A group representing Royal Bank of Scotland investors has ac-cepted an out-of-court deal to settle a lawsuit that aimed to call disgraced former CEO Fred Goodwin to account over a 12 billion pound cash call in 2008.

Organisers of the RBoS Shareholder Action Group, that had vowed to see the bank and its former bosses in court, have told their members they will accept last week’s revised, out-of-court offer after days of intense talks delayed a long-awaited trial.

“Having carefully considered the merits of the current offer... we have decided to accept the offer of 82 pence per share on behalf of our membership,” the action group said in a letter, dated May 27, that was published yesterday.

“This is a decision which is fully supported by our legal advisers,” it added, acknowledging that some of its claimants, who had been keen to hold out longer, might be surprised.

The deal will cost state-owned RBS around £200 million, but spare it the embarrassment of having the lowest point in its near 300-year history raked over in court.

Mr Goodwin, nicknamed “Fred the Shred” for his cost-cutting abilities and abrasive management style, was first feted and knighted before RBS’s near collapse at the height of the credit crisis prompted the world’s biggest bank bailout. Shareholders lost around 80 per cent of their investments.

Sources familiar with the case said some shareholders within the group wanted to pursue the case against the bank, if they could find funding. But the letter indicated that investors representing the necessary threshold of 70 per cent of the value of the claim for acceptance had been reached, one source said.

A formal announcement on behalf of the group, which includes around 9,000 retail and 20 institutional investors and has been beset by internal wrangles, changing legal teams and questions over its funding and structure, is expected today.