For the whole of 2021, earnings rose at the Wall Street firm, propelled by rising revenues. Wealth and consumer banking results were broadly stronger in the past year and fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs yesterday reported fourth-quarter 2021 net earnings of $3.94 billion and $21.84 billion for the entire year, compared with $4.506 billion a year before, and $9.459 billion for the whole of 2020.

Within its consumer and wealth management arm, US-listed Goldman Sachs said it had $751 billion of assets under management at December 31, 2021, rising from $694 billion at end-September 2021 and $615 billion a year earlier. Across the entire Goldman Sachs business, AuS was $2.47 trillion, up from $2.145 trillion a year before.

Consumer and wealth management at Goldman Sachs generated record net revenues of $7.47 billion, reflecting record net revenues in both wealth management and consumer banking. Net revenues in this area were $1.97 billion for the fourth quarter, 19 per cent higher than the fourth quarter of 2020 and 3 per cent lower than the third quarter of 2021. Net revenues in wealth management were $1.59 billion, 22 per cent higher than Q4 of 2020, due to significantly higher management and other fees, primarily reflecting the impact of higher average assets under supervision, and higher net revenues in private banking and lending, primarily reflecting higher loan balances.

Broken down by shares of net revenue for the full year, consumer and wealth management accounted for 13 per cent of the total; asset management accounted for 25 per cent; investment banking made up 25 per cent, and global markets made up 37 per cent.