THE full market value of Sir Fred Goodwin’s controversial £693,000-a-year pension has been calculated by experts at £32.7m - twice as much as his former bank has admitted.

Standard Life, the life insurer, worked out the cost of buying an annuity to deliver the former RBS boss’s retirement benefits. The bank last week valued his pension pot at £16.6m.

John Lawson, head of pensions policy at Standard Life, said: “Companies with final salary schemes often underplay the true cost of these liabilities by being overoptimistic about investment returns and life expectancy.”

The disclosure comes as the government ratchets up the pressure on the former RBS chief executive to forgo some of his pension. Lawyers acting for the Treasury are set to investigate his expenses, use of a company jet and visits to sporting events to see if shareholders’ money was abused. Alistair Darling, the chancellor, has also asked Sir Philip Hampton, the new RBS chairman, to investigate the business practices of the previous board.

Before its spectacular crash, RBS spent millions on sponsorship of Formula One and Six Nations rugby. It also owned a £17m private jet. A government source said: “We will be making sure that every penny spent in this way was for the benefit of the company, not for the personal enjoyment of the directors. Otherwise there could be grounds for legal action.”

Meanwhile, Peter Nielsen, global head of rates and currencies, is in line for a bonus of about £2m, and dozens of traders working under him are also expected to be in line for six-figure payouts. While RBS clocked up record losses of £24.1 billion, they earned billions by betting on the fall of the pound.

The Sunday Times has also learnt that a group of 60 bankers at RBS are poised to sue the state-controlled bank after being told they face receiving no bonuses this year.

On Tuesday, MPs on the Treasury select committee will interrogate senior officials from UKFI, the body that oversees the government’s stakes in the part-nationalised banks.

A spokesman for RBS declined to discuss the valuation of Goodwin’s pension rights.

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