Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Tuesday named David Solomon as its new chief executive officer, implementing a much-telegraphed succession plan as it expands beyond its Wall Street roots to the broader consumer market.
The prestigious investment bank said Solomon, 56, would move from president to the top executive job on Oct. 1, succeeding longtime chief Lloyd Blankfein, 63.
Solomon would also take over the chairman’s seat at the end of the year when Blankfein steps down.
The appointment comes as Goldman expands efforts aimed at Main Street customers through online banking and other ventures such as credit cards, even as the bulk of revenues still come from businesses such as merger and acquisition advising.
Deposits in this newer business grew to more than US$23 billion at the end of the second quarter, chief financial officer Martin Chavez said on a conference call on Tuesday.
Chavez also announced plans to enter the British deposit market later this year, the first overseas move for the division.
Part of the reason for the shift — which brings Goldman into competition with JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and others with retail branches — has been the tighter regulatory environment on banking in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that has curtailed some riskier activities.
With Blankfein’s departure, Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan is the last remaining chief executive officer still at a big Wall Street bank from that precrisis period.
The bank reported a 44 percent jump in second-quarter earnings to US$2.3 billion thanks largely to strong revenues in advising clients on mergers, initial public offerings and other transactions.
The firm’s growth plan rests in part on building businesses in areas where Goldman believes it has a technological edge, Chavez said.
Goldman seeks to understand “what is the consumer’s pain point and how can we solve it,” he said.
Goldman shares closed 0.2 percent lower at US$231.02 on Tuesday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained