The return of jaw-dropping cash bonuses weren’t met with as much excitement outside Goldman Sachs’s executive suite. Despite a 38 percent drop in annual earnings and a year where the stock price ended about where it began, Lloyd Blankfein and four of his cohorts decided they were each entitled to $9 million bonuses. Between benefits and restricted stock, Lloyd’s compensation rang in at $19 million. In total, the top five executives raked in $69.5 million. Despite Blankfein’s claim of doing “God’s work,” some people don’t think Jesus would be very happy about this. The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Notre Dame de Namur, St. Francis of Philadelphia, and the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel, all of whom own Goldman shares, plan on putting forth a proposal to examine whether the pay was excessive at Goldman’s annual meeting next month, according to a filing with the SEC. The Benedictine nuns, along with the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a U.S. charity, also asked Goldman’s committee to look at “how sizable layoffs and the level of pay of our lowest paid workers impact senior executive pay.”
But this isn’t the first time Lloyd has faced a pack of angry nuns. The week after he grinned his way through his Senate subcommittee hearing, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic insisted he had a higher power to answer to. But Goldman is apparently willing to risk the hereafter for piles of cash in the here and now. After asking itself What Would Lloyd Do, the bank denied the sisters’ proposal saying shareholders already have enough information.
Nuns ask Goldman Sachs bosses whether they’re really worth $69.5m [Telegraph UK]
Blankfein Reaps $19 Million as Cash Bonuses Return to Goldman [Bloomberg]
