Goldman Sees Opportunity in Eurozone Crisis

Goldman Sachs (GS: 95.10, +0.49, +0.51%) sees expansion potential in Europe as the euro crisis steers banks toward reducing their balance sheets, the president of the investment bank said on Thursday. Gary Cohn said in a presentation at the Sanford C. Bernstein conference in New York that Goldman was going contract by contract to understand what its exposures could be if one or more countries stopped using the euro and reverted to their original currencies. Earlier Thursday, the European Commission's top economic official warned the euro zone was at risk, as the currency hit a two-year low against the dollar. Cohn highlighted the opportunities in deleveraging, as European banks reduce their balance sheets by what he said could be up to $2 trillion. "We see a really interesting potential -- and potential is the key word -- opportunity in Europe," he said in response to a question about growth on the troubled continent. "We think we are uniquely positioned, with a handful of other institutions, where we've got the capital, we've got the client contacts, we've got the ability to value and we've got the ability to help European financial institutions move large portions of their balance sheet relatively efficiently," he said. Continue reading this article

.