Synchrony is a case study in doing a successful spin-off. Performance has been steady since Synchrony departed from GE. 4Q17 investor reporting indicates 7% receivable growth, 8% net income increase, with rising, but under control writeoffs at 5.78%, up from 4.65% over prior year.
Synchrony operates three strategic business units, the retail card, with $56 billion in receivables; payment solutions, with $17 billion in receivables; and Care Credit, with $9 billion.
Today’s read comes from the Stamford Advocate, announcing that Care Credit is expanding its offerings to cover health spas, complementing the firm’s acceptance for elective health and beauty procedures.
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“It really is a natural extension for us,” said Dave Fasoli, CEO of CareCredit. “We’ve been in the cosmetic space for quite a number of
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For instance, we have a long-standing relationship with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and many of those providers have extended their own”
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The wellness industry was worth $3.4 trillion as of January 2017, according to the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute’s Global Economy Monitor. The same study said the medical spa “market opportunity” would grow an expected 8 percent annually through 2022.
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Participating spas will join CareCredit’s national network of more than 200,000 health care facilities and health-focused retailers. Procedures that could be covered include facial treatments, fat-freezing procedures and laser hair removal.
Private label payments allow consumers to keep transactions outside of their bank cards.
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“I see two groups of people as candidates for this credit card: One group would be subprime customers who are doing this because they couldn’t afford the services otherwise, so they’re getting another form of subprime credit,” said Dalié Jiménez, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut’s law school, who formerly worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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“And another group of customers would be those who have better credit and cheaper options to finance spa treatments, but they still fall into a subprime credit card.”
What to watch for: will this push Care Credit from a 20% contributor of Synchrony’s receivable deeper into their portfolio?
…It could be a beautiful thing.
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
Read the quoted story here