😎 If you're not familiar with Goldman Sachs, it is the seventh largest bank in the United States. Assets $550 billion+. In terms of SECU, @ 10 X in size and @ 1,000 X the level of complexity and sophistication. Goldman Sachs means business.
Among bankers, Goldman Sachs is generally acknowledged to be "the smartest kid on the block".
Earlier in the month [1/14/2025 post], we took a look at Chick-fil-A and why it doesn't sell hamburgers. Why? Because CFA is the #1 fast food franchise in the U.S. in terms of both service quality and profitability. What would they gain by adding hamburgers? What would they stand to lose? Don't think they haven't thoroughly analyzed those questions; don't think they are unaware that their customers like hamburgers. Chick-fil-A made a well-considered choice to be the chicken sandwich unicorn!
Let's switch gears a little and take a look at a bank which decided it wanted to sell hamburgers, lost it's shirt financially, and had to stand down. That hamburger bank is Goldman Sachs - surprised?!
✅ Goldman is backing away from its consumer lending arm after suffering billions in losses. [Motley Fool]
"Goldman has tried to cultivate its own consumer banking division under its Marcus brand. Begun six years ago, Marcus offers high-yield deposit accounts, credit cards, and personal loans. But the consumer banking division hasn't been successful, having lost more than $3 billion since December 2020. For all of 2022, the red ink totaled nearly $2 billion."
"It’s the end of an era. Marcus, an online consumer lending venture by Goldman Sachs, is winding down its lending business. Goldman CEO David Solomon said,“…we tried to do too much too quickly. Solomon added that in trying to do too much, it was affecting their execution and he conceded that they didn’t have “all the talent we had needed to execute the way we wanted.”[debanked.com]
😎 Goldman Sachs thought it could master consumer personal lending, but failed - despite almost unlimited talent and resources. The "New/New" at SECU believe they can master business/commercial lending. The "New/New" without any convincing experience, talent, nor impartial, professional analyses seem to believe they can "outbank" Goldman and other experienced banks.
😎 Wanna bet?
The membership at the 2022 Annual meeting approved a resolution asking the SECU Board to clarify and explain its intentions to enter the business/commercial banking market. The SECU Board accepted the resolution and promised to respond. To date - 2+ years later - the SECU Board has failed to respond as promised.
😎 All we want to know is what kinda hamburger the SECU Board is cookin' up... and at what cost to the membership?
If the members somehow missed the Board response, just republish it on the SECU website.
Thank you, hope it won't take another two years...
