Golden Goldman: Bonuses set to double this year

Bonuses at Goldman Sachs are expected to be almost double last year's level when the prestigious investment bank announces its third- quarter results on Thursday.

Michael Hecht, analyst at JMP Securities, said that bonuses will account for $9bn (£5.7bn) of Goldman's $16.7bn expenditure on staff pay, compared with an estimated $4.5bn for the same period in 2008. The analyst also expects that individual bonuses and pay levels will be significantly up on last year because of the around 12 per cent reduction in staff at the bank.

Although politicians have attacked Wall Street's bonus culture, Mr Hecht said that the bonuses were fair, given Goldman's relative success in winning work during the downturn.

Goldman Sachs has also secured a major signing. Nick Jacobson, head of real estate and lodging in Europe, the Middle East and Asia at Citi, has left the bank's London office to join its rival in Australia as a managing director.

In other City news, Gareth Davies, a managing director at the restructuring advisory team at Close Brothers Corporate Finance in London, has left the company. Mr Davies will join Greenhill, the independent boutique investment bank, to head up a restructuring team in Europe.