David Solomon, the part-time digital dance DJ who beforehand served as president of the corporate and co-head of its funding banking division, took the reins from Lloyd Blankfein on Monday as CEO.
“I might venture forward on opinions that are my own opinions, without any regard for whether they serve the constituencies and the interests of Goldman Sachs,” Blankfein mentioned in a sit-down with Solomon posted Monday to social media.
His successor has lots to do.
Here’s what tops Solomon’s to-do checklist.
Trading division troubles
Solomon’s first order of enterprise is to flip round Goldman’s buying and selling desk, which collects consumer charges to purchase and promote shares, bonds, commodities and currencies.
“The trading business is really what has hurt them in the past couple of years,” mentioned King Lip, chief strategist at Baker Avenue Asset Management in San Francisco.
The unit made up greater than half the financial institution’s income in 2012, however shrank to simply over a third final yr, as a calm market and low rates of interest pushed buyers towards lower-fee index funds and passive funds.
Goldman’s buying and selling aspect confirmed resilience final quarter, however not as a result of of shares. Revenue from bond, foreign money and commodities buying and selling surged 45% from a yr in the past, whereas income from equities stayed stagnant.
At a convention hosted by Sanford C. Bernstein in May, Solomon mentioned that Goldman wasn’t sitting round “waiting for the environment to change,” and that the firm will hold investing in expertise for buying and selling.
Diversity and expertise
Solomon is making his presence felt with different management modifications.
Stephen Scherr, who had been in cost of the buyer financial institution, is entering into the CFO function. John Waldron, a longtime deputy of Solomon’s, will take over as president and chief working officer.
“The question is: How does his new team jell together?” mentioned Stephen Biggar, an analyst at Argus Research.
Another problem for Solomon shall be attracting and protecting expertise on the firm.
Goldman has loosened up, with outcomes to present for it. Roughly two-thirds of staff are Millennials, whereas greater than 25% are engineers.
Still, the corporate should ramp up variety efforts that started underneath Blankfein, Lip mentioned.
Solomon has signaled that is a precedence. This summer season, extra girls have been added to the 33-person administration committee. Goldman additionally mentioned it had fashioned a committee to promote the careers of various enterprise leaders on the firm.
Changing course
As buying and selling turns into a much less dependable supply of revenue, and plenty of rivals scale up, Solomon’s Goldman is anticipated to discover new methods to develop its enterprise.
“The supermarket finance business model is what’s working well today, and Goldman is a lot [narrower],” Biggar mentioned.
Some of this work is underway. Last yr, Goldman launched a plan to enhance income by $5 billion by 2020, partly by bulking up different elements of the corporate.
And the firm has doubled down on its client arm, Marcus. Goldman, which launched Marcus within the United States in 2016, started to supply financial savings accounts within the UK final week. The financial institution might develop into life insurance coverage, mortgages, auto loans and wealth administration providers down the highway.
“We have the ambition to build a large, differentiated, highly profitable digital consumer finance platform,” Solomon mentioned in May.
Solomon has been on the financial institution since 1999. He’s anticipated to be a chief in Blankfein’s mildew, although his extracurricular pursuits definitely set him aside.
“This is not somebody they’re bringing in from the outside that will radically alter the makeup of the company,” Biggar mentioned. “I don’t think anyone’s expecting that. But there are things on the edges he could do.”
