Pensions

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Sir Fred Goodwin has agreed to give up some of what started out as a £703,000-a-year pension.

The former RBS boss reached a deal with his former employers and the Government that will see his pension reduced to £342, 500 - but not before he accepted a £2.7m lump sum payment.

The decision received a mixed response from politicians, analysts and the public.

Goodwin will still enjoy a very comfortable future at the expense of the taxpayer.We now know that he'll be receiving a pension of more than £350,000 for the rest of his life. This was the chief architect of the biggest corporate collapse in UK business history.
Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer

He's not going to starve, is he? He is on a rather lucrative pension, a footballer's-style pension. It allows him to rehabilitate himself, to walk around and not be shunned. Fair play to him for doing this. He did not have to do it.
John Mann, member of the Treasury select committee

He was always going to do that for the simple reason that although he has been the figurehead and has taken the blame but his co-directors have been complicit in all bank policies in terms of expansion and lending, and derivative trading.
David Buik, analyst with BGC Partners

I think that Sir Fred, in handing back part of his pension, is doing the right thing.
Chancellor Alistair Darling

There was no conduct on Fred's part that would justify reducing the pension.
RBS statement

Clearly the Government has been breathing down his neck but I think it's more public pressure and how Sir Fred will have to live his life. I do not think he wants to be a pariah, he does not want to have to disappear forever and I think he thinks he still has a contribution to make to business life.
Sky's Jeff Randall

It's about time. These outrageous pensions should not be paid to anyone - either as a salary or as a pension. When you fail spectacularly, you shouldn't be paid for it.
Ian Hamilton, shareholder who took RBS to court earlier after the bank's share price collapsed

It's a salutary lesson that when its public money at stake the public is watching. It allows both sides to move on.
Michael Fallon, Treasury select committee

It's a very belated recognition that when someone completely messes up a business, and in this case a world sized business, people remain very angry about the fundamental principle that you have massive rewards for massive failures.
Vince Cable, Lib Dem treasury spokesman