Goldman Sachs faces contentious AGM
Angry shareholders demand explanation for $70m payday enjoyed by investment bank's top five executives at annual meeting on Friday
Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein faces shareholders amid speculation he is planning to step down. Photograph: Ramin Talaie/EPA
Goldman Sachs is bracing itself for what may be the most contentious annual meeting in the embattled investment bank's 142-year history.
On Friday, angry shareholders, including a coalition of religious groups, are planning to call on Goldman's executives to justify the combined $69.6m (£42.4m) payday its top five executives received in 2010 and to answer questions about allegations that the bank misled clients and lied to Congress.
Goldman's most recent financial results comfortably beat expectations and its shares have rallied spectacularly since the lows of the credit crunch. But the bank has continued to be mired in controversy. Chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein faces shareholders amid speculation that he may be planning to step down. The bank has denied any such move.
The meeting comes amid mounting pressure on the bank. Earlier this week Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, confirmed that the justice department was investigating Goldman's role in the financial crisis following a withering report on the bank's role led by senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn. The 650-page report "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse," gave Goldman its own section titled "Failing to Manage Conflicts of Interest: A Case Study of Goldman Sachs."
In July the bank paid $500m to settle charges brought by financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it misled customers over complex sub-prime mortgage products it sold in 2007.
While Goldman is unlikely to lose any shareholder vote, the spotlight on executive pay could not come at a more sensitive moment for the bank. Among those protesting Goldman's payouts are the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a Jewish charity, and the Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).
Among the proposals being put forward by shareholders is one calling for a formal annual review of Goldman's pay deals every year that would compare the wages of top earners with those at the bottom of the Goldman pay scale.
In an interview with the Guardian last month Sister Nora Nash, a member of the ICCR, said St Francis, founding saint of her order, would be "spinning in his grave" if he knew how much the Goldman elite were paying themselves.
The bank's top five executives received cash and stock last year that was 13 times greater than the year before. Goldman's 2010 net revenues fell 13% and profits fell 37%. Goldman paid Blankfein close to $19m in compensation for 2010, almost double his award for the previous year. The bank increased Blankfein's 2011 annual pay by $2m.
Goldman has dismissed the shareholder's actions as "a distraction" that "would entail an unjustified cost to our firm and would not provide shareholders with any meaningful information," since it says shareholders can already get this information in its filings.
William Cohan, author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule The World, said AGMs tended to be "more about theatre than substance". But he added: "I think the impact of the negative publicity on the top executives of the firm has been considerable. They don't like it, don't think it is fair and feel it is unwarranted. No surprise there. But there is not much they can do. They are the firm that came out of the crisis in the best shape financially, along with JP Morgan, so they are a natural target of legitimate public anger and frustration."
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