Goldman Sachs has reported a sharp fall in quarterly profit after being hit by a bonus tax in Britain, a fine in the United States and poor trading revenues.
The bank's profit fell 82% to $US613 million in the three months to June compared with the same period a year ago.
Excluding a tax bill of $US600 million and a record $US550 million fine, underlying profits fell by nearly half. Revenue fell 36% to $US8.9 billion.
Sanford Bernstein analyst Brad Hintz says the fall is due to investors refusing to take big risks on volatile stock markets, due to Europe's debt crisis.
Nevertheless, Goldman employees earned, on average, $US273,000 each for the first six months of the year.
