Goldman Sachs is a rotten institution

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), which says it owns the world’s largest family of so-called mezzanine loan funds, is asking regulators to loosen proposed limits on bank investments in such pools.

Four Goldman Sachs employees and three lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP met on Feb. 2 with Federal Reserve Board staff to discuss Volcker rule limits on banks’ fund investments, according to a summary published yesterday by the central bank. The Volcker rule limits depository institutions from supplying more than 3 percent of the capital in a hedge fund, private- equity fund or other “covered fund.”

Goldman Sachs “expressed their view that the proposed rule does not permit a banking entity to acquire over 3 percent of the ownership interests in a ‘credit fund’ that is principally engaged in making or acquiring extensions of credit,” according to the Fed summary. “GS explained that investors in credit funds require at least 5 percent ‘skin in the game’ from sponsors.”

Goldman Sachs, which was the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history before converting to a bank in 2008, typically has supplied about 30 percent of the money to the hedge funds, private-equity funds and credit funds the firm manages for clients. Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman for New York- based Goldman Sachs, declined to comment. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/goldman-sachs-seeks-exemption-for-bank-stakes-in-credit-funds-.html

[xchrom]

1. Understated but yes they are. Nt