Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane
Source: Synchrony Financial
Synchrony Financial CEO Margaret Keane will step down after nearly a decade of managing the co-branded card lender.
Sixty-one-year-old Keane – one of the few women who runs a Wall Street financial firm – will remain with the company as executive chairman of the board, while Synchrony chairman Brian Doubles takes over as chairman. CEO. The move was part of a long-planned succession, Keane said, and will take effect on April 1.
Keane contributed to Synchrony advertising seven years ago as part of its separation from General Electric. She oversaw dozens of high-quality lender partnerships, including the Venmo credit card this year, as well as co-branded card transactions with Amazon and Verizon.
“My legacy is really around the company I built – it’s not just about the financial situation,” 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-brand offerings with partners such as Lowe’s, Sam’s Club and Amazon.com. More recently, it has added several technology-focused companies, such as PayPal. Synchronization has also doubled in terms of financing care with Care Credit and pet care with a purchase by Pets Best.
In the last decade under Keane, Synchrony shares have gained about 60%. The actions emerged in March as fears about consumer credit during the pandemic. Synchronization stocks have returned 6% in the last 12 months, compared to an 18% return on the S&P 500.
Keane has also faced controversy over the breakdown of partnerships. Walmart and Synchrony ended their relationship of almost two decades of cards in 2018, which led to a lawsuit from Walmart regarding the sale of the respective loan portfolio.
The forty-five-year-old doubles previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Synchrony and was chief financial officer of GE’s North American retail business from 2009-2014. employees through the pandemic and navigating an online economy that has accelerated this year, he said.
Synchrony’s investment in digital and data analytics to “anticipate how customers want to buy” helps attract technology-centric partners like Amazon, according to Doubles. He also pointed to US consumer resilience, Synchrony’s loan portfolio during the pandemic and lower-than-expected credit card delinquencies in the last quarter.
“It certainly exists and it’s not clear – it’s not uniform across the consumer base – but overall, the consumer is in pretty good shape,” Doubles said.