| Goldman Sachs Launches One Million Black Women Initiative |
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“When we looked at the United States, it became clear that if you wanted to make a long-term economic difference, you had to start by supporting Black women,” said Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon, on the launch of One Million Black Women, the firm’s initiative to narrow opportunity gaps for Black women by investing $10 billion and committing $100 million in philanthropic capital for capacity-building grants over the next decade. The effort will target investments to support Black women at key moments in their lives and address the significant disadvantages they face across a range of economic measures, including access to housing, healthcare, education and capital. The firm will work with an advisory council of Black leaders from leading corporations, nonprofit organizations and government, who will play a critical role in driving the initiative forward.
Learn more about the One Million Black Women initiative.
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| Black Womenomics: Investing in the Underinvested |
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The One Million Black Women initiative draws on insights from Goldman Sachs Research’s new Black Womenomics report, which delves into the 90% wealth gap between Black and white households, its relationship with the broader economic disadvantages Black women face, and the public and private investment opportunities that can help close the divide. The report contends that addressing structural economic disparities would make for not only a fairer but also a richer society: The authors estimate that confronting the wage gap alone (which accounts for two-thirds of the wealth gap and widens throughout Black women’s working life) could add over one million jobs to the U.S. economy, and increase annual GDP by $300-450 billion in current dollars.
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| Talks at GS With NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg |
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| Above (L to R): John Waldron of Goldman Sachs and Jens Stoltenberg of NATO |
As secretary-general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg leads a political and military alliance that was designed to maintain a delicate peace in the shadow of World War II—a coalition that's since evolved to include climate change as a key focus for its 30 member nations. “Climate change—global warming—is what we call a crisis multiplier,” says Stoltenberg, who spoke with Goldman Sachs President and COO John Waldron in a recent episode of Talks at GS. “It will increase the competition for scarce resources, for water, for land. It will force people to move,” he says. “I'm not saying that climate change is the only reason for crisis and conflicts, but it may exacerbate and fuel and multiply the consequences of different conflicts in many places in the world.” The secretary-general envisions a three-part approach to the threat. “The first thing NATO should do, and we are starting to do that, is to have the best possible understanding of the link between climate change, global warming, and security threats and conflicts,” he says. “The second thing we should do is that we need to adapt the way we conduct our [military] missions, operations—how we do our work. Because we have to understand that the military, they operate, at least mostly, out there in nature.” Last is the alliance’s own role in contributing to climate change. “We could try to reduce emissions,” says Stoltenberg, “because today’s military operations are normally extremely energy consuming.”
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| How Institutional Investors Are Thinking About Crypto Assets |
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Institutional investors are increasingly focused on investment opportunities in crypto assets, says Goldman Sachs' Mathew McDermott, who relayed how the assets are dominating client conversations—and at a more technical level—on a recent Exchanges at Goldman Sachs podcast. “The questions are not really, ‘What is it?’…It's more about ‘How can we get exposure, what are the instruments we can transact?’” McDermott, who is global head of Digital Assets for the firm, says the surge in trading crypto can be seen across a diverse investor base, citing findings from a recent Goldman Sachs survey of institutional clients. “40% of the clients currently have exposure to cryptocurrencies,” he says, while “61% of clients expect their digital asset holdings to increase over the next year.” It’s a significant shift from where the cryptocurrency market was a few years ago. “2017 was very much a retail-driven market,” McDermott says. “This time around, we've just seen a huge volume of institutional demand across the broad spectrum of different industry types. And as a function, you're seeing incumbent banks now explore ways that they can develop products to satisfy that client demand, enabling them to gain exposure to the different cryptocurrencies.”
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| The Daily Check-In With Goldman Sachs |
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| Above (L to R): Mike Swell, Anna Skoglund and Katherine Tait of Goldman Sachs |
While mounting concerns over inflation spooked the bond markets and other risk assets in recent weeks, such fears are likely overblown, says Goldman Sachs’ Mike Swell, who oversees a team that manages $700 billion in fixed income assets. Investors are “concerned [that] with the very significant recovery we’re seeing in the economy—along with a lot of debt issued by the government—we’re going to see a significant increase in inflation,” he says in a recent episode of The Daily Check-In. But more broadly, Swell notes that labor market slack, productivity gains and globalization will likely keep inflation in check for longer than the market is currently expecting. “As we look into 2022, you’re likely to see growth normalize, inflation normalize. And the Fed is going to keep the money easy and, as a result, it’s going to be a good environment for risk assets and it’s going to be a decent environment for fixed income assets as well.”
In other episodes of The Daily Check-In, Anna Skoglund of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division discusses the increase in private equity deal volumes in Europe this year and Goldman Sachs Research’s Katherine Tait explains why venture capital in the education sector had its best-ever year in 2020 as the pandemic reshaped the future of learning.
For more Daily Check-In videos, subscribe to our channel on YouTube.
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| March QuickPoll: Moving to a ‘Post-Pandemic Regime’ |
After dealing with the recent volatility in interest rates, investors are shifting their focus to central bank activity and economic data, according to the latest Marquee QuickPoll survey of close to 700 Goldman Sachs institutional investor clients. Here are highlights:
Rate Moves Coming to an End? Investor sentiment suggests that a jump in interest rates is still expected but not for long: A majority of respondents think interest rates will increase in March, but only 9% expect 10-year rates to end the month above 1.60%.
Central Bank Policy in the Spotlight. COVID-19 epidemic data and vaccine developments were by far the primary (and only) variable investors were watching in past QuickPoll surveys, but focus is now shifting to central banks and macro indicators. COVID remains top of mind for 39% of respondents this month, but 33% of investors are now keeping an eye out for central bank statements and 16% are looking to U.S. economic data. “In our view, this likely marks the end of the ‘pandemic regime’ for markets and the beginning of a ‘post-pandemic’ one,” says Oscar Ostlund, head of content for Marquee, the digital platform for the Global Markets Division.
Portfolio Rotation to Inflation-Sensitive Assets. Investors turned bearish on gold, the price of which typically falls when real rates rise—with about 35% of respondents expecting the price to be weakened further by the end of the month. Meanwhile, investors continue to have a bullish view on other commodities such as crude and copper. “We’ve seen many investors shift their views on gold and significantly reduce their enthusiasm on emerging market equities, which were the second-favorite asset class last month but have significantly sold off,” Ostlund says.
For more information about QuickPoll and Marquee, reach out to the team.
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| Briefly…on the Path to Net-Zero Emissions and Inclusive Growth |
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Just over a year into Goldman Sachs' 10-year plan to deploy $750 billion toward accelerating the climate transition and advancing inclusive growth, the firm has reached a fifth of its target. We sat down with John Goldstein, head of the firm’s Sustainable Finance Group, to discuss progress, client concerns and the impact of the pandemic on companies’ sustainability goals.
John, soon after the firm announced its sustainability goal in late 2019, the world went into lockdown. Can you describe how the pandemic affected companies’ sustainability objectives in 2020?
John Goldstein: Last year was undoubtedly a year of volatility and complexity, but the one constant was the growing interest and focus in sustainable finance and ESG as evidenced by the fact that in 2020 alone we reached a fifth of our $750 billion 10-year target. The pandemic served as a stress test for the industry—which it passed with flying colors. The strong performance of ESG investments during the first-quarter downturn was rewarded with greater focus and capital flows as the year progressed. In addition, the pandemic reminded people of how quickly the world can change and how important these emerging changes can be to portfolios. Factors that may not have always been incorporated in traditional financial models can have significant financial impacts. From our perspective, 2020 highlighted the importance of both elements of our sustainability approach which focuses on two interconnected themes: climate transition and inclusive growth.
Can you describe the firm’s approach to sustainability—how did you come to decide on these two themes?
John Goldstein: When we first announced our sustainability approach in 2019, people immediately understood the focus on climate transition, but were less certain about the focus on inclusive growth. Well, 2020 was a stark reminder that both pillars are essential. The pandemic gave us a health and employment crisis while highlighting the deeply visible manifestations of the ongoing racial inequalities, particularly in the U.S. You could say that the social component of ESG has climbed into the front seat with the environmental concerns.
So let’s talk about how the first year of allocating capital went. How did the firm approach making its targets a reality?
John Goldstein: A big part of achieving our goal during the first year stemmed from the fact that we were able to leverage the strengths across the organization. Soon after we announced our 10-year target, we created a new team, the Sustainable Finance Group, to coordinate our sustainability efforts across the firm. Shortly thereafter, we launched dedicated sustainability councils within all of our businesses, each led by a senior leader within the firm, to integrate sustainability solutions into our work with clients.
What's an example?
John Goldstein: One example I would highlight is the work that we did with our Global Markets Division where we incorporated ESG data into the division’s trading capabilities. That in turn helped clients achieve their ESG goals either broadly or in specific areas, such as lowering their carbon footprint in their portfolios. We essentially served as a product incubator within divisions to understand the market need for new strategies for their clients. The division, in turn, scaled the products and strategies more broadly.
What types of strategies resonated most with clients?
John Goldstein: Climate solutions were a key focus for clients across the firm. For example, we’ve worked with our colleagues in the Asset Management Division to provide growth financing to Swedish manufacturer Northvolt AB to support the construction of a lithium-ion battery factory that will expand the market for electric vehicles in Europe. For our public market investors, we’ve developed ESG strategies in our trading and asset management businesses and are accelerating global power solutions through our structuring services in the Global Markets Division. In the Investment Banking Division, we were part of the largest corporate sustainability bond for Alphabet; the largest IPO for a solar company, Shoals Technologies; and helped clients issue more than $35 billion in COVID-19 relief bonds. What we’ve learned is that there are multiple ways to help clients meet their decarbonization goals across the firm. In fact, making sustainability a core commercial focus for us has not only allowed us to scale ESG and inclusive growth strategies across the breadth and depth of our organization to meet our clients’ goals, but doing so has also enabled us to tie it into our own funding strategy as we recently did with the issuance of our $800 million green bond.
Finally, what do you see as the key ESG and sustainability priorities for companies this year?
John Goldstein: Investors and corporates are all looking at moving sustainability considerations from the periphery to the core of their organizations. That means that for investors, it’s not just about ESG products—it’s about all of their investing products. It’s not about their sustainability report—it’s about their annual report. For us, our focus will continue to remain on incubating and launching new product offerings within our divisions in partnership with our clients and—in particular—to accelerate our efforts to work as one firm to meet clients’ needs.
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| Goldman Sachs Media Highlights |
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