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Friday, January 28, 2011

Aw jeeeeezzzzzzz.............!

Remember that just two years ago, Hank Paulson put together $800 million of your dollars to keep Goldman Sachs from bankruptcy. It sure paid off. Just not for you.

January 28, 2011, 5:33 pm

Blankfein Gets $13.2 Million for 2010

Mark Wilson/Getty Images Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein.

Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, had a rough 2010. But at least he got a raise: His bonus increased by $3.6 million, according to a regulatory filing.

The firm’s board of directors recently granted restricted stock valued at $12.6 million to Mr. Blankfein and a number of other senior executives including Gary D. Cohn, the firm’s president. The board also approved a new annual base salary of $2 million for its chief executive, who had previously made a base salary of $600,000. Mr. Cohn and others will see their base salaries increase to $1.85 million, the firm said.

Goldman executives aren’t the only ones to see a jump in their base salaries. After the financial crisis, most financial firms increased the base salaries, a move regulators felt would cut down on excessive risk taking.

At Goldman, base salaries increased outside the executive suite as well. The base salary for Goldman managing directors was recently increased to $500,000 from $300,000.

With a salary of $600,000, Mr. Blankfein’s 2010 compensation comes to $13.2 million. Senior executives often receive part of their compensation in cash but Goldman did not release details on this component of Mr. Blankfein’s compensation.

In 2009, amidst widespread public outcry over sky-high compensation on Wall Street, Mr. Blankfein and other senior Goldman executives received compensation packages valued at $9 million each. In 2007, the year before the financial crisis Mr. Blankfein made $68.5 million.

Goldman posted earnings of $8.35 billion in 2010, down 37 percent from 2009. The firm also found itself in the center of controversy over allegations that it puts its own interests ahead of clients, something it denies.

In July 2010 it paid $550 million to settle civil charges that it duped clients by selling mortgage securities that were secretly designed by a hedge-fund firm to cash in on the housing market’s collapse. It did not admit nor deny wrongdoing.

Earlier this month Morgan Stanley’s board awarded James Gorman stock and options valued at $7.4 million. But this represents only the equity portion of Mr. Gorman’s pay package; the cash component will be announced later this year. Mr. Gorman, in his first year as chief executive of Morgan Stanley, will earn less than the $15 million he took home in 2009 when he was the firm’s co-president, according to a person familiar with his compensation but not authorized to speak publicly about it.

JPMorgan Chase has not announced the pay of its C.E.O. but Jamie Dimon is expected to earn as much, if not more, than the $17.5 million he took home in 2009.

Citigroup’s chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, after nearly two years of earning a mere $1 in salary while he tried put the bank back on track, was recently awarded a $1.75 million salary.

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