New York: The head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd
Blankfein, has apologised for the role the financial services
major played in pulling down Wall Street titans that rattled
the entire world.
Blankfein at a conference in New York said that Goldman
had made mistakes, and that it was sorry, the New York Times
said. "We participated in things that were clearly wrong and
have reason to regret. We apologise," Blankfein said.
This statement comes a little more than a week after
Blankfein drew fire for saying that the Wall Street giant was
"doing God's work". Besides, Goldman Sachs was also labelled
as a "bloodsucking vampire squid".
The New York Times further said, "across Wall Street,
banks have regained their profitability -— but not their
public standing. With big banks minting money while many
ordinary Americans are struggling, the financial industry has
become the object of derision."
Goldman Sachs has bounced back spectacularly from the
financial crisis and so far this year it has earmarked USD
16.71 billion as compensation. In June this year, Goldman
Sachs repaid USD 10 billion of capital infusion it got from
the US government in 2008.
The daily further said that "while its fortunes have
soared, its reputation has sunk."
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has started a USD 500 million
initiative to support small businesses across the United
States with legendary investor Warren Buffett as an adviser.
The announcement of this charitable initiative comes amid
public anger over Goldman Sach's compensation package.
Blankfein is not the only one who had sought apology for
playing a pivotal role in creating the crisis. Two weeks ago
John Reed, who had helped in creating Citigroup, the world's
largest and financially unwieldy bank, repeatedly apologised
for the mergers.
"I am sorry," he had told Bloomberg. "These are people I
love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it's not
easy to see what's happened."
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 21:45