Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs' chief executive, yesterday stepped into the heated political debate over Wall Street's future, calling for an overhaul of bankers' pay and attacking new laws preventing financial groups from hiring foreigners.

Mr Blankfein, who received total compensation of more than $70m in 2007 but went without a bonus last year, told a group of fund managers in Washington that, in hindsight, some of the industry's decisions on pay looked "self-serving and greedy".