“Discover Financial Services’s lending operations dwarf its payments business, but payments nonetheless are an important component of the company’s growth strategy, new chief executive Roger C. Hochschild said Thursday. Hochschild, who joined Discover in 1998 and served as its president and chief operating officer for 14 years, this month succeeded longtime CEO David Nelms, who remains as Discover’s executive chairman until early next year. Hochschild held his first conference call as CEO Thursday afternoon to review Discover’s third-quarter results with analysts.”