Smaller institutions are booking loans at a faster clip than bigger lenders, raising concerns that they are relaxing standards in order to win business.
The nation’s fifth-largest bank now has the financial flexibility to consolidate more branches in existing markets and open new, smaller ones in cities where it has no retail presence, CEO Andy Cecere said.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., owner of one of Wall Street’s top deal-making franchises, leaned on that business last quarter to overcome an industrywide downturn in fixed-income trading.
The bank, which plans to host an investor day next month, didn’t provide any annual targets for 2019. The company said it expects net interest income to be little changed in the first quarter.
CEOs on the hot seat. Banks fighting to stay independent. Comfortable players ripe for disruption from Amazon and others. It is shaping up as a riveting year.
