WASHINGTON GE Capital Consumer Card Co. of Mason, Ohio, won government approval to switch from a state charter to a federal savings bank and changed its name to GE Financial Corp.
The Office of Thrift Supervision said the $494 million-asset subsidiary of GE Capital Corp. will continue to operate primarily as a credit card bank but will now offer additional consumer loan products. For example, the thrift plans to offer a debt consolidation product, the agency said.
Many banks got shares in the lucrative payments network when it went public in 2008. Some of them are now looking to sell in order to offset losses on their sales of underwater bonds.
Depositors are still flocking to online-only banking platforms offered by companies such as Ally, Capital One and Discover. But overall customer satisfaction took a "statistically significant" drop, according to a new J.D. Power report.
Executives of Allegiant, Breeze and Spirit complained to the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Transportation that the relationships between big banks and big airlines are anticompetitive. Consumer advocates also questioned whether large airlines are delivering on promised rewards and if consumers are racking up debt to accrue miles and points.
The Federal Reserve Thursday released a report on its climate stress test pilot assessing the impact of climate change on big bank portfolios and found that loan defaults could increase as a result of climate events and shifts toward a lower carbon economy.
Banks are turning to the same hyperscalers for cloud computing and generative AI. Some wonder what the consequences will be down the road.
The next major chance the lawmakers could have on the so-called "swipe fee" legislation will come next year as Congress looks toward a tax package.
