Goldman Sachs’s retail banking arm Marcus is set to launch an automated investment solution in the UK by the first quarter of 2021, shifting its focus towards investment management.

The news comes over two years after Marcus originally entered the UK market in September 2018 as a high interest savings account.

The division of the US investment bank said it had 500,000 UK customers and £21 billion of deposits under management as of January 2021.

The move towards wealth management will reportedly allow Goldman to avoid the UK’s “ring-fencing rules” which were introduced in January 2019.

These rules mean banks with over £25 billion of deposits must separate core retail banking services from their investment and international banking activities.

UK consumers will also be able to access their Marcus accounts via either iOS or Android mobile apps by June.

Goldman Sachs launched Marcus Invest in the US in February, a digital platform which allocates and automatically rebalances user’s wealth across different portfolios.

“We are pivoting more into an investment and wealth provider rather than a full-service digital bank,” Marcus UK head Des McDaid told Reuters. “We have been delighted with how fast and how quickly we have grown.”

“The challenge now is how do we repeat the formula we used for savings to offer our customers an accessible platform for investing products. We are building on the US platform but making the back end and regulatory changes that are required to make it work.”

He added: “Our opportunity is strong, we start with a strong investment base of existing savers looking for an opportunity to do more with their money.”

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