Profits rise at Goldman's Irish unit

A DUBLIN-BASED subsidiary of Goldman Sachs more than doubled its profits last year, according to accounts filed recently.

Goldman Sachs Bank (Europe) plc made a pretax profit of $86.7 million (€68.09 million) in 2009, compared with $36.3 million the previous year, the accounts show.

Operating income for the bank jumped to $110.6 million from $59.19 million the previous year, while operating expenses rose by only $1 million. The bank paid tax of $11 million, up from $4.7 million the previous year.

The number of staff employed by the bank fell during the year to 48, from 55 the previous year. The staff earned a total of $13.35 million during 2009, according to the accounts, which was $1 million more than what was earned by the greater number of staff in 2008.

The bank’s website says it is the flagship banking entity in the Goldman Sachs’ European banking strategy and is central to developing the bank’s deposit and lending strategy in Europe and Asia. The bank had total assets of $13.1 billion at year’s end.

It is involved in deposit taking, loans, secondary dealing in bank loans, secured funding, investment banking advice, hedge fund administration, and private wealth management, according to the accounts. It is regulated by the Financial Regulator of Ireland.

The directors’ report states that while economic conditions were weak during the first half of 2009, the decline was significantly less in most economies in the second half and that activity in a number of emerging economies improved.

The accounts show that the bulk of the increase in operating income came from trading and principal investments, as against its other principal type of business, asset management and securities services.

Trading and principal investments include secured funding, loans origination and derivative transactions, according to the accounts. Income in this area jumped to $84.16 million, from $28 million the previous year. In the other category of business, income fell to $26 million, from $31 million the previous year.

The origins of the bank’s income is not broken down. “Due to the highly integrated nature of international financial markets, the directors consider that the bank operates in a single global market,” the accounts state.

Directors’ emoluments during the year were $1.66 million. The chairman of the bank is Peter Sutherland, the former European commissioner and attorney general.

The chairman of The Irish Times Ltd, David Went, is an independent director of the bank as are Patrick Mulvihill, James O’Dwyer, Cornelius O’Sullivan, Richard O’Toole, and Brian Strahan, all of whom are Irish.

The executive directors of the bank include Irish, UK and US nationals. There were 13 directors on the board during 2009, but two resigned during the year.

Goldman Sachs, which has its headquarters in the US, has come in for serious criticisms in recent times, particularly since US regulators filed civil fraud charges last month. US prosecutors are examining the information gathered by the Securities and Exchange Commission to see if criminal charges should be brought.

The inquiries involve concerns that the bank misled two derivatives investors about the significant role played by a US hedge fund in selecting the mortgages that would determine the products’ performance.

Senior executives of the bank, including chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, have been questioned by a US senate committee about whether they believe they have an obligation to their clients as against the bank, because the bank bet against products it was selling to its clients.