General Electric (GE) is planning plans a major expansion of its retail banking business in emerging European and Asian markets, with a view to competing with Citigroup, not only in credit cards and European consumer lending, but such as checking and savings accounts – or so claims a report in the Wall Street Journal. It quotes GE Consumer Finance CEO David Nissen as saying retail banking is “another weapon to compete with.”
According to the newspaper, GE plans to test its expansion strategy in central and eastern Europe, an expected high-growth region where GE Consumer Finance already has retail bank branches (in the Czech Republic and Hungary). Nissen said he wants to use acquisitions to double or treble GE’s estimated $6 billion of assets in the region in three to five years. He also said he wants growth in Asia on an “opportunistic basis” in what he called “all major economies”.
The newspaper said countries ripe for retail expansion include Russia, where GE this month agreed to buy Deltabank for $150 million. It said they also include Turkey, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand. For its part, Citigroup aims for a top-five market share ranking in major central and eastern European countries, and has so far achieved that only in Poland.