Top bosses at Goldman Sachs to share bonus pot worth up to $500m

Eye-watering sum, to be split between 20 bankers, is one of the biggest payouts in the bank’s history

Top bosses at Goldman Sachs are in line to share a bonus pot worth up to $500m (£378m) this year, marking one of the biggest payouts in the Wall Street bank’s history.

The eye-watering sum will be shared between 20 bankers, with its chief executive, David Solomon, due to take about $100m (£75.6m) of the reward, which is made up of Goldman Sachs stock.

That is more than double the value of the record $47m (£35.5m) annual pay packet he was granted last year.

The $500m bonus pot is the culmination of a long-term investment plan first crafted by the bank in 2021.

The final sum, which is due to be confirmed later this month, is tied to how high Goldman’s share price has climbed over the past five years, as well as how its stock price has performed compared with peers such as JP Morgan and Bank of America over that period.

Goldman Sachs said the bonuses were meant to persuade bosses to stay at the bank “in an increasingly competitive market”.

The bank’s president, John Waldron, who is widely expected to succeed Solomon as chief executive, is also in line for a payout, alongside other top bosses such as the co-heads of global banking and markets, Ashok Varadhan and Dan Dees.

News of the bumper bonus, which was first reported by Bloomberg, comes days before Goldman is due to report third-quarter earnings on 13 October.

The bonuses reflect the value of Goldman Sachs stock, which has surged roughly 146% over the past five years, and climbed about 300% since Solomon took the helm as chief executive.

A spokesperson for the bank said: “The board created these awards to achieve three principal objectives: align compensation with rigorous performance thresholds, ensure leadership continuity and enhance retention of our top talent in an increasingly competitive market. It’s no secret our firm has performed exceptionally well in the years since.”

The payouts are the latest in a string of large payouts for executives in the US, particularly on Wall Street.

The US lender Citigroup announced earlier this year that its chief executive, Jane Fraser, had been paid a record $42m (£31.8m) for 2025. Meanwhile, JP Morgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, took home a total pay package worth $43m (£32.5m) last year , up 10% from a year earlier. Dimon’s own long-term incentive award is worth about $270m (£204.1m), according to Bloomberg.