Goldman Sachs has started cutting from its brokerage in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs focused its U.S. layoffs on its trading floor and IBD last year. Now, it's turned its attention to the back office and client-facing broker-dealer professionals.

Goldman Sachs has laid off various people – vice presidents and above – from its execution and clearing division, some based in New York, others in Chicago.The latest exits come from its Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing (GSEC) subsidiary, which provides brokerage and investment services.

The VPs include Brian Seiter and Kenneth Tapia, both based in Chicago, as well as New York-based Ronald Artzi and Keith Muccigrosso, according to sources close to the situation.

Meanwhile, New York-based managing director Robert Boylan has also left Goldman. He worked at Bloomberg for close to 13 years followed by five years as a director at Credit Suisse before joining Goldman’s equities division in 2010.

Seiter joined Goldman in 2005, Tapia in 2012, Artzi in 2007 after coming over from Bank of New York Mellon and Muccigrosso joined in 2010.

“These former GSEC coverage guys have been slowly but surely chopped over the last several years,” the source said. “I think they’re mostly a victim of the move towards coverage reps that are more quant-focused and can help with algo selection, analytics and etcetera.”

A Goldman spokesperson did respond to an inquiry but had not commented at the time of this article's publication.

Back in 2014, Goldman got rid of less-profitable prime-brokerage clients and told others that it needed to charge bigger fees in order to justify holding the capital on its accounts.

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