Bloomberg reported General Electric Co. investors are eager to find out when the finance unit will resume sharing some of its free cash with the parent company, one indicator of renewed health and safety, will have to wait until the Federal Reserve finishes an inaugural review.

According to the report, before the financial crisis of 2008, GE Capital paid about 40% of its earnings, or as much as $8.6 billion one year, to the parent company. Allowing the internal payment to resume would signal confidence from the Fed, which became the unit’s regulator in July. For now, GE officials say they’re constrained on how much they can disclose at today’s investor meeting.

The Bloomberg report quotes GE Capital Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bornstein saying, “I understand why investors want to see either the white or the black smoke coming from the Vatican rooftop. I just think, unfortunately, that’s really not the way it’s going to work.”
 
As reported, GE stock has fallen 39% since credit markets froze in September 2008, raising concerns about risk to the value of GE Capital’s holdings. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt responded with a plan to grow the company’s industrial businesses, which investors typically value more highly than finance, and reduce risk by shrinking the portion of overall profit that comes from GE Capital as well as reining in certain kinds of lending.

While the agency’s review continues, GE executives will probably focus today on progress in reducing overall lending, growth plans in areas such as loans to midsize companies, the wind-down or sale of some real-estate assets and repayment or refinancing of $81 billion in debt coming due in 2012.