Goldman Delays Marcus’ Germany Launch

Goldman Sachs has decided to delay the German launch of its consumer bank Marcus until 2020.

Richard Gnodde, who heads Goldman Sachs International, announced plans to roll out Marcus into Germany one year ago. The initiative was expected to launch in 2019 to coincide with Brexit, but sources have now told The Financial Times that the decision to postpone was made after the six-month Brexit delay removed the need to quickly set up a new deposit base within the EU.

“We want euro deposits and Germany will be where it is,” one of the sources said, adding that “if[Brexit] had happened [on] March 29, we would have wanted [Germany] more urgently.”

In addition, rushing to launch Marcus in Germany would also have been “expensive,” and there has been more of a focus on keeping costs down across Goldman.

The firm’s latest earnings showed Marcus’s deposit base has grown to $46 billion, with the majority of those funds accumulated in the U.S. Marcus launched a savings account in the U.K. last year that offers a 1.5 percent rate, higher than the 1 percent or less payout savers in the country had become accustomed to.

Last month, the company revealed that it is also targeting retail deposits platform growth by $10 billion a year over the next few years, as disclosed in supplemental materials released by the company in tandem with first quarter results. In terms of digital efforts, the company said its partnership with Apple is one that relies on “no legacy technology” as the company brings a joint credit card product, previously announced, to market.

While Goldman would not comment on its plans in Germany, Des McDaid, head of Marcus in the U.K., noted: “The launch of Marcus in the U.K. has been tremendously successful and we are focused on expanding our U.K. offering before we launch in other countries.”