| Discover Financial Services | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Public (NYSE: DFS) |
| Founded | 1985, introduced by Sears |
| Headquarters |  Riverwoods, Illinois |
| Key people | David Nelms, Chief Executive Officer |
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Products | Discover Card, credit card |
| Revenue | US$2.458 billion  (FY 2006) |
| Employees | 14,000 |
| Website | Discover.com |
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) 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 51 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. In the United States, Discover, as a card brand, competes primarily with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Unlike Visa and MasterCard, Discover directly issues its cards, through its Discover Bank unit. Discover is the fourth largest credit card issuer, when measured by card balances, behind Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi, and ahead of Capital One and American Express. In addition to its card products, Discover also markets savings products, home loans, and student loans. The company also began offering a Discover Debit card product directly to banks in 2006, through its Pulse interbank network, which Discover acquired in 2004. In the United Kingdom, Discover issues Goldfish credit cards, through the MasterCard network. Goldfish, which was formerly part of Lloyds, was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2005, and was retained as a division of the Discover after its separation from Morgan Stanley.
