(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc . is shutting down its automated investing business for the masses after reaching a deal with Betterment.

The bank has reached an agreement to transfer clients and their assets from the unit known as Marcus Invest to Betterment, a $45 billion digital investment advisory firm. The transfer is expected to be completed at the end of this quarter.

“This acquisition further strengthens our leadership in the digital investment space,” Betterment Chief Executive Sarah Levy said in an emailed statement. The firm's assets have roughly doubled since Levy took over as CEO in late 2020. “We are excited to welcome these clients to Betterment.”

While the price of the deal is expected to be insignificant, it is another part of the consumer empire that Goldman once dreamed of that the bank is now shrinking. The New York-based firm had rolled out the robo-advisor product, which is separate from its more popular Marcus savings account offering, as part of a suite of products that were billed as a “more comprehensive banking offering for consumers”.

The banking heavyweight, known for its ability to cater to the ultra-wealthy, looked to Marcus Invest as a way to lure new customers with balances of up to $1,000. But an about-face involved Goldman giving up on most of them retail banking ambitions and retraining its focus on what it knows best: its Wall Street operations.

The bank is still building its deposit business that has helped reduce its reliance on costlier unsecured borrowing as a source of funding and has grown its balance sheets to more than $110 billion.

It was a sensible plan “to build a proper deposit franchise, which has really been a huge success for the firm,” Goldman president John Waldron said at a Semafor event last week, while discussing the arc of the bank's customer business.

Challenges arose as the bank tried to build other consumer-focused products, hoping it could leverage its big-bank position and technology while acting as a nimble disruptor, according to Waldron.

“We thought we could be competitive,” he said. “I think we've learned that it's a lot harder than we thought it was.”

Marcus Invest launched in 2021 and the bank highlighted closing more than 10,000 accounts in the first few months alone, with a majority opened by existing customers. It was hailed as an example of the progress Goldman was making in building its cross-product digital banking capabilities.

When the bank first began scaling back its consumer banking targets, it still hoped the investment vehicle would find a home, expecting to steer wealthy clients and employees at corporate partners to the more affordable advisory product. It never gained much traction, and the deal with Betterment will free up resources as it aims to expand its business with high-net-worth clients.

Goldman clients can choose not to transfer their assets to Betterment as part of the deal, which does not involve the purchase of any Goldman technology or employees.