Goldman Sacs (GS) CEO Could Receive $100M Bonus

"This is Lloyd thumbing his nose at Obama,” said a banker at one of Goldman’s rivals, according to the UK's Times on Line in a report that Goldman Sachs, (GS) chief executive officer could be paid a bonus of up to $100M, deying President Obama's recent talks against big banks payouts.

"Bankers in Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) told The Times yesterday they understood that Lloyd Blankfein and other top Goldman bankers outside Britain were set to receive some of the bank’s biggest-ever payouts. “Goldman Sachs is becoming the focus of an increasingly acrimonious political and financial showdown over the payment of multimillion-pound bonuses.Last week the US President described bonuses paid out by some banks as “the height of irresponsibility” and “shameful”.

“The American people understand that we have a big hole to dig ourselves out of, but they do not like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole, even as they are being asked to fill it up,” he said last week.

Mr Blankfein took home his biggest bonus so far in 2007, when he was paid $67.9 million. His bank’s profits last year were $1.8 billion higher than in 2007. This leaves the bank with a justification to pay him even more although payouts will be made in shares rather than cash to make them more politically palatable.

Goldman declined to comment, but the bank will reveal the pay of its top five earners in a filing with America’s banking regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of next month. The bank — sometimes reffered to as the vampire squid — is disliked and envied by rivals in equal measure. It paid back the billions of dollars it borrowed from the Government under America’s state-funded financial assistance programme early, in part because it wanted to avoid political interference".