Lex专栏:高盛的悔悟
2009-09-12 23:18:44
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Lex专栏:高盛的悔悟
英国《金融时报》Lex专栏(Lex) 2009-09-10
高盛(Goldman Sachs)在许多方面都很擅长,其中就包括发起公关活动。其首席执行官劳埃德?布兰克费恩(Lloyd Blankfein)昨日在法兰克福银行业会议上的演讲,对他的德国东道主进行了不寻常的抨击,特别是在公允价值会计问题上——高盛向来是公允价值会计的坚定捍卫者。除此之外,他对一些金融产品效用及不合理薪酬的温和质问,或许会登上新闻头条,但几乎毫无新意。比方说,英国金融服务管理局(FSA)主席特纳勋爵(Lord Turner)对英国“膨胀的”金融服务业大加批评,而布兰克费恩坚持认为,银行业的健康对于“充满生机和活力的”经济至关重要。将二人的话进行一下对比就知道了。
越来越多的人赞同银行应重新评估自己的社会及经济效用,这真是罕见至极。与所有企业一样,银行的经营理念向来是要增加公司、股东及员工的收益。这不会改变。更有意思的是,高盛默认,景气时期异乎寻常的产品复杂性只是为了包装、推销和定价其服务,而实际上,更简单的解决方案就足够了。许多行业都有这种趋势——想想律师和管道工吧。但无论使用的术语或技术有多么夸张,管道工和他的老板都了解管道,清楚修理时可能碰到的麻烦。银行的头头们显然并不懂。
因此,布兰克费恩强调有效的风险管理——没有它,薪酬改革或增加资本金就变得毫无意义。在前一个问题上,高盛依然对薪酬全无悔意,摆出了合情合理且毫无争议的准则,同时用卓越的绩效为其开支辩护。在后一个问题上,高盛保持了沉默,值得注意的是,在布兰克费恩的悔悟中,从未出现“杠杆率”这个词。没错,无论监管机构做些什么,风险将依然是银行业必不可少的组成部分。抛开这些陈词滥调,与所有优秀的银行家一样,布兰克费恩不过是在捍卫自己的立场。
译者/陈云飞
Lex专栏是由FT评论家联合撰写的短评,对全球经济与商业进行精辟分析
BLANKFEIN'S LAMENT
Lex 2009-09-10
Goldman Sachs excels at many things – among them, waging a public relations campaign. Chief executive Lloyd Blankfein's speech to a Frankfurt banking conference yesterday lobbed the odd pot-shot at his German hosts, notably on fair value accounting which Goldman has always robustly defended. Beyond that, his gentle questioning about the usefulness of some financial products and unjustifiable pay might grab headlines, but add very little. Compare, for example, Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner's criticism of the UK's “swollen” financial services industry against Mr Blankfein's assertion that banking's ruddy health is crucial for a “vibrant, dynamic” economy.
The growing chorus that banks should reassess their social and economic usefulness is downright peculiar. Banks, like all businesses, have always been run on the basis of adding to the bottom lines of the company, its shareholders and employees. That won't change. More interesting is Goldman's tacit admission that egregious boomtime complexity was used to dress up, market and price its services to clients where simpler solutions would have sufficed. Many industries are prone to this – think lawyers and plumbers. But whatever highfalutin' terms or techniques are used, the plumber and his boss both understand pipes and the messy risks in fixing them. Bank chiefs evidently did not.
Hence Mr Blankfein's stress on effective risk management – without which compensation reform or additional capital becomes moot. On the former, Goldman remains entirely unapologetic about pay, laying out sensible, uncontroversial principles while justifying payouts on the basis of exceptional performance. On the latter, it remains silent, with the word “leverage” notable by its absence in Mr Blankfein's lament. True, risk will remain the sine qua non of banking, whatever the regulators do. Platitudes aside, Mr Blankfein – like any good banker – was just talking his book.
 
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