Goldman staff told to cut the cr*p

US investment firm Goldman Sachs has ordered its staff to stop swearing, after it was discovered they had been letting it rip with profanity in emails and other electronic messages.

The Wall Street Journal reports that all 34,000 traders, investment bankers and other Goldman employees must restrain themselves from using a vast vocabulary of oft-used dirty words on Wall Street.

The firm has even ruled out the use of words containing asterisks to hide the swearing.

Earlier this year, Goldman's chief executive Lloyd Blankfein was hauled before a congressional committee and dressed down by lawmakers wielding expletive-laden emails from his staff.

Quoting liberally from one message, Democratic Senator Carl Levin accused him of shopping a "s...ty deal" to investors.

A Goldman spokesman insists however that here is no shift in the firm's policy.

"The policy referred to is not new," said Michael Duvally.

"We have merely made improvements recently to our surveillance systems. The policies have existed for a very long time."

The WSJ says Goldman's employee emails have been a touchy subject ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the firm in April of cheating clients by selling mortgage securities that were secretly designed by a hedge-fund firm to cash in on the housing market's collapse.

This month, Goldman agreed to pay US$550 million to settle the civil charges, without admitting or denying the allegations.

- © Fairfax NZ News