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Goldman Sachs posts record profit in 2021

(New York) The American investment bank Goldman Sachs generated record results in 2021, but at the same time had to increase the remuneration of its investment bankers and brokers, which slightly dented its profits.

Posted at 8:56
Updated at 1:25 p.m.


Juliet Michel
France Media Agency

The action of the firm fell by nearly 8% at mid-session of the New York Stock Exchange.

Over the full year, Goldman Sachs saw its turnover climb by 33% to 59.34 billion dollars and its net profit explode by 137% to 21.15 billion dollars.

Its revenues in investment banking, asset management and wealth management have reached levels never seen before. The turnover generated by brokers is for its part at its highest for twelve years.

But like all the big establishments on Wall Street, and many American companies, Goldman Sachs had to revise its salaries and bonuses upwards to ensure that it kept its workforce.

Overall employee compensation had increased by 8% in 2020, when Goldman Sachs’ turnover had jumped by 22%.

In 2021, spending on salaries and benefits exploded by 33%, like turnover.

“There is real wage inflation throughout the economy,” said the boss of the firm during a conference call with analysts, David Solomon. But he also acknowledged that there had been a catch-up effect for the firm’s approximately 45,000 employees worldwide.

Management had to deal with an unusual protest movement in the spring of 2021 from young employees complaining of weeks of more than 100 hours and intense stress against a backdrop of even more blurred boundaries between private and professional lives with the telework. She then promised to improve the situation.

Attractive salaries

Goldman Sachs employees face intense activity more generally.

Many companies, which benefited both from the rebound in the economy and from the massive injection of money by the American central bank into the financial circuits, wanted to carry out large-scale operations.

To raise money, go public or buy a competitor, they asked the investment bankers of Goldman Sachs, which generated a turnover up 58% in 2021.

Revenues from asset management and wealth management rose 87% and 25%, respectively.

Those generated by the bank’s brokers only rose by 4%, but the year 2020 had been particularly prolific due to the high volatility in the markets.

The amounts for employee compensation also increased at JPMorgan Chase. Expenses of this bank in the fourth quarter increased by 11% on the year “due mainly to higher remuneration”.

“We want to be very, very attractive in terms of salaries,” especially for top investment bankers, brokers and managers, JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon said in a conference call on Friday.

“If this is to reduce the margins for shareholders a little, so be it,” he continued, while his firm also posted record net profit in 2021.

At Goldman Sachs, higher wages have in any case fueled the increase in operating expenses as a whole by 10% in 2021, by 23% in the fourth quarter alone.

Its net profit fell by 13% over the last period.

Reported per share and excluding exceptional items, the profit amounted to 10.81 dollars, slightly less than the 11.76 dollars expected by analysts.

The quarterly turnover of the bank for its part increased by 8% to 12.64 billion dollars.

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