Goldman Sachs' consumer-banking unit Marcus has halted hiring plans — at least for back-end roles like engineering, design, and product gigs — and has no plans to use recruiters through the end of this year, a person familiar with Marcus' hiring ambitions told me.
Goldman Sachs executives are concerned that too much money is being spent on Marcus. David Solomon, the bank's chief executive, now faces the difficult decision over what is next for the consumer-banking unit.
Insider's Dakin Campbell, who has written extensively about Marcus, has the latest on Solomon's effort to bring Goldman Sachs to Main Street.
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1. Goldman Sachs is thinking what was once unthinkable. The bank may pivot its ambitions for Marcus — the consumer-banking unit named after founder Marcus Goldman — in a bid to stem burgeoning costs.
A pivot, in any way, shape, or form, for Marcus is a hammer blow to Chief Executive David Solomon, who has championed the roll-out of the consumer bank.
John Waldron, Goldman Sachs' president and Solomon's longtime lieutenant, reckons the bank needs to rethink its approach to Marcus, and more importantly, how it spends the money being invested in the initiative.
A shift in the consumer business carries risk for Solomon, who has made Marcus one of the key pillars in his strategy to lead Goldman Sachs into the future.
Marcus is housed under Goldman Sachs' consumer and wealth-management arm, which is run by Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York.
Solomon tapped Cohen to craft the digital bank. But she has been on leave for several months. While Cohen has been in regular contact with Solomon, Waldron, and divisional cohead Tucker York, a number of Goldman insiders have wondered where she is at such a critical juncture for Marcus.
Read the full story here.
In other news:
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7. Morgan Stanley has ordered an internal lawyer to supervise the bank's block-trading desk, the Financial Times reported. The decision to install the lawyer — who will monitor banks on its US equity syndicate desk and answer their legal questions — was made after Morgan Stanley placed Pawan Passi, its head of US equity syndicate desk, on leave last year.
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10. All the warm and fuzzy economic news of late was just a momentary blip. Jobs and inflation data may be looking up, but the US economy is still in trouble and a recession is on the horizon.
Done deals:
- White Oak Global Advisors said it has deployed more than $1 billion in loans across its lending platforms for the first half of 2022. The non-bank lender provides term loans and asset-backed financings to small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Communications infrastructure company Harmoni Towers — a portfolio company of Palistar Capital — has agreed to acquire Parallel Infrastructure from Apollo Global Management. Parallel designs, builds, owns, and operates telecommunications infrastructure.
Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email aweinman@insider.com or tweet @aaronw11. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.