Goldman Sachs to name new consumer operation ‘Marcus’

Goldman Sachs plans to name its new United States online consumer-lending operation "Marcus by Goldman Sachs" after the company's founder. The name is an homage to Marcus Goldman, a German immigrant who founded the firm in 1869.

The bank will make unsecured loans to US consumers with strong credit histories for purposes such as debt consolidation.

Goldman Sachs last year hired Harit Talwar, head of the US cards division of Discover Financial Services, to help develop the business. Since then, it has offered few details about what it would look like, or who the target market is.

Mosaic

The initiative, which has been referred to internally as Mosaic, is expected to be unveiled later this year, most likely in October.

It is not clear how closely the lending operation will work with the firm’s new deposit-taking venture, which began this year after the purchase of General Electric’s online bank added more than $16 billion (€14 billion) in deposits.

Goldman Sachs changed from a securities firm to a bank holding company after the financial crisis and together the two projects represent one of the most-watched strategy shifts in recent memory at what was once Wall Street’s most profitable firm. – (Bloomberg)