Discover Financial Services

Discover is the latest card lender to say it's reining in credit lines as the coronavirus pandemic leaves millions of Americans jobless and struggling to keep up on loans.

With health organizations warning of a global outbreak, banks are starting to assess the risks to their bottom lines.

The agency is investigating Discover Financial Services over student loan-servicing practices and its compliance with a 2015 consent order involving the business.

The credit card lender has seen problem loans spike since it introduced a feature that lets at-risk customers restructure loans through its online and mobile channels.

Ally and other direct banks continue to report strong deposit growth even as they slash the rates they pay to depositors. The trend suggests that the online-only approach has more staying power than its detractors believed.

It has already been modifying more problem loans and investing in efforts to recover charged-off loans, and now the credit card lender is ready to tighten underwriting in case the economy weakens.

Among the highest-ranking women at Discover, Offereins is leading the push to improve gender equity at firms throughout the Chicago region.

The credit card issuer has hired John T. Greene, a former pharmaceutical industry executive, to succeed Mark Graf, who announced his retirement over the summer.

The CEOs of Sallie Mae and Discover Financial Services were largely dismissive this week of the threat posed by the two Democratic presidential candidates, though their optimism seemed to be rooted in an assumption that the more sweeping proposals will never become law.

While loan growth continues to outpace competitors, Discover says it has been tightening its standards, given the late stage of the credit cycle.