Exposed: The RBS director with the £1.6m pension

Royal Bank of Scotland was embroiled in another huge boardroom pensions row today when it emerged that one retired director is getting more than £1.6 million a year.

The former head of its US operation, Larry Fish, has retired on more than twice the income of his former boss, Fred "the Shred" Goodwin.

Mr Fish, 64, who stepped down last April and started receiving his pension in May, is being paid £1.622 million a year, or £135,000 a month before tax, from a pot worth £19.6 million.

The pension is the largest received by a company employee in British corporate history and dwarfs the £703,000-a-year income for former chief executive Sir Fred, who is blamed for the strategy that led to record losses of £24 billion.

Details of the pensions were revealed today in the bank's 2008 report and accounts. RBS has received £20 billion of taxpayer support and is getting up to another £25 billion, potentially lifting the Government's holding to 95 per cent.

The accounts reveal that Mr Fish's pension is 98 per cent "unfunded", meaning that almost all the money to pay for it will have to be put aside from RBS's earnings and is effectively being provided direct by the taxpayer.

Sir Fred was paid a salary of £1.297 million in his last year with benefits in kind worth £39,000 a year. He did not get a bonus so his total package dropped from £4.19 million to £1.336 million.

Another director Gordon Pell, 58, who has been promoted to deputy chief executive, is entitled to a pension of £517,000 from a pot worth £9.831million. Johnny Cameron, 54, the former head of global markets, who has been blamed for bad lending, gets £62,000 a year.

The accounts also list the pay of non-executive directors. They range from £73,000 a year to £174,000 a year for Bob Scott, who chaired the committee responsible for boardroom pay.