Goldman Sachs under pressure over Lloyd's Bank refinancing
In yet another attempt to smear the reputation of financial giant Goldman Sachs the financial press is today full of news regarding the company's involvement in the Lloyd's Bank refinancing. It has come to the attention of financial journalists that Goldman Sachs was both an investor and an underwriter in the massive £23.5 billion transaction. But is this really something we should be concerned about?
In many ways this is nothing but a storm in a teacup because aside from the fact that Goldman Sachs has done nothing wrong in the eyes of the regulator or the law, there are "Chinese walls" in all financial operations to separate different departments. Its seems very much that Goldman Sachs is the current target of the financial press, regulators and governments around the world, possibly looking to deflect criticism of themselves towards one of the oldest financial institutions in the worldwide investment market.
It will be interesting to see how the US court case proceeds regarding the SEC and Goldman Sachs and indeed whether a successful prosecution emerges. There is already concern that the SEC case may well be flawed and the fact that the SEC vote in favour of the prosecution was a very close 3-2 call perfectly reflects these views.
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