Report: Goldman Sachs bonuses could hit record low

Goldman Sachs bankers may take home their slimmest bonus checks in years, according to a new Credit Suisse report.

"We expect full year comp expense to be accrued at 40.4% of revenues, the second lowest level since Goldman has been a public firm, reflective of both [management] discipline and the impact of new hires over the past year," the Credit Suisse report says. The report also says that rival investment bank Morgan Stanley will also see its compensation rate go down to 51 percent of revenues, the Wall Street Journal points out.

Another analyst has targeted both investment banks in a new report, lowering his earnings estimates for the firms in the fourth quarter of 2010 and in 2011.

Goldman is planning to institute a new bonus scheme that would link the huge cash payouts to a wider range of financial performance measures. This system is supposed to allow a later "claw back" of bonuses in the event that the firm finds itself on the brink of another financial disaster. Wall Street firms paid out astronomical bonuses as they faced collapse in 2008, drawing increasing public scrutiny to the practice.

(Bronzed bull in New York's financial district: AP.)