2000, boosted his pension from £931,000 to £1.5 million because he retired early. He resigned after spearheading the aggressive sales and expansion drive that crippled the bank.

The City Minister Lord Myners has faced calls to quit over Sir Fred's pension. He is understood to have approved the bumper package when the Government bailed out RBS with £20 billion.

But the Government claims Lord Myners was misled by senior RBS figures and was under the impression that the £16 million pension deal could not be stopped.

Larry FISH notched up his near £17 million pension when running the US arm of the bank.

RBS was crippled by its US business, which left it exposed to bad debts in the sub-prime market-where loans are made to people with poor credit histories. After stepping down in May last year, Mr Fish's bumper pot is worth £27,972 a week.

Gordon PELL, who joined RBS in 2000, was formerly head of retail markets.

Vulnerable

Mark FISHER was in charge of the Dutch bank ABN Amro after the disastrous RBS takeover. RBS was nearly dragged under by the 2007 deal, which plunged the bank into the red after £16 billion of writedowns last year.

Mr Fisher now works for Lloyds Banking Group, after being with RBS since 1981.

The payouts have left the RBS staff pension fund with a £1.99 billion shortfall.

Last week the Treasury agreed to insure £325 billion of RBS' loans and investments - leaving taxpayers vulnerable to more losses.

Lib Dem treasury spokesman Vince Cable described the pension pots as "outrageous".

He said: "The Government is going to have to deal decisively with this. If the board members do not give up their pensions, they should be threatened with legal action because RBS is bust.

"When a company goes bust, employers are entitled to a maximum pension of £27,000 a year under the Pension Protection Scheme.

"The outrageous pension packages are in danger of overshadowing the amount of money the Government is putting into the new RBS bailout.

"The Government is taking all the bank's bad debts without establishing firm control so RBS can be run in the public interest."

Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group is examining pay-offs to former Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) directors to check they have been paid no more than necessary.

Stricken

The chiefs who brought HBOS to its knees are also enjoying bumper pension pots.

Former head of corporate banking Peter Cummings was reportedly given a £600,000 pay-off and is likely to receive a pension of more than £344,000 a year.

Mr Cummings, who masterminded many of the stricken bank's high-profile deals, left with a pension pot of at least £6 million.

Former HBOS Chief Executive Andy Hornby has a pension pot of £2.4 million.

HBOS made a £10.8 billion loss last year, and was rescued with billions of taxpayers' cash when it became part of Lloyds .

Gordon Brown, who is preparing to meet US President Barack Obama this week, insisted yesterday that global action was needed to stop the financial crisis.

He said: "It's time to set new rules for the banks of every country. Doing nothing is not an option. Our task is not just to get a grip on today but to execute a plan for tomorrow."

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