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Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(1)
Registration No. 333-194528

 

PROSPECTUS

125,000,000 Shares

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

We are offering 125,000,000 shares of our common stock in this offering. This is our initial public offering, and no public market currently exists for our shares.

We have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an aggregate of 18,750,000 additional shares of our common stock at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.

Our shares of common stock have been authorized for listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SYF.”

At our request, the underwriters have reserved 2% of the shares of common stock to be issued by us and offered by this prospectus for sale, at the initial public offering price, to directors, officers, employees and other individuals associated with our company and members of their respective families. See “Underwriters—Directed Share Program.”

 

 

Investing in our common stock involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 23.

 

 

PRICE $23.00 PER SHARE

 

 

 

		Per Share				Total
Initial public offering price		$	23.00			$	2,875,000,000
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)		$	0.69			$	86,250,000
Proceeds to us		$	22.31			$	2,788,750,000

 

(1)	We have agreed to reimburse the underwriters for certain FINRA-related expenses. See “Underwriters.”

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares of our common stock to purchasers on August 5, 2014.

 

 

Joint Book-Running Managers

 

Global Coordinator		Global Coordinator
Goldman, Sachs & Co.		J.P. Morgan		Citigroup		Morgan Stanley

Barclays		BofA Merrill Lynch		Credit Suisse		Deutsche Bank Securities

Co-Lead Managers

 

BNP PARIBAS		HSBC		Mizuho Securities		MUFG		RBC Capital Markets

RBS		Santander		SMBC Nikko		SOCIETE GENERALE

Co-Managers

 

Banca IMI		Blaylock Beal Van, LLC		CastleOak Securities, L.P.		COMMERZBANK

Credit Agricole CIB		Fifth Third Securities		Guggenheim Securities		ING

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods               A Stifel Company		Lebenthal Capital Markets		Loop Capital Markets		Mischler Financial Group, Inc.

Ramirez & Co., Inc.		The Williams Capital Group, L.P.

 

 

July 30, 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Prospectus Summary			1
Risk Factors			23
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements			62
Use of Proceeds			64
Dividend Policy			66
Capitalization			67
Dilution			68
Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information			70
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations			80
Corporate Reorganization			137
Business			138
Regulation			167
Management			179
Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company			214
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management			232
Description of Capital Stock			234
Description of Certain Indebtedness			242
Shares Eligible for Future Sale			248
Certain U.S. Federal Income and Estate Tax Considerations for Non-U.S. Holders			250
Underwriters			253
Legal Matters			262
Experts			262
Additional Information			262
Index to Financial Statements			F-1

 

 

Neither we nor any of the underwriters has authorized anyone to provide you with information different from, or in addition to, that contained in this prospectus or any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we may have referred you in connection with this offering. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you.

Neither we nor any of the underwriters is making an offer to sell or seeking offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where or to any person to whom the offer or sale is not permitted. The information in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus and the information in any free writing prospectus that we may provide you in connection with this offering is accurate only as of the date of that free writing prospectus. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects may have changed since those dates.

Through and including August 24, 2014 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to a dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters has done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus or any free writing prospectus we may provide to you in connection with this offering in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. You are required to inform yourselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus and any such free writing prospectus outside of the United States.

 

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Certain Defined Terms

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

 

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“we,” “us,” “our,” and the “Company” are to SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL and its subsidiaries, which together represent the businesses that historically have conducted GE’s North American retail finance business;

 

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“Synchrony” are to SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL only;

 

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“GE” are to General Electric Company and its subsidiaries;

 

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“GECC” are to General Electric Capital Corporation (a subsidiary of GE) and its subsidiaries;

 

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“GECFI” are to GE Consumer Finance, Inc. (a subsidiary of GECC that currently owns Synchrony) and its subsidiaries; and

 

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the “Bank” are to Synchrony Bank (a subsidiary of Synchrony), previously known as GE Capital Retail Bank.

“FICO” score means a credit score developed by Fair Isaac & Co., which is widely used as a means of evaluating the likelihood that credit users will pay their obligations. For a description of certain other terms we use, including “active account,” “open account” and “purchase volume,” see the notes to “Prospectus Summary—Summary Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information—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.

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 prospectus, 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. The “average length of our relationship” with respect to a specified group of partners or programs is measured on a weighted average basis by platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 for those partners or for all partners participating in a program, based on the date each partner relationship or program, as applicable, started. Information with respect to partner “locations” in this prospectus is given at December 31, 2013.

“Synchrony” and its logos and other trademarks referred to in this prospectus, including, Optimizer^+plus™, Optimizer^+plus Perks™, CareCredit^®, Quickscreen^® and eQuickscreen™ belong to us. Solely for convenience, we refer to our trademarks in this prospectus 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 prospectus are the property of their respective owners.

Industry and Market Data

This prospectus 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. Statements in this prospectus that we are the largest provider of private label credit cards in the United States (based on purchase volume and receivables) are based on issue number

 

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1,039 of “The Nilson Report,” a subscription-based industry newsletter, dated April 2014 (based on 2013 data), and references to “The Nilson Report (December 2013)” are to issue number 1,031 of The Nilson Report, dated December 2013.

Non-GAAP Measures

To assess and internally report the revenue performance of our three sales platforms, we use a measure we refer to as “platform revenue.” Platform revenue is the sum of three line items in our Combined Statements of Earnings prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”): “interest and fees on loans,” plus “other income,” less “retailer share arrangements.” Platform revenue itself is not a measure presented in accordance with GAAP. For a reconciliation of platform revenue to interest and fees on loans, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Preliminary Financial Information for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2014—Platform Analysis,” “—Results of Operations—For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2014 and 2013—Platform Analysis” and “—Results of Operations—For the Years Ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011—Platform Analysis.” We deduct retailer share arrangements but do not deduct other line item expenses, such as interest expense, provision for loan losses and other expense, because those items are managed for the business as a whole. We believe that platform revenue is a useful measure to investors because it represents management’s view of the net revenue contribution of each of our platforms. This measure should not be considered a substitute for interest and fees on loans or other measures of performance we have reported in accordance with GAAP.

We also present certain capital ratios for the Company calculated on a pro forma basis. As a new savings and loan holding company, the Company historically has not been required by regulators to disclose capital ratios, and therefore these capital ratios are non-GAAP measures. We believe these capital ratios are useful measures to investors because they are widely used by analysts and regulators to assess the capital position of financial services companies, although our pro forma Basel I Tier 1 common ratio is not a Basel I defined regulatory capital ratio, and our pro forma Basel I and Basel III Tier 1 common ratios may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Our pro forma Basel I Tier 1 common ratio is the ratio of Tier 1 common equity (as calculated in the reconciliation referred to below) to total risk-weighted assets as calculated in accordance with the U.S. Basel I capital rules. Our pro forma Basel III Tier 1 common ratio is the ratio of common equity Tier 1 capital to total risk-weighted assets, each as calculated in accordance with the U.S. Basel III capital rules (on a fully phased-in basis). Our pro forma Basel III Tier 1 common ratio is a preliminary estimate reflecting management’s interpretation of the final Basel III capital rules adopted in July 2013 by the Federal Reserve Board, which have not been fully implemented, and our estimate and interpretations are subject to, among other things, ongoing regulatory review and implementation guidance. For a reconciliation of the components of these capital ratios to their nearest comparable GAAP component, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Capital.”

 

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RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the following risks before investing in our common stock. These risks could materially affect our business, results of operations or financial condition and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline. You could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Relating to Our Businesses

Macroeconomic conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and stock price.

Key macroeconomic conditions historically have affected our business, results of operations and financial condition and are likely to affect them in the future. Consumer confidence, unemployment and housing indicators are among the factors that often impact consumer spending behavior. Poor economic conditions reduce the usage of our credit cards and other financing products and the average purchase amount of transactions on our credit cards and through our other products, which, in each case, reduces our interest and fee income. We rely primarily on interest and fee income to generate our net earnings. Our interest and fee income was $11.3 billion and $10.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, and $2.9 billion and $2.7 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Poor economic conditions also adversely affect the ability and willingness of customers to pay amounts owed to us, increasing delinquencies, bankruptcies, charge-offs and allowances for loan losses, and decreasing recoveries. For example, our over-30 day delinquency rate as a percentage of loan receivables was 8.2% at December 31, 2009 during the financial crisis, compared to 4.1% at March 31, 2014, and our full-year net charge-off rate was 11.3% for the year ended December 31, 2009, compared to 4.7% for the year ended December 31, 2013. We believe the delinquency rate in our portfolio is at historically low levels and charge-off rates in our portfolio are back to pre-recession levels, and they both may increase and are likely to increase materially if economic conditions deteriorate.

While certain economic conditions in the United States have shown signs of improvement, economic growth has been slow and uneven as consumers continue to be affected by high unemployment rates, slowly recovering housing values, continuing concerns about the level of U.S. government debt and fiscal actions that may be taken to address this, as well as economic and political conditions in the global markets. A prolonged period of slow economic growth or a significant deterioration in economic conditions would likely affect consumer spending levels and the ability and willingness of customers to pay amounts owed to us, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Macroeconomic conditions may also cause net earnings to fluctuate and diverge from expectations of securities analysts and investors, who may have differing assumptions regarding the impact of these conditions on our business, and this may adversely impact the trading price of our common stock.

Our results of operations and growth depend on our ability to retain existing partners and attract new partners.

Substantially all of our revenue is generated from the credit products we provide to customers of our partners pursuant to program agreements we enter into with our partners. As a result, our results of operations and growth depend on our ability to retain existing partners and attract new partners. Historically, there has been turnover in our partners, and we expect this will continue in the future. For example, five of our 40 largest program agreements measured by platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 will not be extended beyond their contractual expiration dates in 2014 or 2015. These five program agreements represented, in the aggregate, 3.3% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 3.7% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014. In addition, we recently extended our program agreement with PayPal, one of our ten largest partners, until October 2016 and do not expect it to extend beyond that date. The extension eliminated

 

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certain exclusivity provisions that previously existed in the program agreement, and we expect this will result in lower platform revenue and loan receivables from our PayPal program during the extended term of the agreement. The PayPal program agreement represented 3.1% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 2.6% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014.

Program agreements with our Retail Card partners and national and regional retailer and manufacturer Payment Solutions partners typically are for multi-year terms. These program agreements generally permit our partner to terminate the agreement prior to its scheduled termination date for various reasons, including, in some cases, if we fail to meet certain service levels or change certain key cardholder terms or our credit criteria, we fail to achieve certain targets with respect to approvals of new customers as a result of the credit criteria we use, we elect not to increase the program size when the outstanding loan receivables under the program reach certain thresholds or we are not adequately capitalized, or certain force majeure events or changes in our ownership occur or a material adverse change in our financial condition occurs. A few Payment Solutions programs with national and regional retailer and manufacturer partners also may be terminated at will by the partner on specified notice to us (e.g., several months). In addition, programs with manufacturers, buying groups and industry associations generally are made available to Payment Solutions partners such as individual retail outlets, dealers and merchants under dealer agreements, which typically may be terminated at will by the partner on short notice to us (e.g., 15 days).

There is significant competition for our existing partners, and our failure to retain our existing larger partner relationships upon the expiration or our earlier loss of a relationship upon the exercise of a partner’s early termination rights, or the expiration or termination of a substantial number of smaller partner relationships, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations (including growth rates) and financial condition to the extent we do not acquire new partners of similar size and profitability or otherwise grow our business. The competition for new partners is also significant, and our failure to attract new partners could adversely affect our ability to grow.

A significant percentage of our platform revenue comes from relationships with a small number of Retail Card partners, and the loss of any of these Retail Card partners could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Our ten largest partner relationships are with Retail Card partners and accounted for an aggregate of 59.6% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013. Our five largest programs (Gap, JCPenney, Lowe’s, Sam’s Club and Walmart) accounted in aggregate for 48.4% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013. Sam’s Club is a subsidiary of Walmart that is a separate contracting entity with its own program agreement with us. Our programs with JCPenney and Walmart each accounted for more than 10% of our total platform revenue over the same period. We expect to have significant concentration in our largest relationships for the foreseeable future. Although we have multi-year program agreements with each of our ten largest partners, their current agreements expire at various times, and the agreement with one of these partners, which represented $1.2 billion, or 2.2%, of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014, is scheduled to expire before the end of 2014 and is one of the five partners discussed in the preceding Risk Factor, whose program agreements will not be extended beyond their contractual expiration dates in 2014 or 2015. In addition, we recently extended our program agreement with PayPal, one of our ten largest partners, until October 2016 and do not expect it to extend beyond that date.

The program agreements generally permit us or our partner to terminate the agreement prior to its scheduled termination date under various circumstances as described in the preceding risk factor. Some of our program agreements also provide that, upon expiration or termination, our partner may purchase or designate a third party to purchase the accounts and loans generated with respect to its program and all related customer data. The loss of any of our largest partners or a material reduction in the interest and fees we receive from their customers could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

 

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Our results depend, to a significant extent, on the active and effective promotion and support of our products by our partners.

Our partners generally accept most major credit cards and various other forms of payment, and therefore our success depends on their active and effective promotion of our products to their customers. We depend on our partners to integrate the use of our credit products into their store culture by training their sales associates about our products, having their sales associates encourage their customers to apply for, and use, our products and otherwise effectively marketing our products. In addition, although our Retail Card programs and our Payment Solutions programs with national and regional retailer partners typically are exclusive with respect to the credit products we offer at that partner, some Payment Solutions programs and most CareCredit provider relationships are not exclusive to us, and therefore a partner may choose to promote a competitor’s financing over ours, depending upon cost, availability or attractiveness to consumers or other factors. Typically we do not have, or utilize, any recourse against these non-exclusive partners when they do not sufficiently promote our products. Partners may also implement changes in their systems and technologies that may disrupt the integration between their systems and technologies and ours, which could disrupt the use of our products. The failure by our partners to effectively promote and support our products or changes they make in their business models that negatively impact card usage could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, if our partners engage in improper business practices, do not adhere to the terms of our program agreements or other contractual arrangements or standards, or otherwise diminish the value of our brand, we may suffer reputational damage and customers may be less likely to use our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Our results are impacted, to a significant extent, by the financial performance of our partners.

Our ability to generate new loans and the interest and fees and other income associated with them is dependent upon sales of merchandise and services by our partners. The retail and healthcare industries in which our partners operate are intensely competitive. Our partners compete with retailers and department stores in their own geographic areas, as well as catalog and internet sales businesses. Our partners in the healthcare industry compete with other healthcare providers. Our partners’ sales may decrease or may not increase as we anticipate for various reasons, some of which are in the partners’ control and some of which are not. For example, partner sales may be adversely affected by macroeconomic conditions having a national, regional or more local effect on consumer spending, business conditions affecting a particular partner or industry, or catastrophes affecting broad or more discrete geographic areas. If our partners’ sales decline for any reason, it generally results in lower credit sales, and therefore lower loan volume and associated interest and fees and other income for us from their customers. In addition, if a partner closes some or all of its stores or becomes subject to a voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy proceeding (or if there is a perception that it may become subject to a bankruptcy proceeding), its customers who have used our financing products may have less incentive to pay their outstanding balances to us, which could result in higher charge-off rates than anticipated and our costs for servicing its customers’ accounts may increase. This risk is particularly acute with respect to our largest partners that account for a significant amount of our platform revenue. See “—A significant percentage of our platform revenue comes from relationships with a small number of Retail Card partners, and the loss of any of these Retail Card partners could adversely affect our business and results of operations.” Moreover, if the financial condition of a partner deteriorates significantly or a partner becomes subject to a bankruptcy proceeding, we may not be able to recover for customer returns, customer payments made in partner stores or other amounts due to us from the partner. A decrease in sales by our partners for any reason or a bankruptcy proceeding involving any of them could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

We will need additional financing, and our borrowing costs are expected to be higher following the completion of this offering; adverse financial market conditions or our inability to effectively manage our funding and liquidity risk could have a material adverse effect on our funding, liquidity and ability to meet our obligations.

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borrowings and payments on our other obligations. Historically, our primary sources of funding and liquidity have been, and following this offering are expected to be, collections from our customers, deposits, funds from securitized financings and proceeds from unsecured borrowings. Historically, our unsecured borrowings have come from GECC and we believe our affiliation with GE has made it easier and less expensive for us to obtain some of our funding from third parties. Following completion of this offering, we do not expect to receive funding from GECC (other than transitional financing from GECC under the New GECC Term Loan Facility) and expect our borrowing costs from third parties will be higher than our historical costs from GECC. In addition, following completion of this offering, it may be more difficult for us to securitize our loans because our credit rating from the rating agencies will be lower than GECC’s current credit rating, which may cause investors, and the credit rating agencies, to view us as a weaker sponsor. To compensate, our recent issuances of asset-backed securities have required, and future issuances likely will require, additional credit enhancements and may require higher interest rates and, even then, the credit ratings on our asset-backed securities may be lower than they have been historically. In addition, to maintain the current credit ratings of certain of our existing asset-backed securities in light of this offering, we have amended the documentation for those securities to require us to maintain additional collateral (in the form of additional loan receivables) for those securities. We have also announced that we intend, based on currently available information, to provide additional credit enhancement (in the form of additional loan receivables collateral) that we believe will be sufficient to obtain confirmations of the current ratings of our public asset-backed securities after giving effect to the completion of this offering. These factors and actions may increase the costs of securitizing our loans relative to our historical costs or otherwise adversely affect our financial flexibility.

If we do not have sufficient liquidity, we may not be able to meet our obligations, particularly during a liquidity stress event. If we maintain or are required to maintain too much liquidity, it could be costly and reduce our financial flexibility.

We will need additional financing in the future to refinance any existing debt (including the expected prepayment of part or substantially all of the outstanding debt under the New GECC Term Loan Facility in connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board and the Separation) and finance growth of our business. The availability of additional financing will depend on a variety of factors such as financial market conditions generally, including the availability of credit to the financial services industry, consumers’ willingness to place money on deposit in the Bank, our performance and credit ratings and the performance of our securitized portfolios. Disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the capital, credit or deposit markets, such as the uncertainty and volatility experienced in the capital and credit markets during the financial crisis and more recently arising from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and other economic and political conditions in the global markets and concerning the level of U.S. government debt and fiscal measures that may be taken over the longer term to address these matters, may limit our ability to obtain additional financing or refinance maturing liabilities on desired terms (including funding costs) in a timely manner or at all. It may also be more difficult or costly for us to obtain funds following the Separation. As a result, we may be forced to delay obtaining funding or be forced to issue or raise funding on undesirable terms, which could significantly reduce our financial flexibility and cause us to contract or not grow our business, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition, we currently have an aggregate of approximately $5.6 billion of undrawn committed capacity from private lenders under two of our existing securitization programs. Our ability to draw on such commitments is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the applicable securitization trust having sufficient collateral to support the asset-backed securities issuance and the absence of an early amortization event. Moreover, there are regulatory reforms that have recently been proposed or adopted in the United States and internationally that are intended to address certain issues that affected banks in the recent financial crisis. These reforms, generally referred to as “Basel III,” subject banks to more stringent capital, liquidity and leverage requirements. To the extent that the Basel III requirements result in increased costs to the banks providing undrawn committed capacity under our securitization programs, these costs are likely to be passed on to us. In addition, in response to Basel III, some banks in the market have added provisions to their credit agreements

 

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permitting them to delay disbursement of funding requests for 30 days or more. If our bank lenders require these delayed funding provisions and/or higher pricing for committing undrawn capacity to us, our cost of funding and access to liquidity could be adversely affected.

While financial market conditions have stabilized and, in many cases, improved since the financial crisis, there can be no assurance that significant disruptions, uncertainties and volatility will not occur in the future. If we are unable to continue to finance our business, access capital markets and attract deposits on favorable terms and in a timely manner, or if we experience an increase in our borrowing costs or otherwise fail to manage our liquidity effectively, our results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.

A reduction in our credit ratings could materially increase the cost of our funding from, and restrict our access to, the capital markets.

We expect our senior unsecured debt to be rated BBB- (stable outlook) by Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”) and BBB- (stable outlook) by Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”). Although we have not requested that Moody’s Investor Services, Inc. (“Moody’s”) provide a rating for our senior unsecured debt, we believe that if Moody’s were to issue a rating on our unsecured debt, its rating would be lower than the comparable ratings issued by Fitch and S&P. The ratings for our unsecured debt are based on a number of factors, including our financial strength, as well as factors that may not be within our control, such as macroeconomic conditions and the rating agencies’ perception of the industries in which we operate and the products we offer. Following the completion of the offering, we expect our unsecured debt credit rating from the rating agencies will be lower than GECC’s current unsecured debt credit rating. The ratings of our asset-backed securities are, and will continue to be, based on a number of factors, including the quality of the underlying loans and the credit enhancement structure with respect to each series of asset-backed securities, as well as the credit rating of GECC as the servicer of our publicly registered securitization trust and our credit rating as sponsor. These ratings also reflect the various methodologies and assumptions used by the rating agencies, which are subject to change (and Moody’s has indicated that certain of its methodologies and assumptions are currently under review) and could adversely affect our ratings. The rating agencies regularly evaluate our credit ratings and those of GECC, as well as the credit ratings of our asset-backed securities. We expect GECC will resign and assign its servicing obligations for our publicly registered securitization trust to us, and we intend to amend the program documents for this trust to enable that assignment. We expect the GECC resignation and assignment will occur on the earlier of: (i) the date all asset-backed securities outstanding at the effective time of the amendment have been redeemed or paid in full (which is expected to occur no later than 2019) and (ii) when the holders of such securities have consented to an assignment of such servicing obligations to us (the “Expected GECC Servicer Assignment Date”). There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our unsecured debt or asset-backed securities credit ratings or that any of our credit ratings will not be lowered or withdrawn in the future, including as GE decreases its ownership in us or when GECC is no longer the servicer. We also cannot be sure that GECC’s credit ratings will not be lowered or what impact any such action would have on our credit ratings as well as those of our asset-backed securities. A downgrade in our unsecured debt or asset-backed securities credit ratings (or investor concerns that a downgrade may occur) could materially increase the cost of our funding from, and restrict our access to, the capital markets.

Neither we nor GE have any obligation to replace or supplement the credit enhancement or to take any other action to maintain any ratings of any asset-backed securities. However, we have announced that we intend, based on currently available information, to provide additional credit enhancement (in the form of additional loan receivables collateral) that we believe will be sufficient to obtain confirmations of the current ratings of our public asset-backed securities after giving effect to the completion of this offering. If the ratings on our asset-backed securities are reduced, put on negative watch or withdrawn as a result of this offering, the Separation, the GE SLHC Deregistration or otherwise, it may have an adverse effect on the liquidity or the market price of our asset-backed securities and on the cost of or our ability to continue using securitized financings to the extent anticipated.

 

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Our inability to securitize our loans would have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, cost of funds and financial condition.

We use the securitization of loans, which involves the transfer of loans to a trust and the issuance by the trust of asset-backed securities to third-party investors, as a significant source of funding. Our average level of securitized financings from third parties was $16.2 billion and $15.2 billion for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. For a discussion of our securitization activities, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Funding Sources—Securitized Financings,” “Description of Certain Indebtedness—Securitized Financings” and Note 6. Variable Interest Entities to our combined financial statements.

Although the securitization market for credit cards has been re-established since the financial crisis that began in 2008, there can be no assurance that the market will not experience future disruptions. The extent to which we will securitize our loans in the future will depend in part upon the conditions in the securities markets in general and the credit card asset-backed securities market in particular, the overall credit quality of our loans and the conformity of the loans and our securitization program to rating agency requirements, the costs of securitizing our loans, and the legal, regulatory, accounting and tax requirements governing securitization transactions. In the event we are unable to refinance existing asset-backed securities from our publicly registered securitization trust with new securities from the same trust, there are structural and regulatory constraints on our ability to refinance these asset-backed securities with Bank deposits or other funding at the Bank, and therefore we would be required to rely on sources outside of the Bank, which may not be available or may be available only at higher cost. A prolonged inability to securitize our loans on favorable terms, or at all, or to refinance our asset-backed securities would have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, cost of funds and financial condition.

The occurrence of an early amortization of our securitization facilities would have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and cost of funds.

Our liquidity would be materially adversely affected by the occurrence of events resulting in the early amortization of our existing securitized financings. For a description of these early amortization events, see “Description of Certain Indebtedness—Securitized Financings.” During an early amortization period, principal collections from the loans in our asset-backed securitization trusts would be applied to repay principal of the asset-backed securities rather than being available on a revolving basis to fund purchases of newly originated loans. This would negatively impact our liquidity, including our ability to originate new loans under existing accounts, and require us to rely on alternative funding sources, which might increase our funding costs or might not be available when needed.

Our loss of the right to service or subservice our securitized loans would have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and cost of funds.

GECC currently acts as servicer with respect to our publicly registered securitization trust and its related series of asset-backed securities, and the Bank acts as servicer with respect to our other two securitization trusts. If GECC or the Bank, as applicable, defaults in its servicing obligations, an early amortization event could occur with respect to the relevant asset-backed securities and/or GECC or the Bank, as applicable, could be replaced as servicer. Servicer defaults include, for example, the failure of the servicer to make any payment, transfer or deposit in accordance with the securitization documents, a breach of representations, warranties or agreements made by the servicer under the securitization documents, the delegation of the servicer’s duties contrary to the securitization documents and the occurrence of certain insolvency events with respect to the servicer. Such an amortization event would have the adverse consequences discussed in the immediately preceding risk factor.

We expect GECC will resign and assign its servicing obligations for our publicly registered securitization trust to us on or shortly after the Expected GECC Servicer Assignment Date and until that time, our ability to service the public securitization trust’s assets pursuant to the sub-servicing arrangement with GECC will be dependent on GECC not being terminated as servicer for a servicer default or resigning in accordance with the

 

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requirements specified in the trust’s program documents, as well as us not being terminated for a default under our sub-servicing arrangement with GECC. If GECC defaults or resigns (or if we default under our sub-servicing arrangement), a third party could be appointed servicer with respect to our publicly registered securitization trust, particularly if neither we nor the Bank have the required ratings to serve as successor servicer. Similarly, if we default in our servicing obligations with respect to either of our other two securitization trusts, a third party could be appointed as servicer of the related trust. If a third-party servicer is appointed, there is no assurance that the third-party will engage us as sub-servicer, in which event we would no longer be able to control the manner in which the related trust’s assets are serviced, and the failure of a third party to appropriately service such assets could lead to an early amortization event in the affected securitization trust, which would have the adverse consequences discussed in the immediately preceding risk factor.

Lower payment rates on our securitized loans could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.

Certain collections from our securitized loans come back to us through our subsidiaries, and we use these collections to fund our purchase of newly originated loans to collateralize our securitized financings. If payment rates on our securitized loans are lower than they have historically been, fewer collections will be remitted to us on an ongoing basis. Further, certain series of our asset-backed securities include a requirement that we accumulate principal collections in a restricted account for a specified number of months prior to the applicable security’s maturity date. We are required under the program documents to lengthen this accumulation period to the extent we expect the payment rates to be low enough that the current length of the accumulation period is inadequate to fully fund the restricted account by the applicable security’s maturity date. Lower payment rates, and in particular, payment rates that are low enough that we are required to lengthen our accumulation periods, could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.

We are a holding company and will rely significantly on dividends, distributions and other payments from the Bank.

As a holding company, we will rely significantly on dividends, distributions and other payments from the Bank to fund any dividends to our stockholders and repurchases of our stock, as well as to satisfy our debt and other obligations. The ability of the Bank to make dividends and other distributions and payments to us is subject to regulation by the OCC and the Federal Reserve Board. Limitations on the amounts we receive from the Bank could impact our liquidity. See “—Risks Relating to Regulation—We and the Bank are subject to restrictions that limit our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our capital stock.”

Our inability to grow our deposits in the future could materially adversely affect our liquidity and ability to grow our business.

We obtain deposits directly from retail and commercial customers or through brokerage firms that offer our deposit products to their customers. At March 31, 2014, we had $13.0 billion in direct deposits (which includes deposits from banks and financial institutions) and $14.4 billion in deposits originated through brokerage firms (including network deposit sweeps procured through a program arranger who channels brokerage account deposits to us). A key part of our liquidity plan and funding strategy is to significantly expand our direct deposits. Although we expect to reduce the proportion of our funding provided by brokered deposits in connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board, we also intend to continue to rely on brokered deposits as a source of funding.

The deposit business is highly competitive, with intense competition in attracting and retaining deposits. We compete on the basis of the rates we pay on deposits, features and benefits of our products, the quality of our customer service and the competitiveness of our digital banking capabilities. Our ability to originate and maintain retail deposits is also highly dependent on the strength of the Bank and the perceptions of consumers and others of our business practices and our financial health. Adverse perceptions regarding our reputation could lead to difficulties in attracting and retaining deposits accounts. Negative public opinion could result from actual or alleged conduct in a number of areas, including lending practices, regulatory compliance, inadequate protection of customer

 

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information or sales and marketing activities, and from actions taken by regulators or others in response to such conduct. In addition, our ability to originate and maintain deposits could be adversely affected by the loss of our association with GE’s brand and reputation following the completion of this offering or the Separation.

The demand for the deposit products we offer may also be reduced due to a variety of factors, such as demographic patterns, changes in customer preferences, reductions in consumers’ disposable income, regulatory actions that decrease customer access to particular products or the availability of competing products. Competition from other financial services firms and others that use deposit funding products may affect deposit renewal rates, costs or availability. Changes we make to the rates offered on our deposit products may affect our profitability and liquidity.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act (the “FDIA”) prohibits an insured bank from accepting brokered deposits or offering interest rates on any deposits significantly higher than the prevailing rate in the bank’s normal market area or nationally (depending upon where the deposits are solicited), unless it is “well capitalized,” or it is “adequately capitalized” and receives a waiver from the FDIC. A bank that is “adequately capitalized” and accepts brokered deposits under a waiver from the FDIC may not pay an interest rate on any deposit in excess of 75 basis points over certain prevailing market rates. There are no such restrictions under the FDIA on a bank that is “well capitalized” and at March 31, 2014, the Bank met or exceeded all applicable requirements to be deemed “well capitalized” for purposes of the FDIA. However, there can be no assurance that the Bank will continue to meet those requirements. Limitations on the Bank’s ability to accept brokered deposits for any reason (including regulatory limitations on the amount of brokered deposits in total or as a percentage of total assets) in the future could materially adversely impact our funding costs and liquidity. Any limitation on the interest rates the Bank can pay on deposits could competitively disadvantage us in attracting and retaining deposits and have a material adverse effect on our business.

Changes in market interest rates could have a material adverse effect on our net earnings, funding and liquidity.

Changes in market interest rates cause our net interest income and our interest expense to increase or decrease, as certain of our assets and liabilities carry interest rates that fluctuate with market benchmarks. At March 31, 2014, 57.4% of our loans bore a fixed interest rate to the customer and we generally fund these assets with fixed rate certificates of deposit, securitized financing and unsecured debt. At March 31, 2014, 42.6% of our loans bore a floating interest rate to the customer, and we generally fund these assets with floating rate deposits, asset-backed securities and unsecured debt. The interest rate benchmark for our floating rate assets is the prime rate, and the interest rate benchmark for our floating rate liabilities is generally either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or the federal funds rate. The prime rate and LIBOR or the federal funds rate could reset at different times or could diverge, leading to mismatches in the interest rates on our floating rate assets and floating rate liabilities. To the extent we are unable to effectively match the interest rates on our assets and liabilities (including, in the future, potentially through the use of derivatives), our net earnings could be materially adversely affected.

Competitive and regulatory factors may limit our ability to raise interest rates, fixed or floating, on our loans. In addition, some of our program agreements limit the rate of interest we can charge to customers under those agreements. If interest rates were to rise materially over a sustained period of time, and we are unable to sufficiently raise our interest rates in a timely manner, or at all, our net interest margin could be adversely impacted, which could have a material adverse effect on our net earnings.

Interest rates may also adversely impact our customers’ spending levels and ability and willingness to pay amounts owed to us. Our floating rate credit products bear interest rates that fluctuate with the prime rate. Higher interest rates often lead to higher payment obligations by customers to us and other lenders under mortgage, credit card and other consumer loans, which may reduce our customers’ ability to remain current on their obligations to us and therefore lead to increased delinquencies, bankruptcies, charge-offs and allowances for loan losses, and decreasing recoveries, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our net earnings.

Changes in interest rates and competitor responses to these changes may also impact customer decisions to maintain deposits with us, and reductions in deposits could materially adversely affect our funding costs and liquidity.

 

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We assess our interest rate risk by estimating the effect on our net earnings of various scenarios that differ based on assumptions about the direction and the magnitude of interest rate changes. We take risk mitigation actions based on those assessments. Changes in interest rates could materially reduce our net interest income and our net earnings, and could also increase our funding costs and reduce our liquidity, especially if actual conditions turn out to be materially different from those we assumed. For a discussion of interest rate risk sensitivities, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.”

Our risk management processes and procedures may not be effective in mitigating our risks.

Our risk management processes and procedures seek to appropriately balance risk and return and mitigate risks. We have established processes and procedures intended to identify, measure, monitor and control the types of risk to which we are subject, including credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, strategic risk and operational risk. Credit risk is the risk of loss that arises when an obligor fails to meet the terms of an obligation. We are exposed to both consumer credit risk, from our customer loans, and institutional credit risk, principally from our partners. Market risk is the risk of loss due to changes in external market factors such as interest rates. Liquidity risk is the risk that financial condition or overall safety and soundness are adversely affected by an inability, or perceived inability, to meet obligations and support business growth. Strategic risk is the risk from changes in the business environment, improper implementation of decisions or inadequate responsiveness to changes in the business environment. Operational risk is the risk of loss arising from inadequate or failed processes, people or systems, external events (i.e., natural disasters) or compliance, reputational or legal matters and includes those risks as they relate directly to our Company as well as to third parties with whom we contract or otherwise do business. See “Business—Credit Risk Management” and “Business—Risk Management” for additional information on the types of risks affecting our business.

We seek to monitor and control our risk exposure through a framework that includes our risk appetite statement, enterprise risk assessment process, risk policies, procedures and controls, reporting requirements, credit risk culture and governance structure. Management of our risks in some cases depends upon the use of analytical and/or forecasting models. If the models that we use to manage these risks are ineffective at predicting future losses or are otherwise inadequate, we may incur unexpected losses or otherwise be adversely affected. In addition, the information we use in managing our credit and other risk may be inaccurate or incomplete as a result of error or fraud, both of which may be difficult to detect and avoid. There may also be risks that exist, or that develop in the future, that we have not appropriately anticipated, identified or mitigated including when processes are changed or new products and services are introduced. If our risk management framework does not effectively identify and control our risks, we could suffer unexpected losses or be adversely affected, and that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We rely extensively on models in managing many aspects of our business, and if they are not accurate or are misinterpreted, it could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We rely extensively on models in managing many aspects of our business, including liquidity and capital planning (including stress testing), customer selection, credit and other risk management, pricing, reserving and collections management. The models may prove in practice to be less predictive than we expect for a variety of reasons, including as a result of errors in constructing, interpreting or using the models or the use of inaccurate assumptions (including failures to update assumptions appropriately or in a timely manner). Our assumptions may be inaccurate for many reasons including that they often involve matters that are inherently difficult to predict and beyond our control (e.g., macroeconomic conditions and their impact on partner and customer behaviors) and they often involve complex interactions between a number of dependent and independent variables, factors and other assumptions. The errors or inaccuracies in our models may be material, and could lead us to make wrong or sub-optimal decisions in managing our business, and this could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

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Our business depends on our ability to successfully manage our credit risk, and failing to do so may result in high charge-off rates.

Our success depends on our ability to manage our credit risk while attracting new customers with profitable usage patterns. We select our customers, manage their accounts and establish terms and credit limits using proprietary scoring models and other analytical techniques that are designed to set terms and credit limits to appropriately compensate us for the credit risk we accept, while encouraging customers to use their available credit. The models and approaches we use to manage our credit risk may not accurately predict future charge-offs for various reasons discussed in the preceding risk factor.

Our ability to manage credit risk and avoid high charge-off rates also may be adversely affected by economic conditions that may be difficult to predict, such as the recent financial crisis. Although delinquencies and charge-offs continued to decline through 2013, they both may increase in the future and are likely to increase materially if economic conditions deteriorate. We remain subject to conditions in the consumer credit environment. There can be no assurance that our credit underwriting and risk management strategies will enable us to avoid high charge-off levels or delinquencies, or that our allowance for loan losses will be sufficient to cover actual losses.

A customer’s ability to repay us can be negatively impacted by increases in their payment obligations to other lenders under mortgage, credit card and other loans (including student loans). These changes can result from increases in base lending rates or structured increases in payment obligations, and could reduce the ability of our customers to meet their payment obligations to other lenders and to us. In addition, a customer’s ability to repay us can be negatively impacted by the restricted availability of credit to consumers generally, including reduced and closed lines of credit. Customers with insufficient cash flow to fund daily living expenses and lack of access to other sources of credit may be more likely to increase their card usage and ultimately default on their payment obligations to us, resulting in higher credit losses in our portfolio. Our collection operations may not compete effectively to secure more of customers’ diminished cash flow than our competitors. In addition, we may not identify customers who are likely to default on their payment obligations to us and reduce our exposure by closing credit lines and restricting authorizations quickly enough, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. At March 31, 2014, 29.6% of our portfolio’s loan receivables were from consumers with a FICO score of 660 or less, which typically have higher delinquency and credits losses than consumers with higher FICO scores.

Our ability to manage credit risk also may be adversely affected by legal or regulatory changes (such as bankruptcy laws and minimum payment regulations) and collection regulations, competitors’ actions and consumer behavior, as well as inadequate collections staffing, techniques, models and performance of vendors such as collection agencies.

Our allowance for loan losses may prove to be insufficient to cover losses on our loans.

We maintain an allowance for loan losses (a reserve established through a provision for losses charged to expense) that we believe is appropriate to provide for incurred losses in our loan portfolio. In addition, for portfolios we may acquire when we enter into new partner program agreements, any deterioration in the performance of the purchased portfolios after acquisition results in incremental loss reserves. Growth in our loan portfolio generally would lead to an increase in the allowance for loan losses.

The process for establishing an allowance for loan losses is critical to our results of operations and financial condition, and requires complex models and judgments, including forecasts of economic conditions. Changes in economic conditions affecting borrowers, new information regarding our loans and other factors, both within and outside of our control, may require an increase in the allowance for loan losses. We may underestimate our incurred losses and fail to maintain an allowance for loan losses sufficient to account for these losses. In cases where we modify a loan, if the modified loans do not perform as anticipated, we may be required to establish additional allowances on these loans.

 

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We periodically review and update our methodology, models and the underlying assumptions, estimates and assessments we use to establish our allowance for loan losses to reflect our view of current conditions. Moreover, our regulators, as part of their supervisory function, periodically review the methodology, models and the underlying assumptions, estimates and assessments we use for calculating, and the adequacy of, our allowance for loan losses. Our regulators, based on their judgment, may conclude that we should modify our methodology, models or the underlying assumptions, estimates and assessments, increase our allowance for loan losses and/or recognize further losses. During 2012 and 2013, we enhanced our allowance for loan losses methodology. This enhancement resulted in a more granular portfolio segmentation analysis, by loss type, included a qualitative assessment of the adequacy of the portfolio’s allowance for loan losses, which compared the allowance for losses to projected net charge-offs over the next 12 months, in a manner consistent with regulatory guidance, and was designed to provide a better estimate of the date of a probable loss event and length of time required for a probable loss event to result in a charge-off. As a result, we recognized incremental provisions of $343 million and $642 million in 2012 and 2013, respectively. We continue to review and evaluate our methodology, models and the underlying assumptions, estimates and assessments we use and we will implement further enhancements or changes to them, as needed. We cannot assure you that our loan loss reserves will be sufficient to cover actual losses. Future increases in the allowance for loan losses or recognized losses (as a result of any review, update, regulatory guidance or otherwise) will result in a decrease in net earnings and capital and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If assumptions or estimates we use in preparing our financial statements are incorrect or are required to change, our reported results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We are required to make various assumptions and estimates in preparing our financial statements under GAAP, including for purposes of determining allowances for loan losses, asset impairment, reserves related to litigation and other legal matters, valuation of income and other taxes and regulatory exposures and the amounts recorded for certain contractual payments to be paid to or received from partners and others under contractual arrangements. In addition, significant assumptions and estimates are involved in determining certain disclosures required under GAAP, including those involving the fair value of our financial instruments. If the assumptions or estimates underlying our financial statements are incorrect, the actual amounts realized on transactions and balances subject to those estimates will be different, and this could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) is currently reviewing or proposing changes to several financial accounting and reporting standards that govern key aspects of our financial statements, including the proposed standard on accounting for credit losses and other areas where assumptions or estimates are required. As a result of changes to financial accounting or reporting standards, whether promulgated or required by the FASB or other regulators, we could be required to change certain of the assumptions or estimates we previously used in preparing our financial statements, which could materially impact how we record and report our results of operations and financial condition generally. For additional information on the key areas for which assumptions and estimates are used in preparing our financial statements, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Estimates” and Note 2. Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our combined financial statements.

We may not be able to offset increases in our costs with decreased payments under our retailer share arrangements, which could reduce our profitability.

Most of our Retail Card program agreements and certain other program agreements contain retailer share arrangements that provide for payments to our partners if the economic performance of the relevant program exceeds a contractually defined threshold. Although the share arrangements vary by partner, these arrangements are generally structured to measure the economic performance of the program, based typically on agreed upon program revenues (including interest income and certain other income) less agreed upon program expenses (including interest expense, provision for loan losses, retailer payments and operating expenses), and share portions of this amount above a negotiated threshold. These arrangements are typically designed to permit us to

 

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achieve an economic return before we are required to make payments to our partners based on the agreed contractually defined threshold. However, because the threshold and the economic performance of a program that are used to calculate payments to our partners may be based on, among other things, agreed upon measures of program expenses rather than our actual expenses, we may not be able to pass on increases in our actual expenses (such as funding costs or operating expenses) in the form of reduced payments under our retailer share arrangements, and our economic return on a program could be adversely affected.

Competition in the consumer finance industry is intense.

The success of our business depends on our ability to retain existing partners and attract new partners. The competition for partners is intense and becoming more competitive. Our primary competitors for partners include major financial institutions, such as Alliance Data, American Express, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, TD Bank and Wells Fargo, and to a lesser extent, potential partners’ own in-house financing capabilities. Some of our competitors are substantially larger, have substantially greater resources and may offer a broader range of products and services. We compete for partners on the basis of a number of factors, including program financial and other terms, underwriting standards, marketing expertise, service levels, product and service offerings (including incentive and loyalty programs), technological capabilities and integration, brand and reputation. In addition, some of our competitors for partners have a business model that allows for their partners to manage underwriting (e.g., new account approval), customer service and collections, and other core banking responsibilities that we retain but some partners may prefer to handle. As a result of competition, we may be unable to acquire new partners, lose existing relationships to competing companies or find it more costly to maintain our existing relationships.

Our success also depends on our ability to attract and retain customers and generate usage of our products by them. The consumer credit and payments industry is highly competitive and we face an increasingly dynamic industry as emerging technologies enter the marketplace. As a form of payment, our products compete with cash, checks, debit cards, general purpose credit cards (including Visa and MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card), other private-label card brands and, to a certain extent, prepaid cards. We also compete with non-traditional providers such as PayPal. In the future, we expect our products will face increased competition from new emerging payment technologies, such as Google Wallet, ISIS Mobile Wallet and Square, as well as consortia of merchants that are expected to combine payment systems to reduce interchange and other costs (e.g., MCX). We may also face increased competition from current competitors or others who introduce or embrace disruptive technology that significantly changes the consumer credit and payment industry. We compete for customers and their usage of our products, and to minimize transfers to competitors of our customers’ outstanding balances, based on a number of factors, including pricing (interest rates and fees), product offerings, credit limits, incentives (including loyalty programs) and customer service. Although we offer a variety of consumer credit products, some of our competitors provide a broader selection of services, including home and automobile loans, debit cards and bank branch ATM access, which may position them better among customers who prefer to use a single financial institution to meet all of their financial needs. Some of our competitors are substantially larger than we are, which may give those competitors advantages, including a more diversified product and customer base, the ability to reach out to more customers and potential customers, operational efficiencies, more versatile technology platforms, broad-based local distribution capabilities and lower-cost funding. In addition, some of our competitors, including new and emerging competitors in the digital and mobile payments space, are not subject to the same regulatory requirements or legislative scrutiny to which we are subject, which also could place us at a competitive disadvantage. Customer attrition from any or all of our credit products or any lowering of the pricing of our products by reducing interest rates or fees in order to retain customers could reduce our revenues and therefore our earnings.

In our retail deposits business, we have acquisition and servicing capabilities similar to other direct banking competitors. We compete for deposits with traditional banks and, in seeking to grow our direct banking business, we compete with other banks that have direct banking models similar to ours, such as Ally Financial, American Express, Capital One 360 (ING), Discover, Nationwide, Sallie Mae and USAA. Competition among direct banks is intense because online banking provides customers the ability to rapidly deposit and withdraw funds and open and close accounts in favor of products and services offered by competitors.

 

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If we are unable to compete effectively for partners, customer usage or deposits, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our business is heavily concentrated in U.S. consumer credit, and therefore our results are more susceptible to fluctuations in that market than a more diversified company.

Our business is heavily concentrated in U.S. consumer credit. As a result, we are more susceptible to fluctuations and risks particular to U.S. consumer credit than a more diversified company. For example, our business is particularly sensitive to macroeconomic conditions that affect the U.S. economy and consumer spending and consumer credit. We are also more susceptible to the risks of increased regulations and legal and other regulatory actions that are targeted at consumer credit or the specific consumer credit products that we offer (including promotional financing). Due to our CareCredit platform, we are also more susceptible to increased regulations and legal and other regulatory actions targeted at elective healthcare related procedures or services, in contrast to other industries. Our business concentration could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize new or enhanced products and services.

Our industry is subject to rapid and significant changes in technologies, products and services. A key part of our financial success depends on our ability to develop and commercialize new products and services or enhancements to existing products and services, including with respect to loyalty programs, mobile and point of sale technologies, and new Synchrony-branded bank deposit and credit products. Realizing the benefits of those products and services is uncertain. We may not assign the appropriate level of resources, priority or expertise to the development and commercialization of these new products, services or enhancements. Our ability to develop, acquire or commercialize competitive technologies, products or services on acceptable terms or at all may be limited by intellectual property rights that third parties, including competitors and potential competitors, may assert. In addition, success is dependent on factors such as partner and customer acceptance, adoption and usage, competition, the effectiveness of marketing programs, the availability of appropriate technologies and business processes and regulatory approvals. Success of a new product, service or enhancement also may depend upon our ability to deliver it on a large scale, which may require a significant investment.

We also may select, utilize and invest in technologies, products and services that ultimately do not achieve widespread adoption and therefore are not as attractive or useful to our partners, customers and service partners as we anticipate, or partners may not recognize the value of our new products and services or believe they justify any potential costs or disruptions associated with implementing them. In addition, because our products and services typically are marketed through our partners, if our partners are unwilling or unable to effectively implement our new technologies, products, services or enhancements, we may be unable to grow our business. Competitors may also develop or adopt technologies or introduce innovations that change the markets we operate in and make our products less competitive and attractive to our partners and customers.

In any event, we may not realize the benefit of new technologies, products, services or enhancements for many years or competitors may introduce more compelling products, services or enhancements. Our failure to successfully develop and commercialize new or enhanced products, services or enhancements could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We may not realize the value of strategic investments that we pursue and such investments could divert resources or introduce unforeseen risks to our business.

We may execute strategic acquisitions or partnerships or make other strategic investments in businesses, products, technologies or platforms to enhance or grow our business. These strategic investments may introduce new costs or liabilities which could impact our ability to grow or maintain acceptable performance.

 

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We may be unable to integrate systems, personnel or technologies from our strategic investments. These strategic investments may also present unforeseen legal, regulatory or other challenges that we may not be able to manage effectively. The planning and integration of an acquisition, partnership or investment may shift employee time and other resources which could impair our ability to focus on our core business.

Strategic investments may not perform as expected due to lack of acceptance by partners, customers or employees, higher than forecasted costs, lengthy transition periods, synergies or savings not being realized and a variety of other factors. This may result in a delay or unrealized benefit, or in some cases, increased costs or other unforeseen risks to our business.

Reductions in interchange fees may reduce the competitive advantages our private label credit card products currently have by virtue of not charging interchange fees and would reduce our income from those fees.

Interchange is a fee merchants pay to the interchange network in exchange for the use of the network’s infrastructure and payment facilitation, and which are paid to credit card issuers to compensate them for the risk they bear in lending money to customers. We earn interchange fees on Dual Card transactions but we do not charge or earn interchange fees from our partners or customers on our private label credit card products.

Merchants, trying to decrease their operating expenses, have sought to, and have had some success at, lowering interchange rates. Several recent events and actions indicate a continuing increase in focus on interchange by both regulators and merchants. Beyond pursuing litigation, legislation and regulation, merchants are also pursuing alternate payment platforms as a means to lower payment processing costs. To the extent interchange fees are reduced, one of our current competitive advantages with our partners—that we typically do not charge interchange fees when our private label credit card products are used to purchase our partners’ goods and services—may be reduced. Moreover, to the extent interchange fees are reduced, our income from those fees will be lower. We received approximately $324 million of interchange fees for the year ended December 31, 2013 and $76 million of interchange fees for the three months ended March 31, 2014. As a result, a reduction in interchange fees could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, for our Dual Cards, we are subject to the operating regulations and procedures set forth by the interchange network, and our failure to comply with these operating regulations, which may change from time to time, could subject us to various penalties or fees, or the termination of our license to use the interchange network, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Fraudulent activity associated with our products and services could negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and cause the use of our products and services to decrease and our fraud losses to increase.

We are subject to the risk of fraudulent activity associated with partners, customers and third parties handling customer information. Our fraud-related losses have increased significantly from $72 million to $132 million to $134 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. For the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, fraud-related losses were $28 million and $33 million, respectively. Our fraud-related losses are due primarily to our Dual Card product, which has grown in recent years, and like the overall market for general purpose credit cards has experienced significant counterfeit and mail/phone fraud. Our private label credit card product is also susceptible to application fraud, because among other things, we provide immediate access to the credit line at the time of approval. In addition, sales on the internet and through mobile channels are becoming a larger part of our business and fraudulent activity is higher as a percentage of sales in those channels than in stores. Dual Cards and private label credit cards are susceptible to different types of fraud, and, depending on our product channel mix (including as a result of the introduction, if any, of a Synchrony-branded general purpose credit card), we may continue to experience variations in, or levels of, fraud-related expense that are different from or higher than that experienced by some of our competitors or the industry generally.

The risk of fraud continues to increase for the financial services industry in general, and credit card fraud, identity theft and related crimes are likely to continue to be prevalent, and perpetrators are growing more

 

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sophisticated. Our resources, technologies and fraud prevention tools may be insufficient to accurately detect and prevent fraud. For example, credit cards with embedded security chip technology (such as the so-called “EMV” chips) provide additional security against fraudulent activity and have been widely adopted in Europe and Asia but have not been widely accepted by merchants in the United States. As a result, although we are in the process of rolling out this technology with several of our partners, our credit cards continue to use the traditional magnetic stripes for card processing and therefore do not benefit from the embedded security chip feature, and our adoption of this technology would still require wider acceptance by merchants to reduce our risk. The level of our fraud charge-offs and results of operations could be materially adversely affected if fraudulent activity were to significantly increase. High profile fraudulent activity also could negatively impact our brand and reputation, which could negatively impact the use of our cards and thereby have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, significant increases in fraudulent activity could lead to regulatory intervention (such as increased customer notification requirements and mandatory issuance of cards with EMV chips), which could increase our costs and also negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and could lead us to take steps to reduce fraud risk, which could increase our costs.

Cyber-attacks or other security breaches could have a material adverse effect on our business.

In the normal course of business, we collect, process and retain sensitive and confidential information regarding our partners and our customers. We also have arrangements in place with our partners and other third parties through which we share and receive information about their customers who are or may become our customers. Although we devote significant resources and management focus to ensuring the integrity of our systems through information security and business continuity programs, our facilities and systems, and those of our partners and third-party service providers, are vulnerable to external or internal security breaches, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming or human errors, or other similar events. We and our partners and third-party service providers have experienced all of these events in the past and expect to continue to experience them in the future. These events could interrupt our business or operations, result in significant legal and financial exposure, supervisory liability, damage to our reputation or a loss of confidence in the security of our systems, products and services. Although the impact to date from these events has not had a material adverse effect on us, we cannot be sure this will be the case in the future.

Information security risks for large financial institutions like us have increased recently in part because of new technologies, the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies (including mobile devices) to conduct financial and other business transactions and the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime, perpetrators of fraud, hackers, terrorists and others. In addition to cyber-attacks or other security breaches involving the theft of sensitive and confidential information, hackers recently have engaged in attacks against large financial institutions that are designed to disrupt key business services, such as consumer-facing web sites. The Separation and our emergence as a separately branded company could increase our profile and therefore risk of being targeted for cyber-attacks and other security breaches, including attacks targeting our key business services and websites. We are not able to anticipate or implement effective preventive measures against all security breaches of these types, especially because the techniques used change frequently and because attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources. We employ detection and response mechanisms designed to contain and mitigate security incidents, but early detection may be thwarted by sophisticated attacks and malware designed to avoid detection.

We also face risks related to cyber-attacks and other security breaches in connection with credit card transactions that typically involve the transmission of sensitive information regarding our customers through various third-parties, including our partners, merchant acquiring banks, payment processors, card networks (e.g., Visa and MasterCard) and our processors (e.g., First Data Corporation (“First Data”)). Some of these parties have in the past been the target of security breaches and cyber-attacks, and because the transactions involve third-parties and environments such as the point of sale that we do not control or secure, future security breaches or cyber-attacks affecting any of these third-parties could impact us through no fault of our own, and in some cases we may have exposure and suffer losses for breaches or attacks relating to them. We also rely on numerous other third party service providers, such as Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (“FIS”), to conduct other

 

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aspects of our business operations and face similar risks relating to them. While we regularly conduct security assessments of significant third party service providers, we cannot be sure that their information security protocols are sufficient to withstand a cyber-attack or other security breach.

The access by unauthorized persons to, or the improper disclosure by us of, confidential information regarding our customers or our own proprietary information, software, methodologies and business secrets could interrupt our business or operations, result in significant legal and financial exposure, supervisory liability, damage to our reputation or a loss of confidence in the security of our systems, products and services, all of which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, recently there have been a number of well-publicized attacks or breaches affecting others in our industry that have heightened concern by consumers generally about the security of using credit cards, which have caused some consumers, including our customers, to use our credit cards less in favor of alternative methods of payment and has led to increased regulatory focus on, and potentially new regulations relating to, these matters. Further cyber-attacks or other breaches in the future, whether affecting us or others, could intensify consumer concern and regulatory focus and result in reduced use of our cards and increased costs, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The failure of third parties to provide various services that are important to our operations could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Some services important to our business are outsourced to third-party vendors. For example, our credit card transaction processing, production and related services (including the printing and mailing of customer statements) are handled by First Data, and the technology platform for our online retail deposits is managed by FIS. First Data and FIS and, in some cases other third-party vendors, are the sole source or one of a limited number of sources of the services they provide for us. It would be difficult and disruptive for us to replace some of our third-party vendors, particularly First Data and FIS, in a timely manner if they were unwilling or unable to provide us with these services in the future (as a result of their financial or business conditions or otherwise), and our business and operations likely would be materially adversely affected. First Data has publicly disclosed that it is highly leveraged and that it has incurred net losses of $869.1 million, $700.9 million and $516.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. Our principal agreements with First Data expire under their existing terms (assuming we exercise our unilateral extension rights but the agreements are not otherwise renewed or extended by mutual agreement of the parties) at various times between 2016 and 2020. Our principal agreement with FIS expires under its existing terms (assuming we exercise our unilateral extension rights but the agreements are not otherwise renewed or extended by mutual agreement of the parties) in 2020. In addition, if a third-party provider fails to provide the services we require, fails to meet contractual requirements, such as compliance with applicable laws and regulations, or suffers a cyber-attack or other security breach, our business could suffer economic and reputational harm that could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Disruptions in the operation of our computer systems and data centers could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our ability to deliver products and services to our partners and our customers, service our loans and otherwise operate our business and comply with applicable laws depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our computer systems and data centers, as well as those of our partners and third-party service providers. These computer systems and data centers may encounter service interruptions at any time due to system or software failure, natural disaster or other reasons. In addition, the implementation of technology changes and upgrades to maintain current and integrate new systems may also cause service interruptions, transaction processing errors and system conversion delays and may cause our failure to comply with applicable laws, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

In connection with the Separation, we must migrate, and in some cases, establish with third parties, key parts of our technology infrastructure, including our data centers. When we migrate our data centers, our partners will

 

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also need to make changes to their networks to establish connectivity with us. These infrastructure changes, both the ones that we make and the ones required of our partners, may cause disruptions, systems interruptions, transaction processing errors and system conversion delays. In addition, we have entered into transitional services arrangements with GE pursuant to which it will provide certain services to us relating to technology and business processes. Some of these transitional services arrangements may remain in effect until 2016, and during the transitional period we will rely on GE to provide these services. The complexities of these arrangements and the services provided will increase the operational risk associated with the Separation, and this increased risk could result in unanticipated expenses, disruptions to our operations or other adverse consequences, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We expect that new technologies and business processes applicable to the consumer credit industry will continue to emerge, and these new technologies and business processes may be better than those we currently use. The pace of technology change is high and our industry is intensely competitive, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to sustain our investment in new technology as critical systems and applications become obsolete and better ones become available. A failure to maintain current technology and business processes could cause disruptions in our operations or cause our products and services to be less competitive, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have international operations that subject us to various international risks as well as increased compliance and regulatory risks and costs.

We have international operations, primarily in India, the Philippines and Canada, and some of our third party service providers provide services to us from other countries, all of which subject us to a number of international risks, including, among other things, sovereign volatility and socio-political instability. U.S. regulations also govern various aspects of the international activities of domestic corporations and increase our compliance and regulatory risks and costs. Any failure on our part or the part of our service providers to comply with applicable U.S. regulations, as well as the regulations in the countries and markets in which we or they operate, could result in fines, penalties, injunctions or other similar restrictions, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We face risks from catastrophic events.

We are subject to catastrophes such as natural disasters, severe weather conditions, health pandemics and terrorist attacks, any of which could have a negative effect on our business and technology infrastructure (including our computer network systems and data centers), our partners and their business and our customers. Catastrophic events could prevent or make it more difficult for our customers to travel to our partners’ locations to shop, thereby negatively impacting consumer spending in the effected regions, or in severe cases, nationally, interrupt or disable local or national communications networks, including the payment systems network, which could prevent our partners and our customers from using our products to make purchases or make payments (temporarily or over an extended period). These events could also impair the ability of third parties to provide critical services to us. All of these adverse effects of catastrophic events could result in a decrease in the use of our products or payments to us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we are alleged to have infringed upon the intellectual property rights owned by others or are not able to protect our intellectual property, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Competitors or other third parties may allege that we, or consultants or other third parties retained or indemnified by us, infringe on their intellectual property rights. We also may face allegations that our employees have misappropriated intellectual property of their former employers or other third parties. Given the complex, rapidly changing and competitive technological and business environment in which we operate, and the potential risks and uncertainties of intellectual property-related litigation, an assertion of an infringement claim against us

 

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may cause us to spend significant amounts to defend the claim (even if we ultimately prevail), pay significant money damages, lose significant revenues, be prohibited from using the relevant systems, processes, technologies or other intellectual property, cease offering certain products or services, or incur significant license, royalty or technology development expenses. Moreover, it has become common in recent years for individuals and groups to purchase intellectual property assets for the sole purpose of making claims of infringement and attempting to extract settlements from companies like ours. Even in instances where we believe that claims and allegations of intellectual property infringement against us are without merit, defending against such claims is time consuming and expensive and could result in the diversion of time and attention of our management and employees. In addition, although in some cases a third party may have agreed to indemnify us for such costs, such indemnifying party may refuse or be unable to uphold its contractual obligations.

Moreover, we rely on a variety of measures to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and controls on access and distribution. These measures may not prevent misappropriation or infringement of our intellectual property or proprietary information and a resulting loss of competitive advantage, and in any event, we may be required to litigate to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information from misappropriation or infringement by others, which is expensive, could cause a diversion of resources and may not be successful. Third parties may challenge, invalidate or circumvent our intellectual property, or our intellectual property may not be sufficient to provide us with competitive advantages. Our competitors or other third parties may independently design around or develop similar technology, or otherwise duplicate our services or products such that we could not assert our intellectual property rights against them. In addition, our contractual arrangements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our intellectual property or confidential and proprietary information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of an unauthorized disclosure.

Following this offering, we expect to launch our new brand, “Synchrony,” and expect to spend significant amounts over the next few years promoting the new brand. We recently filed trademark applications to protect our new name in the United States and certain other countries, but the registrations of these trademarks are not complete and they may ultimately not become registered. Our use of our new name (for our existing or any new products in the United States or other countries) may be challenged by third parties, and we may become involved in legal proceedings to protect or defend our rights with respect to our new name, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Litigation, regulatory actions and compliance issues could subject us to significant fines, penalties, judgments, remediation costs and/or requirements resulting in increased expenses.

Our business is subject to increased risks of litigation and regulatory actions as a result of a number of factors and from various sources, including the highly regulated nature of the financial services industry, the focus of state and federal prosecutors on banks and the financial services industry and the structure of the credit card industry.

In the normal course of business, from time to time, we have been named as a defendant in various legal actions, including arbitrations, class actions and other litigation, arising in connection with our business activities. Certain of the legal actions include claims for substantial compensatory and/or punitive damages, or claims for indeterminate amounts of damages. In addition, while historically the arbitration provision in our customer agreements generally has limited our exposure to consumer class action litigation, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in enforcing our arbitration clause in the future. There may also be legislative, administrative or regulatory efforts to directly or indirectly prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses, including by the CFPB, or we may be compelled as a result of competitive pressure or reputational concerns to voluntarily eliminate pre-dispute arbitration clauses.

We are also involved, from time to time, in reviews, investigations and proceedings (both formal and informal) by governmental agencies regarding our business (collectively, “regulatory matters”), which could

 

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subject us to significant fines, penalties, obligations to change our business practices or other requirements resulting in increased expenses, diminished earnings and damage to our reputation. The current environment of additional regulation, increased regulatory compliance efforts and enhanced regulatory enforcement has resulted in significant operational and compliance costs and may prevent or make it less attractive for us to continue providing certain products and services. There is no assurance that these regulatory matters or other factors will not, in the future, affect how we conduct our business and in turn have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We contest liability and/or the amount of damages as appropriate in each pending matter. The outcome of pending and future matters could be material to our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows depending on, among other factors, the level of our earnings for that period, and could adversely affect our business and reputation. For a discussion of certain legal proceedings, see “Regulation—Consumer Financial Services Regulation,” Note 16. Legal Proceedings and Regulatory Matters to our combined financial statements and Note 13. Legal Proceedings and Regulatory Matters to our condensed combined financial statements.

In addition to litigation and regulatory matters, from time to time, through our operational and compliance controls, we identify compliance issues that require us to make operational changes and, depending on the nature of the issue, result in financial remediation to impacted cardholders. These self-identified issues and voluntary remediation payments could be significant depending on the issue and the number of cardholders impacted. They also could generate litigation or regulatory investigations that subject us to additional adverse effects on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Damage to our reputation could negatively impact our business.

Recently, financial services companies have been experiencing increased reputational risk as consumers take issue with certain of their practices or judgments. Maintaining a positive reputation is critical to our attracting and retaining customers, partners, investors and employees. In particular, adverse perceptions regarding our reputation could also make it more difficult for us to execute on our strategy of increasing retail deposits at the Bank and may lead to decreases in deposits. Harm to our reputation can arise from many sources, including employee misconduct, misconduct by our partners, outsourced service providers or other counterparties, litigation or regulatory actions, failure by us or our partners to meet minimum standards of service and quality, inadequate protection of customer information, and compliance failures. Negative publicity regarding us (or others engaged in a similar business or activities), whether or not accurate, may damage our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business could be adversely affected if we are unable to attract, retain and motivate key officers and employees.

Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to retain, recruit and motivate key officers and employees. Our senior management team has significant industry experience and would be difficult to replace. Competition for senior executives in the financial services and payment industry is intense. Although we do not currently anticipate any significant changes to the management team following the completion of this offering or the Separation, we may not be able to attract and retain qualified personnel to replace or succeed members of our senior management team or other key personnel following the completion of this offering or the Separation (when we are no longer part of GE) or at any other time. Guidance issued by the federal banking regulators, as well as proposed rules implementing the executive compensation provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, may limit the type and structure of compensation arrangements that we may enter into with our most senior executives. In addition, proposed rules under the Dodd-Frank Act would prohibit the payment of “excessive” compensation to our executives. Compensation paid to officers of the Bank would be subject to comparable limitations. These restrictions could negatively impact our ability to compete with other companies in recruiting, retaining and motivating key personnel. Failure to retain talented senior leadership could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

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Tax legislation initiatives or challenges to our tax positions could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We operate in multiple jurisdictions and we are subject to tax laws and regulations of the U.S. federal, state and local governments, and of various foreign jurisdictions. From time to time, legislative initiatives may be proposed, such as proposals for fundamental tax reform in the United States and lowering the corporate tax rate, which may impact our effective tax rate and could adversely affect our deferred tax assets, tax positions and/or our tax liabilities. In addition, U.S. federal, state and local, as well as foreign, tax laws and regulations are extremely complex and subject to varying interpretations. There can be no assurance that our historical tax positions will not be challenged by relevant tax authorities or that we would be successful in defending our position in connection with any such challenge.

State sales tax rules and regulations, and their application and interpretation by the respective states, could change and adversely affect our results of operations.

State sales tax rules and regulations, and their application and interpretation by the respective states, could adversely affect our results of operations. Retailers collect sales tax from retail customers and remit those collections to the applicable states. When customers fail to repay their loans, including the amount of sales tax advanced by us to the merchant on their behalf, we are entitled, in some cases, to seek a refund of the amount of sales tax from the applicable state. Sales tax laws and regulations enacted by the various states are subject to interpretation, and our compliance with such laws is routinely subject to audit and review by the states. Audit risk is concentrated in several states, and these states are conducting on-going audits. The outcomes of ongoing and any future audits and changes in the states’ interpretation of the sales tax laws and regulations involving the recovery of tax on bad debts could materially adversely impact our results of operations.

Risks Relating to Regulation

Our business is subject to extensive government regulation, supervision, examination and enforcement, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business, including our relationships with our customers, is subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination under U.S. federal, state and foreign laws and regulations. These laws and regulations cover all aspects of our business, including lending practices, treatment of our customers, safeguarding deposits, customer privacy and information security, capital structure, liquidity, dividends and other capital distributions, transactions with affiliates and conduct and qualifications of personnel. As a unitary savings and loan holding company, Synchrony is subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination by the Federal Reserve Board. As a large provider of consumer financial services, we are also subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination by the CFPB. Until the GE SLHC Deregistration, we will be controlled by GECC, which is also subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination by the Federal Reserve Board. The Bank is a federally chartered savings association. As such, the Bank is subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination by the OCC, which is its primary regulator, and by the CFPB. In addition, the Bank, as an insured depository institution, is supervised by the FDIC. We, GECC and the Bank are regularly reviewed and examined by our respective regulators, which results in supervisory comments and directions relating to many aspects of our business that require response and attention. See “Regulation” for more information about the regulations applicable to us.

Banking laws and regulations are primarily intended to protect federally insured deposits, the federal Deposit Insurance Fund (“DIF”) and the banking system as a whole, and not intended to protect our stockholders or creditors. If we or the Bank, or until the GE SLHC Deregistration, GECC, fail to satisfy applicable laws and regulations, our respective regulators have broad discretion to enforce those laws and regulations, including with respect to the operation of our business, required capital levels, payment of dividends and other capital distributions, engaging in certain activities and making acquisitions and investments. Our regulators also have

 

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broad discretion with respect to the enforcement of applicable laws and regulations, including through enforcement actions that could subject us to civil money penalties, customer remediations, increased compliance costs, and limits or prohibitions on our ability to offer certain products and services or to engage in certain activities. In addition, to the extent we undertake actions requiring regulatory approval or non-objection, our regulators may make their approval or non-objection subject to conditions or restrictions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any other actions taken by our regulators could also have a material adverse impact on our business, reputation and brand, results of operations and financial condition. Moreover, some of our competitors are subject to different, and in some cases less restrictive, legislative and regulatory regimes, which may have the effect of providing them with a competitive advantage over us.

New laws or regulations or policy or practical changes in enforcement of existing laws or regulations applicable to our businesses, or our own reexamination of our current practices, could adversely impact our profitability, limit our ability to continue existing or pursue new business activities, require us to change certain of our business practices or alter our relationships with customers, affect retention of our key personnel, or expose us to additional costs (including increased compliance costs and/or customer remediation). These changes may also require us to invest significant management attention and resources to make any necessary changes and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, the CFPB has broad authority over the businesses in which we engage. See “—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a new agency, and there continues to be uncertainty as to how the agency’s actions will impact our business; the agency’s actions have had and may continue to have an adverse impact on our business.”

We are also subject to potential enforcement and other actions that may be brought by state attorneys general or other state enforcement authorities and other governmental agencies. Any such actions could subject us to civil money penalties and fines, customer remediations and increased compliance costs, as well as damage our reputation and brand and limit or prohibit our ability to offer certain products and services or engage in certain business practices. For a discussion of risks related to actions or proceedings brought by regulatory agencies, see “Risks Relating to Our Business—Litigation, regulatory actions and compliance issues could subject us to significant fines, penalties, judgments, remediation costs and/or requirements resulting in increased expenses.”

The Dodd-Frank Act has had, and may continue to have, a significant impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The Dodd-Frank Act was enacted on July 21, 2010. While certain provisions in the Act were effective immediately, many of the provisions require implementing regulations to be effective. The Dodd-Frank Act and regulations promulgated thereunder have had, and may continue to have, a significant adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, the Dodd-Frank Act and related regulations restrict certain business practices, impose more stringent capital, liquidity and leverage ratio requirements, as well as additional costs, on us (including increased compliance costs and increased costs of funding raised through the issuance of asset-backed securities), limit the fees we can charge for services and impact the value of our assets. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act requires us to serve as a source of financial strength for any insured depository institution we control, such as the Bank. Such support may be required by the Federal Reserve Board at times when we might otherwise determine not to provide it or when doing so is not otherwise in the interest of Synchrony or its stockholders or creditors. We describe certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and other legislative and regulatory developments in “Regulation.” Federal agencies continue to promulgate regulations to implement the Dodd-Frank Act, and these regulations may continue to have a significant adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Many provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act require the adoption of additional rules to implement. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act mandates multiple studies, which could result in additional legislative or regulatory action. As a result, the ultimate impact of the Dodd-Frank Act and its implementing regulations remains unclear and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a new agency, and there continues to be uncertainty as to how the agency’s actions will impact our business; the agency’s actions have had and may continue to have an adverse impact on our business.

The CFPB, which commenced operations in July 2011, has broad authority over the businesses in which we engage. This includes authority to write regulations under federal consumer financial protection laws and to enforce those laws against and examine large financial institutions, such as us and the Bank, for compliance. The CFPB is authorized to prevent “unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices” through its regulatory, supervisory and enforcement authority. The Federal Reserve Board and the OCC and state government agencies may also invoke their supervisory and enforcement authorities to prevent unfair and deceptive acts or practices. These federal and state agencies are authorized to remediate violations of consumer protection laws in a number of ways, including collecting civil money penalties and fines and providing for customer restitution. The CFPB also engages in consumer financial education, requests data and promotes the availability of financial services to underserved consumers and communities. In addition, the CFPB maintains an online complaint system that allows consumers to log complaints with respect to various consumer finance products, including the products we offer. This system could inform future CFPB decisions with respect to its regulatory, enforcement or examination focus.

There continues to be uncertainty as to how the CFPB’s strategies and priorities, including in both its examination and enforcement processes, will impact our businesses and our results of operations going forward. Actions by the CFPB could result in requirements to alter or cease offering affected products and services, making them less attractive and restricting our ability to offer them. For example, in July 2012, the CFPB issued an industry bulletin regarding marketing practices with respect to credit card add-on products, including debt cancellation products. See “Regulation—Consumer Financial Services Regulation.” The Bank has made a number of changes, including changes in response to the CFPB bulletin, with respect to its marketing and sale of debt cancellation products to credit card customers, including ceasing all telesales of such products, and the Bank has also enhanced the disclosures associated with its website sales of such products. In addition, in October 2013, the CFPB published its first biennial report reviewing the impact of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the “CARD Act”) on the consumer credit card market. In the report, the CFPB identified practices that may warrant further scrutiny by it, including add-on products (such as debt protection, identity theft protection, credit score monitoring and other products that are supplementary to the extension of credit), cards that charge substantial application fees, and deferred interest offers and products (which could include our promotional financing products). The report further identified concerns regarding the adequacy of online disclosures, as well as of the disclosures associated with rewards products and grace periods. Separately, the CFPB is also studying pre-dispute arbitration clauses, and our litigation exposure could increase if the CFPB exercises its authority to limit or ban pre-dispute arbitration clauses.

Although we have committed significant resources to enhancing our compliance programs, changes by the CFPB in regulatory expectations, interpretations or practices or interpretations that are different or stricter than ours or those adopted in the past by other regulators could increase the risk of additional enforcement actions, fines and penalties. Actions by the CFPB could result in requirements to alter our products and services that may make them less attractive to consumers or less profitable to us. In this regard, on December 10, 2013, we entered into a consent order (the “2013 CFPB Consent Order”) with the CFPB relating to our CareCredit platform. See “—Changes to our methods of offering our CareCredit products could materially impact operating results.” In addition, on June 19, 2014, we entered into a consent order with the CFPB related to our debt cancellation product and sales practices and an unrelated issue that arose from the Bank’s self-identified omission of certain Spanish-speaking customers and customers residing in Puerto Rico from two offers that were made to certain delinquent customers. On June 19, 2014, we also entered into a consent order with the DOJ to resolve its coordinated investigation into issues related to such offers. For the year ended December 31, 2013, we had a $133 million increase in our expenses related to litigation and regulatory matters (primarily an increase to our reserves related to the various matters settled with the CFPB and one settled with the DOJ). See “Regulation—Consumer Financial Services Regulation.”

 

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Future actions by the CFPB (or other regulators) against us or our competitors that discourage the use of products we offer or suggest to consumers the desirability of other products or services could result in reputational harm and a loss of customers. If the CFPB changes regulations which were adopted in the past by other regulators and transferred to the CFPB by the Dodd-Frank Act, or modifies through supervision or enforcement past related regulatory guidance or interprets existing regulations in a different or stricter manner than they have been interpreted in the past by us, the industry or other regulators, our compliance costs and litigation exposure could increase materially. If future regulatory or legislative restrictions or prohibitions are imposed that affect our ability to offer promotional financing for certain of our products or require us to make significant changes to our business practices, and we are unable to develop compliant alternatives with acceptable returns, these restrictions or prohibitions could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The Dodd-Frank Act authorizes state officials to enforce regulations issued by the CFPB and to enforce the Act’s general prohibition against unfair, deceptive or abusive practices. This could make it more difficult than in the past for federal financial regulators to declare state laws that differ from federal standards to be preempted. To the extent that states enact requirements that differ from federal standards or state officials and courts adopt interpretations of federal consumer laws that differ from those adopted by the CFPB, we may be required to alter or cease offering products or services in some jurisdictions, which would increase compliance costs and reduce our ability to offer the same products and services to consumers nationwide, and we may be subject to a higher risk of state enforcement actions.

Changes to our methods of offering our CareCredit products could materially impact operating results.

The 2013 CFPB Consent Order relating to our CareCredit platform requires us to pay up to $34.1 million to qualifying customers, and, among other things, to provide additional training and monitoring of our CareCredit partners, to include provisions in agreements with our CareCredit partners prohibiting charges for certain services not yet rendered, to make changes to certain consumer disclosures, application procedures and procedures for resolution of customer complaints, and to terminate CareCredit partners that have chargeback rates in excess of certain thresholds. Some of the changes required by the 2013 CFPB Consent Order are similar to requirements in an assurance of discontinuation (the “Assurance”) that we entered with the Attorney General for the State of New York on June 3, 2013. The Bank expects to be in full compliance with the business practice changes required by the 2013 CFPB Consent Order and the Assurance by the third quarter of 2014, subject to ongoing reporting obligations, and will complete the additional provider training by the fourth quarter of 2015. In addition to the costs of remediation, which were not material for the Assurance and will be up to $34.1 million for the 2013 CFPB Consent Order, we estimate we will incur one-time costs of approximately $3 million to implement these changes, and ongoing annual costs of approximately $3 million. We have only recently implemented certain of the process changes required by the 2013 CFPB Consent Order and the Assurance, and will continue to actively monitor and assess their impact on our CareCredit program. Although at this time we do not believe that the 2013 CFPB Consent Order and the Assurance will have a material adverse impact on our results of operations going forward, we cannot be sure this will be the case (particularly as providers become acclimated to the required changes) and we cannot be sure whether the settlement will have an adverse impact on our reputation or whether the new requirements imposed by the 2013 CFPB Consent Order or the Assurance will adversely affect providers’ or customers’ use of our programs or our business. Moreover, we may elect or be required to make changes with respect to these and other deferred interest products in the future, and those changes may adversely affect customers’ use of our credit cards or our business. In addition, our resolutions with the CFPB and the New York Attorney General do not preclude other regulators or state attorneys general from seeking additional monetary or injunctive relief with respect to CareCredit, and any such relief could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Failure by Synchrony, the Bank and, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, GECC to meet applicable capital adequacy rules could have a material adverse effect on us.

Synchrony and the Bank must meet rules for capital adequacy as discussed in “Regulation.” As a savings and loan holding company, Synchrony historically has not been required to maintain minimum capital.

 

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Beginning as early as 2015, however, we expect that Synchrony will be subject to capital requirements similar to those that apply to the Bank. In addition, as discussed below, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, we will be controlled by GECC, which itself is expected to be subject to capital requirements similar to those that apply to the Bank. See “—As long as we are controlled by GECC for bank regulatory purposes, regulation and supervision of GECC could adversely affect us.” These capital requirements have recently been substantially revised, including as a result of Basel III and the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act. Moreover, these requirements are supplemented by outstanding regulatory proposals by the federal banking agencies, based on, and in addition to, changes recently adopted by the Basel Committee to increase the amount and scope of the supplemental leverage capital requirement by increasing the assets included in the denominator of the leverage ratio calculation. Although we cannot predict the final form or the effects of these leverage ratio regulatory proposals under the Dodd-Frank Act and the newly adopted rules implementing Basel III (even independent of any potentially increased and expanded supplemental leverage capital requirement), Synchrony, the Bank and GECC expect to be subject to increasingly stringent capital adequacy standards in the future.

In connection with applicable capital adequacy standards, Synchrony, the Bank and GECC also will be required to conduct stress tests on an annual basis. Under the Federal Reserve Board’s and the OCC’s stress test regulations, Synchrony, the Bank and GECC will each be required to use stress-testing methodologies providing for results under at least three different sets of conditions, including baseline, adverse and severely adverse conditions. In addition, as part of meeting our minimum capital requirements, we and GECC may be required to comply with the Federal Reserve Board’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (“CCAR”) process or some modified version of the CCAR process, which would measure our minimum capital requirement levels under various stress scenarios. In connection with this process, we and GECC may be required to develop for the Federal Reserve Board’s review and approval a capital plan that will include how we and GECC will each meet our minimum capital requirements under specified stress scenarios.

If Synchrony, the Bank or, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, GECC fails to meet current or future minimum capital, leverage or other financial requirements, its operations, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Among other things, failure by Synchrony, the Bank or, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, GECC to maintain its status as “well capitalized” (or otherwise meet current or future minimum capital, leverage or other financial requirements) could compromise our competitive position and result in restrictions imposed by the Federal Reserve Board or the OCC, including, potentially, on the Bank’s ability to engage in certain activities. These could include restrictions on the Bank’s ability to enter into transactions with affiliates, accept brokered deposits, grow its assets, engage in material transactions and extend credit in certain highly leveraged transactions, amend or change its charter, bylaws or accounting methods, pay interest on its liabilities without regard to regulatory caps on the rates that may be paid on deposits and pay dividends or repurchase stock. In addition, failure to maintain the well capitalized status of the Bank could result in our having to invest additional capital in the Bank, which could in turn require us to raise additional capital. The market and demand for, and cost of, our asset-backed securities also could be adversely affected by failure to meet current or future capital requirements.

We and the Bank are subject to restrictions that limit our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our capital stock.

In connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board described above and the Separation, we expect to continue to increase our capital and liquidity levels by, among other things, retaining net earnings and by not paying a dividend or returning capital through stock repurchases until our application to the Federal Reserve Board is approved. Thereafter, our board of directors intends to consider our policy regarding the payment and amount of dividends and may consider stock repurchases, in each case consistent with maintaining capital ratios well in excess of minimum regulatory requirements. The declaration and amount of any future dividends to holders of our common stock or stock repurchases will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including the financial condition, earnings, capital and liquidity requirements of us and the Bank, applicable regulatory restrictions (including any restrictions that may be imposed in

 

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connection with the Separation), corporate law and contractual restrictions (including restrictions contained in the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility) and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant.

We and the Bank are subject to broad regulatory restrictions on our ability to pay dividends and make capital distributions, including the repurchase of our stock. The application of these restrictions involves broad discretion by our regulators.

We are limited in our ability to pay dividends or repurchase stock by the Federal Reserve Board, including on the basis that doing so would be an unsafe or unsound banking practice. If we intend to declare or pay a dividend to our stockholders, we generally will be required to inform and consult with the Federal Reserve Board in advance to ensure that such dividend does not raise supervisory concerns. It is the policy of the Federal Reserve Board that a savings and loan holding company (like our Company) should generally pay dividends on common stock only out of earnings, and only if prospective earnings retention is consistent with the organization’s capital needs and overall current and prospective financial condition. Similarly, we will be required to inform and consult with the Federal Reserve Board in advance of redeeming or repurchasing our stock if the result will be a net reduction in our equity compared to our equity as of the beginning of the quarter in which the redemption or repurchase occurs. The Federal Reserve Board may exercise considerable discretion in reviewing any planned dividend or redemption or repurchase of our stock. Moreover, the approval process for any capital plan we are required to submit could result in restrictions on our ability to pay dividends or make other capital distributions. See “Regulation—Savings and Loan Holding Company Regulation—Dividends and Stock Repurchases.” In addition, as a condition to any Federal Reserve Board approval of our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company following the GE SLHC Deregistration, we may be required to maintain liquidity or capital at a level that could affect our ability to pay dividends or repurchase our stock. Although we are not planning to pay dividends or repurchase our stock until our application to the Federal Reserve Board is approved, the Federal Reserve Board could also prevent or restrict us from doing so during such period or thereafter.

We rely significantly on dividends and other distributions and payments from the Bank for liquidity, and federal law limits the amount of dividends and other distributions and payments that the Bank may pay to us. For example, OCC regulations limit the ability of savings associations to make distributions of capital, including payment of dividends, stock redemptions and repurchases, cash-out mergers and other transactions charged to the capital account. The Bank must obtain the OCC’s approval prior to making a capital distribution in certain circumstances, including if the Bank proposes to make a capital distribution when it does not meet certain capital requirements (or will not do so as a result of the proposed capital distribution) or certain net income requirements. In addition, the Bank must file a prior written notice of a planned or declared dividend or other distribution with the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board or the OCC may object to a capital distribution if, among other things, the Bank is, or as a result of such dividend or distribution would be, undercapitalized or the Federal Reserve Board has safety and soundness concerns. Additional restrictions on bank dividends may apply if the Bank fails the qualified thrift lender (“QTL”) test. The application of these restrictions on the Bank’s ability to pay dividends involves broad discretion on the part of our regulators. The Bank must also meet certain conditions to declare or pay a dividend under the Bank’s Operating Agreement with the OCC entered into in connection with its acquisition of the deposit business of MetLife. Limitations on the Bank’s payments of dividends and other distributions and payments that we receive from the Bank could reduce our liquidity and limit our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders. See “Regulation—Savings Association Regulation—Dividends and Stock Repurchases” and “—Activities.”

Until the GE SLHC Deregistration, we will be controlled by GECC, which as a savings and loan holding company is subject to all of the same regulatory requirements regarding dividends and stock repurchases and redemptions to which we are subject. Accordingly, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our stock may be affected by GECC’s ability to meet the same requirements to which we are subject. In addition, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”) has designated GECC as a

 

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nonbank systemically important financial institution (“nonbank SIFI”) under the Dodd-Frank Act. As a nonbank SIFI, GECC may be required to provide a capital plan for Federal Reserve Board approval that includes proposed capital distributions (including dividends and stock redemptions or repurchases) not only by GECC but also by entities controlled by GECC, such as us. As long as we are controlled by GECC for bank regulatory purposes, any such capital plan requirement imposed on GECC by the Federal Reserve Board could affect our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our stock. See “Regulation—Savings and Loan Holding Company Regulation—Dividends and Stock Repurchases.” Also, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, GECC will have an approval right over our ability to declare or pay any dividend or repurchase our stock. See “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Master Agreement—Approval Rights.”

Regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and adversely affect our business opportunities.

We are subject to various privacy, information security and data protection laws, including requirements concerning security breach notification, and we could be negatively impacted by them. For example, in the United States, certain of our businesses are subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and implementing regulations and guidance. Among other things, the GLBA: (i) imposes certain limitations on the ability of financial institutions to share consumers’ nonpublic personal information with nonaffiliated third parties, (ii) requires that financial institutions provide certain disclosures to consumers about their information collection, sharing and security practices and affords customers the right to “opt out” of the institution’s disclosure of their personal financial information to nonaffiliated third parties (with certain exceptions) and (iii) requires financial institutions to develop, implement and maintain a written comprehensive information security program containing safeguards that are appropriate to the financial institution’s size and complexity, the nature and scope of the financial institution’s activities, and the sensitivity of customer information processed by the financial institution as well as plans for responding to data security breaches.

Moreover, various United States federal banking regulatory agencies, states and foreign jurisdictions have enacted data security breach notification requirements with varying levels of individual, consumer, regulatory and/or law enforcement notification in certain circumstances in the event of a security breach. Many of these requirements also apply broadly to our partners that accept our cards. In many countries that have yet to impose data security breach notification requirements, regulators have increasingly used the threat of significant sanctions and penalties by data protection authorities to encourage voluntary notification and discourage data security breaches.

Furthermore, legislators and/or regulators in the United States and other countries in which we operate are increasingly adopting or revising privacy, information security and data protection laws that potentially could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection and information security-related practices, our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of consumer and/or employee information, and some of our current or planned business activities. This could also increase our costs of compliance and business operations and could reduce income from certain business initiatives. In the United States, this includes increased privacy-related enforcement activity at the Federal level, by the Federal Trade Commission, as well as at the state level, such as with regard to mobile applications.

Compliance with current or future privacy, data protection and information security laws (including those regarding security breach notification) affecting customer and/or employee data to which we are subject could result in higher compliance and technology costs and could restrict our ability to provide certain products and services (such as products or services that involve us sharing information with third parties or storing sensitive credit card information), which could materially and adversely affect our profitability. Our failure to comply with privacy, data protection and information security laws could result in potentially significant regulatory investigations and government actions, litigation, fines or sanctions, consumer or partner actions and damage to our reputation and our brand, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

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Our use of third-party vendors and our other ongoing third-party business relationships are subject to increasing regulatory requirements and attention.

We regularly use third-party vendors and subcontractors as part of our business. We also have substantial ongoing business relationships with our partners and other third-parties. These types of third-party relationships are subject to increasingly demanding regulatory requirements and attention by our federal bank regulators (the Federal Reserve Board, the OCC and the FDIC) and our consumer regulator (the CFPB). Regulatory guidance requires us to enhance our due diligence, ongoing monitoring and control over our third-party vendors and subcontractors and other ongoing third-party business relationships, including with our partners. In certain cases we may be required to renegotiate our agreements with these vendors and/or their subcontractors to meet these enhanced requirements, which could increase our costs. We expect that our regulators will hold us responsible for deficiencies in our oversight and control of our third-party relationships and in the performance of the parties with which we have these relationships. As a result, if our regulators conclude that we have not exercised adequate oversight and control over our third-party vendors and subcontractors or other ongoing third-party business relationships or that such third parties have not performed appropriately, we could be subject to enforcement actions, including civil money penalties or other administrative or judicial penalties or fines as well as requirements for customer remediation.

Anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws could have significant adverse consequences for us.

We maintain an enterprise-wide program designed to enable us to comply with all applicable anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act and the Patriot Act. This program includes policies, procedures, processes and other internal controls designed to identify, monitor, manage and mitigate the risk of money laundering or terrorist financing posed by our products, services, customers and geographic locale. These controls include procedures and processes to detect and report suspicious transactions, perform customer due diligence, respond to requests from law enforcement, and meet all recordkeeping and reporting requirements related to particular transactions involving currency or monetary instruments. We cannot be sure our programs and controls will be effective to ensure our compliance with all applicable anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws and regulations, and our failure to comply could subject us to significant sanctions, fines, penalties and reputational harm, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As long as we are controlled by GECC for bank regulatory purposes, regulation and supervision of GECC could adversely affect us.

GECC is a regulated savings and loan holding company and therefore is subject to all of the regulation and supervision to which we are subject. Until the GE SLHC Deregistration, regulation and supervision of GECC as a savings and loan holding company may, for reasons related or unrelated to us, materially and adversely affect us, including restricting our ability to pay dividends or repurchase our stock, initiate or continue various business activities or practices, grow our assets or complete the Separation.

As a nonbank SIFI, GECC, our indirect parent company, is subject to enhanced prudential standards and regulation by the Federal Reserve Board, which is expected to include regulatory capital requirements. Nonbank SIFIs, such as GECC, currently are subject to some, but not all, of the enhanced prudential standards under the Dodd-Frank Act. The Federal Reserve Board has issued regulations implementing certain of the enhanced prudential standards of the Dodd-Frank Act for bank holding companies and foreign banking organizations, but not for nonbank SIFIs. In connection with these regulations, the Federal Reserve Board has indicated that it will apply enhanced prudential standards to an individual nonbank SIFI, such as GECC, by rule or order. Although the enhanced prudential standards currently applicable to GECC in its capacity as a nonbank SIFI do not have the effect of imposing direct regulatory obligations or restrictions on us, we cannot be certain that standards imposed by rule or order on GECC as a nonbank SIFI by the Federal Reserve Board in the future will not have the effect of directly or indirectly imposing obligations or restrictions on us so long as we are controlled by GECC for bank regulatory purposes and those could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial

 

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condition. For example, capital plan and stress-testing requirements to which GECC may be made subject as a nonbank SIFI could affect, among other things, our ability to pay dividends or repurchase our stock or GECC’s ability to complete the Separation.

Risks Relating to Our Separation from GE

GE may not complete the Separation as planned or at all.

On November 15, 2013, GE announced that it planned a staged exit from our business, consistent with its strategy of reducing GECC’s percentage of GE’s total earnings and increasing GECC’s focus on its commercial lending and leasing businesses. This offering is the first step in that exit. After the completion of this offering, GE will beneficially own 84.9% of our outstanding common stock (or 83.1% if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us is exercised in full).

GE has indicated that after this offering it currently is targeting to complete its exit from our business in late 2015 through the Separation. The Separation would be subject to various conditions, including receipt of any necessary bank regulatory and other approvals, the existence of satisfactory market conditions, and, in the case of a tax-free transaction, a private letter ruling from the IRS as to certain issues relating to, and an opinion of counsel confirming, the tax-free treatment of the transaction to GE and its stockholders. In addition, since GE’s exit from our business will not be completed until GE has obtained the GE SLHC Deregistration, GE’s willingness to proceed with the Separation may be conditioned on its obtaining the necessary determination by the Federal Reserve Board that the GE SLHC Deregistration is effective (i.e., that, following the Separation, GE, along with GECC and GECFI, no longer controls us and therefore GE, GECC and GECFI are released from savings and loan holding company registration).

The conditions related to the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration may not be satisfied in late 2015 or thereafter, or GE may decide for any other reason not to consummate the Separation in late 2015 or thereafter. Also, satisfying the conditions related to the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregulation may require actions that GE has not anticipated. Any delay by GE in completing, or uncertainty about its ability or intent to complete, the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration on the planned timetable and the contemplated terms (including at the contemplated capital and liquidity levels), or at all, could have a material adverse effect on our business and the market price for our common stock.

If GE is unable to obtain the GE SLHC Deregistration, it will continue to have significant control over us.

If the GE SLHC Deregistration is not obtained (and until it is obtained), GE will continue to have significant control over us. GE’s degree of control will depend on, among other things, its level of ownership of our common stock, the number of persons it is entitled to designate for nomination for election to our board of directors under the Master Agreement and the requirement under the Master Agreement that we obtain GECC’s prior written approval before undertaking (or permitting or authorizing the Bank or any of our other subsidiaries to undertake) various significant corporate actions. This may mean that GE, through GECC, may not always exercise control of us in a way that benefits our public stockholders. Conflicts of interest may arise between us and GE and GECC that could be resolved in a manner unfavorable to us. We will also continue to be subject to the regulation and supervision applicable to GE, GECC and companies under their control, and such regulation and supervision may, for reasons related or unrelated to us, adversely affect us and cause the trading market for our common stock to be depressed until the GE SLHC Deregistration is obtained. All of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on us. See “—GE has significant control over us and may not always exercise its control in a way that benefits our public stockholders” and “—Risks Relating to Regulation—As long as we are controlled by GECC for bank regulatory purposes, regulation and supervision of GECC could adversely affect us.”

 

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We need Federal Reserve Board approval to continue to be a savings and loan holding company following the GE SLHC Deregistration. We may not receive this approval in a timely manner or at all, and additional approval conditions beyond what we are anticipating may be imposed that prevent or delay the Separation or the GE SLHC Deregistration or require us to incur significant additional expense.

The Savings and Loan Holding Company Act generally requires Federal Reserve Board approval before a company acquires a savings association and becomes a savings and loan holding company. We were exempt from this requirement when we initially acquired the Bank and became a savings and loan holding company, because we were a subsidiary of GE, GECC and GECFI, existing savings and loan holding companies. We do not expect this exemption to continue to apply to us following the GE SLHC Deregistration. As a result, we will be required to file an application with, and receive approval from, the Federal Reserve Board to continue to be a savings and loan holding company and to retain ownership of the Bank following the GE SLHC Deregistration. See “Regulation—Savings and Loan Holding Company Regulation.”

We expect that the Federal Reserve Board will not act on our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company and to retain ownership of the Bank following the GE SLHC Deregistration until, among other things, it has completed an in-depth review of our preparedness to operate on a standalone basis, independently of GE, and is satisfied with the results. We cannot predict when this review will begin but expect it to be some period of time after the completion of this offering. In connection with the Federal Reserve Board’s review and prior to our filing an application with the Federal Reserve Board to continue to be a savings and loan holding company and to retain ownership of the Bank following the GE SLHC Deregistration, we will continue to establish and expand our operations and infrastructure and take other steps to allow us to operate as a fully standalone public company, independently of GE. See “Prospectus Summary—GE Ownership and Our Separation from GE.”

Once the Federal Reserve Board begins its review of our preparedness to operate on a standalone basis, we cannot predict how long such review will take. We expect, however, that the review will require a considerable period of time. In addition, to obtain approval of our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company and retain ownership of the Bank following the GE SLHC Deregistration, we may have to take additional actions beyond the significant operations and infrastructure expansion and other steps we are already planning. For example, we may have to increase our capital and liquidity levels beyond what we are anticipating; restrict our payment of dividends, or not make any payment of dividends, for a longer period than what we anticipate; make further changes to, among other things, our corporate governance, risk management, capital planning, treasury, information technology, compliance, regulatory, internal audit and other control operations and infrastructure; stop receiving any transitional services from GE; repay all related party debt owed to GECC; or further diversify our funding sources, such as by reducing the amount of our brokered deposits or increasing the amount of our unsecured debt beyond what we are anticipating. Those actions may involve significant additional expenses for us and require significant time to implement beyond what we now anticipate.

Even after taking any such actions, there is no assurance that our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company following the GE SLHC Deregistration will be approved. The Federal Reserve Board will consider a range of factors and has significant discretion in reviewing our application, and its action on our application may be affected by circumstances we do not know or cannot predict at this time, including factors identified in the Federal Reserve Board’s in-depth review of us, changes in our current condition or changes in general economic and market conditions relevant to our operations. The Federal Reserve Board will also seek the views of the OCC and FDIC as regulators of the Bank, and their views may have a significant effect on the Federal Reserve Board’s action on the application. If the application is not approved, GE will not be able to obtain the GE SLHC Deregistration as currently planned. GE may be unwilling to proceed with the Separation unless or until it is able to obtain the GE SLHC Deregistration.

Even if our application is approved, we cannot be certain when such approval will be granted, or what conditions or restrictions, if any, will be imposed for such approval. The Federal Reserve Board’s approval could include conditions or restrictions that are more onerous than those generally applicable to savings and loan holding companies and that require additional actions or impose additional limitations beyond those we may

 

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already have taken or assumed in order to obtain approval and achieve the Separation as described above. Any such conditions or restrictions (including restrictions on our ability to pay dividends or repurchase our stock after the Separation) or additional required actions could be significant, involve significant additional expense for us and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. GE’s ability or willingness to proceed with the Separation as currently planned could be affected by the nature and effect of any such conditions, restrictions or additional required actions.

Prior to the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration, we need to establish and significantly expand many aspects of our operations and infrastructure, and our failure to do so in a timely manner, within anticipated costs and without disrupting our ongoing business, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations and could delay or prevent the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration.

Although historically we have operated as a largely standalone business within GECC with our own sales, marketing, risk management, operations, collections, customer service and compliance functions, we need to establish and significantly expand many aspects of our operations and infrastructure prior to the Separation to enable us to operate as a standalone public company after our transitional services with GE terminate (for most services, within 24 months after the completion of this offering) and to enable GE to obtain the GE SLHC Deregistration in connection with the Separation or thereafter. The operations and infrastructure to be established or expanded relate to, among other areas, corporate governance, risk management, capital planning, treasury, information technology, compliance, regulatory, internal audit and other control operations and infrastructure.

Establishing and expanding our operations and infrastructure will involve substantial costs, the hiring and integration of a large number of new employees (including a number at senior levels), and integration of the new and expanded operations and infrastructure with our existing operations and infrastructure, and in some cases, the operations and infrastructure of our partners and other third parties. It will also require significant time and attention from our senior management and others throughout the Company, in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities running the business. We expect that our operations and infrastructure will need to be more extensive and robust in many respects than those currently in place at our Company and GECC. We cannot be sure we will be able to establish and expand the operations and infrastructure to the extent required, in the time, or at the costs, anticipated, or at the costs anticipated, and without disrupting our ongoing business operations in a material way, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Moreover, we do not expect that the Federal Reserve Board will act on our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company and to retain ownership of the Bank following the GE SLHC Deregistration until, among other things, it has completed an in-depth review of our preparedness to operate on a standalone basis, which we expect to involve a review of the new operations and infrastructure we will be adding. As a result, delays in establishing and expanding our operations and infrastructure may delay the review of our preparedness by the Federal Reserve Board, which could delay the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration. Moreover, the Federal Reserve Board may require substantial additions or changes to our operations and infrastructure, including the operations and infrastructure we anticipate adding, all of which could significantly increase our costs and further delay the Separation and the GE SLHC Deregistration. See “—GE may not complete the Separation as planned or at all.”

Even if the GE SLHC Deregistration is obtained, we also will need Federal Reserve Board agreement that we meet the criteria for a savings and loan holding company to be treated as a financial holding company, and we cannot be certain the Federal Reserve Board will provide such agreement or what additional conditions or restrictions it may impose if it does so.

We currently are a grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding company, but do not expect to continue to qualify as such a grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding company following the GE SLHC Deregistration. As a result, in connection with our application to continue to be a savings and loan holding company, we will need to submit to the Federal Reserve Board a request to become a financial holding company in order to engage in activities that are permissible only for savings and loan holding companies that are treated as financial holding companies (including to continue to obtain financing through our securitization programs).

 

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We believe that we will meet the criteria for a savings and loan holding company to be treated as a financial holding company. However, we cannot assure you that the Federal Reserve Board will agree, or that the Federal Reserve Board will not, in order for us to be treated as a financial holding company, impose additional conditions or restrictions, which may be similar to or different from those otherwise imposed in connection with the Separation. GE’s ability or willingness to proceed with the Separation as currently planned could be affected by the nature of any such conditions or restrictions required by the Federal Reserve Board in order for us to be treated as a financial holding company.

The Separation could adversely affect our business and profitability due to GE’s strong brand and reputation.

As a subsidiary of GE, we market many of our products using the “GE” brand name and logo, and we believe the association with GE has provided many benefits, including:

 

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a world-class brand associated with trust, integrity and longevity;

 

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perception of high-quality products and services;

 

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strong capital base and financial strength;

 

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preferred status among our partners, customers and employees; and

 

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established relationships with bank and other regulators.

This offering and the Separation could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain partners. We may be required to provide more favorable pricing and other terms to our partners and take other action to maintain our relationship with existing, and attract new, partners, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Although we do not expect a material loss of customers or usage following this offering or the Separation (or more difficulty attracting new customers and increasing their usage) because our product will continue to be closely associated with our partners and their brands, we cannot be sure this will be the case. In addition, although our capital at the Bank will be increased in connection with this offering and the customer-facing aspects of our business will remain largely unchanged following this offering and the Separation, we cannot be sure that we will not lose deposits or have more difficulty attracting new deposits following this offering or the Separation because of depositor concerns that we will no longer be part of GE and benefitting from its brand and financial strength.

We cannot predict the effect that this offering and the Separation will have on our partners, customers, depositors or employees. The risks relating to this offering and the Separation could materialize at various times, including:

 

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immediately upon the completion of this offering, when GE’s beneficial ownership in our common stock will decrease to 84.9% (83.1% if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us is exercised in full);

 

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when GE reduces its ownership in our common stock to a level below 50%; and

 

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when we cease using the GE name and logo in our sales and marketing materials, particularly when we deliver notices to partners, customers and depositors that our name and the name of the Bank and some of our other subsidiaries will change.

We will have the right to use the GE brand name and logo for only a limited period of time and if we fail to establish a new, independently recognized brand name, we could be adversely affected.

In March 2014 we changed our corporate name to “SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL” and in June 2014 the Bank changed its corporate name to “Synchrony Bank,” although we, the Bank and our other subsidiaries may continue to use the GE brand name and logo in marketing our products and services for a limited period of time. Pursuant to a transitional trademark license agreement, GE will grant us the right to use certain “GE,” “GE

 

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Capital,” “GE Capital Retail Bank,” “GE Money” and “GECAF” marks and related GECAF logos and the GE monogram in connection with our products and services until such time as GE ceases to beneficially own more than 50% of our outstanding common stock, subject to certain exceptions (e.g., we generally will have a right to use those marks and related logos and the monogram on our credit cards for a period of three and a half years after the completion of this offering). Development of a new brand is an expensive, uncertain and long-term process. When our right to use the GE brand name and logo expires, we may not be able to maintain or enjoy comparable name recognition or status under our new brand. If we are unable to successfully manage the transition of our business to our new brand in a timely manner, our reputation among, and relationship with, our partners, customers, depositors and employees could be adversely affected.

The terms of our arrangements with GE may be more favorable than we will be able to obtain from an unaffiliated third party. We may be unable to replace the services GECC provides us in a timely manner or on comparable terms.

We and GECC will enter into a Transitional Services Agreement (as defined under “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Transitional Services Agreement”) and other agreements prior to the completion of this offering. Pursuant to the Transitional Services Agreement, GECC and its affiliates will agree to provide us with transitional services after this offering, including treasury, payroll, tax and other financial services, human resources and employee benefits services, information systems and network access, application and support related services, and procurement and sourcing support.

We negotiated these arrangements with GECC in the context of a parent-subsidiary relationship. Although GECC is contractually obligated to provide us with services during the term of the Transitional Services Agreement, we cannot assure you that these services will be sustained at the same level after the expiration of that agreement, or that we will be able to replace these services in a timely manner or on comparable terms. When GECC ceases to provide services pursuant to those arrangements, our costs of procuring those services from third parties may increase. Other agreements with GE and GECC also will govern the relationship between us and GE after this offering and will provide for the allocation of employee benefits, tax and other liabilities and obligations attributable or related to periods or events prior to this offering. They also contain terms and provisions that may be more favorable than terms and provisions we might have obtained in arm’s length negotiations with unaffiliated third parties. See “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC.”

GE has significant control over us and may not always exercise its control in a way that benefits our public stockholders.

Upon the completion of this offering, GE will beneficially own approximately 84.9% of our outstanding common stock (83.1% if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us is exercised in full). GE has indicated that, following completion of this offering, it intends to divest its remaining interest in us. However, so long as GE continues to beneficially own more than 50% of our outstanding voting stock, GE generally will be able to determine the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, GE will have the voting power to elect the board of directors and GE will have significant influence over, and in some cases, the right to approve certain compensation paid to our executive officers.

The Master Agreement will give GECC certain significant rights until such time, if any, as the GE SLHC Deregistration occurs. Some of GECC’s rights under the Master Agreement will not terminate until the GE SLHC Deregistration occurs, and therefore it is possible that GE will exercise some or all of such rights at a time when it does not own any of our common stock. Under the Master Agreement, GECC will have the right to designate five persons for nomination for election to our nine-member board of directors so long as GE beneficially owns more than 50% of our outstanding common stock and to designate a lesser number as GE’s percentage ownership decreases until the GE SLHC Deregistration. In addition, subject to certain exceptions and ownership thresholds, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, we will be required to obtain GECC’s prior written

 

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approval before undertaking (or permitting or authorizing the Bank or any of our other subsidiaries to undertake) various significant corporate actions. These include (subject to certain agreed exceptions):

 

•

consolidating or merging with or into any person or, subject to certain exceptions, permitting any subsidiary to merge with or into any person;

 

•

acquiring control of a bank or savings association or making any other acquisition of assets or equity for a price (including assumed debt) in excess of $500 million (other than acquisitions of receivables portfolios in the ordinary course of business that do not exceed $1 billion); provided, that once GE’s beneficial ownership of our common stock decreases below 20%, the general threshold will be increased to $1 billion and the threshold for acquisitions of receivables portfolios in the ordinary course of business will be increased to $2 billion;

 

•

disposing of assets or securities in a single transaction or a series of related transactions for a price (including assumed debt) in excess of $500 million (other than dispositions among us and our affiliates, issuances of asset backed securitization debt to maintain the aggregate level of borrowing capacity we have at the time of this offering and dispositions of receivables in the ordinary course of business that do not exceed $1 billion); provided, that once GE’s beneficial ownership of our common stock decreases below 20%, the general threshold will be increased to $1 billion and the threshold for disposition of receivables portfolios in the ordinary course of business will be increased to $2 billion;

 

•

incurring or guaranteeing debt that would reasonably be expected to result in a downgrade of our publicly issued debt below specified ratings at the time of this offering;

 

•

dissolving, liquidating, or winding up our Company;

 

•

altering, amending, terminating or repealing, or adopting any provision inconsistent with, the provisions of our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws;

 

•

adopting or implementing any stockholder rights plan or similar takeover defense measure;

 

•

declaring or paying any dividend or other distribution in respect of our common stock;

 

•

repurchasing our common stock, subject to certain exceptions;

 

•

entering into a new principal line of business or entering into business outside of the United States and Canada; or

 

•

establishing an executive committee of our board of directors.

GE’s interests may differ from your interests, and therefore actions GE takes with respect to us, as a controlling or significant stockholder or under the Master Agreement, may not be favorable to you.

As long as GE owns a majority of our common stock, we will rely on certain of the exemptions from the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE available for “controlled companies”.

Upon the completion of this offering, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance listing standards of the NYSE because GE will continue to own more than 50% of our outstanding common stock. A “controlled company” may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements of the NYSE. Consistent with this, the Master Agreement will provide that, so long as we are a “controlled company,” we will elect not to comply with the requirements to have a majority of independent directors or to have the Nominating and Corporate Governance and Management Development and Compensation Committees of our board of directors consist entirely of independent directors. Upon completion of this offering, we expect that six of our nine directors, including one member of the board of directors’ Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and one member of the board of directors’ Management Development and Compensation Committee, will not qualify as “independent directors” under the applicable listing standards of the NYSE. As a result, you will not have certain of the protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE.

 

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Our historical combined and pro forma financial information do not reflect the results we would have achieved as a standalone company and may not be a reliable indicator of our future results.

The historical combined and pro forma financial information included in this prospectus does not reflect the financial condition, results of operations or cash flows we would have achieved as a standalone company during the periods presented and may not be a reliable indicator of our future results. The pro forma financial information depends on various assumptions that may be incorrect. For example, the actual weighted average funding cost for additional debt incurred in connection with the Transactions may be higher than that assumed for purposes of preparing the pro forma financial information, interest earned on additional assets may be lower than assumed, or the Planned Debt Offering may not occur. The pro forma financial information also does not give effect to or make any adjustment for various factors including anticipated increases in our operating expense following this offering and increases in payments under recently extended program agreements.

In addition, the historical combined and pro forma financial information does not reflect the impact of any conditions or restrictions that may be imposed by the Federal Reserve Board in connection with the GE SLHC Deregistration and the Separation, including requiring higher capital or liquidity levels or restricting our business activities or growth. Accordingly, our historical combined and pro forma financial information should not be relied upon as representative or indicative of what our financial condition or results of operations would have been had the Transactions occurred on the dates indicated. This information also should not be relied upon as representative or indicative of our future financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. For additional information relating to our historical combined and pro forma financial information, see “Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information.”

The obligations associated with being a public company will require significant resources and management attention.

In connection with this offering, we will become subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) and SEC rules under that act. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC rules thereunder require, among other things, that we establish and maintain effective internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. We have established all of the procedures and practices required as a subsidiary of GE but we will have additional procedures and practices to establish as a separate, standalone public company. As a result, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not previously incur. Furthermore, the need to establish the corporate infrastructure necessary for a standalone public company may divert some of management’s attention from operating our business and implementing our strategy. We have made, and will continue to make, changes to our internal controls and procedures for financial reporting and accounting systems to meet our reporting obligations. However, the measures we take may not be sufficient to satisfy our obligations as a public company. In addition, we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur in order to comply with these requirements.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC rules require annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, starting with the second annual report that we file with the SEC, and, in the annual report for the next succeeding year, a report by our independent auditors addressing such assessments. Failure to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

GE could engage in business and other activities that compete with us.

GE has agreed that, subject to certain exceptions, for two years after the GE SLHC Deregistration, it will not engage in the business of providing credit to consumers through: (i) private label credit cards or dual cards in conjunction with programs with retailers, merchants or healthcare providers primarily for the purchase of goods and services from the applicable retailer, merchant or healthcare provider or (ii) general purpose credit cards, in each

 

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case, in the United States and Canada. See “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Master Agreement—Noncompetition Agreement.” Our certificate of incorporation provides that, other than that non-compete agreement and any other contractual provisions to the contrary, GE will have no obligation to refrain from:

 

•

engaging in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us; or

 

•

doing business with any of our partners, customers or vendors.

GE has significant financial services businesses, including owning a bank that takes deposits (in addition to the Bank), providing consumer financing outside the United States and Canada (including private label credit cards) and providing commercial financing (including inventory, floorplan and other financing to small and medium-sized businesses). Following this offering, GE will continue to engage in these businesses. To the extent that GE engages in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us, or engages in business with any of our partners, customers or vendors, our ability to successfully operate and expand our business may be hampered.

Conflicts of interest may arise between us and GE that could be resolved in a manner unfavorable to us.

Questions relating to conflicts of interest may arise between us and GE in a number of areas relating to our past and ongoing relationships. Six of our directors (one of whom is our Chief Executive Officer) and many of our senior executive officers are also officers of GE and/or GECC. These directors and officers own GE stock and options to purchase GE stock, and all of them participate in GE pension plans. Ownership interests of our directors or officers in GE stock, or service as both a director of our Company and a director, officer and/or employee of GE and/or GECC, could give rise to potential conflicts of interest when a director or officer is faced with a decision that could have different implications for the two companies. These potential conflicts could arise, for example, over matters such as the desirability of changes in our business and operations, funding and capital matters, regulatory matters, matters arising with respect to the Master Agreement and other agreements with GE, employee retention or recruiting, or our dividend policy.

The corporate opportunity policy set forth in our certificate of incorporation addresses certain potential conflicts of interest between our Company, on the one hand, and GE and its officers who are directors of our Company, on the other hand. By becoming a stockholder in our Company, you will be deemed to have notice of and have consented to these provisions of our certificate of incorporation. Although these provisions are designed to resolve certain conflicts between us and GE fairly, we cannot assure you that any conflicts will be so resolved. The principles for resolving these potential conflicts of interest are described under “Description of Capital Stock—Provisions of Our Certificate of Incorporation Relating to Corporate Opportunities.”

If GE distributes our stock to its stockholders in exchange for its common stock in a transaction that is intended to be tax-free to GE, we could have a material indemnification obligation to GE under the TSSA if we cause the distribution or certain related preliminary internal transactions to fail to qualify for tax-free treatment or in the case of certain significant transfers of our stock following such distribution.

GE has indicated that after this offering it currently intends to complete its exit from its investment in us by making a distribution of all of its remaining shares of our stock to its stockholders in exchange for GE’s common stock in a transaction that would be designed to qualify for tax-free treatment to GE and its stockholders under Section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”). Completion by GE of any such distribution is conditioned on, among other things, a private letter ruling from the IRS regarding certain issues relating to, and an opinion from tax counsel confirming, the tax-free treatment under Section 355 of the Code of the distribution and the tax-free treatment of a series of preliminary transactions that would be required prior to implementing the distribution. The IRS ruling and the opinion of tax counsel will rely on certain facts, assumptions, representations and undertakings from GE and us regarding the past and future conduct of GE’s and our businesses and other matters. If any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings is incorrect or not otherwise satisfied, GE may not be able to rely on the IRS ruling or the opinion of tax counsel. Accordingly, notwithstanding the IRS

 

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ruling and the opinion of tax counsel, the IRS could determine that the distribution (or any of the preliminary transactions) is taxable if it determines that any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are not correct or have been violated or if it disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion that are not covered by the IRS ruling, or for other reasons, including as a result of certain significant changes in the stock ownership of GE or us after the distribution. If the distribution (or any of the preliminary transactions) is determined to be taxable, GE could incur significant tax liabilities, and under the tax sharing and separation agreement (the “TSSA”) we will enter into with GE prior to the completion of this offering, we may be required to indemnify GE for any such liabilities if the liability is caused by any action or inaction undertaken by us following the completion of this offering or as a result of any direct or indirect transfers of our stock following the distribution.

In order to preserve the tax-free status of the distribution and the preliminary transactions to GE, the TSSA includes a provision generally prohibiting us from taking action after the completion of this offering that would cause the distribution (or the preliminary transactions) to become taxable. As a result, and given our indemnity obligation to GE under the TSSA for tax liabilities incurred by GE as a result of a breach of these provisions by us or as a result of any direct or indirect transfers of our stock following the distribution, we may be required to forgo certain significant transactions that would otherwise have been advantageous to us for a period of time following the distribution, such as certain dispositions of our assets or issuances of our stock. For a discussion of the TSSA, see “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Tax Sharing and Separation Agreement.”

Risks Relating to This Offering

Future sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock may depress the price of our shares.

If GE or any of our other stockholders sells or otherwise disposes of a large number of shares of our common stock (whether through the Separation or otherwise), or if we issue a large number of shares of our common stock in connection with future acquisitions, financings, or other circumstances, the market price of shares of our common stock could decline significantly. Moreover, GE’s intention to divest of its remaining shares of our common stock or the perception in the public market that other stockholders might sell shares of our common stock could depress the market price of our common stock.

All the shares of our common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restriction, except for shares of our common stock owned by any of our affiliates, including GE, and any shares sold pursuant to our directed share program that are subject to “lock-up” restrictions as described under “Underwriters.” Immediately after this offering, the public market for our common stock will include only the 125 million shares of our common stock that are being sold in this offering, or 143.8 million shares of our common stock if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock from us in full. After this offering, we intend to register 16.6 million shares of our common stock, which are reserved for issuance under our employee benefit plans. Once we register these shares, they can be sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to restrictions under the securities laws applicable to resales by affiliates. In addition, we have granted GECC demand and “piggyback” registration rights with respect to the shares of our common stock it will hold upon the completion of this offering. GECC may exercise its demand and piggyback registration rights, and any shares of our common stock so registered will be freely tradable in the public market, except for shares acquired by any of our affiliates. See “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Registration Rights Agreement” and “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

Our directors, executive officers and GECFI have entered into lock-up agreements in which they have agreed that they will not sell, directly or indirectly, any shares of our common stock (including any shares acquired pursuant to our directed share program) for a period of 180 days from the date of this prospectus (subject to certain exceptions) without the prior written consent of the representatives of the underwriters. See “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

 

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Our common stock has no prior public market, and we cannot assure you that an active trading market will develop.

Prior to this offering, there has not been a market for our common stock, and an active trading market in our common stock might not develop or continue. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will pay a price that was not established in a competitive market. Rather, you will pay a price that was determined through negotiations with the representatives of the underwriters based upon an assessment of the valuation of our common stock and a book-building process. The public market may not agree with or accept this valuation, in which case you may not be able to sell your shares of our common stock at or above the initial offering price. In addition, if an active trading market does not develop, you may have difficulty selling your shares of our common stock at an attractive price, or at all. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of our common stock and may impair our ability to acquire other companies, products or technologies by using shares of our common stock as consideration.

The price of our common stock may be volatile and may be affected by market conditions beyond our control.

Our share price is likely to fluctuate in the future because of the volatility of the stock market in general and a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

 

•

general market conditions;

 

•

our financial condition, financial performance and future prospects;

 

•

domestic and international economic factors unrelated to our performance;

 

•

changes in or failure to meet our publicly disclosed expectations as to our future financial performance;

 

•

downgrades in securities analysts’ estimates of our financial performance, operating results that vary from the expectations of securities analysts or investors, or lack of research and reports by industry analysts;

 

•

changes in or issuances of new credit ratings for us or our asset-backed securities;

 

•

operating and securities price performance of companies that investors consider to be comparable to us;

 

•

any future sales of our common stock or other securities;

 

•

additions or departures of key personnel;

 

•

actions or announcements by our competitors;

 

•

reputational issues;

 

•

regulatory and tax actions;

 

•

changes in our capital structure or dividend policy, including as a result of the Separation, regulatory requirements, future issuances of securities, sales of large blocks of common stock by our stockholders (including GE), or our incurrence of additional debt; and

 

•

announcements or actions taken by GE as our principal stockholder; and

 

•

other matters discussed elsewhere in “Risk Factors.”

The stock market has recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. The market prices of securities of financial services companies have experienced fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating results of these companies. For example, we are currently operating in, and have benefited from, a protracted period of historically low interest rates that will not be sustained indefinitely, and future fluctuations in interest rates could cause an increase in volatility of the market price of our common stock. Market fluctuations could result in extreme volatility in the price of shares of our common stock, which could cause a decline in the value of your investment. Price volatility may be greater if the public float and

 

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trading volume of shares of our common stock is low. Furthermore, in the past, stockholders have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. Any similar litigation against us could result in substantial costs, divert management’s attention and resources, and harm our business or results of operations.

We cannot assure you whether or when we will begin paying a dividend or the amount of any such dividend.

In connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board described above and the Separation, we expect to continue to increase our capital and liquidity levels by, among other things, retaining net earnings and not paying a dividend or returning capital through stock repurchases until our application to the Federal Reserve Board is approved. The declaration and amount of any future dividends to holders of our common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including the financial condition, earnings, capital and liquidity requirements of us and the Bank, applicable regulatory restrictions (including any restrictions that may be imposed in connection with the Separation), corporate law and contractual restrictions (including restrictions contained in the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility) and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. As a result, we cannot assure you that we will pay dividends at any rate or at all.

Applicable laws and regulations, provisions of our certificate of incorporation and by-laws and certain contractual rights granted to GE may discourage takeover attempts and business combinations that stockholders might consider in their best interests.

Applicable laws, provisions of our certificate of incorporation and by-laws, and certain contractual rights granted to GE under the Master Agreement may delay, deter, prevent or render more difficult a takeover attempt that our stockholders might consider in their best interests. For example, they may prevent our stockholders from receiving the benefit from any premium to the market price of our common stock offered by a bidder in a takeover context. Even in the absence of a takeover attempt, the existence of these provisions may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock if they are viewed as discouraging takeover attempts in the future.

Takeover attempts, business combinations and certain acquisitions of our common stock may require prior approval of or notice to the Federal Reserve Board. If a company seeks to acquire, either acting alone or in concert with others, 25% or more of any class of our voting stock, acquire control of the election or appointment of a majority of the directors on our board of directors, or exercise a controlling influence over our management or policies, it would be required to obtain the prior approval of the Federal Reserve Board. In addition, if any individual seeks to acquire, either acting alone or in concert with others, 25% or more of any class of our voting stock, the individual generally is required to provide 60 days’ prior notice to the Federal Reserve Board. An individual (and also a company not otherwise required to obtain Federal Reserve Board approval to control us) is presumed to control us, and therefore generally required to provide 60 days’ prior notice to the Federal Reserve Board, if the individual (or such company) acquires 10% or more of any class of our voting stock, although the individual (or such company) may seek to rebut the presumption of control based on the facts.

Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the state of Delaware (“DGCL”) may affect the ability of an “interested stockholder” to engage in certain business combinations, including mergers, consolidations or acquisitions of additional shares from the corporation, for a period of three years following the time that the stockholder becomes an “interested stockholder.” An “interested stockholder” is defined to include persons owning directly or indirectly 15% or more of the outstanding voting stock of a corporation. However, our certificate of incorporation provides that we will not be governed by Section 203 of the DGCL until the moment in time, if ever, immediately following the time at which both (i) Section 203 by its terms would, but for the terms of our certificate of incorporation, apply to us and (ii) there occurs a transaction by which GE reduces its ownership interest in us to less than 15% of the voting power of our outstanding shares of voting stock.

 

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Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will include provisions that may have anti-takeover effects and may delay, deter or prevent a takeover attempt that our stockholders might consider in their best interests. For example, our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will:

 

•

until the earlier of (i) the time immediately prior to the Split-off and (ii) the GE SLHC Deregistration, preclude any stockholder or group (other than GE or its affiliates and certain other exempt persons) from voting more than 4.99% of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors;

 

•

permit our board of directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock with such powers, rights and preferences as the board of directors shall determine;

 

•

provide that, subject to the rights of holders of any series of preferred stock, only the board of directors may fill newly-created directorships or vacancies on our board of directors;

 

•

limit the ability of stockholders (other than GE or its affiliates) to call special meetings of stockholders and require that all stockholder action be taken at a meeting rather than by written consent; and

 

•

establish advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations of candidates for election as directors (except for GE’s designation of persons for nomination by the board of directors).

Until the GE SLHC Deregistration occurs, the Master Agreement will give GECC the right to designate a person or persons for nomination to our board of directors. So long as GE beneficially owns more than 50% of our outstanding common stock, GECC will have the right to designate for nomination five of the board of directors’ nine nominees for election as a director. This number will decrease as GE’s percentage ownership decreases.

The Master Agreement will also require that, until the GE SLHC Deregistration, we must obtain GECC’s prior written approval before undertaking (or permitting or authorizing the Bank or any of our other subsidiaries to undertake) various significant corporate actions. See “—GE has significant control over us and may not always exercise its control in a way that benefits our public stockholders.”

These limitations may adversely affect the prevailing market price and market for our common stock if they are viewed as limiting the liquidity of our stock or discouraging takeover attempts in the future.

Our common stock is and will be subordinate to all of our existing and future indebtedness and any preferred stock, and effectively subordinated to all indebtedness and preferred equity claims against our subsidiaries.

Shares of our common stock are common equity interests in us and, as such, will rank junior to all of our existing and future indebtedness and other liabilities. Additionally, holders of our common stock may become subject to the prior dividend and liquidation rights of holders of any series of preferred stock that our board of directors may designate and issue without any action on the part of the holders of our common stock. Furthermore, our right to participate in a distribution of assets upon any of our subsidiaries’ liquidation or reorganization is subject to the prior claims of that subsidiary’s creditors and preferred stockholders.

 

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “targets,” “estimates,” “will” or words of similar meaning. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for our future business and financial performance, such as those contained in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Business Trends and Conditions.” 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:

 

•

impact of macroeconomic conditions and whether industry trends we have identified develop as anticipated;

 

•

retaining existing partners and attracting new partners, concentration of our platform revenue in a small number of Retail Card partners, promotion and support of our products by our partners, and financial performance of our partners;

 

•

our need for additional financing, higher borrowing costs and adverse financial market conditions impacting our funding and liquidity, and any reduction in our credit ratings;

 

•

our ability to securitize our loans, occurrence of an early amortization of our securitization facilities, loss of the right to service or subservice our securitized loans, and lower payment rates on our securitized loans;

 

•

our reliance on dividends, distributions and other payments from the Bank;

 

•

our ability to grow our deposits in the future;

 

•

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, the sufficiency of our allowance for loan losses and the accuracy of the assumptions or estimates used in preparing our financial statements;

 

•

our ability to offset increases in our costs in retailer share arrangements;

 

•

competition in the consumer finance industry;

 

•

our concentration in the U.S. consumer credit market;

 

•

our ability to successfully develop and commercialize new or enhanced products and services;

 

•

our ability to realize the value of strategic investments;

 

•

reductions in interchange fees;

 

•

fraudulent activity;

 

•

cyber-attacks or other security breaches;

 

•

failure of third parties to provide various services that are important to our operations;

 

•

disruptions in the operations of our computer systems and data centers;

 

•

international risks and compliance and regulatory risks and costs associated with international operations;

 

•

catastrophic events;

 

•

alleged infringement of intellectual property rights of others and our ability to protect our intellectual property;

 

•

litigation and regulatory actions;

 

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•

damage to our reputation;

 

•

our ability to attract, retain and motivate key officers and employees;

 

•

tax legislation initiatives or challenges to our tax positions and state sales tax rules and regulations;

 

•

significant and extensive regulation, supervision, examination and enforcement of our business by governmental authorities, the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act and the impact of the CFPB’s regulation of our business;

 

•

changes to our methods of offering our CareCredit products;

 

•

impact of capital adequacy rules;

 

•

restrictions that limit our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our capital stock and that limit the Bank’s ability to pay dividends;

 

•

regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection as well as anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws;

 

•

use of third-party vendors and ongoing third-party business relationships;

 

•

effect of GECC being subject to regulation by the Federal Reserve Board both as a savings and loan holding company and as a systemically important financial institution;

 

•

GE not completing the Separation as planned or at all, GE’s inability to obtain the GE SLHC Deregistration and GE continuing to have significant control over us;

 

•

completion by the Federal Reserve Board of a review (with satisfactory results) of our preparedness to operate on a standalone basis, independently of GE, and Federal Reserve Board approval required for us to continue to be a savings and loan holding company, including the timing of the approval and the imposition of any significant additional capital or liquidity requirements;

 

•

our need to establish and significantly expand many aspects of our operations and infrastructure;

 

•

delays in receiving or failure to receive Federal Reserve Board agreement required for us to be treated as a financial holding company after the GE SLHC Deregistration;

 

•

loss of association with GE’s strong brand and reputation;

 

•

limited right to use the GE brand name and logo and need to establish a new brand;

 

•

GE has significant control over us;

 

•

terms of our arrangements with GE may be more favorable than we will be able to obtain from unaffiliated third parties;

 

•

obligations associated with being a public company;

 

•

our incremental cost of operating as a standalone public company could be substantially more than anticipated;

 

•

GE could engage in businesses that compete with us, and conflicts of interest may arise between us and GE; and

 

•

failure caused by us of GE’s distribution of our common stock to its stockholders in exchange for its common stock to qualify for tax-free treatment, which may result in significant tax liabilities to GE for which we may be required to indemnify GE.

See “Risk Factors” for a further description of these and other factors. For the reasons described above, we caution you against relying on any forward-looking statements, which should also be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus, including in “Risk Factors.” Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as otherwise may be required by law.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of our common stock in this offering will be approximately $2.8 billion (or $3.2 billion if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock from us), after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into the $8.0 billion New Bank Term Loan Facility and the $1.5 billion New GECC Term Loan Facility.

We also currently intend to issue approximately $3.0 billion of senior unsecured debt securities in the Planned Debt Offering shortly after the completion of this offering. We cannot assure you that the Planned Debt Offering will be completed or, if completed, on what terms it will be completed.

For a discussion of these financing transactions, see “Description of Certain Indebtedness—New Bank Term Loan Facility,” “—New GECC Term Loan Facility” and “—New Senior Notes.”

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with the net proceeds from borrowings under the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility, to repay all of our related party debt owed to GECC and its affiliates that is outstanding on the date of the closing of this offering (the “Outstanding Related Party Debt”), to increase our capital, to invest in liquid assets to increase the size of our liquidity portfolio, to pay fees and expenses related to the Transactions and for such additional uses as we may determine in the future. The weighted average interest rate on the Outstanding Related Party Debt for the year ended December 31, 2013 and the three months ended March 31, 2014 was 1.7% and 2.3% per annum, respectively.

The New GECC Term Loan Facility is being entered into to formalize the lending relationship between GECC and the Company in light of the offering and expected Separation and to reflect the fact that the Company will no longer be a wholly-owned subsidiary of GECC. The New GECC Term Loan Facility will have a five-year maturity, thus providing financing for a transitional period following the offering and the expected Separation, and will bear interest at a higher rate than the Outstanding Related Party Debt being repaid.

We intend to use the net proceeds from the Planned Debt Offering to invest in liquid assets to further increase the size of our liquidity portfolio and to pay fees and expenses related to that offering and for such additional uses as we may determine in the future. For a discussion of the Outstanding Related Party Debt, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Funding Provided by GECC.”

 

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The following table summarizes the estimated sources of funds and uses of funds in connection with the Transactions. The amounts in the tables below are based on estimated amounts and may differ from the actual amounts at the time of the consummation of this offering depending on several factors, including differences from our estimates of the amount of the Planned Debt Offering, the Outstanding Related Party Debt and fees and expenses. You should read the following together with the information included under the heading “Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

Sources of Funds ($ in millions)						Uses of Funds ($ in millions)
Common stock offered hereby		$	2,875			Repay Outstanding Related Party Debt(1)		$	8,062
Planned Debt Offering(2)			3,000			Increase capital and liquidity portfolio			7,152
New Bank Term Loan Facility			8,000			Fees and expenses(3)			161
New GECC Term Loan Facility			1,500
Total sources of funds		$	15,375			Total uses of funds		$	15,375

 

(1)

Amount reflects $8,062 million of Outstanding Related Party Debt at March 31, 2014. The amount to be repaid will be the actual amount of Outstanding Related Party Debt on the closing date of this offering. At June 30, 2014, our Outstanding Related Party Debt was $7,859 million. Any increase (or decrease) in the actual Outstanding Related Party Debt to be repaid will have a corresponding decrease (or increase) in the amount of our liquidity portfolio.

(2)

We currently intend to issue approximately $3.0 billion of senior unsecured debt securities in the Planned Debt Offering shortly after the completion of this offering. If during the first three months following this offering we issue senior unsecured debt securities in excess of $3.0 billion, the net proceeds of such debt (subject to certain limited exceptions) shall be applied to prepay outstanding principal amounts of the New GECC Term Loan Facility and New Bank Term Loan Facility on a pro rata basis. See “Description of Certain Indebtedness—New Bank Term Loan Facility.” We cannot assure you that the Planned Debt Offering (or any other offering of unsecured debt securities) will be completed or, if completed, on what terms it will be completed.

(3)	Excludes $7 million of expenses that were incurred and paid prior to March 31, 2014.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

In connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board described above and the Separation, we expect to continue to increase our capital and liquidity levels by, among other things, retaining net earnings and not paying a dividend or returning capital through stock repurchases until our application to the Federal Reserve Board is approved. Thereafter, our board of directors intends to consider a policy for paying dividends and may consider stock repurchases, in each case consistent with maintaining capital ratios well in excess of minimum regulatory requirements. The declaration and amount of any future dividends to holders of our common stock or stock repurchases will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including the financial condition, earnings, capital and liquidity requirements of us and the Bank, applicable regulatory restrictions (including any restrictions that may be imposed in connection with the Separation), corporate law and contractual restrictions (including restrictions contained in the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility) and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant.

As a savings and loan holding company, our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders or to repurchase our stock is subject to regulation by the Federal Reserve Board. In addition, as a holding company, we rely significantly on dividends, distribution and other payments from the Bank to fund dividends to our stockholders. The ability of the Bank to make dividends and other distributions and payments to us is subject to regulation by the OCC and the Federal Reserve Board. See “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Business—We are a holding company and will rely significantly on dividends, distributions and other payments from the Bank,” “—Risks Relating to Regulation—We and the Bank are subject to restrictions that limit our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our capital stock” and “—Risks Relating to This Offering—We cannot assure you whether or when we will begin paying a dividend or the amount of any such dividend.”

For a discussion of the financial covenants contained in the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility that may limit our and the Bank’s ability to pay dividends, see “Description of Certain Indebtedness—New Bank Term Loan Facility” and “—New GECC Term Loan Facility.”

 

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CAPITALIZATION

Set forth below is our capitalization at March 31, 2014, on an historical and a pro forma basis, which reflects the adjustments described in more detail in the notes to the unaudited pro forma financial information under “Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information.” You should read this information in conjunction with those notes, as well as “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our combined financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

At March 31, 2014 ($ in millions)		Historical				Pro Forma
Cash and equivalents		$	5,331			$	12,483
Deposits:
Interest bearing deposit accounts		$	27,123			$	27,123
Non-interest bearing deposit accounts			235				235
Total deposits		$	27,358			$	27,358
Borrowings:(1)
Borrowings of consolidated securitization entities		$	14,642			$	14,642
Outstanding Related Party Debt			8,062				—
New Bank Term Loan Facility(2)			—				7,960
New GECC Term Loan Facility			—				1,500
Planned Debt Offering(2)(3)			—				2,983
Total borrowings		$	22,704			$	27,085
Equity:
Parent’s net investment(4)		$	6,052			$	—
Common stock(4)			—				1
Additional paid-in capital(4)			—				8,960
Accumulated other comprehensive income			(10	)			(10	)
Total stockholders’ equity		$	6,042			$	8,951
Total capitalization		$	56,104			$	63,394

 

(1)	Does not reflect an aggregate of approximately $5.6 billion of undrawn committed capacity that we currently have under two of our existing securitization programs.

(2)	Amounts stated net of estimated deferred financing costs.

(3)

We currently intend to issue approximately $3.0 billion of senior unsecured debt securities in the Planned Debt Offering shortly after the completion of this offering. If during the first three months following this offering we issue senior unsecured debt securities in excess of $3.0 billion, the net proceeds of such debt (subject to certain limited exceptions) shall be applied to prepay outstanding principal amounts of the New GECC Term Loan Facility and New Bank Term Loan Facility on a pro rata basis. See “Description of Certain Indebtedness—New Bank Term Loan Facility.” We cannot assure you that the Planned Debt Offering (or any other offering of unsecured debt securities) will be completed or, if completed, on what terms it will be completed.

(4)	Includes the reclassification of GE’s net investment in us, which was recorded in Parent’s net investment, into Common stock and Additional paid-in capital at a par value of $0.001 per share, and reflects this offering.

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share and the net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering. Dilution results from the fact that the initial public offering price per share of our common stock is substantially in excess of the net tangible book value per share of our common stock attributable to our existing stockholder for our presently outstanding shares of common stock. At March 31, 2014, net tangible book value attributable to our existing stockholder was $4,629 million, or $6.56 per share of common stock based on 705,270,833 shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Net tangible book value per share equals total tangible assets minus total liabilities divided by the number of outstanding shares of our common stock.

Our pro forma net tangible book value at March 31, 2014 would have been approximately $7,538 million, or $9.08 per share of our common stock based on 830,270,833 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding after giving effect to the Transactions, including the sale of 125 million shares of our common stock by us at the initial public offering price of $23.00 per share after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

This represents an immediate increase in the pro forma net tangible book value of $2.52 per share to our existing stockholder and an immediate dilution in the pro forma net tangible book value of $13.92 per share to the investors who purchase our common stock in this offering.

The following table illustrates the per share dilution after giving pro forma effect to the Transactions:

 

Initial public offering price per share						$	23.00
Net tangible book value per share at March 31, 2014		$	6.56
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to the Transactions (excluding this offering)		$	0.18
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to this offering		$	2.34
Pro forma net tangible book value per share of common stock after this offering						$	9.08
Dilution per share to new investors						$	13.92

 

The following table summarizes, at March 31, 2014 (giving pro forma effect to the sale by us of 125 million shares of our common stock in this offering), the difference between our existing stockholder and new investors with respect to the number of shares of our common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us for these shares, and the average price per share paid by our existing stockholder and to be paid by the new investors in this offering. The calculation below reflecting the effect of shares purchased by new investors is based on the initial public offering price of $23.00 per share before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

 

		Shares Purchased								Total Consideration								Average Price Per Share
		Number				Percent				$ millions				Percent
Existing stockholder			705,270,833				84.9	%		$	6,042				67.8	%		$	8.57
New investors			125,000,000				15.1	%		$	2,875				32.2	%		$	23.00
Total			830,270,833				100.0	%		$	8,917				100.0	%		$	10.74

The number of shares purchased is based on shares of our common stock outstanding at March 31, 2014. The discussion and table above exclude shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from us. If the underwriters were to fully exercise their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock from us, the percentage of shares of our common stock held by our

 

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existing stockholder would be 83.1%, and the percentage of shares of our common stock held by new investors would be 16.9%. To the extent all 18,750,000 shares had been issued upon exercise of the underwriters’ option at March 31, 2014, the pro forma net tangible book value per share after this offering would be $9.37 and total dilution per share to new investors would be $13.63.

 

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SELECTED HISTORICAL AND PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The following table sets forth selected historical combined and unaudited pro forma financial information. The selected historical combined financial information at and for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 is unaudited and has been derived from our unaudited historical combined financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The selected historical combined financial information at December 31, 2013 and 2012, and for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 has been derived from our historical combined financial statements, which have been audited by KPMG LLP and are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The selected historical combined financial information at December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, and for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009 is unaudited and has been derived from our historical combined financial information not included in the prospectus. The selected unaudited pro forma financial information at and for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and for the year ended December 31, 2013 is unaudited and has been derived from our unaudited pro forma financial statements. You should read this information in conjunction with the information under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our historical combined financial statements and the related notes thereto, which are included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Synchrony is a holding company for the legal entities that historically conducted GE’s North American retail finance business. Synchrony was incorporated in Delaware on September 12, 2003, but prior to April 1, 2013, conducted no business. During the period from April 1, 2013 to September 30, 2013, as part of a regulatory restructuring, substantially all of the assets and operations of GE’s North American retail finance business, including the Bank, were transferred to Synchrony. The remaining assets and operations of that business subsequently have been transferred to Synchrony.

We have prepared our historical combined financial statements as if Synchrony had conducted GE’s North American retail finance business throughout all relevant periods. Our historical combined financial information and statements include the assets, liabilities and operations of GE’s North American retail finance business.

The unaudited pro forma information set forth below reflects our historical combined financial information, as adjusted to give effect to the following Transactions as if each had occurred at January 1, 2013, in the case of statements of earnings information, and at March 31, 2014, in the case of statements of financial position information:

 

•

issuance of 125 million shares of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price of $23.00 per share and estimated offering expenses payable by us;

 

•

repayment of all Outstanding Related Party Debt (as defined under “Use of Proceeds”);

 

•

entering into of, and costs associated with, the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the New GECC Term Loan Facility;

 

•

completion of, and estimated offering expenses payable by us in connection with, the Planned Debt Offering;

 

•

investment in liquid assets to further increase the size of our liquidity portfolio consistent with our liquidity and funding policies; and

 

•

issuance of a founders’ grant of restricted stock units and stock options to certain employees under the Synchrony 2014 Long-Term Incentive Plan.

The unaudited pro forma financial information is for illustrative and informational purposes only and is not intended to represent what our financial condition or results of operations would have been had the Transactions occurred on the dates indicated. The unaudited pro forma information also should not be considered representative of our future financial condition or results of operations.

The unaudited pro forma information below is based upon available information and assumptions that we believe are reasonable, that reflect the expected impacts of events that are directly attributable to the Transactions, that are factually supportable and, in connection with earnings information, that are expected to have a continuing impact on us.

 

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Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into a number of arrangements with GE governing the Separation and a variety of transition matters. Except as described in the notes above, we have not reflected any adjustments for the estimated effects of these arrangements, which are described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Separation from GE and Related Financial Arrangements.”

In addition to the pro forma adjustments to our historical combined financial statements, various other factors will have an effect on our financial condition and results of operations after the completion of this offering, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

For information with respect to certain items that are not reflected in the pro forma financial information, see note (k) to the unaudited pro forma financial information below.

Condensed Combined Statements of Earnings Information

 

		Pro Forma				Historical								Pro Forma				Historical(1)
		Three Months Ended March 31,				Three Months Ended March 31,								Year Ended December 31,				Years Ended December 31,
($ in millions, except per share data)		2014				2014				2013				2013				2013				2012				2011				2010(2)				2009
Interest income		$	2,933			$	2,933			$	2,704			$	11,313			$	11,313			$	10,309			$	9,141			$	8,760			$	4,636
Interest expense			235				190				193				951				742				745				932				1,094				830
Net interest income			2,698				2,743				2,511				10,362				10,571				9,564				8,209				7,666				3,806
Retailer share arrangements			(594	)			(594	)			(484	)			(2,373	)			(2,373	)			(1,984	)			(1,428	)			(989	)			(799	)
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements			2,104				2,149				2,027				7,989				8,198				7,580				6,781				6,677				3,007
Provision for loan losses			764				764				1,047				3,072				3,072				2,565				2,258				3,151				2,883
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements and provision for loan losses			1,340				1,385				980				4,917				5,126				5,015				4,523				3,526				124
Other income			115				115				132				500				500				484				497				481				2,550
Other expense			616				610				539				2,510				2,484				2,123				2,010				1,978				1,979
Earnings before provision for income taxes			839				890				573				2,907				3,142				3,376				3,010				2,029				695
Provision for income taxes			(313	)			(332	)			(214	)			(1,075	)			(1,163	)			(1,257	)			(1,120	)			(760	)			(294	)
Net earnings		$	526			$	558			$	359			$	1,832			$	1,979			$	2,119			$	1,890			$	1,269			$	401
Weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)
Basic			830,271				N/A				N/A				830,271				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A
Diluted			831,170				N/A				N/A				830,670				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A
Earnings per share
Basic		$	0.63				N/A				N/A			$	2.21				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A
Diluted			0.63				N/A				N/A				2.21				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A				N/A

 

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Condensed Combined Statements of Financial Position Information

 

		Pro Forma				Historical				Historical
		At March 31,				At March 31,				At December 31,
($ in millions)		2014				2014				2013				2012				2011(1)				2010(2)				2009
Assets:
Cash and equivalents		$	12,483			$	5,331			$	2,319			$	1,334			$	1,187			$	219			$	572
Investment securities			265				265				236				193				198				116				7,261
Loan receivables			54,285				54,285				57,254				52,313				47,741				45,230				22,912
Allowance for loan losses			(2,998	)			(2,998	)			(2,892	)			(2,274	)			(2,052	)			(2,362	)			(1,654	)
Goodwill			949				949				949				936				936				938				938
Intangible assets, net			464				464				300				255				252				227				396
Other assets			926				949				919				705				1,853				4,438				7,163
Assets of discontinued operations			—				—				—				—				—				1,847				3,092
Total assets		$	66,374			$	59,245			$	59,085			$	53,462			$	50,115			$	50,653			$	40,680
Liabilities and Equity:
Total deposits		$	27,358			$	27,358			$	25,719			$	18,804			$	17,832			$	13,798			$	11,609
Total borrowings			27,085				22,704				24,321				27,815				25,890				30,936				18,069
Accrued expenses and other liabilities			2,980				3,141				3,085				2,261				2,065				1,600				6,192
Liabilities of discontinued operations			—				—				—				—				—				13				6
Total liabilities			57,423				53,203				53,125				48,880				45,787				46,347				35,876
Total equity			8,951				6,042				5,960				4,582				4,328				4,306				4,804
Total liabilities and equity		$	66,374			$	59,245			$	59,085			$	53,462			$	50,115			$	50,653			$	40,680

 

(1)	In 2011, we completed the sale of a discontinued business operation. See Note 3. Acquisition and Dispositions to our combined financial statements. The selected earnings information presented above is of continuing operations.

(2)

On January 1, 2010, we adopted FASB Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 810, Consolidation, and began consolidating our securitization entities. In 2009, we recognized gains on the sale of loan receivables to the securitization entities and earnings on retained interests which are included in other income within our Combined Statements of Earnings. The adoption of ASC 810, Consolidation on January 1, 2010 resulted in an increase to our total assets of $13.8 billion and an increase to our total liabilities of $15.2 billion. The increase in total assets primarily included an increase in loan receivables of $24.0 billion, but was partially offset by an increase in the allowance for loan losses of $1.6 billion and a decrease in investment securities of $7.2 billion. The increase in total liabilities primarily included an increase in borrowings of $18.8 billion.

 

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Other Financial and Statistical Data

 

		Pro Forma(1)				Historical								Pro Forma(1)				Historical
		At and for the Three Months Ended March 31,				At and for the Three Months Ended March 31,								At and for the Year Ended December 31,				At and for the Years Ended December 31,
($ in millions, except per account data)		2014				2014				2013				2013				2013				2012				2011
Financial Position Data (Average):
Loan receivables		$	55,495			$	55,495			$	50,843			$	52,407			$	52,407			$	47,549			$	44,131
Total assets		$	66,550			$	59,421			$	55,990			$	62,422			$	56,184			$	49,905			$	46,218
Deposits		$	26,648			$	26,648			$	22,492			$	22,911			$	22,911			$	17,514			$	15,442
Borrowings		$	27,497			$	23,116			$	25,440			$	28,694			$	25,209			$	25,304			$	24,687
Total equity		$	9,384			$	6,475			$	5,555			$	8,027			$	5,121			$	4,764			$	4,009
Selected Performance Metrics:
Purchase volume(2)		$	21,086			$	21,086			$	19,803			$	93,858			$	93,858			$	85,901			$	77,883
Retail Card		$	16,713			$	16,713			$	15,719			$	75,739			$	75,739			$	69,240			$	62,663
Payment Solutions		$	2,687			$	2,687			$	2,471			$	11,360			$	11,360			$	10,531			$	9,798
CareCredit		$	1,686			$	1,686			$	1,613			$	6,759			$	6,759			$	6,130			$	5,422
Average active accounts (in thousands)(3)			59,342				59,342				55,347				56,253				56,253				53,021				51,313
Average purchase volume per active account		$	355			$	355			$	358			$	1,668			$	1,668			$	1,620			$	1,518
Average loan receivables balance per active account		$	935			$	935			$	919			$	932			$	932			$	897			$	860
Net interest margin(4)			16.5	%			18.8	%			18.2	%			16.6	%			18.8	%			19.7	%			18.4	%
Net charge-offs		$	658			$	658			$	603			$	2,454			$	2,454			$	2,343			$	2,560
Net charge-offs as a % of average loan receivables			4.9	%			4.9	%			4.8	%			4.7	%			4.7	%			4.9	%			5.8	%
Allowance coverage ratio(5)			5.5	%			5.5	%			5.4	%			5.1	%			5.1	%			4.3	%			4.3	%
Return on assets(6)			3.2	%			3.9	%			2.6	%			2.9	%			3.5	%			4.2	%			4.1	%
Return on equity(7)			23.0	%			35.3	%			26.2	%			22.8	%			38.6	%			44.5	%			47.1	%
Equity to assets(8)			14.1	%			10.9	%			9.9	%			12.9	%			9.1	%			9.5	%			8.7	%
Other expense as a % of average loan receivables			4.6	%			4.5	%			4.3	%			4.8	%			4.7	%			4.5	%			4.6	%
Efficiency ratio(9)			27.8	%			26.9	%			25.0	%			29.6	%			28.6	%			26.3	%			27.6	%
Effective income tax rate			37.3	%			37.3	%			37.4	%			37.0	%			37.0	%			37.2	%			37.2	%
Selected Period End Data:
Total loan receivables		$	54,285			$	54,285			$	49,931			$	57,254			$	57,254			$	52,313			$	47,741
Allowance for loan losses		$	2,998			$	2,998			$	2,718			$	2,892			$	2,892			$	2,274			$	2,052
30+ days past due as a % of loan receivables			4.1	%			4.1	%			4.2	%			4.3	%			4.3	%			4.6	%			4.9	%
90+ days past due as a % of loan receivables			1.9	%			1.9	%			1.9	%			2.0	%			2.0	%			2.0	%			2.2	%
Total active accounts (in thousands)(3)			57,349				57,349				54,291				61,957				61,957				57,099				56,605
Full time employees			10,034				10,034				8,342				9,333				9,333				8,447				8,203
Capital Ratios(10):
Tier 1 common ratio			14.6	%
Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio			14.6	%
Total risk-based capital ratio			15.9	%
Tier 1 leverage ratio			12.0	%

 

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		Historical
		At and for the Three Months Ended March 31,								At and for the Years Ended December 31,
($ in millions)		2014				2013				2013				2012				2011
Platform Revenue(11)
Total:
Interest and fees on loans		$	2,928			$	2,699			$	11,295			$	10,300			$	9,134
Other income			115				132				500				484				497
Retailer share arrangements			(594	)			(484	)			(2,373	)			(1,984	)			(1,428	)
Platform revenue		$	2,449			$	2,347			$	9,422			$	8,800			$	8,203
Retail Card:
Interest and fees on loans		$	2,178			$	1,990			$	8,317			$	7,531			$	6,536
Other income			96				106				419				400				377
Retailer share arrangements			(584	)			(475	)			(2,331	)			(1,943	)			(1,378	)
Platform revenue		$	1,690			$	1,621			$	6,405			$	5,988			$	5,535
Payment Solutions:
Interest and fees on loans		$	372			$	368			$	1,506			$	1,441			$	1,389
Other income			8				13				36				40				60
Retailer share arrangements			(9	)			(7	)			(36	)			(35	)			(43	)
Platform revenue		$	371			$	374			$	1,506			$	1,446			$	1,406
CareCredit:
Interest and fees on loans		$	378			$	341			$	1,472			$	1,328			$	1,209
Other income			11				13				45				44				60
Retailer share arrangements			(1	)			(2	)			(6	)			(6	)			(7	)
Platform revenue		$	388			$	352			$	1,511			$	1,366			$	1,262

 

(1)	The unaudited pro forma financial information for Financial Position Data (Average) and Selected Performance Metrics give effect to the Transactions as if they had occurred at January 1, 2013 for amounts calculated using average financial position data.

(2)	Purchase volume, or net credit sales, represents the aggregate amount of charges incurred on credit cards or other credit product accounts less returns during the period.

(3)	Active accounts represent credit card or installment loan accounts on which there has been a purchase, payment or outstanding balance in the current month. Open accounts represent credit card or installment loan accounts that are not closed, blocked or more than 60 days delinquent.

(4)	Net interest margin represents net interest income divided by average interest-earning assets.

(5)	Allowance coverage ratio represents allowance for loan losses divided by total end-of-period loan receivables.

(6)	Return on assets represents net earnings as a percentage of average total assets.

(7)	Return on equity represents net earnings as a percentage of average total equity.

(8)	Equity to assets represents average equity as a percentage of average total assets.

(9)	Efficiency ratio represents (i) other expense, divided by (ii) net interest income, after retailer share arrangements, plus other income.

(10)

Represent Basel I capital ratios calculated for the Company on a pro forma basis. At March 31, 2014, pro forma for the Transactions, the Company would have had a fully phased-in Basel III Tier 1 common ratio of 14.1%. The Company’s pro forma capital ratios are non-GAAP measures. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Capital.”

(11)

Platform revenue is a non-GAAP measure. The table sets forth each component of our platform revenue for the periods presented. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2014 and 2013—Platform Analysis” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—For the Years Ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011—Platform Analysis.”

 

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Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Information

Condensed Combined Statements of Earnings Information

 

		Three months ended March 31, 2014
($ in millions, except per share data)		Historical				Pro Forma Adjustments				Notes				Pro Forma
Interest and fees on loans		$	2,928			$	—							$	2,928
Interest on investment securities(a)			5				—								5
Total interest income			2,933				—								2,933
Interest on deposits			96				—								96
Interest on borrowings of consolidated securitization entities			47				—								47
Interest on third-party debt			—				76				(c	)			76
Interest on related party debt			47				(31	)			(c)/(d	)			16
Total interest expense			190				45								235
Net interest income			2,743				(45	)							2,698
Retailer share arrangements			(594	)			—								(594	)
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements			2,149				(45	)							2,104
Provision for loan losses			764				—								764
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements and provision for loan losses			1,385				(45	)							1,340
Other income			115				—								115
Other expense			610				6				(e	)			616
Earnings (loss) before provision for income taxes			890				(51	)							839
Provision for income taxes			(332	)			19				(f	)			(313	)
Net earnings		$	558			$	(32	)						$	526
Weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)
Basic											(j	)			830,271
Diluted											(j	)			831,170
Earnings per share
Basic											(j	)		$	0.63
Diluted											(j	)			0.63

 

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		Year ended December 31, 2013
($ in millions, except per share data)		Historical				Pro Forma Adjustments				Notes				Pro Forma
Interest and fees on loans		$	11,295			$	—							$	11,295
Interest on investment securities(b)			18				—								18
Total interest income			11,313				—								11,313
Interest on deposits			374				—								374
Interest on borrowings of consolidated securitization entities			211				—								211
Interest on third-party debt			—				302				(c	)			302
Interest on related party debt			157				(93	)			(c)/(d	)			64
Total interest expense			742				209								951
Net interest income			10,571				(209	)							10,362
Retailer share arrangements			(2,373	)			—								(2,373	)
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements			8,198				(209	)							7,989
Provision for loan losses			3,072				—								3,072
Net interest income, after retailer share arrangements and provision for loan losses			5,126				(209	)							4,917
Other income			500				—								500
Other expense			2,484				26				(e	)			2,510
Earnings (loss) before provision for income taxes			3,142				(235	)							2,907
Provision for income taxes			(1,163	)			88				(f	)			(1,075	)
Net earnings		$	1,979			$	(147	)						$	1,832
Weighted average shares outstanding (in thousands)
Basic											(j	)			830,271
Diluted											(j	)			830,670
Earnings per share
Basic											(j	)		$	2.21
Diluted											(j	)			2.21

 

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Condensed Combined Statements of Financial Position Information

 

		At March 31, 2014
($ in millions, except per share data)		Historical				Pro Forma Adjustments				Notes				Pro Forma
Assets:
Cash and equivalents(a)(b)		$	5,331			$	7,152				(c)/(d)/(h	)		$	12,483
Investment securities			265				—								265
Loan receivables
Unsecuritized loans held for investment			29,101				—								29,101
Restricted loans of consolidated securitization entities			25,184				—								25,184
Total loan receivables			54,285				—								54,285
Less: Allowance for loan losses			(2,998	)			—								(2,998	)
Loan receivables, net			51,287				—								51,287
Goodwill			949				—								949
Intangible assets, net			464				—								464
Other assets			949				(23	)			(c)/(g	)			926
Total assets		$	59,245			$	7,129							$	66,374
Liabilities and Equity:
Deposits:
Interest bearing deposit accounts			27,123				—								27,123
Non-interest bearing deposit accounts			235				—								235
Total deposits			27,358				—								27,358
Borrowings:
Borrowings of consolidated securitization entities			14,642				—								14,642
Related party debt			8,062				(6,562	)			(c)/(d	)			1,500
Third-party debt			—				10,943				(c	)			10,943
Total borrowings			22,704				4,381								27,085
Accrued expenses and other liabilities			3,141				(161	)			(g	)			2,980
Total liabilities		$	53,203			$	4,220							$	57,423
Equity:
Common stock, par share value $0.001 per share (830,270,833 shares outstanding)			—				1				(h)/(i	)			1
Additional paid-in capital			—				8,960				(g)/(h)/(i	)			8,960
Parent’s net investment			6,052				(6,052	)			(i	)			—
Accumulated other comprehensive income			(10	)			—								(10	)
Total equity			6,042				2,909								8,951
Total liabilities and equity		$	59,245			$	7,129							$	66,374

 

Notes to unaudited pro forma financial information

 

(a)

Cash and equivalents reflects an increase in assets in our liquidity portfolio from $4.8 billion to $12.0 billion. We expect that our liquidity portfolio will consist of cash and equivalents (primarily in the form of deposits with the Federal Reserve Board), debt obligations of the U.S. Treasury, certain securities issued by U.S. government sponsored enterprises and other highly rated and highly liquid assets. We have assumed for purposes of this pro forma presentation that assets contained in the liquidity portfolio will consist entirely of cash and equivalents. Interest on investment securities includes interest on interest-earning cash and equivalents. We estimate that the additional cash and equivalents in this liquidity portfolio would have generated incremental interest income of $16 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 and $4 million for the

 

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three months ended March 31, 2014, assuming an interest rate of 0.22% per annum. This incremental interest income is not reflected in the unaudited pro forma combined financial information. An increase (decrease) in the interest rate of 0.125% would increase (decrease) this estimate by $9 million for the year ended December 31, 2013.

 

(b)	Cash and equivalents of $503 million at March 31, 2014, which primarily relates to cash in transit, is excluded for the purpose of calculating liquidity.

 

(c)	Reflects an adjustment to record $12.5 billion of new borrowings in connection with this offering, additional borrowing commitments and related interest expense at an estimated weighted average interest rate of 2.8% per annum, as follows:

 

(1)

Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into the $1.5 billion New GECC Term Loan Facility with GECC.

(2)

Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into the $8.0 billion New Bank Term Loan Facility with third-party lenders.

(3)

Shortly after the completion of this offering, we plan to issue approximately $3.0 billion of New Senior Notes under the Planned Debt Offering.

(4)

We currently have an aggregate of approximately $5.6 billion of undrawn committed capacity from private lenders under two of our existing securitization programs, the commitment fees for which are included in the adjustment to interest expense.

The unaudited pro forma combined financial information also includes an adjustment to record $57 million of deferred financing costs related to the New Bank Term Loan Facility and the Planned Debt Offering. The proceeds of the new borrowings will be used to repay all Outstanding Related Party Debt, to increase our capital, to invest in liquid assets to increase the size of our liquidity portfolio, to pay fees and expenses related to the Transactions and for such additional uses as we may determine in the future.

An increase (decrease) in the weighted average interest rate of 0.125% per annum would increase (decrease) pro forma interest expense related to our new borrowings by $4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and $16 million for the year ended December 31, 2013.

 

(d)

Represents the repayment of $8,062 million of Outstanding Related Party Debt at March 31, 2014. The weighted average interest rate on the Outstanding Related Party Debt for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and the year ended December 31, 2013 was 2.3% and 1.7% per annum, respectively. The amount to be repaid will be the actual amount of Outstanding Related Party Debt on the closing date of this offering.

 

(e)

Represents an estimated annual incremental compensation expense of $26 million related to the issuance of a founders’ grant of restricted stock units and stock options to a broad group of several hundred employees in connection with this offering, with an estimated total grant date fair value of $105 million. The grant will be amortized over the four-year cliff vesting period.

 

(f)	Reflects an adjustment to record the tax impact of other pro forma earnings adjustments at a tax rate of 37.3%.

 

(g)	Reflects the elimination of assets and liabilities associated with prior period tax returns, which will be the responsibility of GE in accordance with the TSSA.

 

(h)	Represents the net increase in cash and equity of $2.8 billion from the proceeds of this offering assuming the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us is not exercised, and less underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

 

(i)	Represents the reclassification of GE’s net investment in us, which was recorded in Parent’s net investment, into Common stock and Additional paid-in capital at a par value of $0.001 per share.

 

(j)	Basic and diluted earnings per share and the weighted average shares outstanding for the pro forma earnings per share calculation included in our unaudited pro forma Combined Statements of Earnings are calculated as follows:

 

		Three Months Ended March 31, 2014								Year Ended December 31, 2013
($ in millions; except per share data; share data in thousands)		Basic				Diluted				Basic				Diluted
Pro forma net earnings		$	526			$	526			$	1,832			$	1,832
Common stock			830,271				830,271				830,271				830,271
Restricted stock units			—				899				—				399
Stock options			—				—				—				—
Pro forma shares outstanding			830,271				831,170				830,271				830,670
Pro forma earnings per share		$	0.63			$	0.63			$	2.21			$	2.21

 

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(k)	We have not reflected any adjustments in our unaudited pro forma combined financial information for the following:

 

(1)

GE and its subsidiaries, including GECC, historically have provided a variety of services to us, including direct costs associated with services provided directly to us and indirect costs related to GE corporate overhead allocation and assessment. Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into a number of arrangements with GE governing the Separation and a variety of transition matters. We expect that GE will continue to provide us with some of the services related to certain functions on a transitional basis in exchange for agreed-upon fees, and we expect to incur other costs to replace the services and resources that will not be provided by GE. We currently expect to incur significant additional expenses to operate as a fully independent public company. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Business Trends and Conditions—Increases in other expense to operate as a fully independent company” and “—Separation from GE and Related Financial Arrangements.”

 

(2)

We expect increased payments to partners under our recently extended retailer share arrangements and increased other expense, primarily marketing and other expenses dedicated to promoting the extended programs. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Increases in retailer share arrangement payments and other expense under extended program agreements.”

 

(3)

We will transition to our benefit plans under the employee matters agreement we will enter into with GE prior to the completion of this offering. Effective as of the date that GE ceases to own at least 50% of our outstanding common stock, our applicable U.S. employees will cease to participate in the GE plans and will participate in employee benefit plans established and maintained by us. For at least the one-year period following the date that GE ceases to own at least 50% of our outstanding common stock, we will maintain plans that will provide our employees with benefits that are comparable in the aggregate to the value of those benefits provided by the GE plans. See “Arrangements Among GE, GECC and Our Company—Relationship with GE and GECC—Employee Matters Agreement” for further description of these matters.

 

(4)

Certain of our employees have historically been granted GE stock options and GE restricted stock units under GE’s 2007 Long-Term Incentive Plan, and as of the date GE ceases to own at least 50% of our outstanding common stock, all unvested GE stock options that are held by our employees at that time will vest. We have not reflected any adjustment for the expense related to the accelerated vesting of these awards as the date of vesting has not been determined and this expense would be non-recurring.

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our combined financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The discussion below contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Introduction

Business Overview

We are one of the premier consumer financial services companies in the United States. 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 we refer to as our “partners.” During 2013, we financed $93.9 billion of purchase volume, and at December 31, 2013, we had $57.3 billion of loan receivables and 62.0 million active accounts. For the three months ended March 31, 2014, we financed $21.1 billion of purchase volume, and at March 31, 2014, we had $54.3 billion of loan receivables and 57.3 million active accounts. For the year ended December 31, 2013, we had net earnings of $2.0 billion, representing a return on assets of 3.5%, and for the three months ended March 31, 2014, we had net earnings of $558 million, representing a return on assets of 3.9%. See “Summary Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information” for return on assets, return on equity and equity to assets ratios.

We offer our credit products primarily through our wholly-owned subsidiary, the Bank. Through the Bank, we offer a range of direct and brokered deposit products insured by the FDIC. We are expanding our direct banking operations to increase our deposit base as a source of stable and diversified low cost funding for our credit activities. We had $27.4 billion in deposits at March 31, 2014.

Our Sales Platforms

We conduct our operations through a single business segment and offer our products through three sales platforms (Retail Card, Payment Solutions and CareCredit). Those platforms are organized by the types of products we offer and the partners we work with, and are measured on platform revenues, loan receivables, new accounts and other sales metrics.

Retail Card. Retail Card is a leading provider of private label credit cards, and also provides Dual Cards and small and medium-sized business credit products. We offer one or more of these products primarily through 19 national and regional retailers with which we have program agreements that have an expiration date in 2016 or beyond and which accounted for 95.3% of our Retail Card platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 94.9% of our Retail Card loan receivables at March 31, 2014. The average length of our relationship with all of our Retail Card partners is 15 years and collectively they have 34,000 retail locations. Retail Card’s platform revenue consists of interest and fees on our loan receivables, plus other income, less retailer share arrangements. Other income primarily consists of interchange fees earned on Dual Card transactions (when the card is used outside of our partners’ sales channels) and fees paid to us by customers who purchase our debt cancellation products, less loyalty program payments. Substantially all of the credit extended in this platform is on standard terms. Retail Card accounted for $6.4 billion, or 68.0%, of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013, and $1.7 billion, or 69.0%, of our total platform revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

Payment Solutions. Payment Solutions is a leading provider of promotional financing for major consumer purchases, offering primarily private label credit cards and installment loans. At March 31, 2014, Payment Solutions offered these products through 264 programs with national and regional retailers, manufacturers, buying groups and industry associations, and a total of 62,000 participating partners. Substantially all of the credit extended in this platform is promotional financing. Payment Solutions’ platform revenue primarily consists

 

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of interest and fees on our loan receivables, including “merchant discounts,” which are fees paid to us by our partners in almost all cases to compensate us for all or part of foregone interest revenue associated with promotional financing. Payment Solutions accounted for $1.5 billion, or 16.0%, of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013, and $371 million, or 15.1%, of our total platform revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

CareCredit. CareCredit is a leading provider of promotional financing to consumers for elective healthcare procedures or services, such as dental, veterinary, cosmetic, vision and audiology. At March 31, 2014, we had a network of 152,000 CareCredit providers, the vast majority of which are individual or small groups of independent healthcare providers, through which we offer a CareCredit branded private label credit card. Substantially all of the credit extended in this platform is promotional financing. CareCredit’s platform revenue primarily consists of interest and fees on our loan receivables, including merchant discounts. CareCredit accounted for $1.5 billion, or 16.0%, of total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013, and $388 million, or 15.9%, of our total platform revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

Our Credit Products

Through our platforms, we offer three principal types of credit products: credit cards, commercial credit products and consumer installment loans.

The following table sets forth each credit product by type (and within credit cards, by private label and Dual Cards) and indicates the percentage of our total loan receivables that are under standard terms only or pursuant to a promotional financing offer at March 31, 2014.

 

Credit Product		Standard Terms				Promotional Offer				Total
Private label credit cards			45.4	%			28.0	%			73.4	%
Dual Cards			22.2				0.2				22.4
Total credit cards			67.6				28.2				95.8
Commercial credit products			2.4				—				2.4
Consumer installment loans			—				1.8				1.8
Total			70.0	%			30.0	%			100.0	%

Credit Cards. We offer two principal types of credit cards: private label credit cards and Dual Cards:

 

•

Private label credit cards. Private label credit cards are partner-branded credit cards (e.g., Lowe’s or Amazon) or program-branded credit cards (e.g., CarCareONE or CareCredit) that are used primarily for the purchase of goods and services from the partner or within the program network. In Retail Card, credit under our private label credit cards typically is extended on standard terms only, and in Payment Solutions and CareCredit, credit under our private label credit cards typically is extended pursuant to a promotional financing offer.

 

•

Dual Cards. Our proprietary Dual Cards are credit cards that function as a private label credit card when used to purchase goods and services from our partners and as a general purpose credit card when used elsewhere. Credit extended under our Dual Cards typically is extended under standard terms only. Currently, only Retail Card offers Dual Cards. At March 31, 2014, we offered Dual Cards through 18 of our 24 Retail Card programs.

Commercial Credit Products. We offer private label cards and co-branded cards for commercial customers that are similar to our consumer offerings. We also offer a commercial pay-in-full accounts receivable product to a wide range of business customers, and are rolling out an improved customer experience for this product with enhanced functionality. We offer commercial credit products primarily through our Retail Card platform to the commercial customers of our Retail Card partners.

 

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Installment Loans. In Payment Solutions, we originate installment loans to consumers (and a limited number of commercial customers) in the United States, primarily in the power segment. Installment loans are closed-end credit accounts where the customer pays down the outstanding balance in installments. Installment loans are assessed periodic finance charges using fixed interest rates.

Business Trends and Conditions

We believe our business and results of operations will be impacted in the future by various trends and conditions, including the following:

 

•

Growth in loan receivables and interest income. We believe continuing improvement in the U.S. economy and employment rates will contribute to an increase in consumer credit spending. In addition, we expect the use of credit cards to continue to increase versus other forms of payment such as cash and checks. We anticipate that these trends, combined with our marketing and partner engagement strategies, will contribute to growth in our loan receivables. In the near-to-medium term, we expect our total interest income to continue to grow, driven by the expected growth in average loan receivables. Our historical growth rates in loan receivables and interest income have benefitted from new partner acquisitions (including the significant portfolio acquisitions described in “—Description of Key Combined Statements of Earnings Line Items—Interest Income”), and therefore, if we do not continue to acquire new partners, replace the Retail Card programs that are not being extended or otherwise grow our business, our growth rates in loan receivables and interest income in the future will be lower than in recent periods. In addition, we do not expect to make any significant changes to customer pricing or merchant discount pricing in the near term, and therefore we expect yields generated from interest and fees on interest-earning assets will remain relatively stable.

 

•

Changing funding mix and increased funding costs. Our primary funding sources historically have included cash from operations, deposits (direct and brokered deposits), securitized financings and related party debt provided by GECC and its affiliates. In connection with this offering, we expect to add third-party credit facilities, unsecured debt financing and transitional funding from GECC as funding sources. Over time, we expect to raise additional unsecured debt financing and significantly increase our level of direct deposits to refinance, in advance of the Separation, all or a substantial portion of the transitional funding provided by GECC, increase liquidity levels and support growth in our business. We expect the following factors to impact our funding costs:

 

•

continued growth in our direct deposits as a source of stable and low cost funding;

 

•

a significant increase in the amount of debt outstanding to fund an increase in the size of our liquidity portfolio;

 

•

the changing mix in our funding sources, as existing related party debt is replaced by higher cost funding provided by third-party credit facilities, unsecured debt financing and transitional funding from GECC; and

 

•

a rising interest rate environment.

As a result of these factors, we expect our funding costs in the aggregate following this offering to increase. Pro forma for the Transactions, at March 31, 2014, our debt outstanding would have increased by approximately $4.4 billion. For the year ended December 31, 2013, our interest expense would have increased by $209 million, and our cost of funds would have increased from 1.6% to 1.9% per annum, and for the three months ended March 31, 2014, our interest expense would have increased by $45 million, and our cost of funds would have increased from 1.6% to 1.8% per annum. See “Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information—Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Information.”

 

•

Extended duration of program agreements. Since January 1, 2012, we have extended the duration of 22 of our 40 largest program agreements with a new expiration date in 2016 or beyond. These extended program agreements represented, in the aggregate, 62.2% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 65.3% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014. As a result, we expect to

 

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continue to benefit from these programs on a long-term basis as indicated by the following expiration schedule, which indicates for each period the number of programs scheduled to expire and the platform revenue and loan receivables that these programs accounted for at the dates and for the periods indicated.

 

 

(1)

Excludes five program agreements that will not be extended beyond their current contractual expiration dates in 2014 or 2015.

A total of 32 of our 40 largest program agreements (including the 22 program agreements we have extended since January 2012) now have an expiration date in 2016 or beyond. These 32 program agreements represented in the aggregate, 70.5% of our total platform revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 73.0% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014. Five of our 40 largest program agreements will not be extended beyond their contractual expiration dates in 2014 or, in one case, 2015. These five program agreements represented, in the aggregate, 3.3% of our total platform revenue and 5.2% of our retailer share arrangements, in each case for the year ended December 31, 2013, and 3.7% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014. In addition, we recently extended our program agreement with PayPal, another of our 40 largest programs, until October 2016 and do not expect it to extend beyond that date. The extension eliminated certain exclusivity provisions that previously existed in the program agreement which we expect will result in lower platform revenue and loan receivables from our PayPal program during the extended term of the agreement. The PayPal program agreement represented 3.1% of our total platform revenue and 2.5% of our retailer share arrangements, in each case for the year ended December 31, 2013, and 2.6% of our total loan receivables at March 31, 2014.

 

•

Increases in retailer share arrangement payments and other expense under extended program agreements. We believe that as a result of both the overall growth of our programs generally as well as amendments we have made to the terms of certain program agreements that we extended during 2013 and to date in 2014, the payments we make to our partners under these extended retailer share arrangements, in the aggregate are likely to increase both in absolute terms and as a percentage of our net earnings. These increases will be offset in part by decreases in retailer share arrangement payments made to those partners whose programs are not being extended. Overall, we expect our payments to our partners under our retailer share arrangements to grow generally in line with the growth of our Retail Card loan receivables.

In addition, under the terms of certain program agreements we have recently extended, we have agreed to dedicate increased marketing expense and other investments to promote these programs. We estimate that the increases in marketing expense and other investments will result in an increase in other expense of approximately $100 million to $150 million per year (based on the anticipated performance of these programs).

We also expect to benefit from these increased payments and other expense, as they will create additional incentives for our partners to support their programs and, in the case of increased marketing expense and other investments, directly promote these programs, all of which we expect will have a positive impact on purchase volume and result in higher loan receivables and increased interest and fees on loans. We also expect to benefit from the extended duration of our amended program agreements.

 

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Stable asset quality and enhancements to allowance for loan loss methodology. Our credit performance continued to improve through 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. Our net charge-off rates decreased from 4.9% for the year ended December 31, 2012 to 4.7% for the year ended December 31,

 

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2013 and our over-30 day delinquency rate decreased from 4.6% at December 31, 2012 to 4.3% at December 31, 2013, which are the lowest year-end levels we have experienced since 2007. Our net charge-off rate for the three months ended March 31, 2014 was 4.9% and our over-30 day delinquency rate at March 31, 2014 was 4.1%. In the near term, we expect the U.S. employment rate to continue to stabilize, and we do not anticipate making significant changes to our underwriting standards. Accordingly, we expect our charge-off rates to remain relatively stable in the near term.

During 2012 and 2013, we enhanced our methodology for determining our allowance for loan losses, and as a result we recognized incremental provisions of $343 million and $642 million in 2012 and 2013, respectively. We continue to review and evaluate our methodology and models, and we will implement further enhancements or changes to them, as needed.

 

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Increases in other expense to operate as a fully independent company. We currently estimate incremental other expense of approximately $300 million to $400 million per year in order to operate as a fully independent public company. We expect that the largest component of this increase will be a $90 million to $100 million increase in our annual advertising and marketing expense to establish a new brand identity and support the growth of our direct banking operations. Other components of this increase include significant increases in our corporate governance, risk management, capital planning, treasury, information technology, compliance, regulatory, internal audit and other control operations and infrastructure that is necessary to enable us to operate as a fully standalone company. We expect this incremental increase in our annual run rate of other expense to be fully incurred by the end of 2015 after giving effect to anticipated savings from the reductions in corporate allocations by GE and transitional service payments to GE following the Separation.

The increase in other expense described above does not include the variable component of our other expense, which we expect to increase in absolute terms in line with the growth of our business unrelated to the Separation. These increases in other expense also do not include the increased marketing expenses and other investments under our extended program agreements, as described above under “—Increases in retailer share arrangement payments and other expense under extended program agreements.”

 

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Impact of regulatory developments. For the year ended December 31, 2013, our other expense included a $133 million increase in our expenses related to litigation and regulatory matters (primarily an increase to our reserves related to the matters settled with the CFPB and the DOJ in late 2013 and 2014). See “Regulation—Consumer Financial Services Regulation.”

 

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Increased capital and liquidity levels. We expect to maintain sufficient capital and liquidity resources to support our daily operations, our business growth, our credit ratings as well as regulatory and compliance requirements in a cost effective and prudent manner through expected and unexpected market environments. In connection with our application to the Federal Reserve Board described above and the Separation, we expect to continue to increase our capital and liquidity levels by, among other things, retaining net earnings and not paying a dividend or returning capital through stock repurchases until our application to the Federal Reserve Board is approved. Thereafter, our board of directors intends to consider a policy for paying dividends and may consider stock repurchases, in each case consistent with maintaining capital ratios well in excess of minimum regulatory requirements. At March 31, 2014, pro forma for the Transactions, the Company would have had a fully phased-in Basel III Tier 1 common ratio of 14.1%.

In addition, to manage liquidity following this offering, we will significantly increase the size of our liquidity portfolio, which will consist of cash and equivalents (primarily in the form of deposits with the Federal Reserve Board), debt obligations of the U.S. Treasury, certain securities issued by U.S. government sponsored enterprises and other highly rated and highly liquid assets. At March 31, 2014, pro forma for the Transactions, we would have had a liquidity portfolio with $12.0 billion of assets (or 18.0% of total assets), which would have been funded by increased debt as described above and the proceeds of this offering. We expect that following the completion of the Transactions, our liquidity portfolio will continue to grow primarily as a result of anticipated increases in our deposits.

 

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Seasonality

In our Retail Card and Payment Solutions platforms, we experience fluctuations in transaction volumes and the level of loan receivables as a result of higher seasonal consumer spending and payment patterns that typically result in an increase of loan receivables from August through a peak in late December, with reductions in loan receivables occurring over the first quarter of the following year as customers pay their balances down. Loan receivables decreased by $2,969 million, or 5.2%, to $54,285 million at March 31, 2014 compared to $57,254 million at December 31, 2013, reflecting these patterns.

The seasonal impact to transaction volumes and the loan receivables balance results in fluctuations in our results of operations, delinquency metrics and the allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loan receivables between quarterly periods. For example, in addition to the seasonal increase in loan receivables at year end as a result of higher levels of consumer spending during the fourth quarter of 2013, we also experienced a seasonal increase in delinquency rates and delinquent loan receivables balances during the fourth quarter of 2013 due to lower customer payment rates, consistent with our historical fourth quarter experience. Our delinquency rates and delinquent loan receivables balances then decreased during the subsequent first quarter as customers began to pay down their loan balances and returned to current status. Because customers who were delinquent during the fourth quarter of 2013 had a higher probability of returning to current status during the first quarter of 2014 than customers who were delinquent at the end of the first quarter of 2014, we expected that a higher proportion of delinquent accounts outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2014 would result in charge-offs as compared to the end of the fourth quarter of 2013. Consistent with historical experience, this resulted in a higher allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loan receivables at the end of the first quarter of 2014 as compared to the preceding period end. Accordingly, our allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loan receivables of 5.4% at March 31, 2013 decreased to 5.1% at December 31, 2013 and again increased to 5.5% at March 31, 2014, reflecting the effects of these seasonal trends. Past due balances declined to $2,220 million at March 31, 2014 from $2,488 million at December 31, 2013, primarily due to collections from customers that were previously delinquent, resulting in their accounts returning to current status. The increase in the allowance for loan losses at March 31, 2014 compared to December 31, 2013, despite a decrease in our past due balances as a percentage of loan receivables at March 31, 2014 compared to December 31, 2013, reflected these same seasonal trends.

Separation from GE and Related Financial Arrangements

GE and its subsidiaries, including GECC, historically have provided a variety of services and funding to us. Prior to the completion of this offering, we will enter into a Transitional Services Agreement and various other agreements with GE that, together with a number of existing agreements relating to our securitized financings that will remain in effect following this offering, will govern the relationship between GE and us after this offering. We will also enter into the New GECC Term Loan Facility, pursuant to which GECC will provide us with transitional funding. The principal financial implications of these arrangements are discussed below, and the arrangements are described more fully under