Goldman Execs Battled Over End of Retail Banking, Report Says

A decision last week by Goldman Sachs to fold its consumer banking unit Marcus into other operations was the subject of conflict between CEO David Solomon and other executives.

That’s according to a report Sunday (Oct. 23) by the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter.

“[Solomon’s] view was that … if we want to be the digital bank of the future and have tens of millions of customers on the Marcus platform, how could we not have a primary checking relationship with those customers?” one of the sources said.

Goldman Sachs was not immediately available for comment Sunday.

As PYMNTS reported, the end of Marcus is part of one of the 153-year-old Goldman’s most thorough reorganizations in its history and its fourth restructuring in three years. The Wall Street bank sunk billions into Marcus, with Solomon dedicating his time since 2019 to developing a full-service digital bank.

See also: Goldman Dials Back Retail Banking Focus

The reorganization involves streamlining the business into three divisions — investment banking and trading, asset and wealth management, and transaction banking — with consumer banking arm Marcus becoming part of the wealth management unit.

Asset and wealth Management will cover public and private markets, Global Banking and Markets will drive returns through “synergistic businesses,” and Platform Solutions will embed digital platforms in client ecosystems, Goldman said last week.

Meanwhile, a new division will handle transaction banking and the credit cards Goldman launched with Apple and General Motors.

Read more: Why Goldman’s Marcus May Have Missed the Mark

It was just six months ago that Marcus was announcing plans for consumer checking aimed at a wide audience in spite of cost overruns and missed profits, PYMNTS reported at the time. During its first-quarter earnings call this year, the company’s plans to turn Marcus into a thriving retail center were still in place.

​​“In terms of our aspirations to build the leading global, digital consumer bank, a lot of the pieces to the puzzle are in place at this point,” Solomon said at the time. “Many of those investments have been made.”