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GE $126 Billion Asset Sales Set Up Too-Big-to-Fail Exit

  • Bid to shed SIFI status to come in first quarter, Sherin says
  • GE Capital sees disposals `substantially done' by end of 2016
The company logo sits submerged in a testing pool at the General Electric Co. (GE) manufacturing plant in Montrose, U.K., on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013.

The company logo sits submerged in a testing pool at the General Electric Co. (GE) manufacturing plant in Montrose, U.K., on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013.

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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General Electric Co.’s sweeping plan to divest its U.S. finance operations neared completion Tuesday, putting the industrial giant on the verge of ending its status as a too-big-to-fail lender.

GE intends to apply in the first quarter to drop its federal designation as a systemically important financial institution, said Keith Sherin, chief executive officer of the GE Capital unit. A deal Tuesday with Wells Fargo & Co. to sell $32 billion in assets brings the agreed-upon disposals to $126 billion and leaves just one sizable U.S. division left to unload.