Goldman Chief Credit Strategist leaves Karoui after 18 years

(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc . ‘s chief credit strategist, Lotfi Karoui, is leaving the Wall Street bank after 18 years, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. Karoui, who was also head of research on credit, mortgages and structured products, was named chief credit strategist in 2017 and was among 95 executives promoted to partnership in November. His departure comes as Goldman Sachs’ chief US equity strategist, David Kostin, will retire from the bank at the end of the year, Bloomberg reported last month. Karoui joined Goldman in 2007 as an associate in credit strategy research. He became a managing director in 2015, according to the memo. A representative for Goldman confirmed his departure but declined to comment further. Karoui did not respond to requests for comment. Before joining Goldman, Karoui taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in finance and operations research at McGill University and HEC Montreal, where he earned his PhD in financial economics and a master’s degree in financial engineering, respectively, according to his profile on the Arab Bankers Association of North America website. He is chairman of this organization. According to ABANA, Karoui was born and raised in Tunisia. In one of his latest notes, the strategist downgraded European investment-grade bonds from banks to underweight from neutral, saying sovereign fiscal risk – particularly in France – poses more downside risk to the banking sector. (Updates with Karoui’s call in seventh paragraph. An earlier version corrected his title in fourth paragraph.) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2025 Bloomberg LP