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.

In 1984, First Deposit was sold to the Kentucky insurance company Capital Holding, later renamed Providian.

Providian provided credit cards primarily to the lowest income groups in the U.S. at high interest rates.

David Alvarez, former president of the integrated-card unit, made a US$12.2 million profit selling his stock before the company disclosed that it was in deep trouble.