Goldman Sachs has set aside an average of $85,000 (€61.453) for each member of staff laid off under plans to cut its workforce, in the teeth of the escalating financial market downturn.

The US bank revealed in its full-year results today that compensation and benefit expenses for the fiscal year to November nearly halved to $10.9bn from $20.2bn the previous year on the back of "lower levels of discretionary compensation due to lower net revenues".