Discover Closes Goldfish Sale, Names Top Accountant

Discover Financial Services reported it closed its sale of its Goldfish credit card business in the United Kingdom, and named a new chief accountant. The Riverwoods, Ill.-based card issuer and payments network reported it completed its sale of Goldfish to Barclays Bank PLC for about $70 million in cash ("Discover Sells U.K. Goldfish Card Unit," Feb. 7).

Barclays received about 1.7 million Goldfish and affinity card accounts with $3.9 billion in receivables, the brand name, operating facilities and staff. Discover took a first quarter loss of $158 million from discontinued operations as part of selling Goldfish. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Discover took a $279 million after-tax, non-cash impairment charge related to the sale.

Discover also announced that Kevin Killips has been named controller and chief accounting officer. In this newly created position, Killips will oversee all aspects of Discover Financial Services’ accounting function. He will report directly to Roy A. Guthrie, chief financial officer for Discover.

Killips comes to Discover from LaSalle Bank, most recently serving as executive vice president, North American chief accounting officer and corporate controller. He was responsible for the comprehensive accounting function of ABN AMRO’s North American operations including reporting, policy, tax, financial control, budgeting, financial systems and project management. Killips will begin at Discover today.