While much of the financial industry is lucky to even have a job, the folks over at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) can expect to receive their biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after an amazing first half of the year. This news, however, has sparked concerns that the big investment banks that have survived the credit crunch will ultimately derail financial regulation reforms.

Due to a lack of competition combined with a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products, profits at Goldman Sachs have soared. Last week, the firm's London staff were briefed on the company's prospects and were told to look forward to bumper bonuses, if it completed its most profitable year ever, as it is predicted they will.

Figures to be released next month which will detail the firm's second quarter earnings are anticipated to show a bigger jump in profits. They've already paid off $10 billion in TARP funds from the government. Financial genius Warren Buffet, who purchased $5 billion of Goldman Sachs' shares in January, has already made an impressive $1 billion gain on his investment.

Revenues across the industry are expected to be around $263 billion in 2009, which is down from nearly $305 billion in 2006. But with a smaller number of firms still in play, Goldman Sachs will receive a bigger slice of the pie.

US firms including JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, and European firms Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank, are all expected to register bumper profits this year following the almost collapse and government rescues of several major trading outfits, including the likes of Merrill Lynch, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Citigroup.

Just last week, it was predicted that President Obama could issue $3.25 trillion of debt before September, which is nearly four times the sum of last year. Goldman Sachs is a prime broker of US government bonds, and is expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from selling and dealing in the bonds.

This year's payouts for the bank's 28,000 staff is expected to be the highest ever in its history. But critics of this bonus culture say that the dominance of a few banks is undermining regulators efforts to stabilize the financial system. The bonus culture that led to the industry's collapse in the first place is being perpetuated, and some are predicting that it will push the industry to the edge of yet another crash.

Goldman Sachs has said that it reviewed its bonus payout scheme last year, and have switched from a system of guaranteed rewards paid out over three years, to variable payments that tie staff to the firm. Last year it told employees that profit-related bonuses would be delayed 12 months.