Goldman Sachs is paying billions in fines over the 1MDB scandal and clawing back exec pay. Here’s what’s been going on inside the bank.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to settle a probe into its role in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal, its Malaysia unit pleaded guilty to violating foreign bribery laws, and the firm is clawing back pay from executives including current CEO David Solomon.

It’s been a long saga that has for years dogged the storied Wall Street firm.

“We must continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards, and each of us has a vital role to play. Our success as a firm can only be ensured through a culture rooted in integrity, shaped by a long-term mindset and guided by a sense of personal accountability and responsibility for our actions,” Solomon wrote in a memo to all Goldman employees on Thursday. 

Goldman has meanwhile been going through some massive changes under Solomon.

It’s taken big steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. It has seen a slew of partner departures — many in the securities division. And it’s making big pushes into businesses like wealth management and consumer banking. 

Who’s running the show 

• Goldman Sachs just shook up its divisions to create a new consumer and wealth-management arm that will be run by Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York
• We mapped out the power structure at Goldman Sachs and identified the bank’s 125 top execs. Here’s our exclusive org chart.
• Goldman Sachs has lost at least 54 partners since David Solomon became CEO. We’re keeping a running list — and compiling details from insiders about how the exits are being celebrated.

1MDB and Goldman’s image 

• Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs are hiring journalists from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg to repair their own images. Here’s a look at their strategies.
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent to staff announcing its new head of regulatory affairs. The former White House counsel will be tasked with helping clean up the bank’s 1MDB drama.
• Inside the rise of Ram Sundaram, the leader of a secretive Goldman Sachs desk that’s minting billions by designing some of the bank’s most imaginative — and controversial — trades

Wealth management

• Goldman Sachs’ Joe Duran is planning to hire dozens of advisors for the firm’s wealth business, and says it’s getting a boost from companies pushing early retirements and layoffs
• Goldman Sachs just lost another wealth team to UBS in one of the industry’s biggest financial adviser moves of the year
• Why Goldman Sachs, which has a $509 billion wealth business geared towards ultra-rich clients, is buying a small Virginia fintech for financial advisers and retail investors

Tech

• The code for Goldman Sachs’ internal data platform is now open for anyone to use. The bank’s data chief tells us why the firm decided to share something seven years in the making.
• Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citi are Wall Street’s most active fintech investors. These are the 10 startups they’ve poured money into so far this year.
• $60 billion quant fund Two Sigma just hired Goldman Sachs’ first-ever chief data officer to lead its massive tech team
• Amazon just entered the small business loan market with Goldman. Here’s how the e-commerce giant is building a bank for itself.
• JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are finally beginning to embrace fintech startups. Here’s how they test the waters before committing to working with them.
• We talked to the execs behind Bloomberg’s new data partnership with Goldman Sachs. Here’s why they think it’s a sign of Wall Street’s future.

Consumer banking

• A peek inside Goldman Sachs’ internal idea factory that’s hatched products like a LinkedIn for Wall Street. Here’s what else it’s trying to disrupt at the bank.
• Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to acquire General Motors’ credit-card business away from Capital One as it looks to rev up its consumer-banking unit
• Goldman Sachs is building an AI-powered digital assistant and checking account for its Marcus consumer bank. Here’s how it’s shaping up.

Investment banking

• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent announcing a leadership shakeup in its powerhouse M&A group
• POWER PLAYERS: Meet 7 Goldman Sachs real-estate bankers who are advising companies on megadeals like Blackstone’s $18.7 billion bet on warehouses
• Goldman Sachs is assembling a team of senior bankers focused on middle-market private equity. Here are the key hires and the playbook they’ll use to land new clients.

Recruiting and culture

• A majority of Goldman Sachs’ summer interns prefer Instagram to TikTok, believe remote work hurts relationships, and think Biden will be elected president in November
• Wall Street is starting to get back to work. Here are the latest return-to-office plans for 5 firms, including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
• A drive-in Hamptons concert where the Chainsmokers played and Goldman Sachs’ CEO DJed is under fire for drawing crowds that weren’t social distancing
• Goldman Sachs designed its glitzy London office with tons of amenities, but little parking. In a post-pandemic world, it could be a big snag as the firm looks to bring workers back in.
• Goldman Sachs just overhauled how it does performance reviews, and 10% of staff will get rated underperformers each year
• Goldman Sachs just hired 2 senior recruiting execs focused on luring top talent from other firms —and it’s a huge departure from the firm’s traditional promote-from-within mentality
• Read the memo Goldman Sachs just sent to its employees unveiling a new pronouns initiative

Alternatives

• Here’s how Goldman Sachs, KKR, and Blackstone are pouring billions into data centers, a hot real-estate play that’s chasing a boom in cloud storage and streaming content
• REVEALED: The 20 leaders in charge of the powerful Goldman Sachs merchant-banking division that’s raising $100 billion for a new alternatives push
• Goldman Sachs just hired Kurt Hoffman, an expert in distressed situations and bankruptcy, to join a trading unit known for some of the bank’s most lucrative deals
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent naming 4 execs to lead its private-equity investments across the merchant-banking division
• Goldman Sachs is making targeted hires for a ‘storefront’ for alternative investments that’s modeled after firms like KKR and Blackstone
• Goldman Sachs’ push into private equity is ruffling feathers at Blackstone — and it might be a sign of big client skirmishes to come

The bank laid out big plans at investor day 2020

• Inside Goldman Sachs’ first investor day, where avocado toast and crab apples were served with tech talk, 3-year plans, and a surprising trading mea culpa
• Goldman Sachs just revealed a new wealth brand at its first-ever investor day. It shows how the bank is trying to reshape its strategy — and image.
• Goldman Sachs just unveiled hundreds of slides laying out the future of the company. Here are the 10 crucial slides that show how it plans to transform into a bank for everyone.
• Goldman Sachs is rethinking how it makes private-equity bets with its own money – and one analyst thinks that shift will be a big driver of its stock price