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AFP
New York
Goldman Sachs reported higher third-quarter profits Tuesday, boosted by higher interest rates and lower tax expenses.
The iconic Wall Street investment bank, led by newly-installed Chief Executive David Solomon, reported profits of $2.5 billion for the quarter ending September 30, up 20.5 percent from the year-ago period.
Revenues climbed 3.8 percent to $8.6 billion.
Performance was mixed in some key businesses compared with last year. Goldman scored a big jump in equity underwriting revenue, but debt underwriting revenues fell and financial advisory revenues were little changed.
Goldman notched a drop in revenues from fixed income trading, but equities trading revenues jumped.
Goldman described volatility levels in equity trading as low in the third quarter, which preceded the period of turbulence in US stocks in much of October.
The bank attributed lower set-asides for tax payments to the benefit of the US tax cut legislation, which dropped the tax rate for the first nine months of 2018 to 19.0 percent from the 19.4 percent that was in place the first half of the year.
"We delivered solid results in the third quarter driven by contributions from across our diversified client franchise,"Solomon said."We remain well positioned to continue delivering for our clients and shareholders."
