When Goldman Sachs announces its new class of partners in November, a select band of senior bankers will be promoted into a role that comes with a $950,000 salary, access to lucrative internal investment funds, and a total pay package that stretches into millions of dollars.

Goldman is alone among the large investment banks in offering the title of partner — a hangover from its days as a private company — and it is one that chief executive, David Solomon, has looked to make more exclusive and prestigious by reducing the number of people who make it.