Goldman Sachs Launches GS Bank, An Internet Bank With A $1 Minimum Deposit (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader recaps a report from TechCrunch: Traditionally, Goldman Sachs has functioned like a run-of-the-mill investment bank with minimums to open an account in the range of $10 million, and returns not guaranteed. Goldman is opening its doors to the masses today with the launch of GS Bank, an FDIC-insured, internet-based savings bank. Anyone with an internet connection and a dollar can join, as that is what each account's minimum balance must be. GS Bank's interest rates give customers an annual yield of 1.05 percent, a rate that trumps the average U.S. saving's bank yield of .06 percent APY. GS Bank was a result of Goldman's acquisition of GE Capital Bank, the online retail bank previously run by General Electric's capital arm. The move is to diversify revenue streams and strengthen liquidity. GS Bank currently has total deposits of around $114 billion. In other news from the multinational banking firm, Goldman Sachs believes virtual-reality and augmented-reality "will be the next generation computing platform" worth $80 billion by 2025.

Comments

Ooooh~~

[Edis Krad]

Goldman Sachs!
Synonym with trustworthiness and financial stability. Just exactly where I want to put all my money in!

Re:Ooooh~~

[Desler]

Of course they shorted it because they set up the whole thing to fail in the first place.

Re:Ooooh~~

[ShanghaiBill]

why did they need the bailout then?

GS did not need a bailout. Their customers/victims did. They received some TARP money, but they certainly didn't need it.

False advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anyone with an Internet connection and a dollar" cannot open an account. By my estimate only around 4% of the population qualify to open an account due to the need for a US social security number, a US address and a US phone number as well as an internet connection. So perhaps a better headline would be: Goldman Sachs offers bank account only to a globally wealthy elite. Much more in line with their usual type of business.

Re:Which rock did you crawl out from under?

[ScentCone]

If you have enough money to pay for your crimes, you just pay your way out of the US justice system with settlements.

Unless that's not the case, and you've done something criminal while working, and you get charged with a crime and you go to jail. Which happens regularly even amongst very well-off circles. Why? Because when individuals do crimes, especially in industries that leave a huge paper trail, the evidence doesn't go away. So, instead of generalities, name the names of the people at GS who committed specific crimes, and name the crimes that the DoJ decided not to charge those individual people with. You know, since you haven't been under a rock, you'll have that list of DoJ-knew-who-committed-crimes-but-elected-not-to-charge people somewhere handy. Do tell.

Re:Fuck Goldman right in the Sachs

[bloodhawk]

No idea on which people there specifically belong in jail. But do you really think GS would pay 5.1 billion in compensation for fraud in a settlement with the DOJ if it was innocent? It was a disgrace that they were able to pay their way out of criminal charges.

Re:Which rock did you crawl out from under?

[mrchaotica]

What should have happened is every employee above a certain pay grade should have been brought up on RICO charges and the corporation itself should have lost its charter and been dissolved.