New York-based bank Goldman Sachs is considering launching an online bank, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The name of the bank and the details of the plans are still unknown, sources told the daily.

Goldman Sachs already has about 20 billion dollars in deposits, and attracting even more deposits would make it more stable, a valuable asset during the world financial crisis.

Even though it is doing better than most of its rivals, Goldman Sachs is expected to report a net loss of about 2 billion dollars later this month.

That would be the firm's first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, the daily reported.

The possibility of opening an online bank surprised some analysts.

"This move is pretty much the polar opposite of what you think about when you think about Goldman Sachs," the report quoted Glenn Schorr, an analyst at UBS AG, as saying.

"But one of the keys to their future is being able to fund their balance sheet, and if they and others can't do it in traditional ways, it makes complete sense to explore other avenues."