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Project "Cookie" as Marcus is called internally at Goldman has lent $2.5 billion so far and has 350,000 customers across loans and savings accounts. They have increased deposits to $17bn (up from $11.8bn at the end of 2016). Marcus currently employs 700 people in NYC, Salt Lake and Dallas.
“We don’t take them lightly,” Discover CFO Mark Graf said of Goldman at a recent industry conference. “But we’re not tossing and turning in our beds at night.” Retail banking may be a simple corner of financial services, but it has tripped up firms with longer track records than Goldman. Plus, the bank is getting into consumer credit at a time when loan losses are on the rise at competitors. Goldman has sunk $500 million into the consumer business as it slashes costs elsewhere and struggles to boost profitability. And even if Marcus works, it will be a blip on the bottom line for years: The company projects the business will generate about $450 million in pretax income over the next three years, just 1% of what analysts expect from the firm overall.
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