Providian Financial Corp. had a fourth quarter net loss of $481 million on revenue of $1.22 billion, compared with $214 million in net income and $1.65 billion in revenue during fourth quarter 2000.
For the year, the company had net income of $38.9 million and revenue of just under $6.3 billion, compared with net income of $651.8 million and revenue of $5.76 billion. The quarter and the year ended Dec. 31.
"We are working on longer term marketing strategies and expense reduction initiatives that will allow us to capitalize on our core competitive advantages and return to growth and profitability," Joseph Saunders, Providian’s president and CEO said in a statement.
During the fourth quarter of 2001, the company announced that it would explore selling $3 billion of higher-risk credit card receivables. It also discontinued marketing to the sub-prime marketing segment, tightened credit line increases across all segments and selectively re-priced loans that have increased risk levels.
