Case Study: How Goldman Sach’s India GCC Evolved into the 2nd Headquarters

Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm headquartered in New York.

While the company has been catering to clients in India since the 1980s, it formally established its onshore presence in Mumbai, India in December 2006 after a decade-long joint venture. Since 2006, Goldman Sachs has invested over $7 billion in India and set up global capability centers (GCCs) in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

In Search of Talent and Technology – Bengaluru, 2004

When Goldman Sachs set up in presence Bengaluru in 2004, it had roughly 300 people mainly providing IT and other back-office support. Today, the Bengaluru office is home to about 8000 professionals working across a diverse range of technical and banking functions. 

Understanding the true potential of the diverse and exceptionally skilled pool of talent available in Bengaluru, the firm made a strategic decision to leverage its India-based GCC across all functions. Serving as a dynamic reflection of the company’s core functions across traditional sectors such as investment banking, asset management, and global markets, the Bengaluru center spearheads the company’s foray into newer markets like consumer banking and transaction banking. 

Not restricted to only technical functions, it powers a wide range of key banking functions like corporate cash management, liquidity management, developing rich analytics, and virtual accounts payments. Access to exceptional talent was a critical aspect of leveraging technological innovation for achieving business priorities within an in-house setup; Goldman Sachs’ Bengaluru center made this possible.

Summing up the key drivers for choosing India for its GCC, Gunjan Samtani, the country head of Goldman Sachs Services India and COO of Engineering at Goldman Sachs, said:

“India’s story starts with its demographics and its talent. What brought us here even two decades back was our ability to get access to technology and talent.”

Powering Growth and Innovation – Hyderabad, 2021

Following its massive success and growth in Bengaluru, Goldman Sachs announced the launch of a new GCC in Hyderabad in 2021. With space for approximately 2,500 professionals, this new center of excellence was established for prioritizing client onboarding activities and for establishing enterprise partnerships.

Set up with the agenda of tapping into emerging technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the center was primarily focused on enabling key business functions across engineering, finance, human capital management, and consumer business services.

Goldman Sachs’s Hyderabad Center created a diverse workforce by blending new recruits with transfers from Bengaluru, effectively facilitating a seamless transfer of knowledge and acclimatizing newcomers to the company’s culture. This simple but brilliant move ensured seamless alignment with the company’s overarching strategy for talent deployment. 

Working hand-in-glove with the New York team, the Hyderabad Center functions as a microcosm of the global HQs, aligning key business objectives and marrying technology with business. 

Creating Global Value

Combined, the Goldman Sachs India centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad constitute a talent hub second only to its New York-based headquarters, boasting a team strength of over 9,000+ professionals. 

• In recent years, the company has diversified its business portfolio by venturing into platform enterprises, notably launching new consumer banking and transaction banking initiatives. A significant portion of engineering and business operations for these endeavors are centered in their Bengaluru and Hyderabad offices, with one-third of the transaction banking team and half of the consumer banking team being based out of India.
• The Bengaluru and Hyderabad centers have been instrumental in the realization of key milestones like the launch of a cobranded credit card in partnership with Apple in 2019, and credit solutions tied with Amazon in 2020. 
• Goldman Sachs’ India GCCs were pivotal in maintaining continuity through significant periods of high volatility and high trading volumes throughout the pandemic, supporting business operations as well as the build-out of new businesses. Not just that, the firm continued to grow and hire in this period.