GE lending unit to be restructured

General Electric Co. said it was reorganizing its GE Capital unit to save $2 billion next year, a move it said would lead to job cuts as it restructured and shrank the lending unit battered by the credit crisis.

GE Capital Chief Operating Officer Bill Cary said the unit, which provides commercial and consumer loans, had “evolved to the point where we think we are going to be smaller in 2009.”

GE Capital will reduce its workforce, currently around 75,000 employees, by an unspecified number, Cary said.