Top Goldman trader Joe Montesano leaves bank

One of Goldman Sachs’ biggest rainmakers in the stock trading business is leaving Wall Street after more than two decades.

Joe Montesano, 46, Goldman’s head of equities trading for America, is retiring from the bank, the company told employees Monday in a memo provided to the Financial Times.

Montesano exits the stock trading business after three years of huge profits, which benefited from huge stock market volatility during the Covid-19 pandemic. Goldman’s revenue from equity trading totaled $11 billion in 2022, up almost 50 percent from 2019.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the profits were so high that Montesano was paid more than the $35 million handed to CEO David Solomon in 2021. Montesano has no other job lined up yet, the person added.

Goldman confirmed the contents of the memo, first reported by Bloomberg, but declined to comment further.

Montesano joined Goldman in 1999 while working for the Hull Group, an equity derivatives market maker that the bank had acquired. In 2014 he was made a partner.

Goldman’s famous alumni network is a foundation for success, as employees who leave the bank often become customers. But during Solomon’s tenure there were a number of notable departures of senior bankers.

These include Chief Financial Officer Stephen Scherr, Co-Head of Investment Banking Gregg Lemkau and Co-Head of Asset Management Eric Lane.

However, at Goldman’s investor day last week, Solomon said the bank’s internal figures showed that overall exits were indeed at their lowest level in years.

“I keep reading about partners leaving the law firm. In 2022, Goldman Sachs had fewer partner changes than any other year at Goldman Sachs since 2014,” Solomon replied to an analyst’s question about partner changes.

“Right now, our year-to-date revenue is at a five-year low, not just across the partners but across the firm.”

Goldman’s three co-heads of Global Banking and Markets Division, Ashok Varadhan, Dan Dees and Jim Esposito, wrote in the memo that Montesano “played an important role in strengthening our franchise.”

“He provided leadership in client interaction, internal coordination and trading strategy, and was instrumental in helping our clients mitigate challenging environments and high market volatility,” the trio wrote.