More than a third of the 94 Goldman Sachs staff today named to the bank’s top echelon in the latest biennial partner draft, and the smallest since 2002, work outside the US, in a further sign of the growing importance placed on international business by Wall Street banks.

US staff make up roughly 60% of the new partners, with a quarter drawn from Goldman's operations around Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 15% from its Asian businesses, according to a source at the bank.