(21 July 2010 – USA) Goldman Sachs has announced the investment bank’s second-quarter earnings, revealing profit levels that have not been seen since the end of 2008.The bank’s second quarter profits fell 82 percent, with net income dropping to US$613 million (A$693 million) from US$3.44 billion in the space of a year.
Twenty-one analysts surveyed by Bloomberg on average estimated that earnings per share would settle at around US$1.99, instead coming in at a disappointing US 77 cents per share.
The earnings have been reported only five days after the investment bank agreed to pay US$550 million to settle a US Securities and Exchange Commission fraud lawsuit, in which the bank has said that it neither admits nor denies the charges by paying the settlement.