The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved MetLife's sale of its deposit-taking business to a unit of General Electric Co's GE Capital, MetLife Inc said on Wednesday.The long-delayed approval brings MetLife, the largest life insurer in the United States, one step closer to shedding its banking business and its bank holding charter.GE Capital and MetLife first struck a deal in late 2011, but regulatory reviews have held it up since. In September they restructured the sale so that the OCC would be the regulator to approve the deal, and not the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.Analysts said at the time that the FDIC was slowing the deal down with inquires to GE and that switching to the OCC might mean a faster approval.
MetLife, Inc. (MetLife), is a provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs, serving 90 million customers in over 50 countries. Shares of MET traded higher by 1.2% or $0.4/share to $33.61. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $27.60 and as high as $39.55. On average, 10640500 shares of MET exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 16751918.
Source
