One-third of Goldman shareholders reject executive pay

Goldman Sachs' pay package for senior executives got a thumbs-down from a third of the investment bank's shareholders at Friday's annual meeting.

Of Goldman's shareholders, 34 percent voted against the compensation package, according to preliminary results announced at the meeting in Jersey City in the state of New Jersey.

Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein in 2015 received compensation totaling $30 million.

The Goldman Sachs building is seen in lower Manhattan on April 15, 2016 in New York City ©Spemcer Platt (Getty/AFP/File)

But the packages had been criticized as excessive by some shareholders for not reflecting the hit from multi-billion legal settlements to resolve charges Goldman misled investors on mortgage-backed securities ahead of the housing bust.

"Say on pay" was mandated by US legislation in 2010, which calls for shareholder votes on executive remuneration at least once every three years.