Walmart Inc. has lured a pair of senior Goldman Sachs bankers to help lead a new fintech startup as the retail giant muscles into the banking business.
David Stark, one of his top lieutenants at Goldman will join him, the people said, asking not to be identified as the moves haven’t been announced.
Omer Ismail, the architect of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s foray into consumer banking, is leaving to join Walmart, a stunning setback for the investment bank’s plans to go beyond its traditional strengths.Ismail is departing to lead the retailer’s fintech venture, according to people with knowledge of his plans.
“Our business has serious momentum and a deep and growing bench of talent,” said Andrew Williams, a Goldman Sachs spokesman. “We wish these two well.” Walmart didn’t immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
A spokesman for Goldman declined to comment. Walmart didn’t immediately respond to calls seeking comment
Goldman had just entrusted Ismail and Stark with bigger roles. Ismail formally assumed control of the consumer arm — known as Marcus — at the beginning of the year. But he’s been tied to it ever since Goldman’s merchant bank set up the side project several years ago.
Ismail helped formulate the plan for Marcus, the biggest strategy refresh the firm has seen in three decades. The company ultimately resolved to make itself a serious force in digital banking.
Stark, a fellow partner at the firm, played a key role in Goldman’s partnership with Apple Inc. on a credit card, for which the bank provides the financial backbone. Weeks ago, Goldman named Stark as the head of large partnerships. That’s a key peg for Marcus’s growth, which has already struck deals with the likes of Amazon, Walmart and JetBlue.
Walmart’s move — depriving one of Wall Street’s elite firms of the talent atop its own foray into online banking — underscores the seriousness of the retailer’s intent to intertwine itself in the financial lives of its customers. The audacious poaching punctuates years of warnings by bank leaders that their industry faces tough new challengers, after regulators smoothed the way for corporate giants and Silicon Valley to expand into payments and other services.
Ismail, in particular, offers rare credentials. He’s credited as one of the key architects behind Goldman’s push into Main Street, seeing through the growth of Marcus into a billion-dollar business in five years.
The departures are a setback for Goldman, which had just entrusted Ismail and Stark with bigger roles. Ismail formally assumed control of the consumer bank at the start of the year. But he’s been tied to it ever since Goldman’s merchant bank set up the side project several years ago.
Walmart said in January it aims to combine its “retail knowledge and scale with Ribbit’s fintech expertise” to serve shoppers and associates. Walmart will own a majority of the new venture, but in Ribbit, it has a partner that’s made big bets in the fintech space including backing Robinhood Markets Inc., the popular no-fee brokerage.
Ismail’s predecessor Harit Talwar is still a chairman at Marcus and will probably continue to play a key role with the division after Ismail’s exit. The unit also hired a former Stripe Inc. executive Swati Bhatia as the head of its direct-to-consumer business earlier this
