Goldman Sachs Would Like to Repay Treasury, CFO Says - 4 Feb 2009 - Bloomberg

Goldman Sachs Would Like to Repay Treasury, CFO Says

By Christine Harper

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wants to
repay the $10 billion it got from the U.S. Treasury last year to
signal the firm is healthy and to escape limitations that were
imposed with the money, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar
said.

“Operating our business without the government capital
would be an easier thing to do,” Viniar said today at a
conference hosted by Credit Suisse Group AG in Naples, Florida.
“We’d be under less scrutiny and under less pressure.” He
added, “It would send a very good signal” if the firm could
repay the money.

Under current rules, Goldman and other firms that received
money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, are
required to raise common or preferred equity to replace the
government funds, Viniar said. The company, which received the
government money in October, will consider raising money “if
the markets are good,” he said.

“It’s not really restricting the way we do business but it
was not meant to be permanent capital,” Viniar said. “There
are pretty minor, at this point, executive compensation
restrictions and we’d like to get out from under those,” he
said.

Obama’s Plan

Compensation limits unveiled by President Barack Obama only
affect companies that receive exceptional aid from the government
in the future and won’t apply to companies such as Goldman that
have already received money. Goldman Sachs’s top seven
executives didn’t take any bonuses for 2008. The firm paid out
$10.9 billion in compensation for 2008, down 46 percent from a
record $20.2 billion in 2007.

The government investment also limits the firm’s ability to
raise dividends and to

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