Washington,

Goldman’s core business is probably in better shape as a result of the moves — and the controversy surrounding them.

“Right or wrong, there’ll be a perception from clients, whether in sales or trading or investment banking, that the bank has a better view into DC,” he said. “The publicity probably helps, on the margin.”

Not that Goldman needed much of a boost.

All across Wall Street, banks have their tails up. The so-called “Trump trade” — the promise of lower taxes, higher interest rates and lighter regulation — has pushed shares steadily higher since the election. Many of the biggest banks saw a dip in their stock prices this week, but fourth-quarter results confirmed that the outlook had brightened.

In particular, the banks’ bondtrading arms, which were particularly hard-hit by the post-crisis rules, did much better during the quarter, thanks largely to investors resetting portfolios to get set for Mr. Trump.

At Goldman, revenues from that unit rose almost 80% during the quarter from a year earlier. Overall profits tripled. Over the whole year, pay crept up as a percentage of revenues, suggesting that the bank is digging deeper to reward its star performers.

Of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Goldman is easily the best performer since the election, up 27%.

“As we come into 2017, activity levels are quite high,” said Mr. Schwartz.

“We’ve come out of a very lowvolume, low-volatility environment for a number of years… But with the shifting policies around the globe, it’s an extraordinary catalyst for client dialogue, for decision making and for content. And that’s really where we, as a firm, want to drive value.”

Prospects for regulatory relief look good from here, too. For years, banks have complained that they’ve been squeezed too hard by the 2010 Dodd- Frank Act, which placed curbs on risktaking and forced the banks to operate with much higher levels of capital and liquidity.

If Dodd- Frank is not ripped up completely, as some hardline Republicans would like, certain provisions can get removed. And even if they stay, the operating environment could improve anyway.

More than 4,000 political appointees, many of whom hold leadership and policy- making positions at the financial regulatory agencies, will be heading out the door with the change in administration, analysts note. That should mean real changes in the way the existing rules are interpreted and enforced.

During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Mnuchin said he backed the Volcker rule ban on banks betting with federally insured deposits, which big banks have denounced as unworkable. But he also said he supported reviewing the rule’s enforcement, a view that should come as some relief to bankers struggling to make head or tail of it.

“The path to deregulation will not be an easy one, but it’s going to happen,” said Medy Agami, Chicago-based managing director at Opimas, a consultancy.

Meanwhile, the protesters say they will not let up. Leaders packed up camp yesterday morning then planned to head to Mr. Mnuchin’s apartment on the Upper East side, before a stop at the nearby Mnuchin Gallery, still run by Bob, Steven’s father. They aimed to end up at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

Some drew parallels between this week’s demo and Occupy Wall Street, an anti-bank movement that began in a park a few blocks from Goldman’s downtown HQ, and which fanned out around the globe in late 2011.

“We need to pull the curtain that is over everyone’s eyes,” said Charles Khan, a 28-year-old activist.

“[ Trump] ran on saying Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz were in the pocket of Goldman Sachs,” he said.

“But now we’re really seeing who is in the pocket of Goldman Sachs. All three were.”