Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is weighing additional banking services for its new online deposit-taking platform, including checking accounts and electronic-bill payments, people familiar with the matter said.

Goldman launched its deposit website last week following the close of its acquisition of GE Capital's platform, along with some $16 billion in deposits. The Wall Street firm opted to make few changes to the site, and kept rates on savings accounts and certificates of deposit the same, to help retain existing customers.

Before the unit's sale, though, GE Capital had considered broadening the site's offerings to include other popular banking services. Goldman is now looking at how it might expand beyond the three products it now features: a savings account and two CDs, the people said.

The additional services aren't imminent, the people said. Goldman intends to wade slowly into additional offerings and may ultimately choose to stick with savings products. It's unclear if Goldman would issue debit cards or paper checks, though the firm isn't interested in pushing into credit cards, one of the people said.

"Over time we are going to take stock of what our customers want and the products to meet their needs," a Goldman spokesman said.

The additional services—and the idea of pairing them with savings accounts—are far from novel. Many firms such as Discover Financial Services and Ally Financial Inc. already offer such services to customers online.

But going deeper into retail bank products could introduce new complexity for Goldman's efforts and may also attract added regulatory interest. The firm's debut in Main Street banking has caused a stir, raising questions from bankers at other Wall Street firms, including rival Morgan Stanley.

The deposit-taking site, a major departure for a firm historically more focused on billionaires and large clients, launched a few months before the planned offering of Goldman's other foray into retail banking: an online lending platform slated to make its debut later this year.

The deposit site is part of a strategy at Goldman to improve its funding options and to diversify its business lines while its core sales-and-trading business has at times struggled. Regulators have told banks in recent years that having more retail deposits will improve their resilience in times of economic stress.

This week, Goldman executives have scrambled to keep pace with the volume of site traffic and inquiries about deposits at its call center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Some would-be customers said they have struggled to sign up for the accounts.

"We are focused on integrating the platform, ensuring its smooth functioning and delivering high levels of customer service," the Goldman spokesman said.

On Monday, the firm drew thousands of new accounts, or roughly four times more than GE Capital had signed up on any day since its launch, people familiar with the product said. They acknowledged that the site may have slowed as traffic surged, but didn't blame technical glitches. The firm has taken steps to handle more traffic on the site, and into its call center, the people said.

Write to Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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