Providian

Last updated

Providian Financial Corporation
TypeAcquired; formerly Public (NYSE: PVN)
Industry Finance and Insurance
Founded1997
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Key people
 Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman, President, & CEO
Anthony F. Vuoto, Vice Chairman & CFO
Warren Wilcox, Vice Chairman of Planning and Marketing
Products Financial services
Revenue$2.6 billion USD (2004)
Number of employees
3,500
Parent Washington Mutual Inc (at time of acquisition)
JPMorgan Chase (since 2008)

Providian Financial Corporation was one of the leading credit card issuers in the United States when it was sold to Washington Mutual for approximately US$6.5 billion in October 2005. Providian was headquartered in San Francisco, California, and had more than 10 million card holders at the time of its sale. Washington Mutual, Inc., continued to run the company as a wholly owned subsidiary, out of its San Francisco headquarters. At its peak, the company employed approximately 13,000 people nationwide. Providian had significant operations in California, New Hampshire, and Texas.

Contents

History

In 1981, Parker Pen acquired two banks to start a credit card company by the name of First Deposit, based in San Francisco. In 1984, First Deposit was sold to the Kentucky insurance company Capital Holding, later renamed Providian. [1] [2] When Providian's insurance operations were acquired by Aegon, Providian's credit card business was spun off as a separate company. [3]

Providian was a company that sold credit in the "subprime" market. Providian provided credit cards primarily to the lowest income groups in the U.S. at high interest rates. The annual percentage rates (APR) charged by Providian were as high as 29.9 percent.

In a March 1999 memorandum published by the San Francisco Chronicle, the founder of the company, Andrew Kahr, asked company executives about its customers: "Is any bit of food too small to grab when you're starving and when there is nothing else in sight? The trick is charging a lot, repeatedly, for small doses of instrumental [sic]credit." Many critics contended that the extended credit makes the borrower poorer than before the credit was extended. Having the opposite effect on officers and directors of the company, making them conspicuously wealthier. David Alvarez, former president of the integrated-card unit, made a US$12.2 million profit selling his stock before the company disclosed that it was in deep trouble. Larry Thompson sold all his stock having a value of approximately US$4.7 million following his confirmation hearing and a short time before Providian's financial problems became public information and the stock price plummeted.

Class action suits

Beginning in mid-1999, a number of class-action suits were filed against the company regarding aggressive sales tactics for various "credit protection" services being sold to Providian credit card holders.

On November 7, 2000, the Hon. Stuart R. Pollak of the Superior Court of California, the City and County of San Francisco, granted final approval to a settlement agreement in the case, and certified a settlement class. The settlement required Providian to pay over $100 million in cash, credits, and other benefits to the class, and to stop certain practices that were at issue in the class actions. Combined with an earlier settlement with governmental entities, the award constitutes the largest settlement ever against a credit card company for alleged widespread unlawful business practices.

Providian National Bank and its parent company, Providian Financial, were accused of deceiving and unfairly charging its customers since June 1995. The case was initiated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2000, Providian agreed to reimburse $300 million to 3 million customers, who were victims of misleading sales pitches and charged for products they did not want, including Providian credit-protection plan, balance transfers, annual fees, and other services. The settlement was the largest enforcement action ever by the OCC and is the first enforcement action under the Federal Trade Commission Act by a bank regulatory agency. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citigroup</span> American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation

Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998; Travelers was subsequently spun off from the company in 2002. Citigroup owns Citicorp, the holding company for Citibank, as well as several international subsidiaries. Citigroup is incorporated in Delaware.

Citibank, N. A. is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City Bank of New York. The bank has 2,649 branches in 19 countries, including 723 branches in the United States and 1,494 branches in Mexico operated by its subsidiary Banamex. The U.S. branches are concentrated in six metropolitan areas: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Miami.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visa Inc.</span> American multinational financial services corporation

Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards. Visa is one of the world's most valuable companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bank of America</span> American multinational banking and financial services corporation

The Bank of America Corporation is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, with investment banking and auxiliary headquarters in Manhattan. The bank was founded in San Francisco, California. It is the second-largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase, and the second-largest bank in the world by market capitalization. Bank of America is one of the Big Four banking institutions of the United States. It serves approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Bancorp</span> American bank holding company

U.S. Bancorp is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, and is the fifth largest banking institution in the United States. The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions. It has 3,106 branches and 4,842 automated teller machines, primarily in the Western and Midwestern United States. It is ranked 117th on the Fortune 500, and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. The company also owns Elavon, a processor of credit card transactions for merchants, and Elan Financial Services, a credit card issuer that issues credit card products on behalf of small credit unions and banks across the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barclaycard</span> Barclays bank credit card

Barclaycard is a brand for credit cards of Barclays PLC. As of 2010, Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital One</span> Bank holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia

Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States and has developed a reputation for being a technology-focused bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egghead Software</span> Technology company based in Bellevue WA, USA

Egghead Software was an American computer software retailer. Founded in 1984, it filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and its domain name was acquired by Amazon.com.

HSBC Finance Corporation is a financial services company and a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings. It is the sixth-largest issuer of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the United States. HSBC Finance Corporation was formed from the legal entity that had been known as Household International—shortly after Household International settled for US$486 million in charges pertaining to predatory lending, after burning through $389 million in legal fees and expenses—and is now expanding its consumer finance model via the HSBC Group to Brazil, India, Argentina and elsewhere.

Andrew Seth Kahr is an American mathematician and financial consultant. He was the founder and CEO of First Deposit Corp., which was later acquired by Providian.

NextCard, Inc. was a United States company that was one of the first issuers of credit cards online, and the first to offer instant online approval. Its headquarters were located in San Francisco, California and maintained offices in Livermore, California and at 44th St. and Van Buren in Phoenix, Arizona. The issuing bank was known as NextBank and was fully owned by NextCard, Inc.

Advanta was an American banking company. It controlled two banks, Advanta Bank Corp and Advanta National Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First National Bank of Omaha</span> United States bank

First National Bank Omaha is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The namesake and leading subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, it is the third largest privately held bank subsidiary in the United States with $17 billion in assets and 4320 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affinion Group</span> American corporation

CXLoyalty is a private company based in Stamford, Connecticut that provides customer engagement and loyalty programs. Affinion designs, markets, and services programs that deal with customer relationships for other businesses. The company says it reaches 250 million consumers in 20 countries. In 2006, Affinion Group was cited by Forbes as number 321 on its list of largest private companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanquis Banking Group</span> English subprime bank

Vanquis Banking Group, formerly Provident Financial plc, is specialist bank for UK adults who are not served by mainstream lenders. Based in Bradford, England, it specialises in credit cards, online loans and consumer vehicle finance. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wells Fargo</span> American multinational banking and financial services company

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and internationally. The company has operations in 35 countries with over 70 million customers globally. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board. Wells Fargo, in its present form, is a result of a merger between the original Wells Fargo & Company and Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. While Norwest was the nominal survivor, the merged company took the better-known Wells Fargo name and moved to Wells Fargo's hub in San Francisco. At the same time, its banking subsidiary merged with Wells Fargo's Sioux Falls-based banking subsidiary. Wells Fargo became a coast-to-coast bank with the 2008 acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wachovia</span> Defunct banking company

Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total assets. Wachovia provided a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services. At its height, it was one of the largest providers of financial services in the United States, operating financial centers in 21 states and Washington, D.C., with locations from Connecticut to Florida and west to California. Wachovia provided global services through more than 40 offices around the world.

Synchrony Financial is a consumer financial services company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. The company offers consumer financing products, including credit, promotional financing and loyalty programs, installment lending to industries, and FDIC-insured consumer savings products through Synchrony Bank, its wholly owned online bank subsidiary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal</span> Controversy generated by fraud perpetrated by Wells Fargo

The Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal is a controversy brought about by the creation of millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent. News of the fraud became widely known in late 2016 after various regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fined the company a combined US$185 million as a result of the illegal activity. The company faces additional civil and criminal suits reaching an estimated $2.7 billion by the end of 2018. The creation of these fake accounts continues to have legal, financial, and reputational ramifications for Wells Fargo and former bank executives as recently as November 2022.

Chime Financial, Inc. is an American financial technology company which provides fee-free mobile banking services that are provided by The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, N.A. Account-holders are issued Visa debit cards or credit cards and have access to an online banking system accessible through the company's website or via its mobile apps. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees.

References

  1. ↑ Providian Financial Corporation History
  2. ↑ Gorham, John (December 10, 2001). "Card Player". Forbes. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Providian Unit to Be Sold To Aegon for $2.6 Billion". The New York Times. December 31, 1996. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  4. ↑ "$300 Million Providian Settlement".
  5. ↑ "Providian gets $300 million spanking, ends suit over "deceptive" practices".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.