Goldman Trims Stock-Pay for Some Senior Executives

By Liz Hoffman 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut stock awards for senior executives in 2016 after revenue fell, but didn't disclose compensation for CEO Lloyd Blankfein or several of his top deputies.

Shareholders won't get a picture of whether Mr. Blankfein beat his $23 million haul from 2015 until later this spring. A person familiar with the matter said the bank wouldn't be making year-end equity disclosures for Mr. Blankfein or CFO Harvey Schwartz, who made $20.5 million in 2015.

That likely means that the entire stock piece of their 2016 pay is tied to how Goldman does over the next few years. Such performance-based compensation doesn't have to be disclosed until company's annual proxy statements.

Goldman in 2015 began tying a portion of top executives' pay to return-on-equity targets, saying it had heard from shareholders that they wanted officials' fortunes more closely tied to that of investors.

In order for Mr. Blankfein and other top executives to receive all of their stock awards, they will need to keep the firm's average return on equity above 11% between 2016 and 2018. The firm didn't clear that bar in 2015 or 2016.

Also missing from Friday's disclosures was Gary Cohn, who left as president and chief operating officer at year-end for a senior economic-policy job in the Trump White House.

Stock bonuses fell for several executives for whom Goldman did make disclosures, including general counsel Greg Palm, human-resources head Edith Cooper and accounting chief Sarah Smith, who will soon move over to become the firm's head of compliance. Stock awards, which typically make up about half of compensation among Goldman's top brass, were down about 6% on average.

Goldman's 2016 revenue fell 9% over a year earlier, though profits rose over 2015, when the bank set aside billions of dollars to pay a mortgage settlement with the government.

David Solomon, the senior investment banker who was recently named co-president and co-COO, received $9.8 million worth of shares, using Thursday's closing price. His pay last year wasn't disclosed.

His co-president and co-COO, Mr. Schwartz, also disclosed in a filing that he sold $5.8 million worth of stock Thursday as part of a prescheduled plan.

Pay at the upper echelons of Goldman has been fairly flat in recent years, with Mr. Blankfein out-earning his top lieutenants by relatively small margins.

Write to Liz Hoffman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 20, 2017 16:46 ET (21:46 GMT)

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