In a closely watched move that may be followed across Wall Street, the top executives at Goldman Sachs Group have decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses, reports the Wall Street Journal.
In doing so, they are giving up potentially tens of millions of dollars in payouts in a year that reshaped the securities industry. After months of internal debate at Goldman, the seven top executives at the firm, including Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, asked the board's compensation committee to grant them no bonuses. The board approved the request.
The executives will only be eligible for their base salaries, $600,000 for each.
The New York Times adds: The decision is likely to put heavy pressure on Goldman Sachs’s competitors, including Morgan Stanley, to take similar action following the $700 billion bailout from the federal government.
The New York Times is talking of only US banks -- and not other financial institutions which are also losing money.
Temasek Holdings looks likely to have lost its entire 400 million Singapore dollar ($270 million) investment in ABC Learning Centres, the recently-collapsed Australian childcare provider, says the Asia Sentinel.
"Temasek... appears to have had the canny knack of buying right at the top of the market and then watching its investments slide in value," says the Sentinel.
"Even as the first warning signs of serious problems in the banking sector appeared in the first half of last year, Temasek continued to pump money into the financial services industry, which now accounts for 40 percent of its 185 billion Singapore dollar ($124 billion) portfolio.
"But the rapid demise of ABC Learning, which is Australia’s largest childcare provider, shows that Temasek’s poor investment decisions are not limited to the banking sector. Temasek bought into ABC in May last year at a punchy A$7.30 a share and the stock soon headed south as the outlook for the over-hyped operator deteriorated. The shares were suspended at 54 cents each in August but equity investors are likely to lose everything after ABC went into administration because of mounting financial problems."
