Unstructured Finance

Scanning Goldman Sachs’s newly published interactive annual report on Monday, Unstructured Finance had to do a double-take upon seeing American International Group highlighted as a client success story.

Yes, that’s right. AIG.

Goldman’s site features a 3-minute, 47-second video with two investment bankers, Devanshu Dhyani and Andrea Vittorelli, talking about their work on various AIG deals to help repay the U.S. government.

It also has photos of bankers around the globe who were involved with AIG stock sales, stock buybacks and assets sales, including Chris Cole, co-chairman of investment banking; Yan Liu, Ed Byun Dan Dees and Phyllis Luk, bankers based in Hong Kong; and Michael Tesser and Terence Lim, bankers based in New York.

“The most important aspect of success here was the full repayment of the U.S. government – $182 billion of funds committed to stabilizing AIG at the height of the financial crisis – not only repaid back in a matter of years but repaid back at a profit of $23 billion to the US taxpayer,” says Dhyani. “I think that’s a tremendous achievement for AIG, for people who are involved in this process.”

Jim Millstein, a former Lazard banker who oversaw the government’s stake in AIG at the U.S. Treasury Department until 2011, also contributed a quote to the site.

View from Goldman Sachs office, Salt Lake City.

By Katya Wachtel and Lauren Tara LaCapra

Al Crutchfield, a 56-year-old cab driver who has spent most of his life in Salt Lake City, does not understand why so many Americans are angry at Goldman Sachs.

“Everyone seems to be so mad at them all the time, but I think it’s a good thing for Salt Lake that Goldman’s expanding here,” he said. “I drive lots of Goldman Sachs employees, so it’s good for my business, and their folks are really nice.”

Across America, and elsewhere, Goldman has often been the target of populist rage against Wall Street greed. But Al Crutchfield’s sentiment is not uncommon in this mountain city, where the investment bank has built up a cadre of back-office, technology, operations and research staff. It is now the investment bank’s fourth largest global operation, as Reuters reported Friday.

We’re introducing a new feature on UF: a link to some weekend reads. Here is the first edition complied by Sam Forgione.

From The Guardian:

Andrew Balls, head of European investment for PIMCO from its London office, shares similar views on Europe and regulation with his brother, Ed Balls, of the British Labour Party. Brotherly love even extended to one of PIMCO’s major investment decisions: when Bill Gross decided to sell UK government debt in 2010, and Andrew Balls allegedly disagreed with the move, apparently backing his brother’s political status.

From The New Deal 2.0:

An eye for an eye, a rebuttal for a rebuttal. Bruce Judson argues that Jamie Dimon’s vengeful jab at the media for making less money than JP Morgan is unfair. For one, banks are government-backed while media companies aren’t.