Since announcing its third quarter results on Thursday, Goldman Sachs has endured the predictable backlash at the $16.7bn earmarked for pay and bonuses so far this year.

The 'average' Goldman employee is set to receive a bonus of £500k in 2009, which has not sat well with many commentators. But, of course, this masks the fact that some will receive a bonus that can genuinely described as 'bumper' while others get something decidedly more modest.

The Times points to payouts of between £5m-20m amongst the senior ranks, but has also singled out those London-based bankers expected to reap multi-million pound bonuses.

The big earners are likely to include Matthew Westerman, global head of equity capital markets, Karen Cook (MD of investment banking) and Julian Metherell (head of investment banking in the UK), both of whom will have been involved in the banks' big M&A deals, and senior equities trader John Ashdown.

Government is planning a windfall tax on banks’ profits (Telegraph)

A closer look at the bumper banking profits (Naked Capitalism)

"Personally, I think they should recognise their wider responsibility to society. They should recognise what has happened in the last few years and they should recognise that without the interventions made by government and taxpayers around the world, the situation they would be in now would be far worse." (Reuters)

"It looked like Citi was operating in an alternate universe. Its investment banking revenue was down a third and profits were down two-thirds from last year." (Deal Journal)

Standard Life names Nish as new chief exec (Financial Times)

Jefferies has added 17 to its fixed income team (Reuters)

Barclays chief warns on UK's regulatory crackdown (Financial Times)

How Andy Hall managed to hold on to his $100m bonus (Times)

Have the banks no shame?, asks, gasp, City champion Boris Johnson (Telegraph)

The iron fist of Raj Rajaratnam (Bloomberg)

“After awhile, money is not the motivation. I want to win every time. Taking calculated risks gets my adrenaline pumping.” (Deal Book)

RBS Coutts' Asia chief laments 'following culture' in region's private banking industry (Asian Investor)

Gay colour nail polish not permissible at Nomura (Times)