(Reuters) - General Electric Co (>> General Electric Company) has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc (>> Goldman Sachs Group Inc) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (>> JPMorgan Chase & Co.) to lead the initial public offering of its North American retail finance business, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources.

A filing is expected in the next two months, the report said.

GE announced plans in November to spin off its credit card business into a separately traded company as it tries to reduce its exposure to its financial businesses.

The company said at the time that it planned an IPO of up to 20 percent of the retail finance business in 2014. In 2015, GE plans to exit the rest of the business by giving its shareholders the chance to swap GE stock for shares of the new company.

The new company should be worth roughly $16 billion to $18 billion, bankers have estimated.

Spokesmen for GE, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan declined to comment.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Chris Reese)