Goldman To Buy GM Credit Card Business For $2.5B: WSJ

Goldman Sachs Group GS is acquiring the credit card business of General Motors Co GM for $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

What Happened: The banking giant will reportedly pay nearly $2.5 billion for the acquisition of the card business.

Goldman reportedly beat Barclays Plc BCS in bids and stands to gain access to more than a million GM card accounts with $8.5 billion in annual spending, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

The New York-based lender and GM card issuer Capital One Financial Corp COF have agreed on the broad terms, including purchase price, and the deal is expected to come to fruition in the coming weeks, as per the Journal’s sources.

The GM credit card business reportedly has about $2.5 billion in outstanding balances.

Why It Matters: Goldman entered the business last year, launching its first credit card in collaboration with Apple Inc AAPL, and purportedly continues to hunt for co-branded cards.

The purchase deal comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has led to banks deferring debts of cardholders and are bracing themselves to face billions in potential losses in event of a cascading default on such debt, the Journal noted.

The Apple card, with $4.5 billion in outstanding balances as of June 30, isn’t the only partnership Goldman has struck. 

The bank also has agreements to lend to JetBlue Airways Corp’s JBLU passengers and Amazon.com, Inc’s AMZN sellers, the Journal reported.

Payment processors like Visa Inc V and Mastercard Inc MA are also said to be supporting a move that involves encouraging car owners to make purchases from their vehicles.

GM customers can already buy food and gas from their vehicle's digital dashboards.

Price Action: Goldman Sachs shares closed 1.2% lower at $198.55 on Thursday and gained 0.3% in the after-hours session.