Weekly Global News Wrap: Goldman execs eye $500m payout; Amex fined $350m

And global banks are bolstering their Japan debt capital market teams.

From Bloomberg:
About 20 of Goldman Sachs’ senior leaders are set to unlock a special bonus that may exceed $500m collectively, according to filings and people with knowledge of the matter.

The special bonus, the result of a five-year run when Goldman bested its rivals, will be finalized later this month.

If it pushes through it will be amongst the biggest such payouts the firm has ever awarded, according to Bloomberg.

From Reuters:
American Express was fined $350m by US bank regulators after its money laundering identification programs were deemed inefficient.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and ⁠the Federal Reserve announced the enforcement action on Thursday, saying the company, ​primarily via its national bank, failed to maintain a sufficient anti-money laundering compliance ​program.

Amex reportedly had inadequate resources, inexperienced staff, weak training and internal control gaps, reports Reuters.

From Bloomberg:
Global financial institutions are beefing up their debt capital market teams in Japan to capture a boom in fundraising driven by mergers, acquisitions, and artificial intelligence capital.

In July, Goldman Sachs Securities hired Dai Kitatani as head of debt capital markets (DCM). Kitatani was the former head of debt capital markets at Citigroup Global Markets Japan.

UBS Securities have also appointed Takehiro Sakuramoto, formerly of Goldman Sachs, as its first dedicated DCM head in four years.