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Mega-bonuses are back on offer as Goldman racks up bumper fees
14.07.09
Goldman Sachs was today on course to hand staff an average of £430,000 in pay and bonuses this year.
The Wall Street banking giant is set to report profits of £1.2 billion for the second quarter after it raked in bumper fees. This is likely to result in lavish payouts to staff at the end of the year including 5,500 in London and thousands more in New York.
Dozens of its highest-flying bankers could be in line for multi-million pound payouts.
Top earners in London are likely to include co-chief executives Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde, and head of investment banking in Europe Yoel Zaoui.
The return of the mega-bonus caused outrage among critics who claim excessive risk taking and lavish pay fuelled the banking crisis and plunged the global economy into deep recession.
It also came as MPs demanded that bankers should be hit with a punitive 90% tax on bonuses.
Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: “This suggests that far too many people in the banking sector are going back to business as usual and appear to have learnt no lessons from the past.”
It emerged today that Goldman executives sold almost £431 million worth of shares in the bank following the collapse of rival Lehman Brothers last September.
Most of the sales occurred during the period when Goldman was being propped up by $10 billion (£6.1 billion) of US government money through the troubled asset relief programme.
The sudden increase in selling among Goldman partners is likely to infuriate US politicians as it came after Washington had thrown Wall Street a lifeline.
Analysts reckon the bank's bonus pool could double to £12 billion this year if the trading performance continues.
Goldman insist all bonus payments are tied to the firm's performance and noted that it is only halfway through the year.
Rival banks such as Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Barclays also look set to pay bumper bonuses this year.
Reader views (12)
Parasites!
- Richard Kennard, Welling
£500,000 is not nearly enough for these people. Quadruple their pay at least!
- Sarah Edwards, London W5
Not sure taxpayers can stop these bonuses but we can insist that criminal and civil law suits be taken against those bankers who are believed to have either defrauded us or being grossly negligent with our money.
If we don't insist that our MPs ensure prosecutions are taken against culpable financiers, this crisis scenario will repeat and may take us completely down next time.
Tighter regulation will make no difference to preventing bankers from risking our money again - putting a significant number of guilty ones in prison will make others think twice.
Bankers and Hedge Fund Managers believe they have got away with risking our money and will continue to believe if our Govt does no take the guilty ones to court and imprisons them.
- Jim, London
Never Eat Tuna Again, London - Goldman Sachs were not bailed out.
- Dan, Surrey
Silly me thinking the spivs had finally gone away.
- Ray Martin, Waterlooville
It would be better if Goldman Sachs was thrown into outer darkness sooner rather than later, let them see how money will bail them out of hell then.
Not for nothing does the bible say: 'THE LOVE OF money is the root of all evil.' Money is not evil: it's the people who love money so much they commit evil acts, especially at the expense of others.
- Fred, London
Careful!
- Steve, Brentford
Snort Snort Snort Snort Snort. Out of interest lttle piggies do your bonuses get taxed or do you fiddle them and channel the money abroad?, I know you don't write on these websites as your too busy counting your money whilst wallowing around in your troughs but does anyone else know?
- Dac - Ealing, London
Back to noses in the trough boys!!
- John David, London
A Thief is always a Thief.
But you can lock up against a thief, get your money out of their banks and the business sector; and make your own profits yourself, remember your interest rates are zilch today; and when the next election is over; you are all going to get hammered by who-ever gets in power, someone still has to pay for the Bankers tax back-hander’s from Brown; and yes it is going to be you punters paying again.
Never trust thieves; they all end up Lords.
Except Ronnie Biggs that is; but he is lower class, so they don't count.
- Mickinlondon, london.
They only made this money after they were bailed out. Tax it at a really high level.
- Never Eat Tuna Again, London
If you remove a significant number of competitors from any market then those left will make huge additional (and undeserved) profits. With many banks in intensive care, or bust, Goldmans share of the pie has grown hugely. Add to this the easy money to be made issuing government debt (that's taxpayers money paid to the bankers who caused the crash to issue taxpayers debt which we'll be paying off for years) and you can see that the bankers at Goldmans are making easy money once again. They are all very grateful to our spineless politicians, who have done nothing to change this and have simply allowed a return to business as usual. Does this matter? Well, when the next crash comes within the next decade we will not have the money left to both bail out the banks once again and pay for the NHS, education etc etc. So next time you are on Fleet Street, dying of a preventable illness, pray thanks to the profit kings!
- Bobby Smith, london
