Synchrony Financial

good morning and welcome to the synchrony financial third quarter 2024 earnings conference call please refer to the company's investor relations website for access to their earnings materials please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded currently all callers have been placed in a listen-only mode and the call will be open for your questions following the conclusion of the management's prepared remarks if at any time you should need operator assistance please press star zero If you wish to ask a question following the prepared remarks, please press star 1. I will now turn the call over to Catherine Miller, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Catherine Miller Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our quarterly earnings conference call. In addition to today's press release, we have provided a presentation that covers the topics we plan to address during our call. The press release, detailed financial schedules, and presentation are available on our website, synchronyfinancial.com. This information can be accessed by going to the investor relations section of the website. Before we get started, I wanted to remind you that our comments today will include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainty, and actual results can differ materially. We list the factors that might cause actual results to differ materially in our SEC filings, which are available on our website. During the call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures in discussing the company's performance. You can find a reconciliation of these measures to gap financial measures in our materials for today's call. Finally, Synchrony Financial is not responsible for and does not edit or guarantee the accuracy of our earnings teleconference transcripts provided by third parties. The only authorized webcasts are located on our website. On the call this morning are Brian Doubles, Synchrony's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Wentzel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Thanks, Kathryn, and good morning, everyone. Today, Synchrony reported strong third quarter results, including net earnings of $789 million, or $1.94 per diluted share, a return on average assets of 2.6 percent, and a return on tangible common equity of 24.3 percent. These results reflect Synchrony's commitment to driving value for our customers, partners, providers, small businesses, and our shareholders as the operating environment continues to evolve. During the quarter, we continued to deliver responsible access to credit through powerful omni-channel experiences. Our broad range of flexible financing solutions and compelling value propositions continued to resonate with customers as they engaged across our diversified portfolio. We added 4.7 million new accounts and generated $45 billion of purchase volume. Both new account and purchase volume growth continued to be impacted by a modest pullback in consumer spending as well as the credit actions that Synchrony has taken since the middle of 2023 to reinforce the credit trajectory of our portfolio in 2024 and beyond. Despite those actions, average active accounts remained stable versus last year and ending receivables grew 4%. Purchase volume and receivables at the platform level reflected a continuation of the trends we've discussed over the course of this year. Customers continue to be selective in how and where they spend, particularly as they manage their spend to navigate the effects of inflation on needs like groceries, utilities, and rent. Platform purchase volume growth ranged between down 3% and down 7% year over year, generally reflecting lower spend per account as customers moderated both bigger ticket and discretionary spend, particularly in categories like furniture, electronics, cosmetic, and vision, as well as the impact of synchronous credit actions. Receivables growth across the platforms ranged from 3% to 10% higher versus last year, primarily driven by payment rate moderation. Dual and co-branded cards accounted for 43% of total purchase volume for the quarter and decreased 2%, generally due to more selective consumer spend behavior and the impact of our credit actions. The trends we see in the out-of-partner spend on these products have generally remained consistent with those at the platform level. Our customers continue to be discerning in their discretionary purchases, particularly around larger ticket categories such as home furnishing, travel and entertainment, and are prioritizing non-discretionary spend like groceries and pharmacy. As we would generally expect, our customers across credit grades are spending less per transaction in most categories, with average transaction values declining 3% versus last year. More specifically, our non-prime customers reduced their average transaction values by about 5% versus last year, while prime transaction values moderated by 3%. Our super prime customers continued to drive more out-of-partner spend with transaction value declines of around 2% year over year. That said, customers across credit grades are transacting with relatively stable frequency compared to last year, which has partially offset the impact of lower transaction values. From a payment behavior perspective, we continue to see relative stability in our non-prime segment. Meanwhile, our prime and super prime customers have continued to gradually shift from above minimum payment to minimum payment. the proportion of less than minimum payments in our portfolio remains below the 2017 to 2019 average across all credit segments. When taken together, we believe the spend and payment trends we're observing across our portfolio reflect a consumer that is making healthy decisions that align with their respective priorities and budget. And as our customer needs and priorities continue to shift, Synchrony remains focused on delivering financial solutions with compelling value propositions and broad utility for wherever life takes them. This ability to evolve and enhance our offerings also allows us to deliver loyalty and resilient risk-adjusted returns for our partners, providers, and merchants, and strengthen synchronous position as a partner of choice. During the third quarter, we added or renewed more than 15 partners, including Dick's Sporting Goods and Gibson, and strategic partnerships like Albertson's. We're proud to extend our partnership with Dick's, which builds on our more than 20-year-long relationship. We will maintain our commitment to athletes through our Score Rewards credit card program by providing the ability to earn rewards twice as fast, exclusive member-only offers, and digital account management. Athletes will be able to continue using these cards online and in stores across the company's 800-plus retail locations, including Dick's Sporting Goods, House of Sport, Golf Galaxy, and Public Lands. Meanwhile, Synchrony's partnership with Gibson, the most iconic brand in the music industry, represents what we believe to be an industry first through gibson's launch of a direct consumer credit program which is available on gibson.com and at the gibson garage nashville flagship store gibson will also participate as part of our manufacturer oem sponsorship program to drive customer engagement with their dealer framework as well as the synchrony music and sound network Synchrony is also excited to launch a strategic partnership between CareCredit and Albertsons Companies, a leading food and drug retailer in our communities. This collaboration allows customers to use their CareCredit card to pay for select health and wellness items in nearly 2,200 Albertsons Company stores, which includes Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Acme, Shaw's, and Jewel Osco. This adds to our expanding list of partners such as Sam's Club, Walgreens, and Walmart, where CareCredit is accepted for payment of select health and wellness products and services. And lastly, Synchrony is proud to launch a first-of-its-kind payment experience for pet parents with our patent-pending insurance reimbursement functionality that'll streamline the process for managing pet healthcare expenses. customers who have both a CareCredit and PetsBest insurance product will now be able to have their PetsBest insurance claims directly reimbursed to their CareCredit health and wellness credit card. This seamless new technology reflects Synchrony's focus on driving best-in-class experiences, and through our collaboration with Independence Pet Holdings, builds on our commitment to enable more pets to get the veterinary care they need. So whether it's through the delivery of scalable, innovative financial solutions that empower our customers, or the addition and renewal of partnerships that span most consumer spend categories, Synchrony is powering access, flexibility, and utility for our customers and partners alike. And in turn, we are driving greater long-term value for our stakeholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian to discuss our financial performance in greater detail.