Top Goldman Execs to Get Only Stock in Bonuses

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Copycats Unlikely

"They're trying to take the heat off the very large amounts of compensation they're going to pay," said Alan Johnson, president and founder of compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc. in New York. The tactic may not work, however, because the public will focus on the size of the bonuses, he said.

Johnson doesn't expect competitors to follow Goldman Sachs's example. "Certainly they're going to consider it, but I think at the end of the day, most won't do it, because I think they're not going to pay as much as Goldman Sachs," he said.

The announcement came a day after Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said the U.K. will require banks to pay a 50 percent tax on any bonus they pay to employees for 2009 that exceeds 25,000 pounds ($40,611). Six of the 30 members of Goldman Sachs's management committee are based in the U.K.

"We believe our compensation policies are the strongest in our industry and ensure that compensation accurately reflects the firm's performance and incentivizes behavior that is in the public's and our shareholders' best interests," Blankfein said in the statement.

Management Committee Listed

By limiting the bonus restrictions to management committee members, Goldman Sachs will remain free to pay cash bonuses to the traders, bankers and sales people who generate the revenue, said Optique's Fitzpatrick.

"I would want to make sure those folks are compensated in line with market conditions," Fitzpatrick said. "It's more important to protect the producers than the management folks."

Following is a list of the members of Goldman Sachs's management committee, which is available on the company's Web site:

Lloyd C. Blankfein

Gary Cohn

John S. Weinberg

J. Michael Evans

Michael S. Sherwood

Kevin W. Kennedy

Richard A. Friedman

Timothy J. O'Neill

Gregory K. Palm

Masanori Mochida

David A. Viniar

Christopher A. Cole

Esta E. Stecher

David B. Heller

Marc A. Spilker

Edward C. Forst

Richard Gnodde

Richard M. Ruzika

Yoel Zaoui

Gordon E. Dyal

David M. Solomon

Edith W. Cooper

Isabelle Ealet

Edward K. Eisler

Gwen R. Libstag

John F.W. Rogers

Pablo J. Salame

Donald R. Mullen

Harvey M. Schwartz

Alan M. Cohen

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

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