GENERAL Electric Co is tightening lending standards worldwide to help reduce risks amid the global credit crunch, Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said.

"Our requirements for return hurdles have gone up in every business globally," Sherin said on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg News. The collection of finance units known as GE Capital contributed more than half of Connecticut-based GE's profit in 2007.

The stricter standards and steps that Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt calls his "lines of defense" are designed to help GE stay profitable and protect its AAA credit rating amid the worst United States financial conditions since the Great Depression. GE on Friday posted a 12-percent decline in third-quarter profit that met analysts' average estimate, triggering its biggest one-day stock surge in at least 28 years.

Immelt moved to shore up GE's cash on October 1, deciding to raise US$12 billion from selling common stock and US$3 billion by selling preferred shares to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Six days earlier, he had told investors no such move was needed.