Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Announcement it Will Delay Employee Bonus Details Generates Speculation of Policy Overhaul

With seemingly all the media focusing their eyes and resources on the quarterly results of the large banks this week, along with the payouts they’re giving their employees, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) announced in the midst of it all that they’re not going to let their people know the details of their bonuses until next week sometime, and possibly not until the week after.

Almost immediately the speculation began that Goldman may be restructuring the bonuses in response to some of the various government rules from country to country, including Britain’s tax on bonuses, as well as releasing the data during a week where competitors probably won’t be offering near the amount Goldman will to their people, giving maybe too close and uncomfortable a contrast for Goldman to be measured by.

Cash and bonuses were going to be drawn from a pool of $20 billion set aside by the giant investment bank, which would give their people the highest average compensation of all banks or financial institutions on Wall Street, coming in at over $600,000 each.

Workers at large banks like Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) should learn their overall compensation sometime in the latter part of this week. Either way, for those working in Britain, anything over £25,000 has a 50 percent tax levied against it for a one-off event; at least that’s what has been communicated to British bankers.

Most industry watchers feel the bank may be changing the structure of the bonuses and compensation in response to outside pressures, but we won’t know of course until they reach that point.

Again, the only other alternative seems to be to distance themselves by time from the bonuses offered this week so there isn’t a possible outrage from the financial and mainstream media if the compensation is that much higher than others’ is.

Still, when you consider this has been known for some time, it’s more likely they’re restructuring things to not only in response to outside events, but also to help their people save more of their compensation by stretching it out past the period mentioned as it relates to British workers, who would be disportionately hit because of the tax from their government.

What all of this means for the bankers themselves is they’re going to have to wait longer than normal to know what they’re going to earn and how it’s going to be paid to them.

Not an especially big deal possibly, but an unnecessary one brought about from politicians who can’t resist the temptation to interfere in the markets and always wanting to build up their own political capital. Too bad that can’t be taxed for waste of the time and money of taxpayers.