Goldman CEO David Solomon to break up struggling consumer finance unit

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is planning his third major corporate reorganization since assuming control of the bank in late 2018, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

The bank’s four main divisions will be combined into three, with trading and investment banking forming Goldman’s largest and most important division from a revenue perspective, said the people, who declined to be identified before the plan is formally disclosed.

Goldman’s money-losing consumer finance operations will be split between two new divisions, with parts of the Marcus-branded unit folded into a combined wealth and asset management business and other parts going into a division that focuses on corporate clients, the people said.

That division, called Platform Solutions, will house Goldman’s nascent digital corporate cash management business, recently acquired fintech GreenSky, and card partnerships with Apple and General Motors, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the reorganization.

Solomon has been under pressure this year as broad declines among financial stocks put shares of New York-based Goldman at the second-lowest valuation among big bank peers after perennial laggard Citigroup. That is according to Goldman’s price to tangible book value ratio, a key metric followed by bank investors and analysts.

That showing has led to rising questions about Solomon’s decisions regarding his division heads, as well as internal criticism over Solomon’s high-profile hobby as an international music DJ, CNBC and others have reported.