Goldman not immune to public sentiment - CFO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group is well aware of the negative public sentiment towards the big Wall Street bank, but the distrust is not deserved, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said on Tuesday.

Goldman is "not immune to public sentiment," Viniar told Reuters in an interview following release of the bank's strong second-quarter results.

"We know it. We see it. We don't like it," he said. "We believe we are doing good things."

He added, "We are helping the economy recovery. I don't like reading bad things about Goldman Sachs."

Criticism of the bank in Washington and on Main Street has centred on its role in the financial crisis and the generous compensation paid to its executives.

In October Goldman received a $10 billion government bailout, and it has also benefited from other government schemes during the depths of the crisis.

Goldman reported better-than-expected earnings for both the first and second quarters, rebounding from the near meltdown of the U.S. banking industry last fall.

The bank repaid the bailout loans last month and is in negotiations on repurchasing warrants it issued to the government related to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Viniar said TARP was "a very important thing" for the economy and helped stabilise the banking industry.

He declined to directly say how the program impacted Goldman, saying the program has to be evaluated as a whole instead of bank by bank.

He said he could not predict whether the firm's robust growth will continue.

"I wouldn't tell you we will have this level of earnings every quarter," he said, adding that "it is very hard to know" how the company will perform over the rest of the year.

He said the future will depend largely on demand for Goldman's services, which was strong in the second quarter.

(Reporting by Steve Eder; editing by John Wallace)