Goldman Sachs to pay huge bonuses
Updated on 15 October 2009
Goldman Sachs is to pay billions of pounds in bonuses to employees, just one year after the financial meltdown. The unacceptable face of capitalism, or just reward for hard work? John Sparks reports.
Within weeks of world leaders pledging to beat back the bonus culture, Goldman Sachs is giving them two fingers - victory over their complete global failure to regulate the banks and their continuing excesses.
As Gordon Brown declares "we can't see a return to the bonus culture', how so? What is going to stop it?
Boom times are definitely back for staff at the Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs, which has just reported a fourfold increase in profits.
Thanks to soaring stock prices, the bank made almost £2bn in the last quarter. That is equivalent to more than £20m a day.
And that helped the bank set aside a massive fund to reward its 31,000 employees. But it has already sparked a huge backlash, with critics accusing Goldman of emerging from the financial crisis "unrepentant and unreformed".
Rival JPMorgan revealed better than expected profits of more than £2bn, as soaring stock prices helped boost investment earnings.
Jon Snow was joined from New York by John Gapper, chief business commentator at the Financial Times, and the former head of international policy at the FSA, David Green.
