Goldman Sachs plans major rejig, to merge trading and banking units

Goldman Sachs is planning a major reorganization as part of which its storied investment banking and trading businesses will be combined, while consumer banking will be absorbed by its wealth unit, the Wall Street Journal reported.
 

The move comes as the Wall Street titan has sought to cut its reliance on volatile trading and investment banking revenues by boosting its fee-based businesses.
 

It would mean CEO David Solomon’s ambition to build a mass-market digital bank via consumer banking unit Marcus will take a backseat.
 

The plans, which are expected to be announced within days, will see Goldman restructure its biggest businesses into three divisions, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
 

Goldman will combine the investment banking and trading businesses into one unit, while merging asset and wealth management into another, the report said.
 

The combined investment banking and trading group will be overseen by Dan Dees and Jim Esposito, who are currently global co-heads of Goldman's investment banking, and Ashok Varadhan, now co-head of its global markets division, according to a separate report from Bloomberg.
 

Marc Nachmann, the bank's global co-head of the global markets division, will move to help run the combined asset- and wealth-management arm, WSJ said.
 

Marcus will be a part of the asset and wealth management unit, the report added. Goldman, which releases third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, declined to comment.
 

Such an organisational overhaul of the bank would come shortly after its global job cuts in September that could have impacted hundreds of bankers.
 

Goldman reported a 48 per cent slump in second-quarter profit, which beat forecasts due to gains in fixed-income and commodities trading.
 

Like its Wall Street rivals, the bank is expected to report a sharp drop in third-quarter net profit as investment banking revenue was badly hurt by a slump in dealmaking.
 

Goldman is expected to deliver a net profit of $2.77 billion in the third quarter, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Refinitiv, down from $5.38 billion.