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Original poster

Fred Goodwin's £693,000 a year pension for destroying RBOS....

54 replies

mm22bys · 27/02/2009 09:40

I've looked but not seen a thread on here yet about it...

This is actually yesterday's news, but I think it is obscene that some one is paid so much, and for failure too...

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7912651.stm

(I know he's a sir but I am not going to give him that respect...)

OP posts:
Original poster
mm22bys · 27/02/2009 09:40

here

OP posts:
Lizzylou · 27/02/2009 09:42

It makes me very angry, but if that was his contract I am not sure what anyone can do.

Watched Question time last night and a very droll man in the audience said that he would take over the bank, make a huge loss and then take a huge pension. (He was funny about it though ) I'd bloody do it if they wanted.

It's an embarrassment all round.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 27/02/2009 09:43

I don't have a problem with this at all, if it was a pay off then yes or a bonus but it is a pension that has been paid into for his entire career.

It is an obscene amount of money, but we live in a capitalist society and I would not want gordon brown to change the law so he can play with pensions.

Hassled · 27/02/2009 09:44

It's gobsmacking and I think he's going to have to move to a slightly less hacked off with him country (and with that money it will probably be somewhere nice and sunny).

Can you imagine his life, though - everytime he's in a restaurant he'll be fretting that the chef has clocked him and spat in his soup. Even if he feels no moral need to take a smaller pension, you'd think he'd do it just so he's not the most hated man in the country.

christiana · 27/02/2009 09:47

Message withdrawn

Original poster
mm22bys · 27/02/2009 09:50

Apparently it wasn't in his contract, apparently the board made the decision (he didn't "resign" till after he turned 50 which meant he could get so much more...). Apparently the govt knew, and it sounds like they were misled into thinking it WAS in his contract.

Shocking all round, how much money do you actually need...greed rules....

OP posts:
edam · 27/02/2009 09:51

The doubling of his pension pot was. a discretionary - NOT a contractual obligation and b. shows that this is not something he or RBS had paid into over his career.

Whole thing is appalling. He bankrupted RBS but is making millions out of it, while his former employees on much lower wages are staring redundancy in the face, and employees of business customers may well suffer the same fate. He should have been fired with no compensation.

One law for the rich, one law for the poor. No ordinary person is paid for fucking up.

StayFrosty · 27/02/2009 09:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Quattrocento · 27/02/2009 09:52

The trouble is the shareholders, I think. Most shareholders in large corporates are large pension funds. Whilst pension fund analysts generally know about managing pension funds, they know rack all about managing companies. So they let boards of directors do totally ridiculous things.

Frankly it would have been obvious to the three blind mice that RBOS was being mismanaged. They were deep into property lending a long time after all the other banks had stopped. They bought ABN which was a ridiculous acquisition.

The thing that is irritating is the lack of shame. The bankers blame the global economic crisis instead of looking at their own poor decisions.

I can't imagine there's any way of reviewing Sir Fred's contractual entitlements now.

TheCrackFox · 27/02/2009 09:52

How much will Gordon Brown's eventual pension be for destroying the entire economy?

I don't agree with Fred the Shred's pension but it was agreed with someone in the government. This whole pension furore has New Labour spin written all over it. If they make us really angry with the big nasty bankers (and I agree they are wankers) then we will forget just how crap Gordon Brown and his chums have been.

edam · 27/02/2009 09:52

Oh, and contrast his treatment with mine as an RBS customer - I'm trying to remortgage through them and they are forever chasing me for more and more bits of paper (I'm self-employed but have had my current account with them for 20 years so they know EXACTLY how much I earn to the penny).

Melscorp · 27/02/2009 09:54

Obviouslt the man doesn't cae about anything or anyone, but himself!!!!!!!!!

You would have thought he would have had one strand of decency and at least handed back a small percentage, just to appease the people and should he had empathy with the predicament other nation!!!

SELFISH SO AND SO!!!!!!!

Original poster
mm22bys · 27/02/2009 09:54

DH swims with someone who (used to?) works for RBOS, and had done for 27 years. 11 of them were applying for 4 jobs, and DH hasn't seen him all week.....

It makes me sick that those at the top ARE rewarded for failure, whereas those at the bottom to mid are having their lives destroyed.

OP posts:
edam · 27/02/2009 09:54

Gordon Brown's pension will be a lot less than Fred Goodwin's or any senior City figure. He earns less than £200k - less than many council chief executives (there's another scandal for you, great to know my extortionate council tax is going to a good cause).

Melscorp · 27/02/2009 09:56

Sorry about the typing error!!

Should be "care"!

TheCrackFox · 27/02/2009 09:57

I don't think Gordon Brown is worth minimum wage TBH.

Top Bankers and all politicians are rewarded for failure at the moment.

Us plebs are the ones expected to fund it all.

Lemontart · 27/02/2009 10:03

I do not think it is Gordon Brown?s job to mess with private pensions. However, I do think that the suits who allowed this to happen (considering it was not all set in stone and could have been prevented or altered) should be held accountable. While it looks like the man does not deserve this money, I do not necessarily think he is to "blame" for his pension deal. The ones to allow the package to go ahead and agreed are the ones who are in the wrong here. Interesting how it was oked when he left and only now when it has all become a big media and public issue that the suits are up in arms. All patting each other on the back and helping them lines their pockets one minute, the next they are outraged and publicly backstabbing them. Very shallow.

edam · 27/02/2009 10:06

Agree the suits are to blame (that treasury minister who OK'd the deal is clearly a fuckwit) but Fred Goodwin is responsible for his greedy, immoral behaviour and equally worthy of criticism. If not more, since he's the one who bankrupted RBS.

I don't hold out much prospect of him sharing his ill-gotten gains with the poor RBS workers who will lose their jobs.

GrimmaTheNome · 27/02/2009 10:10

He should keep the pension pot 'earned' before RBOS was going belly up but certainly not the late-added discretionary top up. And someone should throw a very large book at the ex-directors who sanctioned it. They must have known it was disgraceful. Are they being named, shamed and dismissed from whatever boards they sit on now?

People at the top of large companies should be allowed to make large sums of money, but surely it should be via such things as stock option schemes, where you get the benefit if the company does well some years into the future when the options vest. So that rewards are for real longer term success.

myredcardigan · 27/02/2009 10:18

I agree with Greyskull to an extent in that a pension is not a performance bonus. However, in this case it was agreed at board level to increase it beyond what had been contributed by him and the company. It certainly looks to the public as though incompetence is being rewarded. And of course, he was grossly incompetent!

I do think in this country we have a tendency to express outrage and disgust at board level and CEO salaries for no reason. It's ridiculous to say things like 'well I work 40hours and only earn 20k, it isn't fair that he/she earns 250k.' That's just a market economy for you!

As for Gordon Brown. Regardless of your politics, we don't pay our PM that much considering the job they do. If you look at it in terms of what we pay for the Civil List each year, I think he or she is quite good value.

purits · 27/02/2009 10:25

I agree that the blame lies with the Govt. You can't really blame Goodwin for trying to get a good deal. He got good lawyers or negotiators on his side and won. The Govt obviously didn't. They should never have agreed a discretionary retirement and they should have read the small print of his contract.
It beats me why they didn't sack him for gross misconduct. And bar him from being a company director. And sue him for misfeasance.

purits · 27/02/2009 10:35

From the BBC website:
The Treasury ... says it was misled by RBS's board at the time, which "gave the impression" that Sir Fred's pension was legally binding.

Misled by the Board!!? Didn't they check themselves!!! Words fail me.

Grimma: name and shame LORD MYNERS

Cloudspotter · 27/02/2009 10:40

This whole thing is beyond belief. Those companies failed. Never mind 'too big to fail'. The bonuses, the pensions - it would all be gone if the adminstrators were called in. The government should have ensured a proper legal framework to this before bailing out the banks.

The are just incompetent fools. And we are going to spend a generation paying off the debt that results.

Pah.

edam · 27/02/2009 10:42

Actually, while the government and board have to take responsibility for their incredible crapness, I CAN blame Goodwin for being such a greedy, incompetent fucker. We are all responsible for our actions. His have been to rip off the taxpayer and destroy his company, putting the jobs of thousands of people at risk.

AitchTwoOh · 27/02/2009 10:45

he shoudl have been sacked by his new employers. us.