Goldman to pay out $22bn to employees
GOLDMAN Sachs will hand out $22bn (£13.5bn) in full-year remuneration this week, dwarfing the $9bn salary pot revealed by JPMorgan on Friday.
Staff from both banks will find out what proportion of those pools is allocated to bonuses today amid growing political clamour over high levels of pay. In a move to appease public anger, Goldman Sachs is likely to introduce a compulsory charity scheme that will see its top 1,400 earners donate a small percentage of their income to worthy causes.
Citigroup is also thought to be capping cash bonuses at $100,000 after President Barack Obama hit out at “obscene” levels of pay on Wall Street last week.
Goldman Sachs, the behemoth headed by Lloyd Blankfein, will dominate the earnings season when it reports an estimated $10bn in 2009 net income on Thursday and $20-22 earnings per share.
Stripping out Tarp scheme costs, Citigroup and Bank of America are forecast to make losses in the region of $1bn. With Tarp fees factored in Citigroup is predicted to lose around $7.5bn, while Bank of America is predicted to lose around $6bn. Morgan Stanley is on track to make a more modest loss of $440m, according to analysts.
Morningstar analyst Jaime Peters said she anticipated “fairly upbeat” earnings announcements from the major institutions aside from Tarp scheme expenses.
She added: “We expect early delinquency trends to continue to improve on the consumer side, but that’s going to be offset by lower trading volumes and fixed income gains.”
FAST FACTS | Goldman Sachs
Goldman already runs a charity scheme, the voluntary Goldman Sachs Gives trust
The trust was set up in 2007, shortly before chief executive Lloyd Blankfein took home $68m. In 2008, Blankfein earned $74m