(Bloomberg) -- Traditional consumer banks face an existential threat from new digital challengers, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive in the company’s retail unit, Marcus.
“There are two kinds of incumbent banks: There are banks that are screwed, and there are banks that don’t know they’re screwed,” said entrepreneur Adam Dell, founder of personal finance app Clarity Money that was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018. He was speaking Thursday at a financial conference in Montauk, New York.
Senior executives at Goldman Sachs have also taken shots at the quality of offerings at other banks in trying to pitch itself as a trendy new alternative. Marcus, which offers savings accounts and makes personal loans, could transform the financial industry in the way that Amazon.com Inc. disrupted retailing, Dell said.
“Goldman’s in a unique position to force the industry to be more accountable to the consumer, to not fleece the consumer out of $200 in fees per year for which they are receiving very little value,’’ Dell said.
Retail banks aren’t dying just yet. The KBW Bank Index has posted more than double the return of Goldman Sachs’s shares over the past five years.
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