- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is taking big steps to transform the bank.
- Goldman has been pushing into consumer banking and wealth management.
- The bank’s second-quarter earnings topped analyst expectations.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Goldman Sachs is transforming under CEO David Solomon.
The Wall Street bank has taken steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. After its first-ever investor day in early 2020, the firm is executing on targets including multi-year cost-cutting plans. And it’s making big pushes into wealth management and consumer banking.
On Tuesday, the firm’s second-quarter 2021 earnings results topped expectations, with the bank reporting its second-highest net revenues on record. Its investment bank raked in more than $3.6 billion in revenue.
But the bank’s top ranks have also seen turnover this year, shedding execs within its management committee and partnership.
At the junior level, some young bankers are frustrated about not yet receiving base salary raises even as some bank competitors have raised pay.
Here’s a rundown of the must-know news at Goldman, including the latest hires and exits, as well as deep dives on its Marcus consumer bank and wealth-management push.
Who are the top leaders at Goldman?
Goldman in September shuffled its setup, creating a new standalone consumer division that includes its Marcus lending unit as well as its wealth-management and private-banking businesses.
Strategy chief Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York, the head of the private-wealth business, were tapped to colead the new consumer and wealth management division and the changes went into effect on Jan. 1.
The new setup matches the way Goldman reports financial results, a change the firm made in 2019 to better align with how Solomon wanted investors to think about the firm. Goldman now has four divisions: consumer and wealth management, asset management, investment banking, and global markets.
Read more:
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is shaking up the bank with his hard-driving style. Here’s what’s pushing a herd of partners to the exits.
- Goldman Sachs President John Waldron just laid out 3 ways the bank is aiming to win the war on burnout, and they don’t include special bonuses or fancy vacations
- An exodus is under way at Goldman Sachs. Here’s a running list of all the partners jumping ship and where they’re heading.
- Inside the rise of Stephanie Cohen, the Goldman Sachs dealmaker leading a make-or-break push to take on Main Street
- Here’s our exclusive Goldman Sachs org chart mapping out the hierarchy of top execs
Junior bankers in focus
Goldman Sachs juniors vented this spring about 100-hour work-weeks.
So far, they’ve yet to benefit from it in the way of raises or bonuses, though Solomon hinted on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call that an update to their compensation policy might come in August.
The bank has been looking to hire reinforcements and fast-track tech initiatives to streamline work.
Read more:
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon just hinted at a raise for junior bankers, but they might have to wait until August
- Goldman Sachs junior bankers in its powerhouse TMT group are jumping ship as Wall Street grapples with a talent shortage
- Junior bankers lament ‘Goldman discount’ as other firms raise pay and analysts who complained about 100-hour work-weeks get nothing
- Goldman Sachs offices are open. But getting junior bankers to return full time is proving tough.
- Goldman Sachs just vowed to improve conditions for junior bankers. But a newly leaked pitch deck shows analysts were pleading for changes since WFH started.
- Goldman Sachs President John Waldron just laid out 3 ways the bank is aiming to win the war on burnout, and they don’t include special bonuses or fancy vacations
- Here are 3 ways Goldman Sachs is using automation to drum up new business for investment bankers, from pitch books to ECM data
The lastest news on Goldman’s Marcus
Goldman Sachs has built its consumer-banking arm into a $1 billion business over the past five years.
But it’s seen a wave of departures including the exits of top Marcus bosses Omer Ismail and David Stark. And JPMorgan has poached the head of product at Marcus to join the bank’s digital and product leadership team for consumer and community banking. Goldman has also brought in new hires, including Peeyush Nahar, an executive at Uber, to head the bank’s consumer business.
Insiders explained how Goldman Sachs’ hard-charging culture had contributed to exhaustion and high turnover within Marcus, and a Goldman spokesperson told us that the firm is eyeing beefing up the ranks by hiring some 200 to 300 new engineers.
Read more:
- Goldman Sachs just tapped Stephen Scherr’s chief of staff to serve as CFO of its consumer business. Read the full memo announcing the promotion.
- Goldman Sachs just poached an Uber engineering exec to head its consumer business. Read the full memo announcing the hire.
- Burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus: How Goldman Sachs’ Marcus is struggling to live up to its lofty consumer-banking ambitions
- Goldman Sachs is hiring up to 300 engineers in its consumer business after product sprints triggered burnout and a tech exodus
- Goldman Sachs responded to burnout fears in its consumer division by making evenings and Fridays ‘audio only,’ encouraging staff to go for walks and talk on the phone instead
- JPMorgan Chase poached a top Marcus exec along with key hires from Wells Fargo and Google to support a ‘huge agenda’ for digital banking
Goldman’s wealth-management push
Goldman, a firm synonymous with enormous wealth, has in recent years tried to reshape itself as a bank that can count someone with just $1,000 to invest as a client just as it has long done business with large companies and the very wealthy.
It launched Marcus Invest, a robo-advisor with a $1,000 minimum, earlier this year. And it has reorganized how its wealth businesses are situated entirely, creating a new internal consumer and wealth management division that went into effect at the start of this year. Goldman has some 800 advisors within private wealth globally.
- Goldman Sachs wants to hold onto its richest clients’ kids. The bank’s private wealth heads explain how its Marcus unit is helping them do that.
- Goldman Sachs execs lay out plans for its new robo-advisor as it takes on fintechs like Wealthfront and Betterment in a fiercely competitive space
- Goldman Sachs is hiring dozens of advisors for the firm’s wealth business, and says it’s getting a boost from companies pushing early retirements and layoffs
Goldman’s dealmakers
When Goldman announced its latest class of partners, one group was particularly well-represented on the list. Seven of the 19 investment bankers elevated to partner status came from the bank’s powerhouse technology, media, and telecommunications group.
The group has also seen some shakeups in recent months. Goldman Sachs veteran Gregg Lemkau, co-head of the firm’s investment banking division since 2017 and a member of Goldman’s management committee, left at the end of 2020. Instacart has tapped Nick Giovanni, Goldman Sachs’ head of the global technology, media and telecom group, to be its CFO. And in September, Goldman Sachs named new leadership in its M&A group.
Goldman has also been riding the SPAC boom, which went into overdrive in the first quarter. It ranked No. 2 among banks in terms of SPAC IPOs year-to-date by mid-March.
Read more:
- SPAC mania is kicking into overdrive, and banks like Citi and Goldman Sachs are dominating the game. 5 charts show who’s winning the blank-check gold rush.
- Read the full memos Goldman Sachs just sent naming Susie Scher as chairman of its global financing group, plus other changes in investment banking leadership
- Meet Kim Posnett, the youngest head of a powerful team inside Goldman Sachs’ investment bank that’s focused on pitching new, innovative ways to get deals done
- Read the full memo naming the new co-heads of Goldman Sachs’ powerhouse tech team as top dealmaker Nick Giovanni exits
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