The big governance news this morning relates to Goldman Sachs.

The Journal and others are buzzing about the eight-page shareholder letter Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn wrote within the annual report.

Here’s a link to the letter.

Goldman and its CEO have been very interesting, and very tricky, for me as a GRC researcher.

The company’s risk management capabilities appear worthy of emulation, yet major questions about other business practices (What was the firm’s role in the financial crisis and its aftermath? What was the firm’s role in Greece’s current financial struggles) make me wary of holding their risk management capabilities up as an example of leading practice. Wall Streeters tend to laud Blankfein, while Main Streeters tend to vilify him.

What initially strikes me how many times the word “rare” was used in news reports describing the frequency that Goldman communicates in this way to shareholders.

What strikes you? Please let me know.

In the meantime, I’m reaching out to my governance and IR experts to glean their impressions of what this news may mean from a “G” (governance) and “R” (risk) perspective.

Update: Well, so much for the candor I mentioned in the headline. One of my trusted shareholder letter/IR experts had this quick-hit response after her first read of Goldman’s letter: “The first pages have 100 times more fog than the JP Morgan letter.” ###