Citi has announced the closing of the sale of $1.6 billion in managed assets, part of its U.S. retail sales finance portfolios, to GE Capital.

Retail Partner Cards, within Citi Holdings, provides consumer and commercial credit card products and services, including private label credit cards, for national and regional retailers across the U.S. The business services more than 40 million customers and consists of managed assets of approximately $50 billion . Retail partners include The Home Depot, Shell, Macy's, Sears, and ExxonMobil, among others.

GE Capital provided a business update on its financial results and outlook earlier today. A webcast replay along with the presentation slides are available online.

In today's Deal of the Day column on SmartMoney.com, Lisa Scherzer writes about "The Pitfalls of Prepaid Cards" - noting that "Prepaid cards may not come with the sky high late-payment fees or APRs of traditional credit cards, but they do carry a slew of other charges." She goes on to recommend four network-branded prepaid cards "whose fees are a little more palatable than others" - including two from MetaBank, the Wal-Mart Money Card issued by GE Money, and the new Current Debit Card by Discover.

In an article titled "Nobody's Snapping Up GE's Plastic", Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal about GE's efforts to sell its $30 billion credit card business because of potential buyer concerns about consumers' ability to repay their credit card debts. In particular, there's concern that GE's private label portfolio could rank lower in consumers' payment hierarchy when times are tough.

PayPal has announced that its credit offering - PayPal Pay Later - is now available for payments on eBay.com . "Starting today, eBay buyers in the United States can take advantage of Pay Later’s financing offer of no payments for 90 days for qualifying purchases between $50 and $199." READ MORE »

Universal Studios has announced it has entered into a multi-year marketing and financial services alliance with GE Money and American Express. Under the arrangement, American Express becomes the official payment of choice at Universal Studios Theme Parks Resorts; GE Money becomes the Parks' official financial services sponsor; and the companies launch the new Universal American Express Card issued by GE Money. READ MORE »

What do you call a company that sells jet engines, runs multiple television/cable networks, has a huge global financial services operation, and just reported a significant earnings miss this morning? That's GE. And the reason for what one columnist called GE's "gasp-inducing first-quarter results"? Financial services primarily - both commercial and consumer. Details in this press release and accompanying presentation. A webcast of this morning's earnings call is also available.