Synchrony

Synchrony Financial designed its first voice assistant technology for Amazon Alexa around Amazon’s store card, serving as a template for the private-label card issuer’s other retail clients.

U.S. banks are sitting on a $1.03 trillion mountain of credit card loans. More borrowers are starting to default. Yet lenders know they can't sell souring debt to just any collector.

The Stamford, Conn.-based credit card issuer saw improvement in late payments by its customers, but the pace of loan growth also slowed during the fourth quarter.

In a year of political upheaval and weak commercial credit growth, lenders sought to capitalize on an economic bright spot — consumer spending — by reviving the personal loan, allying with fintechs and exiting traditional business lines that no longer made sense.

Some are in new roles or replacing legends, others are embracing new strategies or eyeing big deals and at least one is currently out of banking — but could soon resurface. Here are the industry executives to keep an eye on in 2018.

Mnuchin’s former business associate is likely to be sworn in next week; Mulvaney, as a congressman, called the CFPB a “joke” and co-sponsored a bill to kill it.

The deal for PayPal’s consumer loan portfolio will make Synchrony a bigger player in e-commerce. And the agreement helps the Silicon Valley payments giant achieve its goal of reducing its exposure to the credit cycle.

The store-branded credit card issuer reported that more borrowers fell behind on their payments in the third quarter. Still, net earnings were stronger than expected.

Margaret Keane is mapping out Synchrony Financial's future.

Synchrony Financial and Alliance Data Systems are particularly vulnerable to recent shifts in Americans’ shopping habits, according to new research from Moody’s Investors Service.