UPDATE 4-GM in talks with Barclays to replace Goldman Sachs in credit card partnership -source

(Adds source attribution in paragraph 1, background in paragraph 2 and loan data in paragraph 4)

NEW YORK April 29 (Reuters) -

General Motors is in talks with Barclays for a credit card partnership deal that will replace existing partner Goldman Sachs, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Goldman Sachs has been looking for "strategic alternatives" for its consumer unit since last year after its CEO David Solomon decided to scale back the firm's retail ambitions in late 2022.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Barclays is the leading candidate to take over issuance of the credit cards, which have about $2 billion of outstanding balances.

Including the Apple Cards partnership, Goldman Sachs had credit card loan balances of $19 billion at the end of the first quarter, its earnings presentation showed. It did not separately break out GM's card loan balances in the presentation

Goldman Sachs, Barclays and GM declined to comment.

Goldman Sachs had planned to scrap its co-branded credit cards with GM last November. The credit card program, issued by Mastercard through Goldman Sachs, was launched in 2022 to let customers earn more points to put towards buying or leasing Buicks, Cadillacs and other GM cars.

Goldman Sachs and Apple are also weighing a potential end to their card partnership, but the Wall Street bank will face pressure from bidders to reduce the value of its stake in order to make the price more attractive, Reuters reported earlier, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Sonia Cheema and Krishna CHandra Eluri)