According to the reports, New York financial firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shareholders agreed to let Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein keep both of his jobs.

The New York Times reported on Friday that only 19 percent of shareholders voted at an annual company meeting in New York for a non-binding proposal that would have pressured the Goldman board to split Blankfein's job into two parts.

The firm should return to its "core principles," Blankfein told shareholders before the vote.

Blankfein further said that the company, facing a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit charging it with rigging mortgage-backed securities so they would fail, must "renew the core principles that have sustained us for 141 years."

Blankfein said in a report in The Wall Street Journal, "Questions have been raised that have gone to the heart of our must fundamental value: How we treat our clients."

Goldman Sachs has dropped in value by about $20 billion since the SEC lawsuit was filed. There have also been private lawsuits filed.

Some, amid all the controversy, had said a leadership change would have placated shareholders and the SEC.

"I will not be stepping down," Blankfein said before the vote. (With Inputs from Agencies)