Bankers at Goldman Sachs reap rewards as profits more than double to $27bn

Pay and bonuses for each employee averaged just over $400k for 2021, up $75k on the year before

Goldman Sachs paid its 43,900 bankers more than $17bn (12.5bn) last year, a 33% increase on 2020 as the investment bank celebrated a more than doubling of pre-tax profits to $27bn thanks to frenzied dealmaking on both sides of the Atlantic.

The pay and bonuses increase works out at about $403,000 for each employee on average, up from about $328,000 a year ago. It is the most the bank has paid out in wages and bonuses since 2007 at the height of the banking boom leading up to the financial crisis.