Goldman Sachs reportedly wants to double its lending to its most affluent customers.
This plan would play out over the next five years for clients with account sizes of more than $10 million, the bank’s private banking chief told Reuters Thursday (June 13).
The goal is to give super wealthy people and families loans for big purchases, whether that means buying a luxury home or a football franchise, Nishi Somaiya, Goldman’s global head of private banking, lending and deposits, told Reuters.
“We were not really focused on lending to our private wealth clients — we did a little bit of it, but it wasn’t a big focus,” CEO David Solomon said in an interview with Reuters. “They have borrowing needs and we’re well positioned to serve them competitively.”
The report notes that this push is a “silver lining” resulting from Goldman’s ill-fated foray into consumer banking.
Goldman Sachs has been stepping back from the consumer banking space since 2022, selling its consumer lending platform GreenSky to a consortium of buyers in 2023, while reportedly also looking to exit credit card partnerships with GM and Apple.
Retail banking wasn’t popular with some employees or investors, the Reuters report said, but still drew a surge of deposits, with total deposits at the Wall Street giant reaching $441 billion in the first quarter, nearly 40% of them coming from consumer accounts, compared to $190 billion in total deposits at the end of 2019.
As its deposits swelled, “we have grown, and will continue to grow, lending across our institutional businesses,” Somaiya said.
On the other end of the spectrum, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week that financially unstable consumers, pressured by higher prices on everything from groceries to gasoline, are turning more and more to discount and value-focused retailers.
“This trade-down behavior is providing a boost to companies such as Dollar General, Dollar Tree and The TJX Companies, which are seeing upticks in customer traffic and sales at a time when many retailers are seeing sales declines due to shoppers’ belt-tightening behaviors,” that report said.
Most U.S. consumers don’t have a financial safety net to fall back on, according to the March edition of the PYMNTS Intelligence New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report series. The study showed that 59% live paycheck to paycheck, a share that jumps to 64% for Generation Z and 66% for millennials.
We get a lot of press releases here at PYMNTS. We consider all of them, and some are more newsworthy than others. But this one really got our attention. This past week, Diebold Nixdorf made headlines with its announcement of successfully installing two new automated teller machines (ATMs) at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station in Antarctica. This achievement marks a significant milestone in banking accessibility, to be sure. We would like to meet the crew that installed them. We’d also like to know why they needed two. Was there a line at the first one? More to come on that.
According to Diebold, McMurdo Station is Antarctica’s largest research and logistics hub, supporting a fluctuating population that ranges from fewer than 200 residents during the winter months to up to 1,100 individuals during the summer (October through February). The presence of these ATMs is crucial, it says, as the next closest banking facilities are thousands of miles away, making them the only ATMs on the entire continent. How’s that for a value proposition?
The DN Series ATMs are designed for always-on availability. And why do they need two? One ATM is actively in use, while the second serves as a backup for spare parts, ensuring uninterrupted service in this isolated area. These machines are connected to the DN AllConnect Data Engine, which leverages Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor their performance. A dedicated team continuously aggregates and analyzes technical data to identify potential issues, enabling remote diagnostics and repairs. The ATM can be maintained by trained staff at NSF McMurdo Station, or the Diebold Nixdorf service team can remotely guide them through the repair process.
Anyway, it got us thinking. Are there other surprising ATMs in extreme locations? Well, of course, there are. Here’s a sampling of what we found.
At an altitude of about 5,364 meters (17,600 feet), the Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal is another unexpected place to find an ATM. Although it’s not a permanent fixture and is often set up seasonally, it caters to climbers and trekkers who need cash for local transactions. This temporary ATM service underscores the adaptability of banking services in extreme environments.
In some parts of the Amazon rainforest, particularly in Brazil and Peru, ATMs can be found in small villages and towns. These machines are vital for local communities, providing access to cash in areas where digital payment options might be limited. The presence of ATMs here demonstrates how banking services can reach even the most remote communities.
Located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Nagqu is home to one of the highest ATMs in the world. This region is very remote, with limited infrastructure, making the presence of an ATM a notable example of banking accessibility in extreme environments.
In the Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu) off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia, there’s a floating ATM. This unique ATM serves the local community and tourists on the islands, demonstrating how banking services can adapt to isolated marine environments.
Longyearbyen, the administrative center of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, boasts the most northerly ATM. This location is one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth, with limited access to mainland Norway, making the ATM a vital service for residents and visitors.
On a more serious note, the installation of ATMs in places like Antarctica and other remote locations highlights the evolving nature of banking technology. With advancements in IoT, AI and remote diagnostics, it’s becoming increasingly feasible to provide banking services in areas previously considered inaccessible. As we look to the future, it will be interesting to see where else ATMs might appear. Whether it’s on a remote island, at the top of a mountain or even in space, the ability to access cash is becoming more universal than ever. And who knows? Maybe one day, we’ll see an ATM on Mars, serving the first interplanetary travelers.
For now, the presence of ATMs in unexpected places reminds us that banking is not just about transactions; it’s about connecting people and communities across the globe, no matter how remote they might be.
