Goldman Sachs has signalled a break from its past as an opaque trading house, with a new chief financial officer promising unprecedented transparency to shareholders and a review of each business line by next spring.
Stephen Scherr, who started as CFO on Monday, told an investor conference that the new management team — struggling with a depressed fixed income business, an underperforming share price and an ominous legal threat from Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal— would scrutinise the capital it allocates to each division.
“We’re looking at?.?.?.?what is the revenue potential for these businesses and against that looking at what the expense base is?.?.?.?and then coming to an assessment very clinically on whether that business is meeting its cost of capital,” he said.