In a closely watched move that may be followed across Wall Street, the top executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses. In doing so, they are giving up potentially tens of millions of dollars in payouts in a year that reshaped the securities industry.

After months of internal debate at Goldman, the seven top executives at the firm, including Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, asked the board's compensation committee to grant them no bonuses. The board approved the request on Sunday.

The executives will only be eligible for their base salaries, $600,000 for each. A firm spokesman said the executives felt it was "the right thing" to do.

"While the firm has distinguished itself through many aspects of the crisis, we cannot ignore the fact that we are part of an industry that is directly associated with the ongoing economic distress," the firm spokesman said late Sunday.

It isn't clear yet whether other firms will follow suit. Spokeswomen at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. said no compensation decisions have been made yet. Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack took no bonus in 2007 after the firm suffered a fourth-quarter loss.