Christine Harper

Ken deRegt, a Morgan Stanley veteran called on to revamp risk-management and the fixed-income trading business after returning in February 2008, is leaving again to join investment firm Canarsie Capital Group.

“The combination of this being who I am and what I do and having absolutely no other interests makes me think this is what I’ll be doing for a while,” Blankfein said.

Morgan Stanley gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Gorman a compensation package for 2012 that’s 30% less than his 2011 award, excluding a new incentive package, a person familiar with the decision said.

For employees at the biggest Wall Street banks, 2012 brought a humbling post-crisis reality of job cuts, lower pay and tarnished reputations. For investors, it was a happier story.

Wall Street’s cost cuts and dismissals, which have helped erase more than 300,000 financial- industry jobs in the past two years, are far from over.

The annual promotions, which take effect Jan. 1, come one day after New York-based Goldman Sachs named 70 people to its so-called partnership, the fewest since the firm became a public company in 1999. Partners, also called participating managing directors, receive a higher salary than managing directors and share in a special bonus pool.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. named 70 employees to join its so-called partnership, the fewest in the firm’s 13 years as a public company, as sluggish revenue growth pressures expenses.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, grappling with a market slump that is putting trading earnings under pressure, said “sometimes cycles can last a very long time.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which is scheduled to announce its new class of partners next week, has 407 members of that elite group, down 31 in about nine months, according to a company filing.

A win by Mitt Romney in tomorrow’s U.S. presidential election is more likely to boost Wall Street compensation than if voters re-elect President Barack Obama, according to a survey conducted by eFinancialCareers.

Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among Wall Street firms planning to shift operations to other cities and have staff work from home as Hurricane Sandy’s arrival in New York forces evacuations.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s decision to provide some of former employee Greg Smith’s performance reviews to the media may scare staff at the firm about the privacy of their own reviews, Smith said.

Viniar, whose 12 years in the role make him the longest- serving CFO on Wall Street, will be succeeded by Harvey M. Schwartz, 48, one of three global co-heads from the sales and trading division, the New York-based bank said in a statement yesterday. Goldman Sachs will add Viniar, 57, as well as some independent directors to the 10-member board, the firm said.

Shareholders of Wall Street banks who agree with former Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sanford "Sandy" Weill that the companies should be broken up face an obstacle: bondholders.