Synchrony Financial 10-K 2023-12-31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 OR

For the transition period from to

001-36560

(Commission File Number)

SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code) (203) 585-2400

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the outstanding common equity of the registrant held by non-affiliates as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was $14,182,270,780,

The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding as of February 2, 2024 was 406,843,602.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The definitive proxy statement relating to the registrant’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held June 11, 2024, is incorporated by reference into Part III to the extent described therein.

Synchrony Financial

Table of Contents

OUR ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

To improve the readability of this document and better present both our financial results and how we manage our business, we present the content of our Annual Report on Form 10-K in the order listed in the table of contents below. See "Form 10-K Cross-Reference Index" on page 4 for a cross-reference index to the traditional U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form 10-K format.

FORM 10-K CROSS REFERENCE INDEX

____________________________________________________________________________________________

| | | | | | | | | | | Item 1C. | | | Cybersecurity | | | 87 - 88 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 2. | | | Properties | | | 151 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 3. | | | Legal Proceedings | | | 149 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | | Part II | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 5. | | | Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities | | | 152 - 153 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 7. | | | Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations | | | 26 - 51, 54 - 58 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 7A. | | | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk | | | 52 - 53 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 8. | | | Financial Statements and Supplementary Data | | | 106 - 149 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | | Item 9A. | | | Controls and Procedures | | | 150 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 9B. | | | Other Information | | | 154 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | | Part III | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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| | | | | | | | | | | Part IV | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Item 15. | | | Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules | | | 155 - 164 | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | | Signatures | | | | | | 165 - 167 | | |

(a)Incorporated by reference to “Management”, “Election of Directors,” “Governance Principles,” “Code of Conduct” and “Committees of the Board of the Directors” in our definitive proxy statement for our 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on June 11, 2024, which will be filed within 120 days of the end our fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 (the “2024 Proxy Statement”).

(b)Incorporated by reference to “Compensation Discussion and Analysis,” “2023 Executive Compensation,” “Management Development and Compensation Committee Report” and “Management Development and Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” and “CEO Pay Ratio” in the 2024 Proxy Statement.

(c)Incorporated by reference to “Beneficial Ownership” and “Equity Compensation Plan Information” in the 2024 Proxy Statement.

(d)Incorporated by reference to “Related Person Transactions,” “Election of Directors” and “Committees of the Board of Directors” in the 2024 Proxy Statement.

(e)Incorporated by reference to “Independent Auditor” in the 2024 Proxy Statement.

Certain Defined Terms

Except as the context may otherwise require in this report, references to:

• “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” are to SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL and its subsidiaries;

• “Synchrony” are to SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL only;

• the “Bank” are to Synchrony Bank (a subsidiary of Synchrony);

• the “Board of Directors” or “Board” are to Synchrony’s board of directors;

• "CECL" are to the impairment model known as the Current Expected Credit Loss model, which is based on expected credit losses; and

• “VantageScore” are to a credit score developed by the three major credit reporting agencies which is used as a means of evaluating the likelihood that credit users will pay their obligations.

We provide a range of credit products through programs we have established with a diverse group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations and healthcare service providers, which, in our business and in this report, we refer to as our “partners.” The terms of the programs all require cooperative efforts between us and our partners of varying natures and degrees to establish and operate the programs. Our use of the term “partners” to refer to these entities is not intended to, and does not, describe our legal relationship with them, imply that a legal partnership or other relationship exists between the parties or create any legal partnership or other relationship. Information with respect to partner “locations” in this report is given at December 31, 2023. “Open accounts” represents credit card or installment loan accounts that are not closed, blocked or more than 60 days delinquent.

Unless otherwise indicated, references to “loan receivables” do not include loan receivables held for sale.

For a description of certain other terms we use, including “active account” and “purchase volume,” see the notes to Management’s Discussion and Analysis—Results of Operations—Other Financial and Statistical Data.” There is no standard industry definition for many of these terms, and other companies may define them differently than we do.

“Synchrony” and its logos and other trademarks referred to in this report, including, CareCredit®, Quickscreen®, Dual Card™, Synchrony Car Care™ and SyPI™ belong to us. Solely for convenience, we refer to our trademarks in this report without the ™ and ® symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to our trademarks. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names referred to in this report are the property of their respective owners.

On our website at www.synchrony.com, we make available under the "Investors-SEC Filings" menu selection, free of charge, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports or amendments are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information that we file electronically with the SEC.

Industry and Market Data

This report contains various historical and projected financial information concerning our industry and market. Some of this information is from industry publications and other third-party sources, and other information is from our own data and market research that we commission. All of this information involves a variety of assumptions, limitations and methodologies and is inherently subject to uncertainties, and therefore you are cautioned not to give undue weight to it. Although we believe that those industry publications and other third-party sources are reliable, we have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of any of the data from those publications or sources.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Various statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may contain “forward-looking statements” as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which are subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “targets,” “outlook,” “estimates,” “will,” “should,” “may” or words of similar meaning, but these words are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include global political, economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors and risks, such as: the impact of macroeconomic conditions and whether industry trends we have identified develop as anticipated; retaining existing partners and attracting new partners, concentration of our revenue in a small number of partners, and promotion and support of our products by our partners; cyber-attacks or other security incidents or breaches; disruptions in the operations of our and our outsourced partners' computer systems and data centers; the financial performance of our partners; the CFPB’s proposed rule on credit card late fees if adopted as proposed; the sufficiency of our allowance for credit losses and the accuracy of the assumptions or estimates used in preparing our financial statements, including those related to the CECL accounting guidance; higher borrowing costs and adverse financial market conditions impacting our funding and liquidity, and any reduction in our credit ratings; our ability to grow our deposits in the future; damage to our reputation; our ability to securitize our loan receivables, occurrence of an early amortization of our securitization facilities, loss of the right to service or subservice our securitized loan receivables, and lower payment rates on our securitized loan receivables; changes in market interest rates and the impact of any margin compression; effectiveness of our risk management processes and procedures; reliance on models which may be inaccurate or misinterpreted; our ability to manage our credit risk; our ability to offset increases in our costs in retailer share arrangements; competition in the consumer f

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