Goldman Sachs gave preferential allocations of shares in hot initial public offerings to executives of investment banking clients, including Kenneth Lay and Dennis Kozlowski, the disgraced former heads of Enron and Tyco, according to a US Congress report which has been branded "a disgrace" by the bank.

The House Financial Services Committee said: "At least one officer or director at each of the 21 reviewed companies was given access to Goldman IPOs showing the link between IPO access and investment banking business."