Ask the top executives at almost any investment bank or universal bank of note in the world to define their own institution in terms of the competition and they’ll likely compare themselves with the same iconic firm. Goldman Sachs remains the investment bank against which the rest of the industry routinely benchmarks itself. It’s hugely galling to all of its rivals that six years after it went public, that firm retains much of the mystique that cloaked it as a private partnership.
That mystique centres on its astonishing earnings power. But Goldman plays a smart game. Off the record, a senior executive at one of the world’s top three banks makes a...
