Goldman Sachs offloads $1 bn of personal loans from Marcus to Varde

Goldman Sachs Group has sold $1 billion of personal loans from its consumer unit, Marcus, to alternative investment firm Varde Partners, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the transaction.

Varde bought the loans at a discount to their face value last month, the report said. Goldman last year stopped personal loans under the Marcus brand and decided to wind down the $4.5 billion loan portfolio.
 

Goldman declined to respond to Reuters' request for comment, while Varde did not immediately reply.
 

The Wall Street giant booked a $470 million loss on the sale of some Marcus loans, which dragged down its first quarter results. It had announced intentions to sell parts of Marcus at an investor day in February.
 

Marcus was folded into the company's merged asset and wealth management arm last year.
 

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)