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GE
Money to enter retail banking
Our
Corporate Bureau
3 March 2005
New
Delhi: GE Money, the consumer finance arm of General
Electric (GE), is planning enter into retail financing
operations in India within two years. Announcing the company's
plans, David Nissen, CEO and president, GE Money Worldwide,
said it would soon start work on getting the necessary
regulatory approvals form the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
"Although GE Money has the options of acquiring the
operations of an existing bank or starting up on our own,
it looks likely that we'll have to go the start-up way,"
Nissen said
GE's consumer finance businesses were brought under the
new umbrella brand called GE Money last December. The
company is present in consumer durables, automobiles,
credit cards and home loans. Yes Bank was the last private
joint venture to receive a banking licence.
According to Nissen GE Money is the second largest business
for GE with a total asset base of $150 billion and net
profit of $2.5 billion in 2004.
"With more than 20 per cent growth for the last five
years, we are a growth engine for GE," he added.
The company operates in 43 countries and has banking operations
in five European countries and has recently bagged a banking
licence in Thailand.
GE Money has joint ventures with Maruti Ugyog and State
Bank of India for automobile finance and credit cards.
The GE-State Bank of India venture has nearly 1.25 million
customers.
"As the incomes and the purchasing power of the Indian
consumer increases, the retail finance business here is
set to grow rapidly and we want to capture a sizeable
chunk of the market," Nissen said.
"Our loan products are aimed at medium and high net
worth individuals. The self-employed category still remains
unserviced and GE Money will reach out to them,"
said Vishal Pandit, president and CEO, GE Money India.
 In
2004, GE Money disbursed loans amounting to $1.2 billion,
a 42 per cent increase over the previous year. the company
has a 45 per cent share of the consumer durables finance
market.
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