Goldman’s Swati Bhatia Retires as Consumer Banking Leader

The head of Goldman Sachs’ consumer banking business is stepping down.

Swati Bhatia, a former PayPal and Stripe executive who joined Goldman in February 2021, is set to retire, according to an internal memo from the bank seen by PYMNTS Wednesday (Jan. 4). Her departure comes at a time when Goldman Sachs has been scaling back some of its consumer banking operations.

“Since joining the firm, Swati has led with a customer-first mindset and focused on creating an integrated experience across Marcus products,” the memo says, referring to Goldman’s retail banking product.

It also notes Bhatia’s work in integrating GreenSky, the home improvement loan FinTech Goldman acquired in 2021. According to the memo, Bhatia will continue with Goldman as an “advisory director.”

Meanwhile, Goldman announced that Zeeshan Razzaqui, the bank’s former chief operating officer (COO) of consumer and wealth management, had been named co-head of GreenSky, working with David Zalik, the company’s co-founder, according to the memo.

As PYMNTS wrote following Goldman’s $2.2 billion purchase of GreenSky, the bank had been stepping up its consumer banking operations, especially during the pandemic.

But things have changed in recent months. December saw reports that Goldman Sachs was considering cutting hundreds of jobs from the consumer business, while also ceasing personal loans through Marcus.

And October saw Goldman apparently carrying out one of the largest reorganizations in its long history, streamlining itself into three divisions: investment banking and trading, asset and wealth management, and transaction banking. The change involved folding Marcus into the bank’s wealth unit.

CEO David Solomon told analysts at the time that Goldman Sachs’ new direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy means that “we will focus on existing deposit customers and consumers that the bank already has access to through channels like workplace and personal wealth, rather than seeking to acquire customers on a mass scale.”

Last year also saw reports that another banking giant, Citigroup, was planning to end its retail banking operations in the U.K., moving its focus to its wealthiest clients.

That meant inviting its wealthier customers to use its private banking services as it scales down its retail business, with customers who don’t fit the criteria having their accounts closed.