Plan B Forum

AN ERA of bonus ''restraint'' at Goldman Sachs came to a shuddering halt as the Wall Street bank almost doubled the pay package of its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, to $US18.6 million for last year despite a 38 per cent slump in profits.

Mr Blankfein, 56, who once quipped that his firm does ''God's work'', received share awards of $12.6 million on top of a $5.4 million performance-related cash bonus, and a salary of $600,000. He also received additional benefits worth $464,000, a filing by Goldman at the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The postal worker's son from Brooklyn became a lightning rod for controversy over the banking industry's excesses during the financial crisis. Goldman was obliged to pay $550 million in July to settle fraud charges laid by US prosecutors over the alleged mis-selling of toxic mortgage-related derivatives. Mr Blankfein described being hit by the charges as ''one of the worst days in my professional life''.


Blankfein's pay was still far below the record $68 million that he got for 2007, before the credit crunch began to bite. But his earnings are almost double last year's $9.8 million when Goldman declared it was exercising ''restraint'' in response to public and political pressure over the size of bonuses.


http://www.smh.com.au/business/goldman- ... 1ct4b.html