Goldman Sachs’ Europeans can expect big bonuses for a record end to 2025
The Q4 reporting season for America’s big banks has concluded. Each bank had a standout performance – at JPMorgan, it was equities traders, at Citi it was M&A bankers, and at Morgan Stanley it was capital markets bankers. At Goldman Sachs, however, it was Europeans.
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The bank breaks out revenue by geography. Across the entire year, things were pretty stable – the Americas produced around 63% of revenue in 2025, EMEA around 24%, and Asia around 13%, more or less the same as last year. Beneath the hood, however, there was some chaos.
In the final quarter of the year, Americas revenue declined by 15%, from $9.1bn to $7.7bn. At the same time, EMEA revenue increased by 33%, from $2.8bn to $3.7bn. Their respective market shares went from 66 and 20% to 57 and 27%. Asia also went up, less dramatically, from 14% to 16%.
In terms of segments, Goldman’s investment bankers did decently, with M&A revenue increasing by 34% on 2024, equity capital markets (ECM) revenue increasing by 6%, and debt capital markets (DCM) revenue increasing by 12%. All performance were good, but none really remarkable – Citi saw a larger M&A revenue increase, and Morgan Stanley saw a larger ECM and DCM revenue increase.
It’s Goldman’s equities traders, however, who are the firm’s darlings right now. The bank noted the highest quarter for equities revenue in Wall Street history according to Bloomberg, beating its own record from Q2 of 2025, with growth of 25% in Q4 of 2025 on the same period in 2024.
Fixed income, currencies, and commodities were less of a positive note. Revenue was up only 8.9% across 2025, behind rivals. Goldman blamed the performance on its credit team, which has bled people across the entire year.
Still, it was a good year for the bank. Headcount reached 47,400 people, up 900 from the end of 2024. And it paid those people more - $399k on average, up from the $359k. The implication is that some very big bonuses are on their way later today.
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