Goldman Sachs is preparing for “a tougher environment” by laying off more employees, which may help it surpass a $600mn savings target from job cuts, one of the bank’s top executives said on Thursday.
The warning from Goldman president John Waldron underscores the increasingly gloomy outlook on Wall Street as rising interest rates have damped merger activity and the market for initial public offerings, while a recent trading boom has also fizzled.
“Activity levels are definitely more muted. That’s kind of what we expected. We are now embarking upon additional targeted actions with our headcount,” Waldron told investors at an industry conference organised by AllianceBernstein. “We’re running the firm tighter and we’re preparing for a tougher environment.”