Goldman to take £1m cap off London awards after 2010 cuts
GOLDMAN Sachs is said to be planning a bonus round of $13bn (£8.4bn) this year, a drop on last year’s pool to reflect an anticipated fall in profits.
The bank, which employs 35,000 people globally, imposed a £1m cap on bonuses for its London employees last year, but is not likely to keep the limit in place this year.
However, the bank’s London workers will still have to comply with new European regulations on pay that require at least half of any bonus to be in non-cash instruments, and for most of it to be deferred and paid out over several years.
Last year was tough for investment banks, with little mergers and acquisitions activity to generate fees income. European equity deals have been charged at two per cent.
Bloomberg data shows that Goldman earned $213m in fees from lending shares last year, with an average fee of 1.8 per cent. It gained the top spot in Bloomberg’s table versus its investment banking rivals.
The scarcity of equity deals has led banks like Goldman to seek out primary market business for non-public firms, such as its $1.5bn capital-raising initiative for Facebook.