Who Says Crime Doesn’t Pay???

Goldman Sachs awarded its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, $12.6m in restricted stock and more than trebled his annual salary, in a sign the public backlash against the bank’s pay practices may have waned.

The stock award, part of Mr Blankfein’s 2010 bonus, and pay rise come after one of the most tumultuous years in Goldman’s history. The bank settled civil charges from the Securities & Exchange Commission, saw US lawmakers rewrite hundreds of rules governing the financial services industry, and endured a tepid year in trading activity that crimped Goldman’s profits and stymied its stock price.

Goldman had granted Mr Blankfein $9m in restricted shares a year ago, well below the bonuses he had received before the financial crisis, despite reporting record profits. But the bank and its peers were under intense pressure from regulators and politicians to rein in pay.

The bank’s performance before the crisis – it paid Mr Blankfein $68m in cash, stock and options in 2007 – and stunning recovery has helped make the company a bellwether for Wall Street compensation.

Goldman upped the salaries of top executives for the first time since the bank’s 1999 IPO. Mr Blankfein’s annual pay climbed to $2m from $600,000. Gary Cohn, Goldman’s president, will be paid $1.85m this year, also up from $600,000.

Michael Evans and John Weinberg, two of the bank’s vice-chairmen, and David Viniar, chief financial officer, will also receive $1.85m each.

The bank granted Mr Blankfein 78,111 restricted stock units, which are paid out over three years and cannot be sold for five.

All four deputies received the same number of restricted stock units as their boss: 78,111.

Michael Sherwood, a third vice chairman who co-heads Goldman’s European operations, was granted 89,270 restricted shares, valued at $14.4m.

Goldman shares fell $2.26, or 1.4 per cent, to $161.77 in New York trading. The stock has climbed 5.5 per cent in the past year.

The bank will offer additional details on its top executives’ year-end pay-outs in its annual proxy statement.

A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.

Read more at Andy Sutton’s Extemporania