Goldman Sachs' David Solomon said there was no timeline for when current chief executive Lloyd Blankfein may step down and he will take over.
"No timeline … the board has its process. And the board will work through its process. Succession will occur when it's the right time for succession to occur," he told CNBC's David Faber on "Squawk Alley" Monday from the Milken Institute Global Conference.
The bank executive is also optimistic over the mergers and acquisitions deal-making environment for the rest of 2018.
"CEO confidence is pretty high. Correlated growth around the world is continuing at a reasonable pace. And so there is a good amount of activity that's been building," he said. "Looking at the indicators that we can see, I'd expect to see a relatively robust deal-making environment continue throughout the year."
He admitted some deals are taking longer to close due to regulatory uncertainty.
"It's complicated and it's evolving," he said. "But a lot of these transactions make sense ... These big consolidations because industry lines are blurring are really really important for people to maintain their competitive position."
Solomon became sole president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs on April 20 after Harvey Schwartz retired from the bank. Blankfein called Solomon the "CEO-in-waiting" earlier this month.
