GE Consumer Finance buys Bankard from RCBC

GE Consumer Finance (GECF) has acquired credit card firm Bankard Inc. following the recent launch of GE Money Bank, a thrift and savings bank.

Bankard is a 72-percent owned subsidiary of RCBC Capital Corp., which, in turn, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of universal bank Rizal Commecial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

The RCBC board of directors reported that it had "accepted the GECF proposal to acquire substantially all of Bankard’s assets and to assume certain liabilities related to its credit card-issuing and cards-present merchant acquiring businesses."

The proposal will be submitted for approval at Bankard’s annual stockholders meeting on July 28.

"This exercise is part and parcel of bigger plans to transform Bankard into a more attractive vehicle for groundbreaking and exciting businesses that will result in a more profitable entity going forward," RCBC executive vice chairman and chief executive officer Rizalino S. Navarro said in a statement.

GECF, a unit of General Electric Co., is based in Stamford, Connecticut, and is a leading provider of credit services to consumers, retailers and auto dealers in approximately 50 countries around the world.

Bankard is a joint issuer of MasterCard, Visa and JCB. It was ranked sixth overall among the local insurers which are mostly commercial banks.

Last year, it registered a net loss of P422.2 million, which was slightly better than the P577.4 million loss in 2004. In 2003, it made profits of P86 million.

After the first three months of 2006, it reported a net loss of P247 million. — Ted Torres