Goldman Sachs’ top managers told equity analysts at Bernstein Research that their firm has not lost many customers in the wake of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit.
“We have seen no degradation of business,” senior managers told Bernstein Research analysts in a meeting on April 30. The actual report based on the findings of the meeting was published on Tuesday.
The senior executives who met with Bernstein analysts included Gary Cohn, Goldman’s COO and president, David Viniar, Goldman’s CFO, and its co-head of investment banking, David Solomon.
Bernstein currently has an “outperform” rating on Goldman stock.
“Assignments that Goldman had anticipated winning have been won and trade flows remain in line with expectations,” Bernstein analysts said.
Goldman said that the only sector that has experienced negative impact has been the firm’s municipal and government business. According to the Bernstein analysts report, Goldman has relationships with 80 governments around the world and it has lost one or two pieces of business in this client sector since the announcement of the SEC’s investigation of the CDO transaction ABACUS 2007-AC1.
According to the report, Goldman’s most senior management has been visiting clients worldwide to discuss the SEC litigation and the CDO transaction’s details.
Last month, the SEC charged Goldman and a Goldman employee, Fabrice Tourre, with fraud. The investment banking firm was accused of misstating and omitting key facts about a security tied to subprime mortgages that cost investors more than $1 billion.
Goldman shares on Tuesday were trading slighly higher at $150.98 a share.
