He may be holed up in a private estate on the French Riviera but rumours circulating in the financial markets suggest that Sir Fred Goodwin is in negotiations, via his lawyers, to give back half of the additional pension supplement he was offered by Royal Bank of Scotland. If the agreement is completed this will see his pension reduced from £555,000 a year to a mere £342,500 a year. So what exactly is going on?

It seems as though a period of reflection regarding the controversy which his pension scheme created, together with personal attacks on his family, may well have prompted the change in strategy. However, what has become even more apparent is the fact that the UK government and the Royal Bank of Scotland ultimately had no legal recourse to take back the pension which had been agreed with him.

Whether you agree with the fact that he was awarded a pension fund of such a size is pretty much irrelevant but the fact is that the UK government and the Royal Bank of Scotland between them agreed such a pension fund arrangement before they were "found out". Public pressure and a concerted campaign amongst politicians and regulators alike seems to have finally tipped the balance.

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