Goldman hopes to put grim FICC year behind it

Goldman Sachs spent much of 2017 with its fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) under the same level of scrutiny that Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman used to hate a few years ago.

Goldman has underperformed peers throughout the year, with much of the blame lying at the door of its commodities business. And so CFO Marty Chavez had to spend much of his full-year results call in January tackling the issue again, even after COO Harvey Schwartz had outlined a big strategic update in September.

Chavez talked of the industry-wide headwinds facing the fixed income sales and trading business, but while the glimpse of a chink in the formidable Goldman armour seemed curious in the second quarter of 2017, it is starting to have the ring of familiarity.