Goldman Sachs 2015 Annual Report Download - page 60

THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Management’s Discussion and Analysis
Introduction
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Group Inc. or parent
company), a Delaware corporation, together with its
consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, the firm), is a leading
global investment banking, securities and investment
management firm that provides a wide range of financial
services to a substantial and diversified client base that
includes corporations, financial institutions, governments
and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is
headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all
major financial centers around the world.
We report our activities in four business segments:
Investment Banking, Institutional Client Services,
Investing & Lending and Investment Management. See
“Results of Operations” below for further information
about our business segments.
When we use the terms “Goldman Sachs,” “the firm,”
“we,” “us” and “our,” we mean Group Inc. and its
consolidated subsidiaries.
References to “the 2015 Form 10-K” are to our Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2015. All references to “the consolidated
financial statements” or “Supplemental Financial
Information” are to Part II, Item 8 of the 2015 Form 10-K.
All references to 2015, 2014 and 2013 refer to our years
ended, or the dates, as the context requires,
December 31, 2015, December 31, 2014 and
December 31, 2013, respectively. Any reference to a future
year refers to a year ending on December 31 of that year.
Certain reclassifications have been made to previously
reported amounts to conform to the current presentation.
In this discussion and analysis of our financial condition
and results of operations, we have included information
that may constitute “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are not historical facts, but instead represent
only our beliefs regarding future events, many of which, by
their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside our
control. This information includes statements other than
historical information or statements of current condition
and may relate to our future plans and objectives and
results, among other things, and may also include
statements about the effect of changes to the capital,
leverage, liquidity, long-term debt and total loss-absorbing
capacity rules applicable to banks and bank holding
companies, the impact of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) on
our businesses and operations, and various legal
proceedings or mortgage-related contingencies as set forth
under “Legal Proceedings” and “Certain Mortgage-Related
Contingencies” in Notes 27 and 18, respectively, to the
consolidated financial statements, as well as statements
about the results of our Dodd-Frank Act and firm stress
tests, statements about the objectives and effectiveness of
our business continuity plan, information security program,
risk management and liquidity policies, statements about
trends in or growth opportunities for our businesses,
statements about our future status, activities or reporting
under U.S. or non-U.S. banking and financial regulation,
and statements about our investment banking transaction
backlog.
By identifying these statements for you in this manner, we
are alerting you to the possibility that our actual results and
financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the
anticipated results and financial condition indicated in
these forward-looking statements. Important factors that
could cause our actual results and financial condition to
differ from those indicated in these forward-looking
statements include, among others, those described in “Risk
Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of the 2015 Form 10-K and
“Cautionary Statement Pursuant to the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995” in Part I, Item 1
of the 2015 Form 10-K.
48 Goldman Sachs 2015 Form 10-K