The famous bank of Wall Street is not what it was. Her performances disappoint as she tries to reinvent herself in retail banking. Not easy, analyzes Philippe Escande, economic editorialist at the "World".
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DIn the world of stories that populate our capitalist societies, one of the favorite figures is that of the bank that directs the world. During the crazy years of the turn of the century, Goldman Sachs and his encraved and bonus-backed traders held the role of the villain who pulls the strings with billions of dollars. The crisis of 2008, and its procession of regulation, were right of the hubris of the king of the high finance, which does not encumber the small accounts, brews billions and advises the powerful of the planet.
Times have changed on Wall Street. The firm is no longer at the top of the wave. She earns five times less money than the first American bank, JP Morgan Chase. It must be said that the bank founded by John Pierpont Morgan is not only a merchant bank and can rely on a very powerful retail activity.
David Solomon, the new boss of Goldman Sachs, arrived a year ago, pleads patience on the path of transformation. With two important milestones that he believes will build future prosperity: retail banking and credit cards. To transform itself, the most famous investment bank in the world, founded by Marcus Goldman in 1869, comes down from his Olympus to learn about the low cost bank. In 2016, she founded Marcus, the name of his grandfather.
In jeans and sneakers
Suddenly, start-ups in jeans and sneakers came from California to shade the financial Manhattan suit. Charge them to invent a cool bank, easy to access, modern. They bought young shoots out of hand, hired geniuses of tech. And, icing on the cake, the bank signed with Apple to issue the first credit card in its history. For now, the transplant of the start-upeur on the tradeur has not really taken. According to Wall Street Journal, Marcus has lost 1.3 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) since its launch, including the multiplication of bad payers. When it comes to the credit card, its beginnings look promising, but Goldman Sachs only appears in the deal as a subcontractor of Apple who chose as slogan launch: "Designed by Apple, not by a bank." One could dream better for the image of the financial institution that has devoted significant resources to release this card on time.
Succeeding this profound change is already a considerable challenge for the bank, but its current underperformance also owes much to its difficulties in its core business. The firm has lost money in its technology investments, such as failed IPOs from Uber or Peloton. Not to mention the catastrophe WeWork, this real estate company in a state of collapse. Goldman Sachs analysts estimated its value at more than 60 billion dollars, it did not find a buyer to 15 billion. As the austere Marcus Goldman might have said, it is not with that that we will lead the world.
