Goldman Sachs’ quarterly profits rebound 78% from worst in five years

On Tuesday the bank reported a healthy increase in second-quarter profits, as trading recovered from a dismal first quarter that had forced layoffs and cuts

Goldman Sachs’ latest quarterly profits have rebounded 78% from its worst quarterly results in five years but the bank is continuing to cut its bonus pool for Wall Street workers.

On Tuesday the bank reported a healthy increase in second-quarter profits, as trading recovered from a dismal first quarter that had forced the bank to lay off hundreds of employees and cut costs across the board.

The bank said net income in the second quarter came in at $1.82bn, up from $1.05bn in the same period a year earlier. A large part of the increase was due to the bank paying a $1.45bn fine for the mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities last year.

While profits have recovered, revenue dropped 13% to $9.1bn. The drop in revenue will be passed on to staff via smaller, but still huge, bonuses. The bank set aside $3.3bn to pay salaries and bonuses, down from $3.8bn in the same period last year. This equates to about $96,000 per employee for this quarter. The second-quarter bonus cut comes on top of a 40% cut to compensation in the previous quarter.

“Despite the uncertainty created by Brexit, we achieved solid results by continuing to serve our clients across our diversified franchise and by managing our business efficiently,” Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, said in a very brief statement.

Blankfein, 61, is trying to reshape the bank after last quarter suffering its worst quarterly performance since 2011, which has led to more than 400 job cuts.

The bank, whose services had previously only been available to large companies, governments and billionaires, recently launched an online banking service for anyone with $1m minimum to deposit.

Goldman’s shares, which have fallen more than 9% so far this year, opened down 1.3% to $162.