Goldman Takes the Lead in Carry Pay for Bankers
The Wall Street Journal
Cutting named executive officers into the profits generated by private-markets investments likely will spread to more bank leaders, according to compensation consulting company Johnson Associates and corporate pay analysts at proxy advisory firms.
Banks and other financial institutions are expected to start paying top executives partly with carry, as the portion of profits from fund investments is known, to show their interests are aligned with investors in their private-markets funds, said Bryan Liou, a Johnson Associates managing director. Bankers want investors to know they are “very serious about being players in this market,” Liou said.
Goldman led the industry in paying carry to top executives, Liou said. The Wall Street bank awarded more than $9 million in carry to five named executive officers this year, including nearly $2.8 million to David Solomon, its chairman and chief executive, and $2.9 million to John Waldron, president and chief operating officer. The payments marked the first time Goldman executives who don’t work in the bank’s alternative-assets operations have been compensated with carried interest.
Asset-management giant BlackRock laid out plans to pay Larry Fink, its chairman and CEO, partly with carried interest from investments made through its private-markets funds, but didn’t make any performance payouts on that basis this year. BlackRock’s plan for paying Fink partly with carry is also a first, Liou said.
WSJ Pro Private Equity / June 20, 2025
