GE planning to keep credit-card unit-CFO

Published: 25 Sep 2008 18:56:06 PST

BOSTON, Sept 25 - General Electric Co does not expect to be able to sell its $30 billion U.S. private-label credit card business in the near future, the company's chief financial officer said on Thursday.

"Clearly, we said in the second-quarter call that it was a challenging environment to find someone who wanted to take responsibility for over $30 billion of assets ... That hasn't gotten any better," Keith Sherin told investors on a conference call.

"Our plan is based on continuing to have PLCC right now," he said.

GE in December said it would try to sell the private-label credit card business to reduce its exposure to financial services and the volatility of U.S. consumer spending.