Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Bread Financial's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. My name is Kevin, and I'll be coordinating your call today. At this time, all parties have been placed on listen-only mode. Following today's presentation, the floor will be open for your questions. To register a question, please press star followed by 1-1. It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Brian Vareb, Head of Investor Relations for Bread Financial. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Copies of the slides we will be reviewing and the earnings release can be found on the investor relations section of our website at breadfinancial.com. On the call today, we have Ralph Andretta, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Perry Bieberman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the comments made on today's call and some of the responses to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to the risks and uncertainties described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC. Also on today's call, our speakers will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe will provide useful information for investors. Reconciliation of those measures to GAAP are included in our quarterly earnings materials posted on our Investor Relations website. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Ralph Andretta. Thank you, Brian, and good morning to everyone joining the call.

Today, Bread Financial reported strong third quarter 2025 results. We delivered net income of $188 million, adjusted net income and earnings but diluted share of $191 million and $4.02, excluding the $3 million post-tax impact from expenses related to repurchase debt in the quarter. Our tangible book value per common share grew by 19% year over year to $56.36, and our return on average tangible common equity was 28.6% for the quarter. Consumer financial health remained resilient in the third quarter as evidenced by strong credit sales, a higher payment rate, as well as lower delinquencies and losses. Credit sales increased 5% year over year in the face of ongoing inflationary concerns, a slowing yet stable job market, and continuing weak consumer sentiment. The improvement was driven by strong back-to-school shopping early in the quarter with notable improvement in apparel and beauty. Additionally, purchase frequency increased and spending trends improved across all consumer segments. Amidst these favorable results, we continue to monitor changes in monetary and fiscal policies including tariff and trade policies and their potential impacts on consumer spending and employment. Overall, a positive year-over-year credit sales trends and gradual improvement in our credit metrics gives us confidence in our outlook as we enter the final quarter of the year. Given current credit trends and slightly better-than-expected performance of our net loss rate year-to-date, we expect that we will be at the low end of our full-year outlook range of 7.8% to 7.9%. While the net loss rate remains elevated compared to historic levels, the improving loss rate and delinquency rate trends are encouraging. As mentioned earlier, we will continue to closely monitor consumer health, purchasing and payment patterns, and adjust our credit strategies accordingly to achieve industry-leading risk-adjusted returns. More broadly, we have remained consistent in our full-year financial outlook as we continue to navigate market volatility. Our expectations around the health of the consumer have not materially changed. We have maintained our long-term focus on responsible growth and executing our business strategy. Given the actions we have taken over the past five plus years, we are well positioned to achieve our long-term financial targets and anticipate increasing shareholder value over time. Our focus on expense discipline and operational excellence continues to produce desired results as adjusted total non-interest expense was down 1% year-over-year despite continued technology-related investments, inflation, and wage pressures. We will continue to invest in technology modernization, digital advancement, artificial intelligence solutions, and product innovation that will drive future growth and efficiencies. Considering the progress we have made, we are confident in our ability to achieve full-year positive operating leverage excluding the impacts of repurchase debt and any portfolio sale gains. With our CET1 ratio at the top of our targeted range of 13 to 14%, we initiated the $200 million share repurchase program that the Board approved in August, repurchasing $60 million during September and into October. This morning, we announced a Board-approved $200 million increase to our share repurchase authorization. We also announced a 10% increase to our quarterly cash dividend, which is now 23 cents per common share, with the goal of increasing our dividend annually as we see growth in our book value. These actions, along with our proven strong capital and cash flow generation, underscore our ability to execute all of our capital and growth priorities concurrently, providing a solid runway to deliver additional value to our shareholders. Moving to our new business activity, During the quarter, we expanded our home vertical foothold by signing new brand partners, including Bed, Bath & Beyond, an e-commerce retailer with ownership interest in various retail brands. Furniture First, a national cooperative buying group that serves hundreds of independent home furnishings and bed retailers across the U.S., and Raymar in Flanagan, the largest furniture and mattress retailer in the Northeast and the seventh largest nationwide. These new signings provide expanded opportunity for profitable growth going forward. We will continue to leverage our full product suite and omni-channel customer experience to extend category leadership in existing industry verticals while expanding into new verticals. Strategically, our vertical and product expansion efforts continue to have positive impact on both risk management and income diversification across our portfolio. Finally, as released last week, We are pleased to have earned a credit ratings upgrade and positive outlook from Moody's, recognizing the progress we have made in strengthening our financial resilience and enterprise risk management framework. In summary, we are pleased with our third quarter results. Our financial performance reflects steady progress in executing our strategic priorities and our ongoing commitment to return value to shareholders, including in the form of increased dividends and share repurchases. Now I will pass it over to Perry to review the financials in more detail.