Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to Bread Financial's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Olivia, and I'll be coordinating your call today. At this time, all parties have been placed on a listen-only mode. Following today's presentation, the floor will be open for your questions. To register a question, please press star 1-1. It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Brian Vereb, head of investigations at 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 Beberman, 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. Reconciliations 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 us today. Bright Financial delivered another strong quarter through disciplined execution across our core priorities, including responsible growth, a focus on operational excellence, credit underwriting, and thoughtful capital allocation. We produced meaningful results in the quarter. End of period loans grew 7% to $18.9 billion, driven by momentum in our new partnerships and strong credit sales. That performance translated to revenue growth of 5% and net income of $156 million. These results underscored the continued success of our business model and our ability to generate sustainable, profitable growth for our shareholders. Additionally, credit sales grew 9% year-over-year, driven by contributions from both new and existing brand partners, alongside continued strength in general-purpose spending. On the macroeconomic front, consumer behaviors remained resilient, though spending was increasingly intentional. Higher credit-quality cardholders remained a consistent source of strength, while consumers with lower credit risk scores showed greater selectivity in their purchasing patterns. We also saw consumers adapt to higher fuel costs and persistent inflation by focusing on value and managing discretionary spend. Partners offering multiple-bred financial financing products, such as Academy Sports and Outdoors, and those focused on essential spending and gas, like AAA, are performing particularly well. Our new home furnishing partners, including Furniture First and Raymore & Flanagan, continue to gain traction. as did our bread pay relationship with Vivint, a leading home security and smart home company. Again, this quarter we made measurable progress in our credit risk management. Both the delinquency rate and the net loss rate improved year over year, reflecting the sustained effectiveness of our underwriting discipline, portfolio management, and shifting product mix. Notwithstanding the broader macroeconomic backdrop, our improving credit metric trends reinforce our confidence and the quality and the resilience of our customer base. Based on year-to-date results and our ongoing favorable trajectory, we are improving our full-year 2026 net loss rate guidance for the second consecutive quarter, now expecting a full-year net loss rate below 7%. During the quarter, we renewed and extended long-term agreements with two of our top 10 partners, Cigna Jewelers and Sephora. Important proof points for the resilience of our relationships and the value of our business model. With Signet, we are building on a long-standing relationship across Kay, Zales, and the Jared brands to enhance technology and data-driven marketing capabilities. We also expanded our card programs with Signet to include launching a new credit card program for the Blue Nile brand ahead of the holiday season. Together, we are supporting Cigna's evolving businesses and delivering seamless credit experiences around meaningful purchases. Our long-term renewal agreement with Sephora positions us to deepen brand loyalty through our card offerings. We will continue advancing personalization, relevant marketing, and seamless in-store online and mobile experiences through analytics and digital capabilities. Both of these renewals reflect a trust, collaboration, and partnership mindset that defines our strongest brand partner relationships. We are pleased to announce that on October 1st, we successfully merged our two banks. The milestone along with last week's credit rating upgrade from Moody's provides further evidence of our ongoing transformation progress and the strength of our enhanced enterprise risk funding and capital management. Consumer deposits grew 21% to $9.9 billion at quarter end. This trajectory reflects our sustained focus on improving our funding profile and confidence in our deposit offerings. Our strong capital position and consistent cash flow generation provides flexibility to invest in growth while returning capital to shareholders. Tangible book value per share grew 19% year-over-year, reflecting the compounding benefits of our earnings power. During the quarter, we repurchased $75 million of common stock and increased our quarterly common stock dividend by 9%. Both of these actions reflect our board's confidence and our positive long-term financial outlook. Looking ahead, we remain focused on disciplined investments that support long-term growth and strengthen our competitive positioning, with priority on technology, data and analytics, and product innovation. These investments also include the responsible use of AI to improve productivity, enhance risk management, enable greater personalization, and simplify the customer experience. We are collaborating with our retail brand partners and technology industry leaders to advance opportunities in agentic search, commerce, and servicing. As with all of our innovation efforts, we are focused on practical use cases with clear business value, delivering better outcomes for our partners, customers, and shareholders. I am pleased with another strong quarter for Bread Financial as our associates continue to execute with focus and discipline. Our transformation is increasingly evident in our solid financial performance, balance sheet strength, and partner momentum. We enter the final quarter of 2026 confident in our strategy, encouraged by an improving credit trajectory, and focused on achieving our long-term financial objectives. Now I will pass it over to Perry.