La réputation de Goldman Sachs s’autodétruit lentement

8/2/2019 La rputation de Goldman Sachs sautodtruit lentement.

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La rputation de Goldman Sachs sautodtruit lentement.

http://finance.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/03/16/goldman-sachs-est-elle-en-chute-libre/

L'editorial publi par le New York Times et crit par Greg Smith, responsable de lactivit

europenne en produits drivs sur actions de Goldman Sachs loccasion de son dpart

de celle qui fut une prestigieuse firme de Wall Street, a suscit un accs de colre des

dirigeants de Goldman Sachs ainsi que des dbats dans toutes les directions. Lintress

considre que lenvironnement de Goldman Sachs est devenu toxique et destructif.

Passons sur la manire dont Lloyd Blankfein, le Chairman and CEOet Gary Cohn, le

Presidentont tent de diminuer this individual dans un de ces communiqus de presse

dont ils ont le secret et qui, depuis des annes, les a enfoncs aux yeux des autorits, des

observateurs et meme de lopinion avise qui sintresse aux vicissitudes de Wall Street.

Gageons que le remplacement programm du responsable de la communication par un

ancien press secretary de la Maison Blanche va encore aggraver leur cas. La rponse de

lopinion publique et le battage de clients appels au secours nont fait quenvenimer les

choses depuis deux jours.Le maire de New York, Michael Bloomberg, un pur produit de Wall Street, traite l'article de

"ridicule" et a rendu une visite de solidarit Goldman Sachs! N'oublions pas que le budget

de la ville de New York depend des bonus de Wall Street.

Depuis que Goldman Sachs est devenue une socit cote au New York Stock

Exchange, lengagement de maintenir la mme culture a t rapidement foul du pied par

un patron qui vient dune firme acquise par Goldman dans le ngoce de matires

premires. Les meilleurs banquiers de la firme ont quitt depuis longtemps.La cupidit

long termedont se vantait la firme a depuis lors laiss la place une cupidit court

terme.Le catalogue (partiel) des comportements sulfureux qui ont rcemment affect Goldman

Sachs est le plus nourri de Wall Street qui sy connat pourtant en turpitudes.
http://finance.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/03/16/goldman-sachs-est-elle-en-chute-libre/http://finance.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/03/16/goldman-sachs-est-elle-en-chute-libre/http://http/www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=generalhttp://finance.blog.lemonde.fr/files/2012/03/lloyd-blankfein-and-gary-cohn1.jpghttp://http/www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=generalhttp://finance.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/03/16/goldman-sachs-est-elle-en-chute-libre/


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o -Le Fonds Abacus bourr de titres pourris et vendus aux clients de la firme alors que son

activit pour compte propres prenait une position inverse lui a valu une amende de 550

millions de dollars.

o -La structuration de plusieurs milliards de dette grecque en accords de swapsqui ont

permis de camoufler lampleur de cet endettement a affect la nomination de Mario Draghi

comme President de la Banque Centrale Europenne. Cest Gary Cohn qui menait cette

opration qui a rendu la gestion de la crise grecque encore plus opaque et cest Goldman

qui avait facilit un autre camouflage lentre de la Grce dans lEuro. En dehors de

gagner 300 millions de dollars, la firme na jamais t inquite.

o -La suspicion de parjure dans le cadre dune dposition devant le Snat amricain par

Lloyd Blankfein et son directeur financier na jamais t examine. Si elle avait t instruite,

elle aurait pu lui valoir la prison.

o -Les bonus extravagants qui ont continu tre verss anne aprs anne au Lloyd

Blankfein et ses proches collaborateurs dpassent tous les records de Wall Street pour les

heureux employs et dirigeants qui ont eu la chance de ne pas tre victimes de la purge

des dernires annes. Meme la SEC est venu hier la rescousse interdisant des

actionnaires critiquant ces rmunrations de reposer la question lAssemble Gnrale :

les Surs de Saint Francois de Philadelphie et dautres institutions ont t renvoyes. La

SEC a-t-elle oubli que Monsieur Blankfein a tripl son salaire en 2012 $ 2 millions, ce

qui justifiait leur dmarche insistante contre ces rmunrations pcheresses?

o -Laccusation porte contreun de ses administrateurs, Rajat Gupta, lancien patron de

Mc Kinsey, davoir tuyaut un de ses amis gestionnaire duhedge fundGalleon sur des

informations confidentielles a abouti des condamnations pourinsider trading.

o -Une suspicion pese toujours sur son ancien President, Hank Paulson, qui, lorsquil tait le

Ministre des Finances, a rembours avec les deniers de loncle Sam 10 milliards de dollars

son ancienne firme et a quelques autres- que lui devait AIG tombe en faillite.o -La faillite (qui sent de plus en plus la fraude) de MF Global dont le patron tait un

autre ancien CEO de Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine a vu largent des clients utilis pour

satisfaire les exigences de fonds propres au dni de la rglementation amricaine.

o -Enfin, ce vendredi, Goldman Sachs a annonc une rvision de ses rgles sur les conflits

dintrt. Elle avait t assaillie de critiques pour avoir sollicit et obtenu le mandat

de reprsenter les actionnaires de la socit texane El Paso que Kinder Morgan tente

dacqurir. Goldman Sachs est actionnaire a concurrence de plusieurs milliards

deKinder Morgan. Une baisse du prix de vente de son enrichirait Goaldman. On avait

dj vcu cela lors de lacquisition par le NYSE (dont le patron est un ancien de Goldman

Sachs) dune firme de Chicago dont Goldman Sachs tait actionnaire. Cette attitudecontredit la jurisprudence des tribunaux du Delaware qui fixent les rgles de gouvernance.

Quelles que soient les rponses sur chacun de ces points, leur accumulation donne

beaucoup de crdit aux accusations de Greg Smith. Il sagit dun systme n de

larrogance dune firme qui se croit au-dessus des lois et de lthique.

Si le scandale provoqu par la lettre de Greg Smith est tellement grand, cest quaujourdhui

encore, au lieu de reconnatre que Goldman Sachs est devenu un gigantesque hedge

fundqui gre son bilan au mieux de ses intrts, Lloyd Blankfein continue prtendre que

les valeurs et la culture de la firme nont pas chang.Cette transformation dune firme qui tait la plus admire deWall Streeten une institution

spculative de gnie nest pas un drame. Elle a russi en trois ans a transformer sa


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rputation de la meilleure banque d'affaires en un symbole de tout ce que Wall Street a de

plus contestable.

Le refus dadmettre que le client est un sujet et non un objet de lucre est une hypocrisie qui

na que trop dur. Comme lcrit William Cohan (auteur d'un livre sur Goldman Sachs)

dans le Financial Times Goldman Sachs a, depuis longtemps, reni sa prtention de

mettre en premier lintrt de ses clients et tent en vain de convaincre le public quelle

continue vivre sur base de ses principesCest un moment existentiel pour Goldman. Il

est triste que ses dirigeants ne semblent pas le raliser.

Cest la distance entre le discours et les comportements qui fait que Goldman Sachs est

devenu le symbole des dviances de Wall Street. Elle est loin dtre la seule firme se

comporter de la meme manire. Cest pour cela que Jamie Dimon, le patron de JP Morgan

Chase, a prcis quil tait hors de question de profiter de cet affaiblissement de Goldman

Sachs : il est assez intelligent pour savoir que Goldman Sachs clabousse Wall Street.

Reflexe corporatiste ou dfensif ?

Au cas o le lecteur serait tent par lanti-amricanisme primaire, je me permettrai derappeler que le responsable de la salle des marchs de la Socit Gnrale, Christophe

Miann, a t promu aprs le scandale Kerviel (dont il tait le patron). Sa dposition au

tribunal qui a jug Jrme Kerviel na rien envier au dni des requins de Wall Street. C'est

une anthologie du patron-qui-n'est-pas-responsable.

Enfin faut-il le dire, il y a chez Goldman Sachs comme ailleurs, des banquiers de grande

qualit et intgrit. Malheureusement, ils ne sont pas aux commandes de la firme.

Comme lcrit Frank Partnoy, cest une occasion pour les rgulateurs, et peut tre meme

pour Wall Street, dagir humainement et de nous dire que le terme client a une vraie

signification .

Laissons Jacki Zehner, une ancienne partnerde Goldman Sachs, le dernier mot. "ce sontdes accusations srieuses faites par une personne crdible et j'espere que cela constituera

un rappel l'ordre du Conseil d'Administration".

Why I Am Leaving Goldman SachsBy GREG SMITH

Published: March 14, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1

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TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm first as a

summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London I

believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people

and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive

as I have ever seen it.Enlarge This Image

Victor Kerlow

Related

Times Topic:Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

A Public Exit From Goldman Sachs Hits at a Wounded Wall Street(March 15, 2012)

Goldman Sachs Responds

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Read All Comments (373)

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined

in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the

worlds largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance

to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of

college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of

Goldman Sachss success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, andalways doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great

and allowed us to earn our clients trust for 143 years. It wasnt just about making money;
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this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in

the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the

culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride,

or the belief.

But this was not always the case. For more than a decade I recruited and mentored

candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of

a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every

college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program

in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the

thousands who applied.

I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell

them what a great place this was to work.

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current

chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the

firms culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firms moral fiber

represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge

funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the

most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. My clients have a total

asset base of more than a trillion dollars. I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my

clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it means less money for the firm. This

view is becoming increasingly unpopular at Goldman Sachs. Another sign that it was time to

leave.

How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership

used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make

enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted

into a position of influence.

What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firms axes, which is

Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we

are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) Hunt

Elephants. In English: get your clients some of whom are sophisticated, and some of

whom arent to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-

fashioned, but I dont like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find

yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-

letter acronym.

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My proudest moments in life getting a full scholarship to go from South Africa to

Stanford University, being selected as a Rhodes Scholar national finalist, winning a bronze

medal for table tennis at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, known as the Jewish Olympics

have all come through hard work, with no shortcuts. Goldman Sachs today has become too

much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesnt feel right to me

anymore.

I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of

your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist.

Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm.

And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People

who care only about making money will not sustain this firm or the trust of its clients

for very much longer.

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Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the

firms United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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La réputation de Goldman Sachs s’autodétruit lentement