Goldman bankers ready to jump. Or are they?

Rival banks are said to be lining up to poach disaffected corporate financiers from Goldman Sachs.

Corporate financiers at Goldman Sachs are disaffected with the elevation of sales and trading types into executive roles at the bank, the Financial Times reports today.

The promotion of Jon Winkelfied and Gary Cohn as directors and co-presidents and the departure of former M&A banker Hank Paulson for the U.S. Treasury has the potential to tilt Goldman away from corporate advice and incite disgruntlement among its M&A bankers, the FT suggests.

We consulted two venerable corporate finance headhunters, one of whom works with Goldman and one of whom doesn't. Neither appeared to think Goldman bankers are likely to harrumph off in the direction of rival firms.

"They're still a great powerhouse from an advisory perspective, so it's unlikely people will leave purely because Paulson's gone," says the headhunter working with the firm.

"It's just not true," says the other, who headhunts from Goldman and was formerly employed by a rival. "The number of departures at Goldman Sachs this year is below the industry average and that's not about to change."