UPDATE 3 Goldman Sachs platform solutions business lost $1.2B over nine months

(Adds analyst quote, background)

By Saeed Azhar & Niket Nishant

NEW YORK (Reuters), Jan 13th, 2019 – Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported a pretax loss of $1.2 billion in its platform solutions business for the first nine months 2022. The bank made the disclosure in a regulatory filing Friday.

Goldman stated that the U.S. bank’s unit, which houses its transaction banking, credit card, and financial technology businesses, lost $1.05 Billion in 2021 and $783 Million in 2020.

This is the first time Goldman has taken a close look at the financials of the consumer and fintech arms. These were designed to diversify Wall Street’s operations away form its traditional trading and dealmaking mainstays.

The disclosure didn’t provide separate numbers for Marcus’ direct-to-consumer company, which was moved to its asset and wealth management division.

Marcus also lost money and failed in his attempt to open a checking account. Swati Bhatia was the leader of the group.

Stepped down

According to a Reuters-internal announcement, this was earlier in the month.

A source close to the matter told Reuters that Goldman plans to cease issuing unsecured consumer loans. This is another indication it is cutting back on its lending activities. The platform solutions arm had higher revenue, but also saw higher provision for credit losses and operating costs.

According to Daniel Fannon, a Jefferies analyst, “As was widely anticipated, the new segment of Platform Solutions is operating in a net loss quarterly.”

Goldman bought Marcus in October and merged him into wealth management.

The bank also reorganized its structure to include three major units: global banking, markets, asset and wealth management and platform solutions.

According to analysts at Refinitiv Eikon, Goldman Sachs will report a net profit in the fourth quarter of $2.16billion on Tuesday. This would represent a drop of 45% from the $3.94 billion net profit for the same period one year ago. (Reporting and editing by Niket Nishant & Saeed Azhar; Editing and Shounak Dasgupta & Lananh Nguyen & Jane Merriman & Chizu Nomiyama