Goldman Sachs has initiated the process for exploring the sale of its fintech unit GreenSky, suggested David Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of the investment banking giant.
GreenSky's performance remains high, Solomon reportedly said, but added that Goldman does not see itself as best suited to lead the company in the long run.
"We believe GreenSky is a good business and is performing well with first quarter originations in our core home improvement loans, up over 25 percent year-over-year and a weighted FICO on total originations of over 780," Reuters quoted him as saying.
"Given our current strategic priorities, however, we may not be the best long-term holder of this business," Solomon added.
An official statement from Goldman Sachs was not issued by the time the preliminary reports emerged.
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GreenSky is part of Goldman’s new Platform Solutions unit, which also houses its credit-card partnerships like Goldman’s Apple Card alongside its transaction banking business.
Goldman had agreed to buy GreenSky for about $2.24 billion in late 2021, adding the company to its consumer-banking platform known at that time as Marcus.
But Goldman’s once-ambitious foray into Main Street has been whittled down after racking up losses faster than it anticipated.
The division’s $1 billion pretax loss reported for 2021 was mostly tied to the Apple Card while about $2 billion in 2022 mainly stemmed from the Apple card and instalment-lending platform GreenSky, Bloomberg reported in January.
With Reuters & Bloomberg inputs
