Goldman Sachs Q3 profits surge to $3.19 bn

Financial services major Goldman Sachs today reported a nearly four-fold jump in third quarter profits at $3.19 billion, primarily boosted by trading and investment segments.

The good show by Goldman Sachs comes a day after rival JPMorgan Chase posted a robust third-quarter performance, indicating that the battered financial sector is on the revival path.

JPMorgan posted profits of $3.6 billion in the September quarter.

Goldman Sachs, one of the most profitable Wall Street firms, raked in profits of $3.19 billion, about four-fold higher compared to the year-ago period.

In the comparable quarter, it was at $845 million.

During the third quarter, the entity's net revenues from investment banking was $899 million while that from Trading and Principal Investments touched $10.03 billion, Goldman Sachs said in a statement.

However, the latest quarter profits are lower than that of $3.44 billion in the second quarter.

The financial services major raked in revenues to the tune of $12.37 billion in the third quarter, nearly double compared to $6.04 billion in the same period a year ago.

Goldman Sachs which is caught in a storm over exorbitant pay packets, said compensation and benefits expenses stood at $5.35 billion in the September quarter.

The figure is much higher than $2.9 billion incurred in the year-ago period.