The two chief executives ousted from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the troubled US mortgage lenders, stand to receive a combined payoff of more than $23 million (£12.9 million).

In moves that will infuriate shareholders in the loss-making companies, Daniel Mudd, the departing head of Fannie Mae, is expected to receive $9.3 million in pay and retirement benefits under the terms of his contract.

Richard Syron, the departing chief executive of Freddie Mac, could walk away with $14.1 million.

Mr Syron's larger payoff follows a clause added to his employment contract last summer when the first signs of the credit crunch began to emerge.

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But whether either executive will receive the money is unclear, following last night’s bailout by the US Government.

Shares in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have plunged by more than 90 per cent this year and analysts in the US believe that Mr Mudd and Mr Syron were slow to react to the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

The two executives joined their respective companies four years ago and stand accused of leading the businesses into far riskier investments.

Paul Miller, analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co, told Bloomberg: “Daniel Mudd and Dick Syron have been very slow to recognise the depth of the problems or to raise enough capital to deal with it.

“The Government wasn’t going to allow them to muddle through this mess.”

Two veteran bankers with ties to the Republican party will be charged with the daunting task of bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back to life.

Herbert Allison, a 65 year-old who served as finance chairman on John McCain’s unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign, was named chief executive of Washington-based Fannie Mae last night.

David Moffett, an executive at Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, will head Virginia-based Freddie Mac.

Officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the primary regulator of Freddie and Fannie, said the pay of Mr Allison and Mr Moffett would be “significantly lower” than their predecessors.

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