A subsidiary of credit card marketer Metris Cos. Inc. has agreed to buy a portion of GE Capital’s consumer bank card portfolio. Terms of the transaction, which is subject to normal regulatory approval, were not disclosed.
Sale of the credit card portfolio, which has 563,000 active accounts and $1.3 billion in receivables, is expected to close in the second quarter of 1999. The accounts will convert to the Metris subsidiary, Direct Merchants Credit Card Bank, National Association (known as Direct Merchants Bank), later this year.
“This portfolio fits our niche focus nicely,” Ronald N. Zebeck, Metris president and CEO, said in a statement. “We can leverage our expanded infrastructure in both our consumer credit and fee-based businesses to maximize the potential of this portfolio and continue our goal of creating value for our shareholders.”
GE Capital, a unit of General Electric Co., said that in its North American operations it would concentrate on its private label card businesses and its corporate card portfolios.
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