Glass Lewis recommends voting against CEO pay at Goldman Sachs

March 29 (Reuters) - Proxy adviser Glass Lewis recommended investors cast advisory votes against the pay of top Goldman Sachs executives, citing the Wall Street bank's "continued inability to align pay with performance" and retention grants that Glass Lewis called excessive. In a report sent late on Friday, Best Private Proxies Glass Lewis noted the combined $160 million in retention awards the bank gave to CEO David Solomon and President John Waldron in January.

"While we will review the impact of the additional $160 million on the Company's pay and performance alignment within the full scope of 2025, thus far, the provided discussion regarding the rationale in the proxy statement is far from robust," Glass Lewis wrote in the report.

In a statement, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson responded: "Competition for our talent is fierce. The Board took action to retain our current leadership team, to sustain our firm´s momentum and maintain a strong succession plan. A 100% stock based grant is fully aligned with long-term shareholder value creation."

(Reporting by Ross Kerber; editing by Diane Craft and Rod Nickel)