WALL ST.VS MAIN ST.
Goldman bankers collect best
pay packets for a decade
Lucy BurtonLucy Burton
Goldman Sachs has increased pay for its bankers to the highest level in a decade following a year in which much of Wall Street emerged unscathed from the pandemic.
The investment bank spent $13.3bn (£9.8bn) on pay and bonuses in 2020 despite Covid triggering a recession, up 8pc from the previous year but still $2bn less than the 2010 total.
The bumper payouts came despite some of its best-paid bankers having their pay slashed after Goldman was fined by regulators for violations in connection to Malaysia's 1MDB fund.
While Covid has left many households significantly poorer, Wall Street’s results season has highlighted just how well investment banks fared last year after market volatility triggered a trading boom and clients raised debt and equity.
Goldman rival JP Morgan posted record results last week.
The pay boost at Goldman suggests that traders and investment bankers received large payouts for driving up profits.
It unveiled a profit of $4.5bn for the fourth quarter, double that for the same period a year ago, while the $9.5bn annual profit exceeded expectations.
Chief executive David Solomon said: “Our people responded admirably to a series of professional and personal challenges, while working from home or in offices that were reshaped dramatically.”
The bumper results follow a year in which Goldman reached a $2.9bn settlement with global authorities to end a probe into its role in the 1MDB scandal.
Billions of dollars of public money was looted to buy luxury items and was even funnelled into the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Goldman admitted that its Malaysian subsidiary bribed officials with more than $1bn so it could win a lucrative contract to help 1MDB issue more than $6bn in bonds.
It agreed to pay $3.9bn to Malaysian authorities in July and Malaysia dropped criminal charges against the bank and some of its top executives last year.
After hitting a record high of almost $308 last week, Goldman shares dipped just under $300 in New York leaving it worth about $103bn.
No comments:
Post a Comment