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General Electric on Thursday took the next step to reduce the size of its North American retail finance unit, filing to spin off its GE Capital division in an initial public offering.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the business, which handles credit cards for stores like Gap and Walmart, said it planned to rename itself Synchrony Financial.

The move is intended to help the conglomerate downsize GE Capital, which had been one of its biggest moneymakers since the era of Jack Welch. At one point, GE Capital brought in just under half of all G.E.’s revenues.

But the division ran into trouble during the financial crisis because of its huge holdings in both commercial loans and risky home loans, from a subprime lender it had purchased.

Related Links The prospectus

Immediately after Lehman Brothers’ collapse, shares in G.E. plummeted, as concerns grew about the company’s ability to support its financial arm.

Since then, G.E. has aimed to become less reliant on GE Capital, transforming it into a smaller, stable industrial lending business.

Even so, GE Capital remains an enormous institution. Last year, it reported $44.1 billion in revenue, or about 30 percent of its parent’s overall consolidated revenue. The federal government’s Financial Stability Oversight Council has designated the lender a systemically important financial institution, subjecting it to greater regulatory scrutiny.

To further its goal of reducing the unit, G.E. has sold off parts of its operations. Two years ago, for example, it sold a commercial real estate lender to EverBank Financial for $2.51 billion.

The retail finance operation has long been seen as a nonessential business. Keith Sherin, the chief executive of GE Capital, told investors last fall that the Synchrony business had little in common with the rest of the business in the finance arm, commercial lending.

G.E. announced last fall that it planned to file for an initial public offering of the unit in the first quarter of this year.

“This the final last step, the biggest step remaining in the transformation of the portfolio of GE Capital,” Mr. Sherin said last fall.

Still, Synchrony — with 62 million active accounts as of the end of last year — is a big division, financing $93.9 billion in sales in 2013.

Its net interest income has risen for four consecutive years, growing to $10.6 billion last year. Its profit dipped slightly last year, to just under $2 billion.

By holding a public offering for Synchrony, G.E. will avoid incurring taxes. It is also unlikely that G.E. can find a buyer big enough to acquire the entire business, since the most logical bidders — big financial institutions — are largely limited in the size of acquisitions they can make.

The prospectus gave few further details, other than a preliminary $100 million fund-raising target meant to determine registration fees. Proceeds from the offering will be used to reduce debt and expand the business.

G.E. has said that it plans to sell up to 20 percent of Synchrony in an I.P.O. and distribute the rest of the company to its shareholders next year.

The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SYF.

Shares of G.E. fell 1.6 percent on Thursday, to close at $25.34.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley were listed as lead underwriters for the offering.