Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says the US investment bank is not ‘anti-client’

Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein went on television today to defend the investment bank against criticism of the way it treats customers, saying it was not “anti-client.”

Blankfein, who has led the bank since 2006, admitted Goldman Sachs hasn’t “gotten everything right in how we deal with the public”, in an interview with CNBC.

But he said “we couldn’t have the clients we have if were anti-client.”

Blankfein, who also spoke to Bloomberg TV, made the comments a month after former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith denounced the firm as “morally bankrupt” in a blistering letter of resignation published in the New York Times.

Smith, who was an executive director and head of the firm's US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – said Goldman Sachs bankers put profits first and referred to clients as “muppets.”

"I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it," wrote Smith, who worked at Goldman Sachs for just under 12 years and says the firm has changed markedly since he started there.

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But Blankfein told CNBC that Smith’s assertions did not “reflect our values” and, during an interview with Bloomberg TV, he said the bank’s business model “suits us just fine.”

The Wall Street Journal noted that Goldman Sachs has been repeatedly attacked in the media and elsewhere for its seeming conflicts of interest and questionable business practices.

Goldman Sachs and other investment banks were bailed out by the US government after the global financial crisis, which critics said was unfair when thousands of subprime borrowers were losing their homes and risked creating moral hazard among bankers.

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