Goldman Lowers Range for Legal Costs -- Update

By Justin Baer 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lowered the top end of a range of "reasonably possible" legal costs to $3.2 billion, the Wall Street firm said Thursday in a regulatory filing.

Goldman's estimate for the expenses, which are above what the firm had already set aside in legal reserves, had reached a high end of $3.7 billion three months ago. Those reserves went up during the second quarter; provisions for legal and regulatory matters totaled $284 million in the three months that ended in June, Goldman reported last month.

Thursday's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission also added a new item to the list of regulatory inquiries it faces. The firm noted that its U.S. alternative-trading system was among those businesses under review.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Goldman was among those banks facing scrutiny from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's probe into whether high-speed trading firms enjoy unfair advantages over other investors in trading stocks. Goldman operates a private trading venue called Sigma X.

Goldman also said in its filing on Thursday that its traders lost money on eight separate days during the second quarter. The New York's firm also reported five days in which trading revenue topped $100 million.

The firm's credit exposures in Russia, which faces U.S. sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, totaled $473 million as of June. Its market exposure in the country was $624 million, Goldman said in the filing.

As of March, Goldman's total credit and market exposure to Russia totaled about $1 billion, the firm said in a prior filing. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on the increase.

Goldman said its exposure to Argentina, which recently defaulted on its debt, and Ukraine wasn't material as of June.

Write to Justin Baer at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires