Goldman Sachs spent $424 million on technology and communications during the first quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase and 1% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2021.

Quarterly non-compensation expenses at the $1.6 trillion bank were $3.6 billion, up 7% YoY thanks to continued investments, “particularly in technology,” that will enhance its infrastructure and support for strategic growth initiatives, Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman said during last week’s earnings call. Total quarterly operating expenses were $7.7 billion, down 18% YoY.

The bank reported Q1 net revenue of $12.9 billion, down 27% YoY and up 7% from Q4 2021.

“Client engagement is strong, catalyzed by secular trends like digital disruption and transformation across industries, and future activity will likely be bolstered by high levels of investable capital from financial sponsors,” Coleman said.

Marcus and GreenSky acquisition

Numbers for the bank’s digital platform Marcus were not broken out, although Coleman said “in terms of our aspirations to build the leading global digital consumer bank, a lot of the pieces to the puzzle are in place at this point.

“To give you a sense, our active customers in the consumer space are north of $13 million now, and that number in the fourth quarter was less than $10 million,” Coleman said.

Meanwhile, the bank added new loan customers focused on the home improvement and health care industries to Marcus with its $2.2 billion acquisition of fintech lender GreenSky Inc. in March, Chief Executive David Solomon said.

“The goal over time is to ramp up those balances onto our balance sheet,” Solomon said. “I think they had origination volumes of approximately $1.5 billion in the first quarter and so, we’re stepping into them based on that level of activity, and our ambition is to continue to grow the origination with them.”

Apple partnership

Goldman Sachs was asked during the call about its credit card and buy now, pay later partnership with Apple after reports that Apple plans to bring its payment process in-house.

“While there’s been a Bloomberg article about what Apple is doing, Apple or we have not commented on the direction of that partnership … and I would just say we’re very comfortable with the opportunity set in front of us with that partnership,” Solomon said.

Blockchain and crypto

The bank also received inquiries during the call about its plans for blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

“We’re really following a regulatory lead,” Solomon said. “At the moment, the regulatory lead for big, regulated banks is very restrictive and very, very small. I don’t have great insight into how that will or will not change during the course of 2022, but we’re engaged in dialogue with our clients.”

As for blockchain, Solomon said the bank is “extremely engaged and invested in thinking about how Goldman Sachs participates in that and how that will affect different business channels.”

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