- Key insight: Banks have been much more vocal in opposing President Trump's proposal for a 10% cap on credit-card interest rates, but retailers also have much to lose under such a plan.
- Supporting data: Last year, annual percentage rates on retail credit cards averaged 30.14%, or about 1.5 times higher than regular card rates, according to Bankrate research.
- Expert quote: "We support 400,000 small-to-medium sized businesses who depend on those credit programs. In some cases, we can be over 40% of their sales." Synchrony CEO Brian Doubles.
Synchrony Financial has joined the chorus of lenders blasting President Trump's proposed 10% cap on credit-card interest rates, and it's added a new argument to the mix, saying the U.S. retail industry would share in the pain.
Stamford, Connecticut-based Synchrony is a leading issuer of store-branded credit cards, which often charge substantially higher annual percentage rates than other forms of plastic.
A 10% rate cap would be "very bad" for Synchrony's partners in the retail sector, CEO Brian Doubles said Tuesday during the company's quarterly earnings call.
"We support 400,000 small-to-medium sized businesses who depend on those credit programs. In some cases, we can be over 40% of their sales," Doubles said. "So this would be a huge hit for them."
Synchrony's retail partners include Amazon, Walmart, Lowe's, JCPenney, Walgreens, plus many smaller brands.
Unlike banking industry groups, retail trade associations have been largely silent on Trump's proposal to cap credit-card interest rates for one year. The National Retail Federation, for example, has not commented on the idea.
Trump
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., one of the sponsors of that legislation, reportedly agreed this week
Because of Synchrony's relatively large concentration in the credit-card business, and particularly its reliance on revenue from store-branded cards, it would be hit particularly hard by a 10% rate cap.
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a recent research note that Trump's proposal would hurt only one other lender more than Synchrony — Bread Financial Holdings, another large issuer of store-branded cards. Shares in Synchrony are down roughly 15% since Jan. 9, the last full day of trading before Trump endorsed the rate cap.
During Synchrony's earnings call on Tuesday, Doubles said that his $119 billion-asset company agrees with the Trump administration's focus on affordability. But he suggested that a rate cap would backfire.
"Our products have to be competitively priced, and we also have to offer significant value to the consumer," Doubles said. "So any price controls like an APR cap would not make credit more affordable. It would eliminate credit for those that need it."
"A cap would require issuers to significantly reduce the amount of credit they're able to provide, and again, that disproportionately impacts the consumer at the lower income levels," he added.
Last year, annual percentage rates on retail credit cards averaged 30%, or about 1.5 times higher than regular card rates, according to
One reason that interest rates in the retail card sector are relatively high is that merchants use plastic to incentivize sales, and they often have a relatively high tolerance for cardholders with lower credit scores.
Doubles said Tuesday that "we pride ourselves on offering credit to a very broad cross-section of the U.S. consumer. We approve more customers at that low-to-mid income level than many other issuers, and I think that availability of credit is critical to the economy."
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During the fourth quarter of 2025, Synchrony reported net earnings of $751 million, which included a $51 million restructuring charge, and was down from $774 million in the same period a year earlier.
For 2026, it is projecting mid-single-digit growth in loan receivables. That would be a significant improvement over the previous 12-month period, as loan receivables ended last year down 0.9% from 2024.
