If you were former RBS boss would you take your pension?

[barrelmaniac]

I think personally I would not, Im sure he already has a lot of money in the bank (his personal bank account anyway) and due to the circumstances I would probably make a gentlemans aggreement to either donate at least a big chunk of it to charity. I know legally he is entitled to it but morally as the rest of the country struggles with him personally being a major part in the Uk's economic situation I dont think it is at all fair.

[sparkyminer]

Absolutely. You get what you can when you can. If they were daft enough to give it to him, it's their own daft fault.:)

[Win2Win]

What he gets is small fry compared to the pensions we pay out to civil servants.

[Bill]

The profits prior to the crash were huge. Obviously shareholders benefitted a lot during the hay days. He made RBS into a huge multinational so for what he did in the past he deserves to keep the money. It was contractually agreed and like Keith says it is only a drop in the bucket compared to the enormous sums that are flying around just now.

[bigcumba]

I think the best gesture he could have made was to only take say half of it.

[TheOldhamWhisper]

I have to agree with the majority and say Yes (although i would probably be philanthropic and give a large percentage to good causes). The pension forms part of a contract of employment which was negotiated in good faith at some stage in his career. If I was in a position where I could command such a clause, I would certainly ensure that it was as advantageous to myself as I could make it. If there is any 'blame' to be handed out, it is to be apportioned to the people who agreed to the contract in the first place - but things were looking rosy then and they didn't think to make it performance related (or maybe they did and decided against it at the time because of how well things were going!!)

[mathare]

As many before me have said, yes, I would take the pension. Under the terms and conditions of my contract it's mine, I am entitled to it so why not take it? Perhaps the contract should have been more performance-related but it wasn't. Oh well.

I'm sure there are lots of guys in the City who are on guaranteed bonuses of well into 6 figures, if not 7 figures. These bonuses can't be touched regardless of how much poo the company is in as they are written into contracts. And you can be sure these traders and analysts will be taking those bonuses despite the fact that are part of the economic crisis. So why shouldn't this RBS fella take his pension?

If he needs to sleep well at night then perhaps he should donate a percentage of it to charity but he should do it quietly, in my opinion, rather than making a big public deal of it.