Goldman Sachs Group tripled Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein's base salary and awarded him $12.6 million of stock, even after the bank's net income plunged last year. Blankfein is receiving base pay of $2 million effective January 1, up from $600,000, he company said in a filing.
The shares awarded to Blankfein amount to a 42 percent increase from the all-stock bonus he received for 2009, and are the latest sign that US banks are moving away from some of the austerities imposed by the financial crisis. Legislators, regulators, and others pressed banks to reduce bonuses for 2009, soon after the financial system was rescued by more than a trillion dollars of support from the US government. Many critics complained that banks privatise their profits and socialise their losses. Big bonuses paid for 2009 would have intensified public outrage.
Blankfein's 2009 bonus was worth $8.9 million when awarded in February 2010, far below the $67.9 million that he received for 2007. Public outrage over Wall Street pay seems to be receding, and bonuses for the top executives for 2010 are likely to head higher, analysts have said.
Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, who had pledged to take a $1 salary until the bank returned to sustained profitability, last week got a $1,749,999 raise just days after the bank reported its first full-year profit since 2007. Blankfein's pay increase came even after the bank's profit fell 38 percent in 2010 to $8.35 billion.
Goldman also raised the salaries of Chief Financial Officer David Viniar and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to $1.85 million, a filing said. All three executives previously earned a base salary of $600,000, according to filings.
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