• The Federal Reserve announced on 23 September that it was recommending swingeing increases in capital requirements for physical commodities.
• This could increase Goldman’s regulatory capital requirement by $7.5 billion.
• Goldman Sachs said on 18 October that its approach to commodities had been ‘misunderstood’.

It had all been going so well for Goldman’s capital planning. In June, the bank passed the Fed’s latest stress tests with flying colours. On a July earnings call with analysts, CFO Harvey Schwartz boasted how his firm was “well positioned to return excess capital to shareholders”, after “our multi-year effort to de-risk the firm”.