Public | |
Traded as | : DFS S&P 500 Component |
Industry | Financial services |
Founded | 1985Sears) | (as a subsidiary of
Headquarters | Riverwoods, Illinois, United States |
Key people
|
David Nelms (Chairman and CEO) |
Products | Payment systems |
Revenue | US$8.73 billion (FY 2015) |
US$3.6 billion (FY 2015) | |
US$2.2 billion (FY 2015) | |
Total assets | US$88.09 billion (2016) |
Total equity | US$8.2 billion (FY 2011) |
Number of employees
|
11,650 (FY 2011) |
Parent |
Dean Witter Reynolds (1985–1997) Morgan Stanley (1997–2007) |
Website | www |
Discover Financial Services, Inc. is an American financial services company, which issues the Discover Card and operates the Discover and Pulse networks. Discover Card is the third largest credit card brand in the United States, when measured by cards in force, with nearly 50 million cardholders.
The Discover Card was originally introduced by Sears in 1985, and was a unit of Dean Witter, which merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997. In 2007, the unit was spun off as an independent, publicly traded company. Today, Discover is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Riverwoods, Illinois.
On December 21, 2001, Fourth quarter income at Discover card issuer Discover Financial Services Inc. grew 31% to $193 million, compared with $147 million the year before.
On March 5, 2002, the company announced that the Account Center at Discovercard.com had registered over eight million card members, an increase of 61 percent since January 2001. That September, they announced that, as of September 1, Citibank would accept the Discover(R) Card for cash advances at its approximately 450 Financial Centers and more than 2,000 ATM locations nationwide.
In April 2008, Discover Financial and Citigroup announced that Discover was purchasing the Diners Club network from Citigroup for $165 million. In May 2008, the Federal Trade Commission approved the transaction. The deal was completed on July 1, 2008. Discover stated that the Diners Club network, which is a major network outside North America, will be merged with the Discover Network, a major network in North America, creating an international network for Discover Network cards and Diners Club cards. Diners Club cards will continue to be issued by Diners Club International licensees. Discover Bank has no plans on issuing Diners Club branded cards itself.