Wednesday 1 April 2009

Just a bit more on Fred's pension

Last year's annual report says:
All UK based directors, with the exception of Guy Whittaker, are members of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Pension Fund (‘the RBS Fund’) and are contractually entitled to receive all pension benefits in accordance with its terms. The RBS Fund rules allow all members who retire early at the request of their employer to receive a pension based on accrued service with no discount applied for early retirement.


This year's annual report says:
The RBS Fund rules allow all members, including executive directors, who retire early at the request of their employer to receive a pension based on accrued service with no discount applied for early retirement. The provision for an undiscounted pension on early retirement at employer request will not apply to any executive director appointed in the future. The RBS Fund is closed to employees, including any executive directors, joining the Group after 30 September 2006.

A couple of things. A lot would seem to hang on that word 'allow', which seems to imply that this is a discretion. In addition the 2009 wording seems to suggest that the discretion will not be used if future. That suggests that the RBS board could have let him take early retirement but with a reduced pension, which would contradict Tom McKillop's latest missive.

On the other hand, you could read the statement as simply setting out the current provision - no director appointed in the future will get the unreduced pension deal. But the scheme Goodwin was a member of is closed to new entrants anyway, so in a sense that is obvious. That could imply that this is a rule that has to be followed in early retirement situations.

There's an easy way to find out if McKillop is spinning or not. If there is any RBS employee out there who retired early and did not get an unreduced pension then clearly it was a discretion.

No comments: