XML 55 R30.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.24.2
COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES, PRODUCT WARRANTIES AND OTHER LOSS CONTINGENCIES
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES, PRODUCT WARRANTIES AND OTHER LOSS CONTINGENCIES COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES, PRODUCT WARRANTIES AND OTHER LOSS CONTINGENCIES
COMMITMENTS. We had total investment commitments of $3,930 million and unfunded lending commitments, primarily for U.S. Tax Equity, of $656 million, at June 30, 2024. The commitments primarily comprise investments by our run-off insurance operations in investment securities and other assets of $3,774 million and included within these commitments are obligations to make investments in unconsolidated VIEs of $3,671 million. See Note 21 for further information.

As of June 30, 2024 we have committed to provide financing assistance of $2,696 million of future customer acquisitions of aircraft equipped with our engines.

GUARANTEES . Credit support and indemnification agreements - Continuing Operations. We have provided $57 million of credit support on behalf of certain customers or associated companies, predominantly joint ventures and partnerships, using arrangements such as standby letters of credit and performance guarantees. The liability for such credit support was $7 million.

Following the separation of GE Vernova, we have remaining performance and bank guarantees on behalf of GE Vernova. To support GE Vernova in selling products and services globally, we often entered into contracts on behalf of GE Vernova or issued parent company guarantees or trade finance instruments supporting the performance of what were subsidiary legal entities transacting directly with customers, in addition to providing similar credit support for non-customer related activities of GE Vernova (collectively, "GE Aerospace credit support"). Under the Separation and Distribution Agreement (SDA), GE Vernova is obligated to use reasonable best efforts to replace us as the guarantor on or terminate all such credit support instruments. Until such termination or replacement, in the event of non-fulfillment of contractual obligations by the relevant obligor(s), we could be obligated to make payments under the applicable instruments. Under the SDA, GE Vernova is obligated to reimburse and indemnify us for any such payments. Beginning in 2025, GE Vernova will pay us a quarterly fee based on amounts related to the GE Aerospace credit support. We have recorded a reserve of $169 million for our stand ready to perform obligation. Our maximum aggregate exposure under the GE Aerospace credit support cannot be reasonably estimated given the breadth of the portfolio across each of the GE Vernova businesses except for certain financial guarantees and trade finance instruments with a maximum exposure of approximately $1,426 million, which are not expected to exceed a year beyond separation. The underlying obligations are predominantly customer contracts that GE Vernova performs in the normal course of its business. We have no known instances historically where payments or performance were required by us under parent company guarantees relating to GE Vernova customer contracts. In connection with the spin-off of GE Vernova, under terms of the SDA, Transition Service Agreement (TSA) and Tax Matters Agreement (TMA), we have an obligation to indemnify GE Vernova for certain of its severance costs, environmental matters and tax matters of $168 million, of which $122 million is reserved.

We also have remaining obligations under the TMA with GE Healthcare to indemnify them for certain tax costs and other indemnifications of $32 million which are fully reserved.

In addition, we have $148 million of other indemnification commitments, including representations and warranties in sales of business assets, for which we recorded a liability of $62 million.

Credit support and indemnification agreements- Discontinued Operations. Following the separation of GE Vernova, we also have performance obligations related to GE Vernova's supply chain finance program and an environmental matter with a maximum aggregate exposure of $1,416 million. Also, under the SDA, TSA, and TMA agreements we have obligations to indemnify GE Vernova for certain of its technology costs, separation for certain facilities, environmental matters and tax matters of $93 million costs, which are fully reserved.

GE Aerospace also has obligations under the TSA and TMA to indemnify GE HealthCare for certain technology and tax costs of $64 million which are fully reserved.

We also have provided specific indemnities to other buyers of assets of our business that, in the aggregate, represent a maximum potential claim of $510 million with related reserves of $63 million.

PRODUCT WARRANTIES. We provide for estimated product warranty expenses when we sell the related products. Because warranty estimates are forecasts that are based on the best available information, mostly historical claims experience, claims costs may differ from amounts provided. The liability for product warranties was $635 million at June 30, 2024 and $639 million at December 31, 2023.
LEGAL MATTERS. The following information supplements and amends the discussion of Legal Matters in Note 24 to the consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and Note 23 to the consolidated financial statements in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024; refer to those discussions for information about previously reported legal matters that are not updated below. In the normal course of our business, we are involved from time to time in various arbitrations, class actions, commercial litigation, investigations and other legal, regulatory or governmental actions, including the significant matters described below that could have a material impact on our results of operations. In many proceedings, including the specific matters described below, it is inherently difficult to determine whether any loss is probable or even reasonably possible or to estimate the size or range of the possible loss, and accruals for legal matters are not recorded until a loss for a particular matter is considered probable and reasonably estimable. Given the nature of legal matters and the complexities involved, it is often difficult to predict and determine a meaningful estimate of loss or range of loss until we know, among other factors, the particular claims involved, the likelihood of success of our defenses to those claims, the damages or other relief sought, how discovery or other procedural considerations will affect the outcome, the settlement posture of other parties and other factors that may have a material effect on the outcome. For these matters, unless otherwise specified, we do not believe it is possible to provide a meaningful estimate of loss at this time. Moreover, it is not uncommon for legal matters to be resolved over many years, during which time relevant developments and new information must be continuously evaluated.

Shareholder and related lawsuits. Since November 2017, several putative shareholder class actions under the federal securities laws were filed against GE and certain affiliated individuals and consolidated into a single action currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (the Hachem case, also referred to as the Sjunde AP-Fonden case). The complaint against defendants GE and current and former GE executive officers alleged violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 related to insurance reserves and accounting for long-term service agreements and seeks damages on behalf of shareholders who acquired GE stock between February 27, 2013 and January 23, 2018. GE filed a motion to dismiss in December 2019. In January 2021, the court granted the motion to dismiss as to the majority of the claims. Specifically, the court dismissed all claims related to insurance reserves, as well as all claims related to accounting for long-term service agreements, with the exception of certain claims about historic disclosures related to factoring in the Power business that survive as to GE and its former CFO Jeffrey S. Bornstein. All other individual defendants have been dismissed from the case. In April 2022, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification for shareholders who acquired stock between February 26, 2016 and January 23, 2018. In September 2022, GE filed a motion for summary judgment on the plaintiffs' remaining claims, which the court denied in September 2023, except as to claims arising from disclosures made between November 2017 and January 2018. In April 2024, the court scheduled a trial date for November 2024.

Bank BPH. As previously reported, Bank BPH, along with other Polish banks, has been subject to ongoing litigation in Poland related to its portfolio of floating rate residential mortgage loans, with cases brought by individual borrowers seeking relief related to their foreign currency indexed or denominated mortgage loans in various courts throughout Poland. For a number of years, we have observed an increase in the total number of lawsuits being brought against Bank BPH and other banks in Poland by current and former borrowers, and we expect this to continue in future reporting periods. As previously reported, GE and Bank BPH approved the adoption of a settlement program and recorded an additional charge of $1,014 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2023. The estimate of total losses for borrower litigation at Bank BPH was $2,474 million and $2,669 million as of June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. The estimate accounts for the costs of payments to borrowers who we estimate will participate in the settlement program, as well as estimates for the results of litigation with other borrowers, which in either case can exceed the value of the current loan balance, and represents our best estimate of the total losses we expect to incur over time. However, there are a number of factors that could affect the estimate in the future; refer to the disclosure about Bank BPH in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.

ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY MATTERS. Our operations involve or have involved the use, disposal and cleanup of substances regulated under environmental protection laws, including activities for a variety of matters related to GE businesses that have been discontinued or exited. We record reserves for obligations for ongoing and future environmental remediation activities, such as the Housatonic River cleanup, and for additional liabilities we expect to incur in connection with previously remediated sites, such as natural resource damages for the Hudson River where GE completed dredging in 2019. Additionally, like many other industrial companies, we and our subsidiaries are defendants in various lawsuits related to alleged exposure by workers and others to asbestos or other hazardous materials. Liabilities for environmental remediation and worker exposure claims exclude possible insurance recoveries. It is reasonably possible that our exposure will exceed amounts accrued. However, due to uncertainties about the status of laws, regulations, technology and information related to individual sites and lawsuits, such amounts are not reasonably estimable. Total reserves related to environmental remediation and worker exposure claims were $1,897 million and $1,819 million at June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.