The US investment bank has shifted its focus to single share underlyings during the last twelve months.

Goldman has issued a total of 516 structured products worth US$2.9 billion, which fall under the equity single share category in the US in 2021, which more than trebles the issuance of single share products (134 products valued at US$721m) in 2020, SRP data shows.

The most featured shares on Goldman Sachs’ products during 2021 were Apple (116/US$745m) and Amazon (108 products/US$589m).

Index baskets were the dominant underlying in the equity category accounting for 1,334 products worth US$4 billion in sales, a significant 43% increase from sales during 2020 which totalled US$2.8 billion over 1,172 products. In 2021, Index baskets took over single index structures which collected US$3.3 billion in sales over 1,127 products in 2020.

In the final quarter of 2021, Goldman issued US$2.7 billion in sales across 878 products, representing a 37% jump from the same period a year prior in which sales totalled 742 products worth US$1.9 billion.

The bank was the fifth most prolific issuer group in terms of sales for the quarter and slid from third place in Q4 20. Morgan Stanley ranked first with US$3.4 billion over 857 products and was followed by Citi (924 products/US$3 billion) and J.P. Morgan (1,390 products/US$2.9 billion).

Germany

The US bank issued a total of 332,774 leverage wrapped certificate products in the German structured products market during 2021.

Several commodity underlyings emerged as popular during the year including Palladium (4,656), Silver (3,748), Platinum (3,088), Gold (2,650).

The Tesla share was also in demand accounting for 2,161 products. The most in-demand underlyings in the German market were the S&P500, Nasdaq 100, DJ Industrial Average Index, Dax/XDax, and Dax.

The investment bank also issued 103 non flow products in 2021 wrapped as investment certificates (99) and medium-term notes (four). Common payoff types included reverse convertible (101), knock out (100), snowball (55), and worst of option (seven).

Business Lines

The bank led by David Solomon (pictured) had a record year in 2021 reporting net revenues of US$59.3 billion and net earnings of US$21.6 billion for the year ended December 31, 2021. Net revenues stood at US$12.6 billion and net earnings were US$3.9 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021.

Investment banking generated record net revenues of US$14.8 billion, which were driven by record net revenues in each of financial advisory, equity underwriting and debt underwriting.

Global Markets boasted net revenues of US$22 billion, the highest annual net revenues in 12 years, reflecting positive results in both equities and fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC). Equities produced its second highest net revenues and FICC had record financing net revenues.

Asset management generated record net revenues of US$14.9 billion, including record net revenues in equity investments and the second highest net revenues in lending and debt investments.

Firmwide assets under supervision increased by US$325 billion during the year, including record long-term net inflows of US$130 billion, to a record US$2.47 trillion. Firmwide management and other fees were a record US$7.6 billion in 2021.

Click to view the bank’s Q4 21 earnings release.