Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane
Source: Synchrony Financial
Synchrony Financial CEO Margaret Keane will step down after nearly a decade of running the co-branded card lender.
Sixty-one-year-old Keane – one of the few women to run a Wall Street financial firm – will remain with the company as executive chairman of the board, while Synchrony president Brian Doubles takes over as CEO. The move was part of a long-planned follow-up, Keane said, and will take effect April 1.
Keane helped publicize Synchrony seven years ago as part of General Electric’s separation. She oversaw dozens of high-profile lender partnerships, including the Venmo credit card this year, as well as co-branded card deals with Amazon and Verizon.
“My legacy is basically around the business I’ve built – it’s not all about the finances,” Keane told CNBC in a telephone interview. “GE had such a strong culture and way of doing things, and we really had to create our own identity.”
The lender is best known for its co-branded deals with partners such as Lowe’s, Sam’s Club and Amazon.com. It has recently added more tech-focused companies such as PayPal. Synchrony has also doubled healthcare funding with Care Credit and Pet Healthcare with the acquisition of Pets Best insurance company.
Over the past decade under Keane’s leadership, Synchrony’s stock has gained about 60%. The stock fell in March as consumer credit fears during the pandemic confused investors. Synchrony stocks have returned 6% in the past 12 months, compared to an 18% return in the S&P 500.
Keane has also addressed the controversy surrounding the breakup of high-profile partnerships. Walmart and Synchrony ended their nearly two-decade card relationship in 2018, resulting in a lawsuit from Walmart over the sale of that loan portfolio.
Forty-five-year-old Doubles was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Synchrony, and was the CFO of GE’s North American retail finance operations from 2009 to 2014. His focus in the role of chief executive will guide Synchrony and its 16,000 employees through the pandemic and a shift to an online economy that accelerated this year, he said.
Synchrony’s investments in digital and data analytics to “anticipate how customers want to shop” are helping to attract those technology-focused partners like Amazon, according to Doubles. He also highlighted the resilience of the US consumer, Synchrony’s loan portfolio during the pandemic and lower-than-expected credit card delinquencies in the last quarter.
“There are definitely the haves and there aren’t, and it’s clear – it’s not uniform across the consumer base – but overall consumers are in pretty good shape,” Doubles said.