LONDON (Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain's biggest government-controlled lender, will set aside about £1.3 billion ($2.01 billion) for bonuses at its investment bank for 2009, a person familiar with the situation said.

The Edinburgh-based bank received approval from the UK Treasury and UK Financial Investments, which manages the government's stakes in RBS, to make the payments, said the person, who asked not be identified because the talks are confidential.

This means the investment bank's compensation-to-revenue ratio will be below 30 percent, the person said, compared with Barclays Plc which said it would pay 38 percent of revenue last week. Michael Strachan, an RBS spokesman, declined to comment.

RBS, 84 percent owned by the UK government, handed control over its bonus pool to the Treasury in November in return for a second bailout. The percentage of "high achievers" leaving the bank doubled in 2009, chief executive officer Stephen Hester said in December.

British financial institutions are under pressure from politicians to reduce compensation amid public anger about the more than £1 trillion of taxpayer money used to support the banking system during the credit crisis. In December, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling introduced a one-off 50 percent levy on discretionary bank bonuses of more than £25,000. The story was reported earlier by Sky News.