GE Receives FDIC Backing for its Debt

Do you get the feeling that the financial sector is in a hostile takeover of the country?

AP
FDIC to back GE Capital debt
November 12, 3:45 pm ET

FDIC to guarantee up to $139 billion of debt issued by GE's financing arm

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co. says its massive finance business, hard hit by turmoil in the credit markets, is now eligible for federal backing of up to $139 billion of its debt.

GE says the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. approved GE Capital Corp. to participate in the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

Russell Wilkerson, a spokesman for Fairfield, Conn.-based GE, says up to $139 billion in short- and long-term debt is guaranteed. He says GE will now be on the same footing as competitors who also have federal backing.

Nearly half of GE's earnings are from its finance business, with the remainder from its industrial business that makes everything from locomotives to water treatment plants, and from NBC-Universal.