Synchrony Financial

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Synchrony Financial third quarter 2025 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. The call will be opened up for your questions following the conclusion of 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 one. I will now turn the call over to Catherine Miller, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

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. 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 GAAP 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. I will now turn the call over to Brian Doubles.

Thanks, Catherine, and good morning, everyone. Synchrony delivered another strong financial performance in the third quarter of 2025 that included net earnings of $1.1 billion, or $2.86 per diluted share, a return on average assets of 3.6% and a return on tangible common equity of 30.6%. We generated $46 billion of purchase volume in the third quarter, a year-over-year increase of plus 2% as trends across our five platforms improved, even as the effects of our previous credit actions continue to impact average active accounts. Then across our digital platform increased 5%. driven by higher spend per account and reflecting strong customer response to our enhanced product offerings and refreshed value propositions. Diversified and value purchase volume grew 3%, reflecting strong retailer performance and growth in out-of-partner spend. Purchase volume in health and wellness also grew 3%, reflecting growth in pet and audiology, partially offset by lower spend in cosmetics. Meanwhile, purchase volume in home and auto was down 1%, generally due to selective spending in home specialty. And purchase volume in our lifestyle platform was down 3%, reflecting lower spend in outdoor and specialty as consumers continue to manage discretionary spend. Dual and co-branded cards accounted for 46% of total purchase volume in the third quarter, an increase plus 8% versus last year, driven by higher broad-based spend across these card programs and synchronized branded general-purpose cards. Out-of-partner spend on our dual and co-branded cards generally reflected year-over-year improvement in the mix of discretionary spend as the quarter progressed, with continued points of strength coming from restaurants and electronics. And as highlighted on slide three of our earnings presentation, Average transaction values for the portfolio were approximately 40 basis points higher than last year, building on the improving trend over the last four quarters. This trend occurred across all credit grades and generations within our portfolio, with particular strength coming from non-prime, pointing to the efficacy of our credit actions as we strengthened the mix of that cohort. Customers across credit grades and generations also increased their spend frequency during the third quarter, up about 3.4% in the quarter versus last year. Collectively, Synchrony's portfolio of spend trends suggest that the utility and value we offer through our variety of product offerings are resonating with our customers and driving stronger engagement as they navigate the continued uncertainty in the broader environment. We are a trusted partner to almost 70 million customers, many of the nation's most respected brands, and hundreds of thousands of small and mid-sized businesses across the country. It is both a privilege and an opportunity to connect them through our financial ecosystem and empower them with financial flexibility and choice. And given how our credit actions have outperformed our expectations, we've begun gradually reversing some of our tightening in areas where we see strong risk-adjusted growth opportunities. We're monitoring our portfolio closely and expect to make similar incremental adjustments gradually over the coming months as supported by broader macroeconomic conditions. In the meantime, Synchrony has continued investing in our business and executing across our strategic priorities. We added, renewed, or expanded more than 15 partners during the third quarter, including the Toro Company, Regency Showrooms, Lowe's commercial program, including the pending acquisition of its co-branded credit card portfolio and dental intelligence. Synchrony's launch of the Toro Company credit card will deliver a variety of our promotional financing options to their extensive network of independent dealers across the outdoor environment solution space. Our multi-year renewal with Regency Furniture provides access across more than 95 furniture stores across the Northeast under the brand names of Regency, Marlo, Value City of New Jersey, and Ashley. And Synchrony is also proud to build on our more than 45-year relationship with Lowe's by enhancing our existing commercial program and acquiring our commercial co-branded credit card portfolio. We look forward to relaunching the Lowe's Business Rewards credit card with enhanced value and a seamless customer experience as we help Lowe's pros pay for the tools and supplies they need. In addition, we announced our strategic partnership with Dental Intelligence, a leading patient relationship management and analytics platform used by over 9,000 dental practices. That joint synchronized more than 40 healthcare software solution partnerships designed to strengthen patient-provider relationships and enhance practice operations through innovative technology. Our new seamless integration with Dental Intelligence now includes Synchrony's CareCredit financing options, including CareCredit Status Tool. Providers can offer CareCredit to patients more intuitively through simple, automated payment communications and make it easier for patients to understand their payment options. Our integration process is faster and more efficient than ever. strengthening care processes, driving administrative efficiency, and empowering patients to get the care they need when insurance is not sufficient. Synchrony's recent acquisition of Versatile Credit is yet another example of how we are driving expanded access to flexible financing while also enhancing the value we deliver to small and mid-sized businesses across the country. Versatile is a leading multi-source financing platform with more than 30 integrated lenders across the full credit spectrum that helps merchants and providers empower their customers with smarter financing options across online, in-store, and mobile points of sale. They're able to deliver seamless integrations, higher approval rates, and detailed reporting to drive sales across home, auto, and elective medical merchants and providers. Moving forward, Versatile will continue to operate its existing business strategy and maintain its data integrity to continue to provide financing through their existing lender integrations for their merchants. Synchrony will receive referral revenue and leverage our scale and underwriting expertise in combination with Versatile's innovative technology to accelerate our embedded finance strategy. And while we do not expect Versatile to be material to Synchrony's near-term financial performance, we do expect our collaboration to contribute to Synchrony's profitable growth for years to come. Lastly, albeit early, the momentum and execution in the first month of our Walmart program launch is off to a great start, and the initial results have been very encouraging. We believe that the combination of such a compelling value proposition Innovative customer experience and highly prominent product placement should position this product as a top-of-wallet card and drive deeper engagement for Walmart customers across the country. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian to discuss our financial performance in greater detail. Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone.