# Goldman Sachs (GS) Q3 2026 earnings

Results filed 2026-10-13 for the quarter ended 2026-09-30. Source page: https://earnings.opennash.com/companies/gs/2026-q3/
Press release and exhibits: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000088698226000529/0000886982-26-000529-index.htm
> Summaries and transcripts are machine-generated and can contain errors.

## In brief

Goldman Sachs reported third quarter net revenues of $18.68 billion, net earnings of $5.29 billion and diluted EPS of $17.01.

Goldman Sachs earned $5.29 billion on net revenues of $18.68 billion, 23% higher than a year earlier but 8% lower than the second quarter. Diluted EPS was $17.01, and annualized ROE was 18.7%. Equities and advisory drove the year-over-year gain. Asset & Wealth Management hit record management fees, and assets under supervision reached a record $4.10 trillion. A charitable contribution of about $450 million cut EPS by roughly $1.00.
Management gave no revenue target. It said it expects incentive fees to stay elevated and another charitable contribution in the fourth quarter. It also expects a full-year tax rate of about 20% and roughly $150 billion of alternatives fundraising. The tension is the environment: the Fed raised rates, bond yields rose, and the investment banking backlog fell from the second quarter. Executives also admitted that nobody knows whether AI infrastructure financing demand will hold.

## Key numbers

| Metric | Value | Change | Basis |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Net revenues | $18.68 billion | 23% higher than the third quarter of 2025 and 8% lower than the second quarter of 2026 | GAAP |
| Net earnings | $5.29 billion | up 29% from a year ago | GAAP |
| Diluted EPS | $17.01 | compared with $12.25 for the third quarter of 2025 and $20.98 for the second quarter of 2026 | GAAP |
| Annualized ROE | 18.7% | 20.7% for the first nine months of 2026 |  |
| Book value per common share | $372.64 | increased by 1.4% during the third quarter of 2026 |  |
| Efficiency ratio, first nine months | 59.4% | compared with 62.1% for the first nine months of 2025 |  |

## Segments and operating metrics

| Name | Value | Change |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Global Banking & Markets net revenues | $13.46 billion | 32% higher than the third quarter of 2025 and 13% lower than the second quarter of 2026 |
| Asset & Wealth Management net revenues | $5.05 billion | 14% higher than the third quarter of 2025 and 10% higher than the second quarter of 2026 |
| Platform Solutions net revenues | $170 million | 72% lower than the third quarter of 2025 |
| Equities net revenues | $6.44 billion | 72% higher than the third quarter of 2025 |
| FICC net revenues | $3.47 billion | essentially unchanged compared with the third quarter of 2025 |
| Investment banking fees | $3.22 billion | 21% higher than the third quarter of 2025 |
| Assets under supervision | $4.10 trillion | increased $56 billion during the quarter |

## Outlook

| Metric | Period | Outlook |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Effective tax rate | full year 2026 | approximately 20% |
| Gross third-party alternatives fundraising | full year 2026 | roughly $150 billion |

## Key takeaways

1. **Equities financing set a record** Equities net revenues were $6.44 billion, 72% higher than the third quarter of 2025. Equities financing was $3,365 million, up 96% from a year ago.
2. **Record advisory offset flat FICC revenues** Advisory reached $1,654 million, 18% higher than a year ago, while FICC was $3.47 billion, essentially unchanged. The investment banking fees backlog decreased from the end of the second quarter.
3. **Charity and impairments weighed on earnings** A charitable contribution of about $450 million reduced diluted EPS by approximately $1.00. Provision for credit losses was $368 million, mainly impairments on wholesale loans.
4. **Asset management scale keeps compounding** AUS reached a record $4.10 trillion, with $97 billion of long-term net inflows in the 35th consecutive quarter of long-term fee-based net inflows. Management and other fees were $3,587 million, up 22%.
5. **Rate rises and AI financing add uncertainty** Management said the Fed raised rates in September and that nobody knows how AI capital and compute demand will evolve. Standardized CET1 was 12.4%, and the firm repurchased $3.00 billion of stock.

## Analyst Q&A

- [0:20:06] Glenn Shore, Evercore ISI: Was anything unusual in the quarter's trading results, and how are tokenization and other new market structures affecting the markets business? Answer: Management saw nothing unusual to call out and said it keeps investing in digital asset infrastructure, though activity so far is small.
- [0:23:56] Glenn Shore, Evercore ISI: Can you address press reports about an acceleration of management succession? Answer: Solomon said no succession, transition or timeline is underway at Goldman Sachs.
- [0:25:46] Erica Najarian, UBS: Is the rise in long-term rates chilling deal activity, and how should capital consumption look in the fourth quarter? Answer: Solomon said activity remains strong despite a roughly 75 basis point rise in the 10-year yield and that capital is adequate, with a 100 basis point buffer.
- [0:29:36] Ibrahim Poonawalla, Bank of America: Is financing the real choke point for AI capital spending as rates rise? Answer: Solomon said nobody knows, that financing needs are large and carry risk, and that Goldman will stay disciplined about what it underwrites.
- [0:32:43] Ibrahim Poonawalla, Bank of America: Does growth in prime and equities financing make earnings more durable or more cyclical? Answer: Solomon said some cyclicality exists, but over three to five years the business tracks GDP and market cap growth and gives a more durable base.
- [0:35:25] Christian Ballou, Autonomous Research: Where are we in the investment banking cycle, given higher rates and pulled IPOs? Answer: Solomon said it is hard to call a peak, but the backlog is robust and capital markets remain well above five- and ten-year averages.
- [0:38:25] Christian Ballou, Autonomous Research: Why keep buying back so much stock at about three times tangible book, and what are the capital priorities for 2027? Answer: Coleman said the approach will be similar in 2027: deploy into the client franchise first, grow the dividend, then return excess capital.
- [0:40:34] Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo Securities: Is conviction in the tech super cycle intact despite power, rate and political constraints, and how big is Asia's growth? Answer: Solomon said the cycle is real and strong despite risks, and Coleman pointed to the earnings release showing Asia's larger share of revenues, driven by equity financing.
- [0:44:47] Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo Securities: What are your plans for staying on as CEO? Answer: Solomon repeated that no succession, transition or timeline is underway.
- [0:45:20] Stephen Chabot, Wolfe Research: How will AI infrastructure financing shift between public and private markets, and how is Goldman positioned? Answer: Solomon said both public and private capital will be needed and that Goldman can advise, originate, distribute and invest across the whole ecosystem.
- [0:49:26] Stephen Chabot, Wolfe Research: Are you comfortable growing financing under the SLR constraint? Answer: Coleman said the largest balance sheet extension is behind the firm and it will now run an SLR buffer, with no significant movement expected.
- [0:50:33] Manan Gasalia, Morgan Stanley: Are higher rates holding back sponsor-driven M&A? Answer: Solomon said sponsors are slow to sell because assets are still marked above achievable prices, and he is not overly concerned about rates in the short term.
- [0:51:52] Manan Gasalia, Morgan Stanley: Are the midterm elections affecting client conversations? Answer: Solomon said clients are not sitting on the sidelines and see a window for strategic deals regardless of the midterms.
- [0:53:38] Brendan Hawken, BMO: Did degrossing hit financing revenues, and how much growth came from balances versus pricing? Answer: Coleman said financing grew about 3% sequentially, helped by an undersupplied market, with no significant change in the composition of the book.
- [0:55:24] Brendan Hawken, BMO: Is the 30% year-to-date comp ratio the right full-year guide, and is mix the cause? Answer: Coleman said it is the current best estimate and that financing-heavy, platform-connected businesses carry lower compensation needs, while the talent market remains competitive.
- [0:57:13] Dan Fannin, Jefferies: What is the outlook for non-compensation expenses excluding the charitable contributions? Answer: Coleman said transaction-based expenses will keep growing with client activity, charitable giving should not recur, and technology spending will continue.
- [0:59:00] Dan Fannin, Jefferies: Was anything one-time in the $47 billion of wealth management inflows? Answer: Coleman called out nothing one-time and credited multi-year advisor expansion and strong investment performance.
- [1:00:01] Devin Ryan, Citizens Bank: Is the surge in alternatives fundraising opportunistic or structural? Answer: Solomon said it is a deliberate strategy that began over six years ago and has built a broad, scaled private markets platform.
- [1:02:29] Devin Ryan, Citizens Bank: Where is Goldman still subscale in asset management and open to acquisitions? Answer: Solomon said there are gaps in private and public asset management and the firm will consider deals that fit, but he named none.
- [1:03:38] Gerard Cassidy, RBC: What drove the higher provision for credit losses? Answer: Coleman said portfolio growth and elevated impairments on a few idiosyncratic names drove it, which he does not see as a signal of more to come.
- [1:05:18] Gerard Cassidy, RBC: Are there other regions where Goldman can lean in as it did in Asia? Answer: Solomon said there are opportunities worldwide, but Asia stood out because the firm was under scale and could grow on attractive terms.
- [1:06:27] Chris McGrady, KBW: How much of the outperformance on ROE targets is cyclical versus structural? Answer: Solomon said structural returns have been meaningfully lifted over five years, though the current top-quartile environment flatters through-the-cycle averages.
- [1:08:21] Chris McGrady, KBW: How would a divided government after the midterms affect capital markets? Answer: Solomon declined to predict the election outcome and said the firm will be prepared for whatever comes.

## Questions

**What were Goldman Sachs' third quarter 2026 results?** Net revenues were $18.68 billion and net earnings were $5.29 billion, with diluted EPS of $17.01 versus $12.25 a year earlier. Annualized ROE was 18.7%.
**What drove the year-over-year revenue growth?** Global Banking & Markets net revenues were $13.46 billion, up 32%, led by Equities at $6.44 billion, up 72%, and record Advisory revenues. Asset & Wealth Management grew 14%, while Platform Solutions fell 72%.
**How did the charitable contribution and credit provision affect earnings?** An accelerated charitable contribution of approximately $450 million reduced diluted EPS by approximately $1.00 and ROE by approximately 1.1 percentage points. Provision for credit losses was $368 million, mainly impairments on wholesale loans.
**What did management say about the outlook?** Management expects incentive fees to remain elevated in the fourth quarter, a meaningful additional charitable contribution, a full-year tax rate of approximately 20%, and roughly $150 billion of alternatives fundraising. It gave no revenue or EPS target.
**What capital did Goldman Sachs return and how strong is its capital position?** It returned $4.49 billion to common shareholders, including $3.00 billion of buybacks, and declared a $5.00 per share dividend. The standardized CET1 ratio was 12.4%, 100 basis points above the 11.4% requirement.

## Slides and investor documents

- [2026 Third Quarter Earnings Results Presentation](https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/current/pdfs/2026-q3-earnings-results-presentation.pdf) (Slide deck)
- [2026 Third Quarter Earnings Results](https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/current/pdfs/2026-q3-results.pdf) (Document)

## Transcript

Machine-generated from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TblzPZWKzKY


**Katie (Operator)** [0:00:00]
Good morning. My name is Katie and I will be your conference facilitator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Goldman Sachs third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. On behalf of Goldman Sachs, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. The earnings presentation can be found on the investor relations page of the Goldman Sachs website and contains information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. This audio cast is copyrighted material of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
and may not be duplicated, reproduced, or rebroadcast without consent. This call is being recorded today, October 13, 2026. I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Solomon, and Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Coleman. Mr. Solomon, you may begin your conference.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:00:45]
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us. We delivered very strong performance in the third quarter, generating net revenues of 18.7 billion, the second highest in our history, earnings per share of $17.01, an ROE of 18.7%, and an ROTE of 20.5%.
Our quarterly results included the impact of an accelerated charitable contribution. Excluding that contribution, quarterly EPS would have been approximately $18, and ROE and ROTE would have been approximately 20 % and 21.5 % respectively. For the year to date, we delivered record revenues driving an ROE of 20.7 % and an ROTE of 22.4%. While the third quarter began with optimism around a potential resolution of the conflict in the Middle East, renewed geopolitical tensions, and continued disruption of energy flows added complexity to the outlook, increasing oil prices, reigniting inflation concerns, and driving bond yields higher.
Against this backdrop, the Fed raised rates in September for the first time in three years, with markets pricing in approximately 75 basis points of additional tightening in this cycle across the U .S., U .K., and Europe. Despite these cross-currents, the health of the underlying U .S. economy has remained solid, with strong corporate earnings growth, GDP growth of 2.2%, and a very resilient labor market. In complex environments such as these, clients rely on the advice, execution, and intermediation expertise of Goldman Sachs to navigate uncertainty and advance the most important strategic priorities.
In global banking and markets, we generated the second highest revenues in our history. Within investment banking, advisory revenues were a record, and we maintained our long-standing number one position in M &A, advising on $1.5 1 trillion of announced transactions for the year. We maintained our year-to-date lead over our closest peer of approximately $430 billion, the largest lead we've ever had, as clients turned to us for advice on significant transactions, including Huggy Faces' $13 billion sale to NVIDIA and Integer Holding's $6 billion sale to KKR.
As you remember, we entered the quarter with our highest backlog in five years, and even with exceptionally strong revenue production in the quarter, our backlog remains very robust, reflecting the strength and breadth of client engagement across our leading investment banking franchise. In equities, we delivered our second-best performance after last quarter's record results, with strength across both intermediation and financing. In FICC, we remain steadfast in supporting our clients' global risk intermediation needs across asset classes amid sharp moves in rates and increased volatility in commodities.
Importantly, financing activities have become a larger and more durable component of our markets businesses, representing over 40 % of FICC and equities revenues year-to-date. This progress reflects strong client demand, prudent balance sheet deployment, and continued execution against our strategic priorities. including deliberate multi-year investments in Asia, which we highlighted earlier this year as an opportunity to drive further share gains. This dynamic market backdrop has also reinforced the importance of trusted advice and diversified investment solutions for asset wealth management clients.
Our scaled and durable platform brings together leading investment capabilities across public and private markets and delivers them through deep institutional relationships, our ultra-premier high-net-worth wealth management franchise, and our expanding third-party distribution network. The strength of this platform continues to drive exceptional growth at scale. In the third quarter, management and other fees increased 22 % year-over-year to a record of $3.6 billion and surpassed $10 billion for the year to date.
Our assets under supervision reached another record of $4.1 1 trillion, supported by $97 billion of long-term net inflows, representing our 35th consecutive quarter of inflows. In wealth management, $47 billion of long-term net inflows contributed to record client assets of $2.1 1 trillion. For 2026, wealth management long-term net inflows are annualizing at 12%, well ahead of our 5 % target, which underscores the strength of our client relationships built on trust and long-term performance.
In alternatives, we are driving strong growth, with alternative assets under supervision up 26 % year-over-year to a record $491 billion. We continue to see strong momentum in fundraising with $37 billion raised in a quarter, driving a total of $122 billion in fundraising for the year to date, reflecting investor demand for experienced investment managers. Considering the strength, we now expect full-year fundraising of roughly $150 billion. Given the sustained levels of investment performance for clients, our leading asset and wealth management business remains very well positioned for continued growth amid attractive secular tailwinds.
At the same time, we are also inorganically accelerating growth and building a stronger platform with a better product offering for clients. In August, we announced agreements to acquire NEOS, a market leader in derivative income ETFs with approximately $35 billion in AUS at quarter end, and LCN Capital Partners, a leading triple net lease investment manager. The NEOS acquisition would bring our global active ETF assets under supervision to over $90 billion, establishing Goldman Sachs among the top eight providers by assets under supervision and top six by revenue, while LCN broadens the range of private real estate investment solutions we can offer.
Importantly, these acquisitions also bring talented and entrepreneurial teams to Goldman Sachs. We remain focused on opportunities that enhance distribution, deepen investment capabilities, and add products to strengthen asset wealth management. Our bar for strategic financial and cultural fit remains very high, and we will continue to allocate capital dynamically and with discipline as we drive growth. All in our record year-to-date revenues are the result of years of focused execution that have strengthened our market-leading businesses and increased connectivity across the firm as we harnessed the power of One Goldman Sachs.
importantly we have created a higher revenue base with our more durable revenues having more than doubled since 2020 investor day and now representing approximately 45 % of revenues for the year to date increased durability coupled with our expense discipline and prudent capital management enhances the resilience of our earnings and supports higher returns through the cycle providing Goldman Sachs with an even stronger foundation for growth looking forward though uncertainty persists corporates and investors recognize that standing still can be a competitive disadvantage clients are taking action to modernize operations secure critical capabilities and reallocate capital towards their highest return opportunities all of this is driving demand for M &A capital formation financing risk management and advice playing directly to the strengths of
our franchise. An ongoing theme has been the growth in AI infrastructure investment. Recent studies estimate that the U .S. data center build-out could require nuance of $10 1 trillion in investment through 2032, averaging roughly 3.6 % of U .S. GDP annually. In our conversations with clients, demand for compute significantly exceeds supply at the moment, creating opportunities to help develop financing structures to meet that capacity shortfall. Our differentiated financing, distribution, and investing capabilities position us to play a meaningful role in the mobilization of capital and supporting client activity.
While we are proud of the privileged position we play in the AI investment cycle, no one knows how the demands for capital and compute will evolve as the broader AI ecosystem matures. That will only become clearer as technology and markets continue to develop. This uncertainty reinforces the importance of remaining vigilant around the types of activity we finance and how we manage risk as we support our clients. We are highly selective about the risk we underwrite and the capital we commit, particularly if clients financing needs become larger and more complex.
Beyond these financial risks, we also recognize the broader concerns around the accelerating pace of AI technology and the unchecked advancement of frontier models. Like other transformative technologies, AI presents significant opportunities, but also significant risks that must be carefully assessed and managed. However, the choice is not between hoping progress and moving forward without guardrails. We must enable innovation and also demand responsibility. The experience of the financial services industry has demonstrated the value of rigorous testing, independent review, and continuous monitoring and clear human accountability.
These principles, implied in ways that reflect the unique characteristics of AI, can help build the trust and confidence needed to deploy the technology responsibly at scale while companies developers and governments work together to establish appropriate safeguards all and we continue to see meaningful opportunities ahead of us we are incredibly well positioned given our relentless focus on serving our clients while remaining vigilant to emerging risks in this dynamic environment our culture of teamwork excellence and partnership remains a key differentiator that has enabled us to adapt innovate and execute through a range of environments.
I've never been more confident in our ability to create long-term value for shareholders by making the right investments to grow the firm and generate sustainable earnings growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Dennis to walk through our financial results in more detail. Dennis Dixon

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:11:38]
Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. Let's start with our results on page one of the presentation. In the third quarter, we generated net revenues of $18.7 billion, earnings per share of $17.01, which drove a quarterly ROE of 18.7 % and ROTE of 20.5%.
Turning to segment performance starting on page three, global banking and markets revenues were $13.5 billion in the third quarter, our second highest quarterly revenues, contributing to a segment ROE of 23.5 % for the year to date. Moving to page four, advisory revenues of $1.7 billion reached a quarterly record and rose 18 % year-over-year driven by higher volumes. For the year-to-date, we maintained our number one league table position for announced and completed M &A volumes.
In equity underwriting, revenues of $666 million rose 43 % year-over-year on strong IPO and secondary offerings activity. In debt underwriting, revenues were $904 million, up 15 % year-over-year, driven primarily by stronger investment-grade activity. Year-to-date, we ranked number one in equity underwriting, number two in leveraged loans, and number three in high-yield debt underwriting. Even amid very strong accruals in the quarter, our investment banking backlog remains very robust, as strong revenue realizations and advisory were largely offset by solid replenishment and equity underwriting.
Year-to-date sponsor share of announced M &A remains below historical averages, presenting further upside when activity picks up. Picknet revenues were essentially unchanged year over year. Intermediation revenues declined 7 % as lower results in mortgages, rates, and credit were largely offset by strong performance in currencies and commodities. Financing revenues increased 14 % to their second highest level, driven by strength in mortgages and structured financing. Equities net revenues were $6.4 billion, up 72 % year-over-year, representing our second-best quarter, driven by strong performance in both intermediation and financing.
Equities intermediation revenues rose 52 % to their second highest level, driven by strength and derivatives. Equities financing revenues rose 96 % to a record, driven primarily by elevated average prime balances and strong activity across Asia. Demand for equities financing continues to exceed available industry capacity, supporting attractive pricing and allowing us to remain selective in deploying resources. Following significant multi-year investment, our focus is increasingly on optimizing a diversified global portfolio, guided by our risk management framework, client relationships, and returns.
More broadly, we continue to see structural tailwinds for the growth in tradeable assets and the increasing financing needs associated with those assets, which have helped to support sustained industry growth and equities financing over time. Year-to-date, total financing revenues of $12.7 billion were a record and represented over 40 % of combined FIC and equities revenues. As David mentioned, growth in financing revenues has contributed to greater durability in FIC and equities and is underpinned by a robust risk framework that includes diversified exposures, limits, concentration management, and comprehensive stress testing.
Let's turn to page 5. Asset and wealth management revenues were $5.1 billion, up 14 % year-over-year. Management and other fees rose 22 % year-over-year to a record $3.6 billion, reflecting the impact of higher average assets under supervision. Incentive fees were $587 million. Through our ultra-high net worth wealth management franchise, we provided clients early access to a high-growth investment opportunity and recognized incentive fees following the company's IPO. Based on our current outlook, we expect incentive fees to remain elevated in the fourth quarter.
Private banking and lending revenues were $827 million, up 20 % sequentially, driven by higher net interest from consumer deposits. Loan balances were up 6 % to $51 billion. Investment revenues were $50 million, given the timing of certain monetizations following a strong second quarter and certain markdowns. Now moving to page six, total assets under supervision ended the quarter at a record $4.1 1 trillion, dollars, supported by $97 billion of long-term fee-based net inflows, marking our 35th consecutive quarter of long-term fee-based net inflows.
Wealth Management client assets reached another record of $2.1 1 trillion, with $47 billion of long-term net inflows. Turning to page 7, alternative assets under supervision totaled $491 billion at the end of the third quarter, driving $860 million in management and other fees, the best performance since our 2020 Investment Day. The gross third-party alternatives fundraising was $37 billion for the quarter and $122 billion for the year to date. On page nine, firm-wide net interest income was $3.8 billion.
Our total loan portfolio increased 6 % from the prior quarter to $276 billion, reflecting broad-based growth across the portfolio. Our provision for credit losses was $368 million. While overall credit quality and portfolio performance have remained strong, our provisions reflected certain impairments across our portfolio, as well as overall growth in lending. Turning to expenses on page 10. Total operating expenses were $11.3 billion for the quarter. For the year-to-date, total operating expenses were $33.4 billion for an efficiency ratio of 59.4%, improving 270 basis points from the prior year and in line with our target.
Our year-to-date compensation ratio net of provisions was reduced to 30%. We remain committed to paying for performance and delivering operating leverage for shareholders. Quarterly non-compensation expenses were $6.2 billion, 30 % higher year-over-year, driven largely by higher transaction-based expenses. Additionally, given the strong pull-through of incentive fees this quarter, we made a tax-efficient charitable contribution of approximately $450 million as part of a planned acceleration of our philanthropic efforts. We also expect to make a meaningful contribution in the fourth quarter.
Together, these actions will pull forward at least five years of planned charitable giving. The impact of our charitable contributions on quarterly EPS was approximately $1, while the impact on ROE and ROTE was approximately 1.1 percentage points each. Our effective tax rate for the year-to-date was 20.4 percent, and for the full year, we continue to expect an effective tax rate of approximately 20%. Now onto slide 11. Our common equity Tier 1 ratio was 12.4 percent at the end of the third quarter under the standardized approach, 100 basis points above our current capital requirement of 11.4 percent.
Regarding recent regulatory developments, we welcome the Federal Reserve's rule finalization to enhance the transparency and accountability of the CCAR stress test and reduce the volatility of capital requirements. We also recognize the progress of the Basel III endgame and G-CIP III proposals and are hopeful for finalization by the end of the year. Collectively, these developments represent meaningful progress towards a more balanced and risk-sensitive regulatory capital framework that preserves the strength and resilience of the banking system.
As the rules are finalized, we support appropriately calibrated requirements that are aligned with the risks firms actually take and look forward to the timely completion of these reforms. We expect regulatory focus to soon shift towards liquidity regulation reform. We currently have over $570 billion in average global core liquid assets, representing approximately 25 % of our total assets, and our liquidity coverage ratio is among the highest in our peer group. In the quarter, we repurchased $3 billion of our common stock and paid $1.5 billion in dividends.
We continue to have significant capacity to deploy capital prudently in service of clients while maintaining an appropriate offer. In conclusion, our third quarter performance reflects the strength of our client franchise, which has been bolstered by years of strategic execution. We have built market-leading franchises, deep relationships, and a higher and more durable revenue base. We remain focused on delivering strong returns while continuing to invest in our people, technology, and client franchises to drive long-term earnings growth and deliver for our shareholders.
With that, we'll now open up the line for questions.

**Operator** [0:19:44]
Please stand by as we assemble our queue. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star, then two on your telephone keypad. If you're asking a question and are on a hands-free unit or a speakerphone, we would like to ask that you use your handset when asking your question.
Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. We'll take our first question from Glenn Shore with Evercore ISI.

**Glenn Shore (Evercore ISI)** [0:20:15]
Hi there. First one on trading and markets, you know, the results are nothing short of awesome. There's a short-term and long-term question I have. The short-term is just simple. Is there anything unique in the quarter like related situational awareness or anything like that would contribute to the quarter such that we don't overmodel in the fourth quarter?
But the bigger picture question I want to ask you is there's so many developments going on, tokenization, agentic trading, DeFi vaults, prediction markets. All these theoretically would nip at the core of your great markets business, but obviously you're not standing still. So maybe you could talk about where you're making investments and how you see some of those things, how we should think about that in conjunction with your markets platform.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:21:04]
Sure. Thanks, Glenn, and good morning. You know, on the first point, I don't see anything that I would call out.
Dennis, do you?

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:21:12]
Nope, I agree with that.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:21:14]
Yeah, don't see anything I'd call out just on the first thing, just to put that aside. On your second question, you know, obviously we've seen market structure evolve with technological advancements. advancements, you know, over long periods of time. We've talked about that for a long time. And as, you know, leading market maker and risk intermediary, we have to continue to invest in technologies, infrastructure, capabilities to make sure, you know, we're supporting our clients at the cutting edge.
And I think we'll, you know, we continue to do that. You know, I know you'll remember, Glenn, that it was not too long ago that people were concerned about electronification and equities trading and its impact on our business. but as we sit here today, the opportunity set for us is greater than what anyone could have contemplated when you look at our equity revenues and the way we adjusted and the way the business has evolved. Today, tokenization is obviously an important trend.
You know, we see it across asset classes. We were publicly supportive of clarity passing. Wasn't perfect, but we thought it would be good to give the market more clarity, no pun intended, and ensure investor protection. But in the absence of that, we're already seeing agencies take steps to provide clear rules for the market, and we're very engaged in those dialogues. We continue to invest in closely monitored developments, both for opportunities but also for risks. The developments are obviously creating more products, greater activity, potentially new clients, broader distribution channels.
And naturally, when you look at these things, they expand the cam for our business, and that's one of the things, you know, that's interesting and exciting. At the same point, we remain very focused on ensuring that we're well-positioned to serve our clients as these markets evolve. We've been investing in companies and the digital asset broader market infrastructure space for years, and remain very focused on that. We've been building capabilities such as the GS-DAP, where we were early in building our own rail for digital assets.
we've tokenized bonds we have a number of money market funds that are tokenized real estate you know for certain clients and so we've been focused on trying to be at the edge of some of those activities although I say broadly those activities are very small at this point and we're participating in a range of market developments in July we participated in the launch of DTCC's tokenization service and we're now you know actively assessing you know scalable use cases that we could put within it we expect over time the underlying technology can drive greater efficiency automation streamline processes reduce costs take away friction improve a critical asset classes and so we're going to remain you know focused on this I think
you're right to raise it is something that requires attention but I say the activity so far is small and at the margin but we're going to continue to have real resources thinking about how these changes can evolve over time and I think it's one of the reasons when you think about for example electronification you know we've managed you know to manage disruption of change in the equity business so well and so we use that as a little bit of a guideline so I hope that's I hope that's some helpful color yeah you haven't put any thought into it

**Glenn Shore (Evercore ISI)** [0:24:27]
okay thank you that was very helpful you know so I've probably guys since I guess the IPL I've seen some transitions
you know in management and Goldman just get stronger each step of the way you know this one seems to be being managed pretty methodically there was just some articles recently that talking about an acceleration so I don't know David if you want to address any of that just to keep the record straight I appreciate it thanks

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:24:52]
well no sure and I I appreciate the question because you know some of the articles the articles create noise can I just start with Glenn I'm super pleased with the progress the firm has made since we laid out our strategy and our investor day, you know, the execution.
This team has worked to really grow the firm significantly, and I think we've really made it increasingly durable. And I have to say, you know, at the point we're at now where we see the benefits of the effort that the broad team has made, I'm really enjoying the job, but more importantly, as a team, we're super excited about what's in front of us in the coming years and how we can continue to grow the franchise and really accelerate you know the earnings potential of the firm so you know I just want to be clear there is no succession transition or timeline underway at Goldman Sachs the board and I are singularly focused on our strategy to grow the firm and
continue to serve our clients with excellence thank you

**Operator** [0:25:49]
we will take our next question from Erica Najarian with UBS

**Erica Najarian (UBS)** [0:25:54]
Thank you. David, you answered this question in your prepared remarks, and maybe the more nuanced way to ask it is, you know, there has been a lot of fears in the investor community that the bond market route globally was going to have a chilling effect on activity levels. And, you know, given sort of how you framed, you know, the pipeline, maybe talk about how, you know, discussions have evolved or, you know, take into account, you know, higher, you know, long-end rates, if that's a factor.
And, you know, just a compound question, which has to be on TV in five seconds. If you think about the capital consumption in the fourth quarter, you know, clearly, you know, capital came in 50 basis points lighter. You still have plenty of excess. You know, J .P. Morgan mentioned that the fourth quarter should be super active in trading and should not have a seasonal slowdown. You know, how should we think about, you know, capital consumption going forward?

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:26:58]
Well, just quickly on capital consumption, you know, we talk about running with a 50 to 100 basis point buffer. We're at 100 basis point buffer. The firm has very good earnings momentum, so we generate capital. You know, we feel comfortable with the fact that we have adequate capital to deploy in an active quarter in the fourth quarter. And so, you know, we feel like we're managing that well. We continue to feel, you know, very nimble about our ability, you know, to manage, you know, our capital allocation effectively clients first, then when we can't deploy, you know, back to shareholders.
On the first topic, you know, you know, just around rates and the effect on activity, we did see in the quarter a very meaningful move in rates. I think from, you know, the beginning of July to, you know, to now, you know, we've seen a 75 basis point move on the 10-year, you know, approximately, don't hold me exactly to that, but a 75 basis point move on the 10-year. But I think, you know, one of the things that's lost is that historical perspective, you know, on term treasury premium, because we've really operated since the financial crisis in a rate and an environment where rates are fundamentally low.
You know, as a 64-year-old guy, I kind of look back at the last 64 years, a 5 % 10-year Treasury, you know, doesn't scare me in terms of an operating environment. In fact, in the overwhelming periods of time in my life, the 10-year Treasury has been, you know, has been higher than the level that it's in. And so, you know, we can have very, very effective capital markets with that. What, you know, what creates headwinds for markets is when you have very, very abrupt moves.
Yes, we had a meaningful move in the quarter. There were probably some days when it was abrupt, but you've got a lot of other things going on that are very, very important. We have a very, very strong underlying economy. The economy continues to be very, very resilient despite some of the headwinds. We have an extraordinary tech super cycle. I think we have a regulatory environment that is really encouraging strategic activity to continue to grow scale. And you put these things all together and you balance it, and I think it's a pretty good environment.
So, you know, I know people looked at the quarter and felt that it felt a little different than it did in the second quarter and I think that's fair I would say that if I go back to the end of May or June I would call it like a top top decile environment for kind of market activity and capital markets activity but now on a top quartile environment and that's still really really good when you think about long periods of time so we feel quite good about the activity levels obviously if there was a lot more interest rate volatility that could create headwinds but we'll watch markets carefully and you know at the moment as we look at activity levels
they feel they feel good.

**Erica Najarian (UBS)** [0:29:38]
All right thank you so much.

**Operator** [0:29:41]
We will take our next question from Ibrahim Poonawalla with Banks of America.

**Ibrahim Poonawalla (Bank of America)** [0:29:47]
Good morning. I guess first question first question David I think Hawk Tan from Broadcom I think he was speaking overnight, and he kind of questioned the sustainability of, like, the AI CapEx financing. And you were obviously part of the group with Jensen during the quarter. One, do you share that concern that the real choke point for AI CapEx will be financing, especially given rates moving higher, it's unclear what the returns look like?
frame that for us given you probably have one of the best visibilities on what the appetite looks like thanks.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:30:29]
Well I you know I think Christian it's I mean it's a very very good question oh Ibrahim I'm sorry I apologize I'm looking at a screen here. I think it's a lot worse in life so it's okay. I apologize because Christian's next so I looked at the screen quickly I apologize so Ibrahim it's a really good question and you know I'm probably going to disappoint you in my answer which is I don't know and nobody knows you know what I would say and you saw it in our remarks we are extremely conscious of the fact that the expectations for the
quantum of financing that's necessary to build out you know the data center infrastructure in the United States based on what people predicting is quite significant and over time you know there is risk there is risk the pressure on on, you know, crowding out the size, the scale, not every project's gonna be received as well. And so, you know, we feel very lucky, and I said this in the prepared remarks, we sit in the center of that ecosystem, but we also recognize we have an extraordinary obligation to be very disciplined about what we underwrite.
And I just, I think generalized comments about the direction of travel and what will happen, I think we've gotta be very cautious about that. There is going to be a lot of financing to do. and we're going to be in the middle of that. It may be over time as the financing needs grow that there's pressure on rates and that will affect the returns and the viability of certain projects. You know, it's our job as an intermediary, as an asset manager, as a capital provider to sort through that and make prudent decisions.
And I think we're very good at that and we will. But one thing's for clear, there's a lot of demand for compute at the moment. The supply is not come into balance more is going to get built more financing is going to be necessary there will be a point in time when this recalibrates resets for sure and you know when that does happen of course will be some bumps but it's very very hard to predict that and I think you know broad assertions that any of us know the direction of travel how the technology will be evolved how it will be deployed you know that's just an unknown we have to live with but it's an exciting time because there's
going to be a lot of really interesting things to do around that.

**Ibrahim Poonawalla (Bank of America)** [0:32:47]
Got it. And I guess one other question. Improving and durable earnings has been a big focus for you. Help me solve for this. Like, when we look at the growth in prime and equities financing, you could make the argument that it's adding to the cyclicality of the business if there's, like, deleveraging among hedge funds, et cetera. And sure, like, I'm not talking about quarter-to-quarter volatility, but how should we think about equity financing actually making these earnings more durable versus adding to the cyclicality like how would you sort of think through that if you could help us

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:33:22]
yeah sure Christian I mean I say Abraham again
you know you must love Christian I guess I actually love Abraham and Christian I love I love everybody so you know I think the way I think the way to think about I think the way to think about this is we all have to this is the way we think about it running the firm you have to step out a quarter to quarter okay none of us here as we risk manage in our prime business are confused equity markets go up equity markets come down okay when equity markets come down okay there's a deleveraging okay and the size of the prime business because of the needs that our clients have to be financed with a smaller equity market a smaller
market cap, there's going to be some cyclicality to that. However, if you step back and you get out of quarter to quarter movements and you fundamentally believe in growth in the world and therefore GDP growth in the world and therefore growth in market cap and technology innovation over any three to five year period, the durability of the growth of that business at some baseline is going to be very attractive for Goldman Sachs. And so when you step out of the quarter and you think over three, five, seven years and you've really seen this, you know, look, we've grown our revenues over the last five years since 2022 by 11 % compounded on the top line.
I do not believe we're going to grow our revenues by 11 % compounded on the top line for the next five years. There will be stops and starts as equity markets move around. But what we're trying to prove out is that the durable base is much bigger. It's a much more diverse business. and fundamentally it's very correlated the GDP growth and equity market cap growth over time and if we stop looking for it a quarter and stop looking and start looking at three to five year period and look at the earnings growth that's driven you get a very very constructive result thank you

**Operator** [0:35:20]
we'll take our next question from Christian Ballou with autonomous research

**Christian Ballou (Autonomous Research)** [0:35:23]
good morning David you want to
Dennis and feel free to call me

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:35:28]
I was going to call you Abraham just to level the planfield.

**Christian Ballou (Autonomous Research)** [0:35:33]
Yes. All right. I guess first one, David, just in the IB cycle here, I'd love to get some color on where you think we are in the cycle. The macro seems to be marginally more challenging, higher rate. We've seen a bunch of IPOs get pulled. We probably get a change in the political climate. post US midterm elections your backlog seemed impressive but they did it go back a little bit so just just give me a sense of where you think we are in the cycle have we peaked or is there more to go

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:36:11]
you know I know everybody wants to call
the peak it's you know it's hard to call the peak but let's just step back and I want to go back to something I said you know just you know said just a little bit earlier you know I still think for capital markets activity is the top court style environment you know for strategic M &A there's an enormous amount of dialogue that continues our backlog is incredibly robust you know it's fair to say that we had enormous accruals in the quarter but if you listen to our prepared remarks we were very forward about how robust the backlog the backlog remains capital markets activity is still good I think you know one of the things that gets lost you know there
are obviously a handful of IPOs it didn't move forward but when you look at ECM revenues you know for the quarter and for the last few quarters they're running meaningfully above both five year and ten year averages so that's a good environment you know five year and ten year averages would be you know a 50 % kind of capital markets environment running meaningfully above five and ten year averages you know is a better environment so I think we're still a very good capital markets environment I think one of the things that happened with a handful of the IPOs you know And when people do IPOs, they make a decision months in advance to move forward, and they have a discussion
around what the valuation expectation is. And the investors have an expectation. And so, IPOs that came in September were really the result of conversations in May and June around valuation expectations. Things got a little bit softer in September. The IPO market was wide open. It's just if you expected a valuation and you got something 10 to 15% less, you might choose not to go forward, you might choose to wait. But the IPO market is still in pretty good shape.
I'd say capital markets activities are strong. So there's no question the overall macro environment is a little bit more complicated. The rates environment a little bit more complicated. But the activity levels that we're seeing are still pretty good, but we'll obviously have to watch, you know, through the quarter. I think all the technology innovation and the AI infrastructure activity is a real good balance for capital markets activity on a go-forward basis. It doesn't mean there won't be bumps, you know, in the quarter ahead.
But when I look, you know, we're certainly operating, you know, in a very good environment for capital markets and investment banking activity at the moment.

**Christian Ballou (Autonomous Research)** [0:38:35]
Okay, very helpful. Maybe just in balance sheet and capital management, Clearly, you're seeing tremendous balance to demand, as evidenced by the robust growth in your financing business. I am a little bit surprised that you are still buying back a ton of stock at three times tangible, especially as your SLR is lower than peers.
So maybe just talk through how we should think about capital management priorities as you move into 2027.

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:39:06]
So, Ibrahim, thank you. Thank you for the question. Time's two. That's a good CFO. So it's all taken against the backdrop that David's outlined. You know, we're optimistic about the opportunities that we made decisions over the course of this year following some of the regulatory capital relief, you know, to expand our deployment into the client franchise. We also happened to buy a bunch of stock as well.
We were generating, you know, significant earnings that enabled us both to buy back the stock, buy down our share count, give us capacity to continuously and sort of systematically buy down our shares outstanding over time, gives us more capacity on the follow, but we were also able to make decisions to fuel the client franchise, which ultimately is delivering the results that we're talking about here in the third quarter. And I think as we head forward into 2027, I think you should expect our approach to be similar.
We will deploy into the franchise as a matter of priority. We do expect to continue to invest in the sustainable growth of our dividend. It's obviously up 25 % year over year. It's now $5 a share. It was $4 a year ago. Five years ago, it was $2 a share. So we've been consistently investing in the growth of our dividend. That remains important. And then obviously with excess, we'll return it to shareholders and make sure we have the right buffer to operate the firm.
So I think it's a consistent approach to our deployment, including into 2027.

**Operator** [0:40:41]
We will take our next question from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo Securities.

**Mike Mayo (Wells Fargo Securities)** [0:40:47]
Hi. I guess there's been more talk about a headwind to what you described as an extraordinary tech super cycle as relates to power, labor, rates. You know, CapEx has gone from billions to trillions, the climate, and so it's finding a constraint for this tech super cycle. And is your conviction as strong as it was, say, three or six months ago?
And then on the positive side, you talk about the growth in tradable assets. Globally, you're expanding in Asia. you know, what has been that growth? What are your numbers around that? Thank you.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:41:29]
So, you know, on the first part, Mike, you know, you're talking about just, you know, enough capital in the markets to fund the growth of all this technology expansion, or are we talking about, you know, our funding? I assume you're talking about just general capital availability to fund the significant AI infrastructure growth?

**Mike Mayo (Wells Fargo Securities)** [0:41:49]
Yeah, I mean, if bond markets go on strike or if rates go up too much, or just, you know, the hiccup, the political hiccups, the pushback against data centers. You know, I know it's not a straight line up, but you still describe it as a tech super cycle. Do you think this is as strong a tech super cycle as you did six months ago, for example, given just some of the headlines that we see and the reaction of some of the technology companies?

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:42:17]
Yeah, I do think it's a very strong technology super cycle, Mike, and there's no way to step away from that. Okay, the things that you highlight, you know, obviously, if there are other factors that create significant interest rate volatility and push rates higher, that will have an impact on the pace of build out and what projects get done and how they get done. You know, if there's more geopolitical volatility in the world, that can have an impact.
localized political volatility around data centers, you know, we've got an election coming up, it'll be interesting to see, you know, obviously there's a lot of, you know, political discussion coming into an election, but then you also have to see how states and localities act coming out of elections. You know, all these things can create, you know, volatility and there's uncertainty around them. So, no one knows, you know, the exact line of travel, but at its base, you know, this technology is real, it's going to accelerate in terms of its deployment, There's going to be infrastructure built around it that's going to be quite significant.
You know, hopefully also, and I think this is the case, there's going to be guardrails and government processes that help build trust around it. There's a lot of responsibility that goes to enterprises that are deploying it around making sure it's deployed correctly. But all of that is generally constructive for our business. Now, I can tell you lots of things that can go wrong and slow it down, but there's uncertainty around that, but that's kind of part of our job and the market's job is to kind of intermediate that and decide, you know, as time goes on, you know, the trajectory of that line.
But this is real and it's significant and it's not going away, in my opinion.

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:43:57]
And then, Mike, I think on the second part of your question, as the world continues to expand, as we expand our opportunity set in Asia, something we've been strategically getting after for a number of years, you're seeing some of the results of that investment and the expansion of clients and markets and places that we can actually trade and finance different assets. If you look in our earnings release, you can see the geographic mix of our revenues.
You can look back a year. You can look at the year over year. You can look at the sequential for the firm. And there's very meaningful change in Asia's representation of aggregate firm-wide revenues. And I think it's fair to say a lot of that change in the geographic mix of revenues in the firm is being driven by equity activity, equity financing activity. So those numbers give you a decent picture for the expansion of that opportunity set.

**Mike Mayo (Wells Fargo Securities)** [0:44:47]
And then completely separately, just there are a lot of articles, headlines written about you, David, and succession, and clearly there's nothing that came out from Goldman Sachs, but what are your plans for staying around at Goldman as CEO?

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:45:00]
I think you might not have been on when, you know, earlier when Glenn Shore asked that question, Mike, and, you know, the way I answered it, I'll just repeat what I said. I mean, I talked a little bit about the work we've done, the progress we've made, how much I'm enjoying it, and also the excitement of the leadership team we have about the years ahead.
And I said, to be clear, there's no succession, transition, or timeline underway at Goldman Sachs. The board and I are singly focused on growing the firm, growing our earnings, serving our clients. That's what I said earlier on the call.

**Operator** [0:45:35]
We will take our next question from Stephen Chabot with Wolf Research.

**Stephen Chabot (Wolfe Research)** [0:45:40]
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. So, David, I wanted to double-click a little bit further into the revenue opportunity tied to the financing of the digital infrastructure build-out.
Your firm is actually uniquely positioned to underwrite financing activity, both in the private IG market as well as the public debt market. As we get deeper into the AI CapEx cycle, I wanted to get your perspective as to how you see activity migrating from the public to private markets, how you're positioned competitively to compete in that private IG space, and how does that impact some of the revenue considerations or economics if that activity does, in fact, migrate away from the public debt space and into the private sphere?

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:46:23]
Yeah, I mean, I'll make a couple of comments. Dennis might have a couple of comments, you know, here too. But, you know, again, I know everyone wants, you know, an absolutely clear answer on the direction of travel of all of this. The capital demands are significant, and it's going to require significant capital deployment from the public markets, both equity and debt, and from private markets, both equity and debt. And, you know, we're seeing that. I think one of the things that makes Goldman Sachs so unique is we're the only firm that sits kind of at the epicenter of having an ability to advise on these projects and the financing and how they should come together, an ability to be an
originator on a structure of these transactions and distribute them to other institutional sources of capital, and in addition have a very broad asset management platform that includes both public and private you know pools of capital that can be coordinated you know into these transactions and there's nobody else that has that positioning so we feel as a firm that we're seeing a lot and we sit in a very privileged place in the ecosystem there's a significant amount of activity you know it's different for different entities you know it depends on who the customers and the offtakes are a lot of the projects, which has a significant impact on the financing rates as to where you can go.
There's a big difference from something that's really generated to serve a hyperscaler, you know, versus some of the neoclouds. And so all of this goes into the equation, but we feel very well positioned to bring the full range of services and participate, you know, actively. And we still see an enormous amount of activity. Dennis, do you want to add to that at all?

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:48:09]
No, I think so. So the only thing I would add is if you step back and you also think about, you know, our banking franchise, the coverage footprint that we have, this cycle is different from prior cycles in that the largest, biggest, you know, companies driving the cycle have significant capacity to use free cash flow to
finance this. And so there's lots of discussions with how you advise those large companies themselves, how much debt they should issue, how much equity they should issue, what's their rating appetite, what are the structures of the financing facilities. So you have to start with those people that are actually driving the investment super cycle. Then you move into the public and private debt and equity markets. We obviously, through Capital Solutions, have the capacity to underwrite and distribute, to also put certain types of financing structures on our own balance sheet.
And then we've been growing our AWM business, our private IG business, as you referenced, quite substantially. That also can participate in the overall growth. And then if you think about the entire ecosystem, the supply chain is super complicated. There are a tremendous number of different companies that operate. And you can finance the different companies at each point in the supply chain across different markets around the world. And given the scale of capabilities that we have, we just feel that we're well positioned to assist all across the supply chain.
in driving growth of the investment cycle.

**Stephen Chabot (Wolfe Research)** [0:49:29]
I appreciate really all that detail and the perspective that you offered. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the SLR. Given financing activity is much more leverage-intensive, you guys have obviously seen outsized gains on the financing side. Speak for your comfortable running under the SLR constraint while supporting continued balance sheet expansion, and specifically your appetite to grow in more nascent financing areas such as tax-aware strategies. Just given your leading position in wealth and the RIA custody space would be a natural extension of your current financing capabilities.

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:50:07]
Sure. So you've obviously seen, you know, the change in how we've run our SLR ratio on a year-to-date basis. I think it's fair to say that the biggest delta, the largest sort of balance sheet extension is behind us. We're now migrating to a zone where we, you know, we run a buffer in SLR, much like we run in CET1 ratio. So we feel like we have the requisite capital we need to support the growth in client activity as we head into the fourth quarter.
But I wouldn't expect, you know, a significant movement from here. And then in terms of other, you know, strategies that we have across the overall AWM franchise, you know, we're exploring and working on a number of those different strategies that you referenced.

**Operator** [0:50:51]
we'll take our next question from Manan Gasalia with Morgan Stanley

**Manan Gasalia (Morgan Stanley)** [0:50:56]
hi good morning earlier the call you spoke about the year-to-date sponsor share for announced them may being below the historical average I guess what's your outlook for that business given the uptick in rates you know you seeing any pullback any any reluctance for some of those deals to come through into the market

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:51:18]
yeah appreciate the question then I you know the sponsors have been slow
to monetize and turn over the capital portfolios from the 2020 and 2021 vintages you know I I think we all feel we would have seen more activity by now you know I know there's a lot of questions around the fact in a higher rate environment is that more constraining I think the bigger constraint is that a lot of this stuff is still marked higher than where it can be monetized, you know, in the market and the sponsors are taking the optionality, you know, to wait longer because that's the way the incentive system works.
They obviously have tools such as continuation funds and other vehicles, you know, to extend life and funds and so they're taking advantage of those. This will come out though, this activity will come and I think the thing I'd look at, I'd look at the M &A levels and just, you know, recognize in the capital markets levels and just recognize it's been very light on sponsor activity that sponsor activity is going to come and when it comes that'll be a tailwind but it has been slower than we would have expected at this point but I'm not overly concerned with how the interest rate environment affects it in the short term

**Manan Gasalia (Morgan Stanley)** [0:52:29]
got it and other midterms factoring into your conversations with clients
at all like our clients waiting on the sidelines to get more clarity on that or maybe on the flip side if there's a greater sense of urgency to get deals out

**David Solomon (CEO)** [0:52:42]
I don't sense that people are sitting on the sidelines because of midterms I think from a strategic M &A perspective the window is you know we have an administration you know for two and a quarter more years and you know this is an administration where strategically to achieve scale there's a general point of view that unlike in the prior administration where whatever the question was the answer is no, in this administration, whatever the question is, the answer is, you know, a very significant maybe.
And so, you know, strategically, companies are very front-footed. And I think, you know, they feel comfortable that they've got a window, regardless of the midterms, they've kind of got a window that, you know, that presses through the administration. You know, I think people are watching the midterms carefully, you know, to see what happens and what that means, you know, kind of for activity in government over the course of the next couple of years. But I don't see it at the moment affecting activity significantly.

**Operator** [0:53:38]
We will take our next question from Brendan Hawken with BMO.

**Brendan Hawken (BMO)** [0:53:42]
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I had one on financing. You've spoken to both pricing and strength in Asia. You said that there's no one-timers there. But the third quarter was perceived as a bit of a degrossing period. So curious whether or not you saw that. And is it possible to break down some of the growth that you've seen in those trading revenues between how much is tied to average balances growing versus the pricing benefits that you've highlighted?
Thanks.

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:54:16]
So, Brendan, I appreciate the question. I mean, the growth rate for financing in particular on a sequential basis was about 3%. So, I think there was the leveraging in the quarter. I think there was some disruption over the course of the quarter. And so, you know, the trajectory did not sustain, you know, substantial growth is still very healthy. And as we pointed out in the prepared remarks, it does remain an environment that sort of supply of financing constrained.
And so one of the levers that we have in terms of driving sustainable growth in that activity is as there can be pullbacks, you know, we can assess expanding the funnel of activity that we take on board with existing clients and or new clients as a bit of a valve as aggregate market levels adjust. But I think most of what would explain the sequential performance does relate to the overall backdrop of the market. There was not significant change in the composition of the book away from that.

**Brendan Hawken (BMO)** [0:55:24]
Great. Okay. Thanks for that, Dennis. And then you spoke to the year-to-date comp ratio, 30%. Is that the best way we should be thinking about your expectations for the full year? And have we seen – a few investors noted this morning about the strong performance on the comp ratio. Is there something to do with, like, revenue mix? Equity revenue has been really, really strong. That's generally considered a lower comp ratio business. business, has it been like business mix that has helped the comp ratio, or are you just seeing lower competition for talent?
Thanks for taking my questions.

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:56:03]
Sure. So, I'd say there's a couple of things in terms of how we think about the comp ratio. First, it is our best estimate at the moment for what we expect for the year, but I'd say that we are applying a strategic lens to it, and your question does get after this. As we look at ways that we can invest to grow the firm, grow the earnings of the firm, scale the firm, we are building durable platform-connected types of businesses, and over time, we should not have the same degree of headcount-related expenses that we might have historically to grow and scale the firm.
And certain of the more durable activities, including the financing activities, we're using a lot of the firm's financial resources and risk appetite to drive that activity, and so there can be favorable compensation ratio benefits with respect to the growth of those activities. I would not say that we're seeing any diminution in terms of the market for talent. Frankly, quite the opposite. I think for the very, very best people in this environment, business professionals, engineering professionals across the firm, there's a very, very strong bid for the very, very best people, and we make sure that we're in a position to compensate them appropriately.
But we are focused over the longer term on sustainably delivering operating leverage to our shareholders as we grow the firm, and this is one step in that direction.

**Operator** [0:57:23]
We will take our next question from Dan Fannin with Jeffries.

**Dan Fannin (Jefferies)** [0:57:27]
Thanks. Good morning. So, one more on expenses, Dennis, and shifting to non-comp, obviously, excluding the charitable numbers in this quarter and I think next quarter, as you highlighted, can you just talk about the growth rate or outlook for non-comp expense as you think about the AI benefits you might be seeing in other areas, investments that could be growing or shrinking as we look ahead?

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:57:51]
Sure. So, you know, first and foremost, you can see it in the numbers, both aggregate and the deltas, by far the biggest component is transaction-based expenses. That story remains the same for so long as we continue to see, you know, strong levels of client activity, particularly in equities and particularly in Asia, we'd expect that we'll continue to see growth in the transaction-based expenses. You're right, by the end of this year, based on our current expectations, we'll have made contributions to support, you know, go forward charitable giving that, you know, hopefully should, you know, carry us through about five years or so on our best estimates.
So you won't see that, you're unlikely to see that in the future periods as a result. You know, the other area of strategic growth is across technology, generally speaking, in comms and tech. We're going to, you know, continue to make sure that we have our people have access to cutting-edge technology. We're making investments in our data infrastructure, our migrations to cloud. We're obviously making investments with respect to the models. And we're also making talent investments, all to make sure that we can support the firm's scaled growth over time.
So I would call those out as the areas of focus.

**Dan Fannin (Jefferies)** [0:59:03]
Understood. And then just as a follow-up, you know, wealth management, organic growth, you know, more than accelerated, you know, $47 billion in the quarter in terms of net inflows. Anything one time in there or chunky that you would call out or maybe just talk to the kind of components, whether it was new advisor ads, recruiting, same stores, sales with existing clients, you know, what was the driver there?

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [0:59:27]
So, I would not call out a particular one time. I would say that we have now a multi-year sustained investment in expanding our advisor footprint. That's, you know, that's a decision that was made a number of years ago. We continue to ramp up. Advisors continue to expand our geographic footprint and our reach around the world. And we continue to have, you know, very, very strong investment performance, which is really important. And we continue to invest in the overall quality of our people and in terms of the client experience that our clients have with our people.
It's a big area of strategic focus for the firm. It is, you know, performing substantially ahead of the target that we put out earlier this year of 5%. But we're very pleased, and it's a huge opportunity for the firm.

**Operator** [1:00:17]
We will take our next question from Devin Ryan with Citizens Bank.

**Devin Ryan (Citizens Bank)** [1:00:22]
Thanks. Good morning, David. Dennis, a couple here on asset management and really on the alt business, it's just been incredibly impressive fundraising. and you started the year at a $75 to $100 billion target.
Now you're targeting $150 billion. So clearly a lot of incremental capital coming in here. Just curious if you could give us a little more color around, you know, how much of that is just being kind of opportunistic in the market with some of these themes like the volatility in private credit or whether there's something bigger structurally that's been changing around your ability to distribute or even, you know, add capacity to that business.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [1:00:59]
Yeah, I mean, just to say that, I appreciate the question, Devin, but there's nothing opportunistic about it.
This is a concerted strategy that, you know, started, you know, six plus years ago to really scale the platform. And, you know, when you look across the platform, it's a scaled platform. We've got managers across a variety of the different categories of private capital raising that have a lot of experience, good performance. And, you know, we've been very, very good to institutional allocators at, you know, customizing solutions that work for them with a long-term view.
And in addition, you know, we have very, very good demand for these products and services from our ultra-high net worth channel, which is a very, very important component. And so, you know, this has been a strategic decision that we've made real scale progress on over a period of time that has meaningfully increased, you know, our, you know, our capacity, you know, to compete at the highest level in this space. And I think we've got good runway.
You know, when you look at private credit, for example, one of the things we've benefited from is we've been in this business for 40 years. And institutional allocators, despite the noise in the media around private credit, as spreads have normalized to more attractive levels, institutional allocators have thought this is a more attractive time in the last three to six months to bring capital into experienced private credit managers and would benefit it from that. So there's nothing opportunistic.
It's a long-term strategy to have one of the largest and broadest private alt platforms, and you're seeing the benefit of our scale position, you know, start to come through.

**Devin Ryan (Citizens Bank)** [1:02:40]
Appreciate that, David. And then just a follow-up, just on the acquisition front in asset management. It's clearly been an area for you doing EDS. Are there any other areas you feel like you're still subscale in asset management or where a few additional capabilities or investments could kind of, like you just said, on the offside, similarly really kind of improve the capacity or make you more relevant with institutional or retail clients?
Thanks.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [1:03:07]
Yeah, there's no questions. You know, we still have gaps, you know, across the platform. We have a presence, you know, across, you know, all the variety of private assets broadly. but there's some places where we're not as scaled as we'd like to be. That doesn't mean that we'll take a, you know, we'll make an acquisition in that space because, you know, there's got to be fit, there's got to be, you know, the right team. But we continue to look for places where we're not scaled with our opportunities both across privates and the public side of our asset management business to increase our scale.
And, you know, I think there'll be other opportunities. I'm not going to call out something specifically, but we're not at scale everywhere. and if we see an opportunity that fits and accelerates our scale position we're certainly going to consider it but always with a very high bar around culture fit and the specific people were bringing into the firm thank you

**Operator** [1:04:00]
we'll take our next question from Gerard Cassidy with RBC

**Gerard Cassidy (RBC)** [1:04:03]
I give it very Dennis Dennis you touched on in your comments about the provision being higher that you gave us guidance you know earlier in the quarter about it being higher.
So there's no real surprise. And the outlook for credit from your comments still is strong. But can you elaborate a little bit on the marks that you took to prove that provision?

**Dennis Coleman (CFO)** [1:04:26]
Sure. So, you know, there's two drivers this quarter that are worth taking note of. One, which is the secondary driver, but yet it's important, which is, you know, overall growth in the portfolio. So we continue to deploy capital to expand the opportunities to lend to more clients.
And frankly, that's an outgrowth of a strategic decision earlier in the year when we found ourselves with more excess capital that we wanted to fuel growth in our overall investment banking coverage suite of relationships. So a component of the provision numbers is aggregate growth in the portfolio. But it is the case as well that the impairment numbers were elevated. We looked, you know, very carefully, as we always do with the entire complexion of the portfolio. Our conclusion is they're highly idiosyncratic, the non-correlated set of names, but we had a couple of different names that we ended up taking incremental impairments against in the quarter.
We don't think it's necessarily the signal of something else to come, but it was appropriate for those individual names, and so we took the impairments and put it through in the third quarter.

**Gerard Cassidy (RBC)** [1:05:30]
Very good. And as a follow-up, you talked about it earlier in the year about the leaning into Asia and the success that you've had, and you touched on it again today, the Asian markets and the equity financing and the execution you guys obviously benefit from.
Are there any other opportunities globally where you can lean into new markets and get the benefits that you're seeing similar to what you did with Asia?

**David Solomon (CEO)** [1:05:57]
So I think there are opportunities all over the world where we can continue to lean in. What we found particularly attractive about Asia is that we felt that we were quite under scale, and the opportunity was available with clients on attractive economic and risk terms. And so it was the most place, a most attractive place geographically to drive incremental penetration and scale, and that's why we made it a priority.
But there are plenty of other places around the world that we could continue to choose to drive incremental growth as well.

**Operator** [1:06:37]
We'll take our next question from Chris McGrady with KBW.

**Chris McGrady (KBW)** [1:06:41]
Oh, great. Thanks for squeezing me in. David, more of a high-level question. Your outperformance on your ROE to targets, maybe a comment or two on your views on how much is cyclical versus structural.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [1:06:57]
I appreciate the question, Chris. You know, I think a lot of it is we're structurally running the firm as a broader, more durable franchise with higher fundamental returns.
You know, I'm not going to speculate on, you know, through the cycle as to how the returns balanced out, but what I will say when I go back over the last five years, I remember We were sitting on this call, you know, for multiple years, including as recently as a couple of years ago when we were very confident that we could get the firm, you know, running through our targets through the cycle, and there was a lot of skepticism, you know, about that.
The reason the returns are significantly elevated is because we've significantly grown the breadth and the base of the firm. We've significantly, you know, changed the operational structure and the durability of the firm and that's led to higher structural returns and so there's a big strategic result of an investment over a long period of time and I will say you know at the moment and I said it on the call three times we're in a very good environment or a we're in a top quartile environment and so does that flatter the what will be the average returns through the cycle absolutely but structurally the base returns of the firm have been meaningfully uplifted over the last five years.

**Chris McGrady (KBW)** [1:08:22]
Perfect. And then second follow-up would be the midterms. I think there's a divided view of whether it's a divided government and is good for activity or perhaps a headwind. Where do you stand on if the futures markets are right about a divided government, how that could play into your capital markets business? Thanks.

**David Solomon (CEO)** [1:08:39]
I don't really. First of all, the election doesn't occur for another month, and in politics, a month is an eternity. So, So, you know, we'll see how the election plays out.
And, you know, I'm not a good pundit, nor are, you know, the, you know, the prediction markets or the futures markets a good pundit of exactly, you know, what the environment will bring after the election as we head into 27. So, you know, we'll watch that and be prepared for whatever comes our way.

**Operator** [1:09:08]
At this time, there are no additional questions. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Goldman Sachs third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation.
You may now disconnect.