Hank Paulson, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, will sell his shares in the US bank after reaching an agreement with the Office of Government Ethics in a move that could pave the way for his confirmation as the next US treasury secretary.

Paulson, who has been nominated as US treasury secretary, owned 3.23 million shares in Goldman Sachs in March that are worth $484m based on the bank's closing stock price yesterday of $149.83. He will sell the shares and up to a $25m holding in a Goldman Sachs fund whose sole asset is a stake in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, according to Bloomberg, citing White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.