Citi Waves a Wand and OneMain Appears

Remember Citigroup's retail-based consumer finance division, which included (from what I recall) branches from the old Associates First Capital Corporation? Lately, we haven't heard much about the unit which previously was called CitiFinancial. (Associates was sold to the bank 10 years ago.) But now Citigroup has launched a national marketing campaign to promote the company, which recently changed its name to OneMain Financial. In a new ad appearing in Parade magazine it shows a middle-aged man working on improving his kitchen by screwing in the door of an island cabinet. I would guess that means OneMain is now peddling home improvement loans. As for the wholesale division of OneMain, there isn't one so loan brokers shouldn't get their hopes up. And one other point: I would assume that this is yet another example of a quiet revival in old style consumer finance lending. If the GSEs and Wall Street are no longer serving this market, I mean, why not?..