The recent hearings over Goldman Sachs' (NYSE: GS) CDO (CDO news) practices were notable for the fact that the Senators used employee self-evaluations against them. Bloomberg notes that some on Wall Street may be wondering what kind of risk such evaluations impose in the future. While they are supposed to be confidential, obviously they are fair game in investigations and in the discovery process.

One self-evaluation used by the Senators: "It should not be a surprise to anyone that the 2007 year is the one I am most proud of to date," wrote one employee of himself. "I can take credit for recognizing the enormous opportunity for the ABS synthetics business 2 years ago. It was clear that the market fundamentals in subprime and the highly levered nature of CDOs was going to have a very unhappy ending." You have to wonder if the self-evaluation process will change in any way. Will more people feel the need to cover themselves just a bit? My sense is that nothing will change. Everyone knows that emails are fair game in an investigation, but that doesn't seem to stop people from using robustly. 

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
RBS says suing Goldman Sachs would be premature
Deutsche Bank sold CDOs similar to Goldman Sachs'
Will Goldman Sachs really lose customers because of fraud charges?
Did CDO created for Magnetar have better disclosure?
SEC action against Goldman Sachs to lead to more suits?