Insiders

Goldman 'best positioned' if Glass-Steagall Act returns: Blankfein to CNBC

May 09, 2017 at 04:04 pm EDT

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (>> Goldman Sachs Group Inc) is best positioned if the Glass-Steagall Act returns, Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in an interview to CNBC on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been actively considering breaking up big banks, which could push efforts for revival of the Glass-Steagall Act, a Depression-era law that separated commercial lending from investment banking.

Bringing back Glass-Steagall would likely have a significant impact on banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co (>> JPMorgan Chase & Co.), Bank of America Corp (>> Bank of America Corp) and Citigroup (>> Citigroup Inc) that have large highly intertwined commercial lending and investment banking operations, say analysts.

It would impact Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (>> Morgan Stanley) to a lesser degree although, they would likely have to revert to being standalone investment banks and shed their deposit funding. (http://reut.rs/2pZsuOu)

During the CNBC interview on Tuesday, Blankfein also commented on the less volatile markets, calling it "worrisome". "I don't know what brings us out of the doldrums, but I do know this is not a normal resting state," he added.

The VIX index of implied volatility on the S&P 500 <.VIX> - the so-called Wall Street "fear gauge" - fell to its lowest intraday level since December 2006 on Tuesday.

The U.S. economy could grow at a faster rate than it is growing now, Blankfein told CNBC in response to a question on whether the Trump administration's 3 percent growth target is achievable.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Stocks treated in this article : Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley

Stocks mentioned in the article

Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION	38.37 USD	+1.70%	+10.64%	297B
THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC.	423.9 USD	+1.57%	+6.82%	143B
MORGAN STANLEY	93.76 USD	+1.81%	+5.18%	150B
LINE CORPORATION	5,350 JPY	-.--%	-0.19%	12.52B

Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Craig Blankfein (born September 20, 1954) is an American business executive. He is the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. He assumed this position upon the May 2006 nomination of former CEO Henry Paulson to United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Biography

Early life
Lloyd Blankfein was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, to a Jewish family, and reared in the Linden Houses, a New York City Housing Authority project in the East New York section of Brooklyn. His father was a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service branch in the Manhattan borough of New York City and his mother was a receptionist. As a boy, he worked as a concession vendor at Yankee Stadium. and then Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. In 1981, he joined Goldman's commodities trading arm, J. Aron & Co., as a precious metals salesman in its London office.

He has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs since 2006. He earned a total of $54.4 million in 2006 as one of the highest paid executives on Wall Street. His bonus reflected the performance of Goldman Sachs, which reported record net earnings of $9.5 billion. The compensation included a cash bonus of $27.3 million, with the rest paid in stock and options. While CEO of Goldman Sachs Group in 2007, Blankfein earned a total compensation of $53,965,418, which included a base salary of $600,000, a cash bonus of $26,985,474, stocks granted of $15,542,756 and options granted of $10,453,031.

In 2009, the Financial Times named Blankfein its "2009 Person of the Year", stating, "His bank has stuck to its strengths, unashamedly taken advantage of the low interest rates and diminished competition resulting from the crisis to make big trading profits." Critics of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street have taken issue with those practices. Taking a different view, Forbes listed Blankfein as one of "The Most Outrageous CEOs of 2009."

Source @ Wikipedia

View full profile