LONDON (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs International, the European unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., paid its 5,500 employees average compensation of about $670,000 last year.

London-based Goldman Sachs International shrank its workforce in the region by about 14.5 percent, or 940 people, during the same period, according to accounts posted on the company's website.

The US bank said it expected to pay at least $600 million for the UK's one-time bonus tax. The unit also increased the amount it donated to charity to $93 million from $3.3 million because of increased contributions from its partners, according to the website.

Goldman Sachs, the most profitable Wall Street firm in US history, said last month that net income rose 92 percent to $3.46 billion in the first quarter. The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused the New York-based firm of misleading its customers in the marketing of a collateralised debt obligation last month, and a Senate panel grilled executives including CEO Lloyd Blankfein. In November 2007, a month before awarding employees bonuses that set a Wall Street record, the company announced plans to raise as much as $1 billion for a philanthropic fund called Goldman Sachs Gives.