Goldman Sachs curtails top execs’ pay - but not by much

In an attempt to defuse public outrage over the astronomical pay packages for its senior executives, investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc said on Thursday its top 30 executives will receive their annual bonuses only in stocks rather than cash this year.

The company's 30-person management committee, including chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, chief financial officer David Viniar, and leaders of the firm's global and regional divisions, would get no cash bonuses this year, but only stocks which cannot be sold for five years, Goldman Sachs said in a statement.

The moves comes amid a public furore over the huge bonuses and incentives that continue to be paid to bankers and executives of financial service companies even after they had to be bailed out with public funds in order to keep afloat. Goldman Sachs is perhaps the most hated firm on Wall Street after insurance giant AIG.

Further, Goldman Sachs said shares can be taken back in cases employees are engaged in materially improper risk analysis or fail to raise concerns about risks, it said. "The measures that we are announcing today reflect the compensation principles that we articulated at our shareholders' meeting in May," Blankfein said.

"In addition, by subjecting our compensation principles and executive compensation to a shareholder advisory vote, we are further strengthening our dialogue with shareholders on the important issue of compensation," Blankfein added.

Thursday's announcement was the biggest concession yet by Goldman in response to the criticism of its compensation barely a year after the New York-based company received $10 billion in government funded aid. Goldman Sachs repaid the government bailout in full, including interest, in June.