24/7 Wall St.
12-03-2008, 10:00 AM
24/7 Wall St. Daily News
http://www.247wallst.com/images/2008/12/03/goldman_sachs_logo.gif (http://247wallstreet.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/03/goldman_sachs_logo.gif) If you haven't heard of a creative and backward way of trying to rapidly acquire assets, you can look to Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) this morning. The WSJ is reporting (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122827665438875247.html) that the investment bank gone bank-holding company is considering opening up an online bank. While the report says that the firm is weighing this rather than having decided upon this, that is just so 1990's.
Goldman Sachs has the tightest reputation of bulge bracket firms out there. It has been wildly successful until recently and is on the verge of its first quarterly loss since coming public. Goldman Sachs may know how to milk money opportunistically out of the market, but the firm would likely admit that it does not necessarily know how to run a bank on its own. That might be particularly true if you consider that an online bank would have zero relationships and is unlikely to bring it the wealthy accounts that might act as a base.
The world only has to think of great non-success stories like Netbank.com in the realm of online-only banks. Don't take this to mean that online banking is bad, because it may be the best thing since sliced bread. But having essentially an online-only bank won't bring the company what it needs. It needs deposits that it can rest on, and those deposits will be far less leveraged than its own operations in 2007 and before.
If Goldman Sachs wants to rapidly build a bank so it can secure new assets, it is going to have to go do it the old fashioned way: BUYING A BANK. The WSJ noted that this has not been ruled out. If Goldman Sachs can't figure out which one(s) to buy, then they should just ask around. There are many that fit their image that could be acquired. Even firms like E*TRADE (NASDAQ: ETFC) have actual offices for clients to go into..... Hint, Hint Goldman.
Customers are unfortunately going to need bankers and possible bank locations more and more after the dust settles from all of this credit mess. If Goldman Sachs is going to enter just the online banking realm, it might as well go into online postage sales and start a DSL internet access service too.
Jon C. Ogg
December 3, 2008
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=QSZ0O (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=QSZ0O) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=9j8bO (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=9j8bO) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=ijRzo (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=ijRzo)
complete story here... (http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/goldman-sachs-o.html)
http://www.247wallst.com/images/2008/12/03/goldman_sachs_logo.gif (http://247wallstreet.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/03/goldman_sachs_logo.gif) If you haven't heard of a creative and backward way of trying to rapidly acquire assets, you can look to Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) this morning. The WSJ is reporting (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122827665438875247.html) that the investment bank gone bank-holding company is considering opening up an online bank. While the report says that the firm is weighing this rather than having decided upon this, that is just so 1990's.
Goldman Sachs has the tightest reputation of bulge bracket firms out there. It has been wildly successful until recently and is on the verge of its first quarterly loss since coming public. Goldman Sachs may know how to milk money opportunistically out of the market, but the firm would likely admit that it does not necessarily know how to run a bank on its own. That might be particularly true if you consider that an online bank would have zero relationships and is unlikely to bring it the wealthy accounts that might act as a base.
The world only has to think of great non-success stories like Netbank.com in the realm of online-only banks. Don't take this to mean that online banking is bad, because it may be the best thing since sliced bread. But having essentially an online-only bank won't bring the company what it needs. It needs deposits that it can rest on, and those deposits will be far less leveraged than its own operations in 2007 and before.
If Goldman Sachs wants to rapidly build a bank so it can secure new assets, it is going to have to go do it the old fashioned way: BUYING A BANK. The WSJ noted that this has not been ruled out. If Goldman Sachs can't figure out which one(s) to buy, then they should just ask around. There are many that fit their image that could be acquired. Even firms like E*TRADE (NASDAQ: ETFC) have actual offices for clients to go into..... Hint, Hint Goldman.
Customers are unfortunately going to need bankers and possible bank locations more and more after the dust settles from all of this credit mess. If Goldman Sachs is going to enter just the online banking realm, it might as well go into online postage sales and start a DSL internet access service too.
Jon C. Ogg
December 3, 2008
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=QSZ0O (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=QSZ0O) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=9j8bO (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=9j8bO) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?i=ijRzo (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/typepad/RyNm?a=ijRzo)
complete story here... (http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/goldman-sachs-o.html)