A former Goldman Sachs executive director has launched an astonishing broadside at his company for being "callous" and "toxic" in an article explaining why he was resigning from the banking giant.
In a New York Times opinion piece described as a "wake up call" Greg Smith explains at how he arrived at his decision to resign from Goldman Sachs.
"It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off," he wrote.
"I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it."
He hit out at the bank's CEO Lloyd Blankfein and president, Gary Cohn, saying they presided over a decline in "moral fibre" of the bank.
"Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets," he added.
His honesty was welcomed by tweeters, who said the attack was "on the mark" and brutally honest.
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This month Goldman Sachs reshuffled its board of directors in Britain.
Goldman Sachs said they disagreed with Smith's views and did not think it reflected "the way we run our business." "In our view, we will only be successful if our clients are successful. This fundamental truth lies at the heart of how we conduct ourselves."