London - The private home of a British banker has been attacked by vandals following weeks of critical news coverage of a generous pension deal agreed when he was asked to leave his job by the government at the height of the credit crisis last October.

Police in Edinburgh, Scotland, said windows were smashed at the Georgian townhouse of Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and the Mercedes S600 limousine parked outside was damaged in the attack in the early hours of Wednesday.

Goodwin, 50 has been under sustained attack since it was revealed that he secured an annual pension of 700,000 pounds (1 million dollars) when he left his job last October as part of a deal with the government which now holds a stake of more than 70 per cent in RBS.

Goodwin, a former close aide and personal friend of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has said he will not reduce the size of his pension deal which was negotiated with the government's knowledge. He has also pointed out that he did not receive a "golden handshake" when he was unceremoniously asked to leave.

Goodwin, known as "Fred the Shred" for his ruthless cost-cutting policies, had at the time of the economic boom been credited with turning RBS into a global bank with a special emphasis on expansion in Asia.

RBS' 49-billion-pound takeover of Dutch giant ABN Amro in the autumn of 2007 has been largely blamed for the Scottish bank's demise and its emergency bail-out by the government last October.

Last month, the bank unveiled a record loss of 24.1 billion pounds for 2008.

Brown has publicly denounced Goodwin for the payout which he described as "unjustifiable and unacceptable."

Press reports have said that RBS continued to pay for personal security for Goodwin following his departure, including CCTV monitoring of his home. (dpa)