Document


UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549 
 
FORM 8-K
 
 
 
CURRENT REPORT
PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
July 26, 2018
Date of Report
(Date of earliest event reported) 
 
 
SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) 
 
 
Delaware
 
001-36560
 
51-0483352
(State or other jurisdiction
of incorporation)
 
(Commission
File Number)
 
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
 
777 Long Ridge Road, Stamford, Connecticut
 
06902
(Address of principal executive offices)
 
(Zip Code)
(203) 585-2400
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
N/A
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)
 
 
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions: 
¨

Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
¨

Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
¨

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
¨

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).
 
 
Emerging growth company
o
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.    ¨





Item 7.01
Regulation FD Disclosure.

Synchrony Financial (the "Company") is confirming that the Walmart program agreement will not be renewed and is set to expire on July 31, 2019.  The Company expects that its strategic options would fully replace the diluted earnings per share impact of program non-renewal.  More detail regarding the strategic options are included in the slide attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and incorporated by reference into this Item 7.01.  The Company will provide further detail regarding these strategic options on its regularly scheduled earnings call at 8:30 am Eastern Time, tomorrow Friday, July 27, 2018.

The information contained in this Item 7.01 of this Current Report on Form 8-K, including Exhibit 99.1, is furnished pursuant to Item 7.01 of Form 8-K and shall not be deemed to be "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, except as shall be expressly stated by specific reference in such filing.

Item 9.01
Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits
The following exhibits are being furnished as part of this report:

 
 
 
Number
 
Description
 
 
99.1
 
Synchrony Financial - Strategic Options for Walmart Portfolio
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Form 8-K contains certain forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “targets,” “outlook,” “estimates,” “will,” “should,” “may” or words of similar meaning, but these words are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include global political, economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors and risks, such as: the impact of macroeconomic conditions and whether industry trends we have identified develop as anticipated; retaining existing partners and attracting new partners, concentration of our revenue in a small number of Retail Card partners, promotion and support of our products by our partners, and financial performance of our partners; cyber-attacks or other security breaches; higher borrowing costs and adverse financial market conditions impacting our funding and liquidity, and any reduction in our credit ratings; our ability to grow our deposits in the future; our ability to securitize our loan receivables, occurrence of an early amortization of our securitization facilities, loss of the right to service or subservice our securitized loan receivables, and lower payment rates on our securitized loan receivables; changes in market interest rates and the impact of any margin compression; effectiveness of our risk management processes and procedures, reliance on models which may be inaccurate or misinterpreted, our ability to manage our credit risk, 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 acquisitions and strategic investments; our ability to realize the benefits of and expected capital available from strategic options; reductions in interchange fees; fraudulent activity; 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; alleged infringement of intellectual property rights of others and our ability to protect our intellectual property; litigation and regulatory actions; 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/or interpretations, and state sales tax rules and regulations; a material indemnification obligation to GE under the Tax Sharing and Separation Agreement with GE if we cause the split-off from GE or certain preliminary transactions to fail to qualify for tax-free treatment or in the case of certain significant transfers of our stock following the split-off; regulation, supervision, examination and enforcement of our business by governmental authorities, the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s regulation of our business; impact of capital adequacy rules and liquidity requirements; restrictions that limit our ability to pay dividends and repurchase our common stock, and restrictions that limit the Synchrony Bank’s ability to pay dividends to us; regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection; use of third-party vendors and ongoing third-party business relationships; and failure to comply with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws.

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 presentation and in our public filings, including under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, as filed on February 22, 2018. You should not consider any list of such factors to be an exhaustive statement of all of the risks, uncertainties, or potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause our current expectations or beliefs to change. 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.





SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
 
 
 
 
Date: July 26, 2018
 
 
 
By:
 
/s/ Jonathan Mothner
 
 
 
 
Name:
 
Jonathan Mothner
 
 
 
 
Title:
 
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary







EXHIBIT INDEX

 
 
 
Number
 
Description