Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs, formally The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., is a U.S.-headquartered financial services company whose activities include investment banking, securities trading and financing, and asset and wealth management. Founded in 1869, it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The group is also a bank holding company and operates through subsidiaries, including an insured U.S. bank. ^[1][2][5][6]

Origins and development

Marcus Goldman began the business in Lower Manhattan in 1869 by buying merchants’ promissory notes and selling them to commercial banks. This early commercial-paper activity connected businesses seeking short-term funding with banks willing to purchase their obligations. Samuel Sachs, Goldman’s son-in-law, joined as a junior partner in 1882. The business became M. Goldman & Sachs that year and adopted the name Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1888. Its activities subsequently expanded beyond commercial paper into other forms of finance. ^[2][3]

For much of its history, Goldman Sachs operated as a partnership rather than a publicly traded corporation. Its partners voted in 1998 to take the firm public, and its initial public offering took place on May 4, 1999. The offering sold 69 million shares and raised approximately $3.66 billion. Public ownership provided a different means of raising permanent capital and using shares in potential acquisitions, while also subjecting the company to the reporting obligations associated with a listed issuer. Its common stock trades under the symbol GS. ^[4][1]

A further change followed the financial crisis of 2008. In September of that year, the Federal Reserve Board approved the formation of bank holding companies involving Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs Bank USA. The order described the group’s existing activities as including investment banking, securities underwriting and dealing, asset management, and trading. Bank holding company status placed the parent’s banking operations within the Federal Reserve’s consolidated supervisory framework; it did not turn every Goldman Sachs subsidiary into a deposit-taking bank. ^[5]

Businesses and clients

Goldman Sachs describes its principal franchises as Global Banking & Markets and Asset & Wealth Management. Global Banking & Markets encompasses work connected to corporate transactions and capital markets, alongside fixed-income, currency, commodity, and equities activities. Asset & Wealth Management covers investment and wealth services. These descriptions refer to different kinds of client relationships: a company may seek advice or underwriting for a transaction, an institutional investor may transact in securities, and a wealth-management client may use a managed portfolio. ^[6]

Investment banking connects the firm to decisions about mergers, acquisitions, and financing. In an advisory assignment, a financial institution assists a client in assessing or executing a transaction. In underwriting, it helps an issuer bring securities to market. Securities-market activity differs from advisory work: it can involve buying and selling financial instruments with clients, arranging financing, and maintaining positions needed to conduct that business. The firm’s filings and historical Federal Reserve order identify underwriting, dealing, trading, and asset management among its activities. ^[5][6]

Asset management and wealth management involve services for clients that own or oversee investments. The distinction matters because assets managed for clients are not equivalent to assets owned by Goldman Sachs. Similarly, fees earned for managing an investment are not the same as the investment’s total value. Goldman Sachs’s description of its Asset & Wealth Management franchise includes liquid investments, alternatives, and private wealth. Those activities expose the firm to client demand and investment-market conditions in ways that differ from a particular underwriting mandate or trading transaction. ^[6]

The group conducts business through multiple legal entities. A client’s contractual counterparty, the applicable regulator, and any protection associated with a product depend on the subsidiary and service involved. For example, a bank deposit at Goldman Sachs Bank USA is not the same legal product as a security issued by the parent company or an investment held in a managed account. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation lists Goldman Sachs Bank USA as an FDIC-insured, state-chartered bank and identifies the Federal Reserve Board as its primary federal regulator. ^[1][7]

Corporate structure and oversight

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is the publicly listed parent company. Its annual Form 10-K identifies its principal executive offices at 200 West Street in New York City and its common stock as listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company files periodic disclosures as a public issuer, while particular subsidiaries are subject to oversight appropriate to their activities. The Federal Reserve’s 2008 order, for example, identified Goldman Sachs & Co. as a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ^[1][5]

Banking and securities regulation address different obligations. Bank holding company oversight concerns the parent group and its banking structure; supervision of Goldman Sachs Bank USA concerns that insured bank; and securities oversight applies to relevant brokerage, underwriting, and public-company activities. These categories should not be collapsed into a single description of the firm as either solely an investment bank or solely a commercial bank. Its activities span both fields, but the precise regulatory and contractual position depends on the entity involved. ^[1][5][7]

The distinction also applies to deposit insurance. The FDIC’s institution record establishes the insured status of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, not a blanket guarantee of obligations issued by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. or of market investments associated with the wider group. Identifying the legal entity behind a financial product is therefore essential to describing what the product is and which protections, if any, attach to it. ^[7]

Financial reporting

For the year ended December 31, 2025, Goldman Sachs reported $58.28 billion in net revenues and $17.18 billion in net earnings. Its reported diluted earnings per common share were $51.32. These are historical results for a full fiscal year, not a measure of assets under management, customer deposits, or the value of transactions on which the firm advised. The figures also should not be read as a forecast: the mix and timing of transactions and market activity can differ between reporting periods. ^[8]

In its October 13, 2026 release for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, the company reported $18.68 billion in net revenues and $5.29 billion in net earnings. It reported diluted earnings per common share of $17.01 for that quarter. Quarterly and annual figures cover different lengths of time and are not directly interchangeable. The October release identified David Solomon as chairman and chief executive officer. ^[9]

As with other financial groups engaged in securities markets, Goldman Sachs’s activities require it to manage exposures associated with counterparties, financing, and changes in market conditions. Its banking, trading, advisory, and investment-management businesses do not generate revenue in identical ways. A useful reading of its financial statements therefore distinguishes the group’s earnings from the assets it holds, the deposits accepted by its bank subsidiary, and investments owned by clients. The company’s Form 10-K is the principal annual filing for examining those distinctions and the risks described by management. ^[1][6]

The 1MDB case

Goldman Sachs’s role in bond offerings for Malaysia’s state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad, commonly called 1MDB, became the subject of criminal and civil resolutions. In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice said the parent company had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and that its Malaysian subsidiary had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge concerning violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s anti-bribery provisions. The department said the matter involved approximately $6.5 billion of 1MDB bond deals underwritten by the firm. ^[10]

The Justice Department described a coordinated resolution under which Goldman Sachs would pay more than $2.9 billion. Separately, the SEC announced a cease-and-desist order and said the company had agreed to disgorgement and a civil penalty in connection with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. The SEC specified that the disgorgement obligation would be satisfied by payments made in a related settlement with Malaysia and 1MDB. These announcements described parts of a coordinated set of resolutions; their stated amounts should not be added together as though each represented an entirely separate payment. ^[10][11]

The case illustrates the significance of internal accounting controls and compliance in a firm that arranges transactions across jurisdictions. It is also important to distinguish the outcomes for different legal entities: the parent entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, while the Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty. Those are distinct legal actions, even though both arose from the firm’s work connected to 1MDB. ^[10][11]