(May 2) – “Goldman Sachs Group, the white-shoe investment bank, is dipping its toe into the nation’s pool of individual investors,” writes Charles Gasparino in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“The New York securities firm reached an agreement with about a dozen regional brokerage firms to distribute its investment research and securities issues to Middle America, people at the firm say. The pact, set to be announced Wednesday, is Goldman’s largest foray into the market for small, ‘retail’ investors, a business the firm traditionally has shunned.”

“The Goldman move comes as banks and securities firms in recent years have made a big push into the retail-brokerage business as individual investors have increased their clout in the stock market. In 1997, for instance, blue-chip Morgan Stanley teamed up with Dean Witter Reynolds, a midsize brokerage firm, in a move that created one of the world’s largest full-service investment houses. And Swiss-banking giant UBS AG last year bought retail-brokerage house PaineWebber Group in a similar move.”

“But Goldman has remained close to its roots as an investment house dedicated primarily to institutional clients and the super rich. And Goldman officials say the firm isn’t ready to shed that image, despite the purchase in the past two years of two market makers that trade stocks for large and small investors. Instead, Goldman is looking to distribute its products and research to a broader array of clients, these executives say.”

” ‘I’m not sure we have to own’ a brokerage firm that caters to small investors, says Duncan Niederauer, a Goldman managing director who is heading up the effort. ‘We have an excellent factory for these products and these firms have the client relationships.’ “

“Goldman says the new program will give the firm access to more than 10,500 brokers nationwide at regional firms, which traditionally serve more investors around the block than around the nation. Under the agreement, firms such as Dain Rauscher Inc., a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, Raymond James & Associates Inc., William Blair & Co. L.L.C., will get access to Goldman research, secondary offerings of already public stock and convertible bonds.”