Goldman CEO and Top Execs Will NOT Receive 2008 Bonuses

Well, it's a start.

Now hopefully we start to see more of Wall Street fall in line with similar announcements.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six other top executives at the bank will not be receiving cash or stock bonuses for 2008, a spokesman said Sunday.

The decision was made by the seven executives themselves, said spokesman Lucas Van Praag, and approved Sunday by the Wall Street firm's compensation committee. The executives made the decision "because they think it's the right thing to do," Van Praag said.

The seven executives include Blankfein; Presidents and Co-Chief Operating Officers Jon Winkelried and Gary Cohn; Vice Chairmen John Weinberg, J. Michael Evans and Michael Sherwood; and Chief Financial Officer David Viniar.

They will receive no cash bonuses, no stock, and no options for 2008 — just their salaries, the spokesman said. Companies typically release compensation figures for top executives in the spring as part of their annual proxy statements.

Last year, Blankfein received total compensation of $54.0 million, according to calculations by The Associated Press — making him the 6th highest paid CEO at a Standard & Poor's 500 company in 2007. His salary that year was $600,000.