Goldman Sachs chief regrets leveraged transactions: report

"I regret that we participated in transactions that brought too much leverage into the world. It led to people taking too much leverage. But those were the standards of the moment," Lloyd Blankfein told the newspaper, while on a four-day trip to India.

Goldman has been charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the design and marketing of a subprime mortgage securities product.

Blankfein told the paper that Goldman was at odds with the SEC on a specific transaction involving two institutional investors, over a very narrow fact pattern.

"...On this particular issue we have a disagreement on certain facts and how the laws are applied and we will try to resolve this issue as soon as possible," he said.

The bank was putting together a team of people which would look into improvements to be made in various practices and disclosures, he said.

"We are going to get a focus group to meet with our clients, regulators and our alumni to review these matters on a microscopic basis and decide what needs to be done," Blankfein said.

On the new financial legislation reforms in the works, he said, "some curtailment of risk activities will be positive. But the most risky activity is lending."

He said as a leader he held himself accountable for the positives and negatives. "We did a good job of managing risk, but we did a less good job of managing our reputation."

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a sweeping Wall Street reform bill, capping months of wrangling over the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s.

For full interview click on (www.economictimes.com)

(Writing by Janaki Krishnan; editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)