Goldman Sachs boosts bonuses for traders despite fall in revenues

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Goldman Sachs is planning to increase bonuses in its trading business despite revenues in the division falling this year, according to people familiar with the matter, after a mis-step on pay last year sparked unrest among staff.

The trading business bonus pool was likely to climb by a small amount from a year earlier, the people said. 

Bonus discussions at Wall Street banks typically start in late November but final decisions on pay at Goldman have yet to be made. 

“Our compensation philosophy hasn’t changed; we’re always focused on investing in our people, especially our top performers,” a Goldman spokesperson said. “We’re not going to comment on premature speculation around the compensation cycle.”

Higher bonuses, particularly for strong performers, would offer some comfort to the bank’s traders after 2022 when Goldman diverted their bumper profits to cover losses from its push into retail banking.

Pay in Goldman’s trading business was a flashpoint a year ago when traders lamented that many had seen their bonuses cut despite reporting higher profits. The lower pay was blamed for a number of high-profile departures from Goldman this year.

In recent months, Goldman’s leadership has talked about the need to reward top performers or risk losing them to rival banks, private equity firms or hedge funds.

“The competition for top talent is still pretty intense. And so, that has an impact on how we make judgments,” Goldman chief executive David Solomon told the Financial Times last month.

Goldman’s trading business is roughly evenly split between fixed income, currencies and commodities — Ficc — and equities. In the first nine months of 2023, revenues from equities trading were flat while Ficc revenues were down 16 per cent from a year earlier. 

The trading business had a stellar 2022 amid volatile financial markets as the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates and Russia pushed into Ukraine. 

Activity has slowed in 2023 but some parts of Goldman’s trading division, such as financing equity trades for hedge fund clients, has seen double-digit percentage revenue growth this year.

Bank of America was also looking to increase its bonus pool for traders slightly from a year earlier while JPMorgan Chase was planning for its bonus pool to be flat compared with 2022, according to people familiar with the matter.

JPMorgan and BofA declined to comment. Some of the details around trading bonuses were reported earlier by Bloomberg.

Goldman said in October that it had set aside a greater share of its revenues to pay bankers in what the Wall Street firm said was a necessary move to reward its top talent.

Additional reporting by Stephen Gandel in New York