Goldman Gets Proposed Exemption to Manage Retirement Assets (1)

The U.S. Labor Department has preliminarily given Goldman Sachs Group Inc. permission to continue managing retirement assets for five years without disruption due to its subsidiary’s guilty plea in a global bribery scheme.

Under a proposed exemption released Thursday, Goldman would retain its status as a qualified professional asset manager, or QPAM, which is considered a necessity in the financial services industry to manage clients’ 401(k) and pension plans.

This comes as a federal judge will soon finalize settlements over the firm’s role in looting a Malaysian investment fund, an international bribery scandal in which Goldman’s affiliate has agreed to ...