Discover reports 'indications of stress' among consumers as profit drops 33%
Discover Financial Services said third-quarter profit dropped 33% drop as write-offs climbed and the firm set aside more money to cover future loan losses. The shares fell the most in more than two months.
Net income totaled $683 million, or $2.59 a share, the Riverwoods, Illinois-based credit-card lender said Wednesday in a statement. That missed the $3.17 average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“We are seeing some indications of stress,” with credit cards showing increasing delinquencies and higher loan balances, Chief Financial Officer John Greene said on a conference call Thursday.
The overall US consumer spending outlook is positive, though there are significant differences between how prime and subprime consumers are weathering inflation and how interest-rate increases are affecting how they manage debt, Greene said in an interview.
“They’re experiencing more day-to-day cash flow pressures than they did over the last few years,” he said.
Shares of Discover slid 6.1% to $86.21 at 9:39 a.m. in New York, extending this year’s decline to 12%.
Discover, led by interim Chief Executive Officer John Owen, said net write-offs rose to 3.52% from 1.71% in last year’s third quarter. The provision for credit losses more than doubled to $1.7 billion.
Owen took over for Roger Hochschild, who resigned in August following compliance and risk-management lapses that prompted the lender to pause stock buybacks for the second time in a year. Executives said during the earnings call that the CEO search continues, and the firm is considering “several” internal and external candidates for the role.
Discover has been in discussions with regulators over how it misclassified some of its credit cards, which resulted in some merchants being overcharged. The issue will take “several quarters to resolve,” Owen said on the call, adding that the firm remains engaged with its regulators.
Discover also received a proposed consent order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. tied to a consumer compliance matter. In August, the company said it hired 200 workers to focus on improving compliance.
