Goldman Sachs got fined again.
Goldman Sachs agreed on Thursday to pay securities regulators $22 million to settle accusations that it did not have adequate policies in place to stop stock research tips from being passed inappropriately to its biggest clients.
But, I wonder, does the firm even notice the loss of $22 million? Isn’t that like when we drop a penny and decide it’s not even worth the energy to bend down and pick it up? Why do we still have pennies again? And why do we pretend that we can change the behavior of financial behemoths by slapping them with penny fines? I mean, seriously, look at their earnings.
Assailed by critics on all sides, Goldman Sachs did what it does best on Tuesday, smashing estimates for its first-quarter results and setting aside $5.23bn (£3.2bn) to pay its staff.
The bank reported net revenues of $11.89bn and net earnings of $2.74bn for the first quarter which ended on 31 March, 2011.
They are making billions in profit every quarter. And they received a $22 million fine? That’s not even the cost of doing business. That doesn’t even cover their catering bill.
