Conflict rules to be reviewed

New York: Goldman Sachs said on Friday that it will try to strengthen internal rules to prevent questions about conflicts of interest.

A Delaware judge almost killed a deal between two energy companies last month because Goldman had ties to both parties. The bank collected a fee for advising one company, and a Goldman banker owned stock in the other.

Goldman was stung on Wednesday by an article published in The New York Times by a young banker who was quitting the company. He accused Goldman executives of privately insulting clients and not acting in customers' best interest.

The energy deal was a $21 billion (Dh77 billion) buyout of El Paso, a Houston natural gas and oil company, by Kinder Morgan, a Houston natural gas pipeline company. The judge ultimately allowed the deal.

Goldman collected a fee for advising El Paso on the deal. The judge criticised Goldman for failing to disclose that one of its lead bankers on the team, Steve Daniel, personally owned $340,000 of Kinder Morgan stock.

"We are reviewing our policies and procedures with the goal of strengthening them." said Goldman spokesman David Wells.