Synchrony Financial (SYF)

[TRUISM]

Business roundup: Synchrony the new name for GE Capital
Edd Pritchard
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Oct. 6, 2014 @ 1:30 pm

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During the summer General Electric introduced Synchrony Financial, the renamed GE Capital Retail Finance business.

The change explains the new Synchrony sign along Munson Street NW in Canton outside the building that houses local GE Capital operations.

GE launched an initial public offering for Synchrony Financial in July and plans to spin off the operation.

The deal will make Synchrony Financial one of the nation’s largest consumer financial services companies, providing credit cards and services to national and regional retailers, merchants, manufacturers and more. The company traces its roots to 1932 and has maintained a presence in Stark County since the mid 1960s.

Locally the company has 950 employees who work in customer and account support, collections and fraud.

Kathy Stanton, Canton site leader, said the operation will continue to focus on customer service, engaging employees and “strong Canton community support and involvement.”
In late September, Snychrony launched a national media and branding campaign under the tagline “engage with us.” The campaign will be seen in national newspapers, on television during cable news and sports programs, and in other media.

GETTING AROUND

Andy Mattes, Diebold’s president and chief executive officer, showed up in some interesting places during the closing days of September.

He made an appearance Sept. 19 with Jim Cramer on Mad Money, the CNBC program that looks at stocks and investing.

Mattes had the chance to tell Cramer’s audience about Diebold’s efforts to improve security with automatic teller machines. That included a description of Diebold’s new product that allows customers to make ATM transactions by using their smartphone.

Cramer asked about the “crawl, walk, run” approach Mattes has taken with the effort to redirect Diebold. While Mattes said the company remains in the “crawl” stage, he noted: “We’re eyeing walk.” The six minute appearance can be found on youtube.com by searching for “Andy Mattes.”

Diebold’s top executive spoke for a few minutes on Sept. 30 at Oracle’s OpenWorld 2014 event in a presentation with Dr. Vishal Sikka, chief executive officer and managing director at Infosys.

Diebold and Infosys are working together on software development. Mattes said software will be the change agent as Diebold strives to run its service as a business instead of as a delivery channel.
During September Diebold announced a bank branch transformation project with Kinderhook Bank in Albany, New York; a software deal with Belgian Post; and expanded capabilities for SecureStat, the company’s security management portal.




TRUTH