NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs Group, the firm that set a record for Wall Street pay last year, became the first U.S. bank to scrap 2008 bonuses for senior officers in the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, 54, and six deputies told the bank’s compensation committee Sunday that they would forgo the year-end awards, according to Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag. Each of the executives receives a salary of $600,000; Blankfein’s bonus last year was almost $70 million.
“They believe it’s the right thing to do,” van Praag said. “We can’t ignore the fact that we are part of an industry that’s directly associated with the ongoing economic distress.”
Wall Street bonuses, typically about two-thirds of the firms’ total annual compensation, are under scrutiny by lawmakers and taxpayers after the U.S. government passed a $700 billion rescue plan for the industry.
Banks and brokerages have announced $707 billion of write-downs and credit losses since the subprime-mortgage market collapsed last year and have cut almost 160,000 jobs.
