CEO Blankfein Apologizes for Goldman Sachs Role in Crisis
By Christine Harper and Matt Townsend
Bloomberg
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., apologized for the firm’s role in some of the activities leading to the financial crisis.
“We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” Blankfein, 55, said at a conference in New York hosted by the Directorship magazine. “We apologize.”
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses. The money accrued for bonuses, enough to pay each employee $527,192 for nine months, has fueled criticism because it comes one year after the firm received federal bailout funds.
The firm is “very concerned” about the criticism because “our reputation is very important to us,” said Blankfein.
“I don’t love it, we kind of sigh,” he said of the criticism. Instead of responding directly to critics, the company instead had tried provide “the kind of constructive suggestions that people would think a Goldman Sachs would be able to come up with.”
Blankfein said he thinks the firm’s clients understand the firm and “our market share is doing pretty well, holding up, people understand our bona fides.”
Goldman Sachs repaid the $10 billion it was given last year under the taxpayer-funded Troubled Asset Relief Program, plus dividends. The firm continues to benefit from federal guarantees on about $21 billion of long-term debt. It was allowed to become a bank holding company to gain Federal Reserve support and was one of the biggest recipients of funds through the government bailout of American International Group Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net. Matthew Townsend in New York at mtownsend9@bloomberg.net.
Source: Bloomberg
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