GE Capital is the financial services unit of the American conglomerate General Electric.
GE Capital provides commercial lending and leasing, as well as a range of financial services for health care, media, communications, entertainment, consumers, real estate, and aviation. GE Capital focuses primarily on loans and leases that it underwrites to hold on its own balance sheet rather than on generating fees by originating loans and leases, then selling them to third parties. Most of GE Capital's commercial loans are to small and mid-sized companies, spread across multiple industries and geographies and secured by tangible assets. More than 70% of GE Capital's loans are under $100 million. GE Capital's consumer lending activities are also diversified by product and geography and include operations in 55 countries.
It has a number of divisions, which include GE Real Estate, GE Capital Aviation Services, GE Energy Financial Services and GE Commercial Lending & Leasing.
On July 8, 2013, the Financial Stability Oversight Council designated GE Capital as a "systemically important financial institution", which makes it subject to oversight by the Federal Reserve.
As of Q4 2014, GE Capital had 47,000+ employees worldwide, operating in more than 55 countries, with total assets of US$500 billion. It was rated AA+ with stable outlook by S&P.
On March 13, 2014, GE Capital announced that it would spin-off its North American consumer finance division under the new name Synchrony Financial by filing a S-1. On July 31, 2014, Synchrony Financial raised $2.9 billion in its IPO when GE sold 125 million shares (15%) of the company.
Operations
Czech Republic
GE Money Bank (formerly GE Capital Bank) is one of the largest financial institutions in the Czech Republic. It is a full-service bank with an extensive network of branches and ATMs. Its services focus both on retail clients and small and medium-sized enterprises. It was founded in 1997 after the acquisition of Agrobanka bank as GE Capital Bank. In the year 2000 it changed the name to GE Money Bank. Its headquarters are located in Prague. Its call center operates from Ostrava.
Denmark
GE Money Bank Denmark (previously GE Capital Bank Denmark) offers credit cards, loans and other financial solutions. Brand names include Acceptcard, Morecard and E-lån.
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
France
GE Money Bank France is born from the acquisition by GE of Crédit de l'Est and SOVAC in 1995. It provides real-estate mortgages and auto loans.
Hong Kong
GE Capital is incorporated as a Restricted License Bank in Hong Kong. Major focus is in mortgages (homes and automobile) and personal loans.
Hungary
Budapest Bank, was established in 1987 as one of the first commercial banks when the two-tier banking system was created in Hungary. Since 1995, GE (General Electric Company) as owner provides solid background for the bank. Budapest Bank offers a full range of financial and banking services for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses.
Latvia
GE Money Bank Latvia is a universal bank owned by GE in Latvia (merged from the former BTB bank and GE Money financial company), offering loan and deposit products to both private and legal entities.
Netherlands
GE Artesia Bank, a part of GE Capitals subsidiary GE Commercial Finance, offers banking services to High-net-worth individuals as well as corporates in the Netherlands. It provides capital finance, long-term finance, leasing and finance for specific international trade transactions.
New Zealand
GE Finance and insurance, trading as GE Money, is a registered financial service provider in New Zealand that provides consumer finance, personal loans and insurance products.
Norway
GE Money Bank Norge is a division of the Stockholm-based Swedish subsidiary GE Capital AB. It is a leading provider of consumer finance products in Norway with more than 300,000 clients and total lending of NOK 5 billion, second only to the major domestic bank DnB NOR.
It is the second bank in Norway to offer US style credit cards with zero annual/monthly fee and including a grace period, after Bankia Bank ASA. In the eighteen months following the launch of GE MasterCard in June 2001, the market increased to more than 100,000 US style credit cards. Before these cards, Norwegian banks only offered annual fee cards or cards with no interest free grace period.
Poland
Polish GE Money Bank S.A. is located in Gda?sk. After acquiring the Polish bank BPH SA and governing under its brand (31 Dec 2009) Polish headquarters are located in three cities: Warsaw, Kraków and Gda?sk.
Romania
In Romania GE Capital has two subsidiaries:
- GE Money, a personal finance and leasing company.
- GE Garanti Bank, a bank detained by GE Capital in a joint venture with Garanti Bank International from Turkey. GE Garanti is located in Bucharest.
Russia
Russian GE Money Bank Russia is located in Moscow.
Sweden
The Swedish subsidiary is GE Capital Bank AB. Based in Stockholm, the bank trades as GE Money Bank.
Switzerland
GE Money Bank is the largest provider of small consumer credits in Switzerland. In 2006, the company partnered with Migros, allowing them to offer credit cards contracts through Migros.
United States
Before June 2, 2014, GE Capital Bank was made up of retail and commercial banks. The company was founded in 1988 and is based in Draper, Utah. GE Capital Retail Bank provided retail banking and credit services to consumers in the United States and internationally. It offered retail sales finance, such as private label credit card programs, installment lending, bankcards, and financial services for consumers. The company also provided retail consumer financing solutions, such as private label credit cards, dual card, flex loans, and all-tender loyalty and gift cards; It offered its products and services through dealers, retailers, associations, contractors, manufacturers, healthcare practices, and service providers. The company was formerly known as GE Money Bank and changed its name to GE Capital Retail Bank in October 2011. GE Capital Retail Bank operated as a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corporation.
GE Capital Retail Bank acquired MetLife Bank from MetLife in 2011.
As of June 2, 2014, GE Capital Retail Bank is now known as Synchrony Bank. GE Capital is now composed only of the original commercial/industrial bank in the United States. GE Capital now provides credit services solely to businesses and merchants in the United States, and acts as a multi-product commercial finance bank, and uses deposit Accounts to fund commercial loans and leases.The company serves various industries, such as automotive, consumer electronics, flooring, healthcare, home furnishings and improvement, HVAC, elective health care, jewelry, landscaping and irrigation, luxury goods, marine, music, outdoor power equipment, pool and spa, power sports, recreation vehicle, sewing, sporting goods, travel, vacuum, and water treatment industries. GE Capital Bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
For more information on GE Money Bank in the U.S., see GE Money.
Former operations
Austria
Austria's GE Money (formerly GE Capital Bank) was founded in 1994 after the successful acquisition and merger of Mercurbank and AVABANK. Today, it's one of Austria's leading consumer and auto finance businesses and a market leader in retail sales financing. Based in Vienna, with a network of branches throughout the country, the business provides a variety of innovative financial services including auto lending, private lending, sales finance and third party personal lending. The primary focus is on consumers, customers and business partners, such as car dealers, retailers and loan brokers.
The Austrian division was purchased, along with the German, Finnish and British store card operations of GE Money, by the Santander Group in January 2009.
Legal Issues
In April 1997, a lawsuit against General Electric Capital Corp was filed on behalf of the company's customers who filed for bankruptcy. The GE Capital Corp. was accused of unfair debt collection practices. The class action lawsuit resulted in $100 million settlement with over 100,000 class members from 50 states. Plaintiffs claimed that the company solicited agreements from bankrupt debtors to repay their credit card debts but failed to notify bankruptcy court of the agreement. Those reaffirmation agreements legally required the debtors to continue paying off their debt in exchange for keeping the credit card, even though bankruptcy erases credit card debts. The lawsuit claimed that GE Capital was required by law to file the agreements with bankruptcy courts and did not do so. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to refund, with interest, all credit card payments made after debtors entered into the reaffirmation agreements between January 1, 1993, and June 30, 1997. GE Capital Corp. also promised to advise credit bureaus to correct any negative credit reports related to class members' failure to repay reaffirmed debt.
In June 2014, Synchrony Bank, formerly GE Capital Retail Bank, agreed to settle claims of illegal credit card practices that were filed by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the United States Justice Department by agreeing to pay $225 million to Spanish speaking consumers that were harmed by discriminatory practices and deceptive marketing.
References
External links
- Official website
- GE Capital and tax reduction
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