Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Goldman Sachs Embarks on a Long Evolutionary Path

CEO David Solomon trumpets the bank’s innovation after muddling through the first quarter.

April 15, 2019 at 2:41 PM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

The firm doesn’t want to be so reliant on the market’s whims.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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There was nothing spectacular in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s first-quarter earnings. For Chief Executive Officer David Solomon, muddling through for now might just be the price to pay for his long-term vision.

In what was widely expected to be a tough three-month stretch, and certainly worse than the same period in 2018, the bank slightly exceeded a low bar for revenue from fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading, equity underwriting, investment banking and financial advisory services, while narrowly missing on equities sales and trading and debt underwriting. Effectively, it was a mixed bag.