Providian

Providian Financial Corporation

Company type	Acquired; formerly Public (NYSE: PVN)
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Founded	1997
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Key people	Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman, President, & CEO Anthony F. Vuoto, Vice Chairman & CFO Warren Wilcox, Vice Chairman of Planning and Marketing
Products	Financial services
Revenue	$2.6 billion USD (2004)
Number of employees	3,500
Parent	Washington Mutual Inc (at time of acquisition) JPMorgan Chase (since 2008)

Providian Financial Corporation was one of the leading credit card issuers in the United States when it was sold to Washington Mutual for approximately US$6.5 billion in October 2005. Providian was headquartered in San Francisco, California, and had more than 10 million card holders at the time of its sale. Washington Mutual, Inc., continued to run the company as a wholly owned subsidiary, out of its San Francisco headquarters. At its peak, the company employed approximately 13,000 people nationwide. Providian had significant operations in California, New Hampshire, and Texas.