Goldman Sachs Blows Past All Forecasts, Employee Bonus Pool Shrinks

Goldman Sachs is blowing past third quarter forecasts. Profit came in at $4.57, more than a dollar above estimates. Revenue rose to $8.4 billion, much better than the expected $7.8 billion. Goldman Sachs routinely sets aside revenue every quarter for employee's year end bonus pool, but its management, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, wanted to limit discretionary compensation until the business environment gets friendlier. As a result, not as much bonuses were put aside in the third quarter compared to the first half of this year. But Goldman Sachs is growing. The investment banking and institutional client services segments grew 26% and 32% respectively in the latest quarter.