Bread Financial (BFH) 10-Q2024 Q3 Quarterly report

Our partner base consists of large consumer-based businesses, including well-known brands such as (alphabetically) AAA, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Caesars, Dell Technologies, the NFL, Signet, Ulta and Victoria’s Secret, as well as small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Our partner base is well diversified across a broad range of industries, including travel and entertainment, health and beauty, jewelry, sporting goods, home goods, technology and electronics and the industry in which we first began, specialty apparel. We believe our comprehensive suite of payment, lending and saving solutions, along with our related marketing and data and analytics, offers us a significant competitive advantage with products relevant across all customer segments (Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomers). The breadth and quality of our product and service offerings have enabled us to establish and maintain long-standing partner relationships. We operate our business through a single reportable segment, with our primary source of revenue being from Interest and fees on loans from our various credit card and other loan products, and to a lesser extent from contractual relationships with our brand partners.

Throughout this report, unless stated or the context implies otherwise, the terms “Bread Financial”, “BFH”, the “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us” refer to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. References to “Parent Company” refer to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. on a parent-only standalone basis. In addition, in this report we may refer to the retailers and other companies with whom we do business as our “partners”, “brand partners”, or “clients”, provided that the use of the term “partner”, “partnering” or any similar term does not mean or imply a formal legal partnership, and is not meant in any way to alter the terms of Bread Financial’s relationship with any third parties. We offer our credit products through our insured depository institution subsidiaries, Comenity Bank and Comenity Capital Bank, which together are referred to herein as the “Banks”.

We prepare our audited Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). However, certain information included herein constitutes Non-GAAP Financial

Measures. Our calculations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures may differ from the calculations of similarly titled measures by other companies. In particular:

We believe the use of these Non-GAAP financial measures provide additional clarity in understanding our results of operations and trends. For a reconciliation of these Non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please see “Table 6: Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures” that follows.

This Business Environment section provides an overview of our results of operations and financial position for the third quarter of 2024, as well as our related outlook for the remainder of 2024 and certain of the uncertainties associated with achieving that outlook. This section should be read in conjunction with the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Form 10-Q, including “Consolidated Results of Operations”, “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” herein, and in our 2023 Form 10-K as well as our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, which provide further discussion of variances in our results of operations over the periods of comparison, along with other factors that could impact future results and the Company achieving its outlook. Unless otherwise specified, the discussion included herein is for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared with the same period in the prior year.

Credit sales of $6.5 billion were down 3% year-over-year reflecting self-moderated consumer spending and strategic credit tightening, partially offset by new brand partner growth. Average credit card and other loans of $17.8 billion increased 1%, also driven primarily by new brand partner growth, as well as a stabilizing consumer spending trend. End-of-period credit card and other loans of $17.9 billion were flat year-over-year. Total interest income was down 2% from the third quarter of 2023, primarily as a result of lower Interest and fees on loans due to decreased late fees driven by lower early-stage delinquency volumes, our gradual shift in product mix to a lower proportion of private label accounts which tend to have higher late fees, and higher reversals of interest and fees resulting from higher gross credit losses; all partially offset by Interest on cash and investment securities. Net interest margin for the third quarter of 2024 was 18.8%, relative to 20.6% for the third quarter of 2023, driven by decreased late fees and higher funding costs, particularly with direct-to-consumer (DTC) deposits. Year-over-year, Non-interest income decreased $3 million, primarily driven by a decrease in the current

year in merchant discount fees resulting from lower “big ticket” credit sales. Overall, Total net interest and non-interest income for the quarter was $983 million, down 5% versus the third quarter of 2023.

Provision for credit losses increased for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, relative to the third quarter of 2023, driven by a $22 million reserve build in the current year period compared with a flat reserve build in the prior year period. The increase in Provision for credit losses also includes net principal losses of $347 million and $304 million during those same respective periods.

Our Allowance for credit losses decreased as of September 30, 2024, relative to December 31, 2023, due primarily to lower Credit card and other loans balances, which are down from their seasonal peak at the beginning of 2024, partially offset by the increased reserve rate. Overall, we continue to maintain an elevated reserve rate, 12.2% as of September 30, 2024, reflecting a conservative weighting of economic scenarios in our credit reserve modeling, which we intend to maintain until we see sustained improvement in delinquencies and an improved macroeconomic outlook. From an overall credit quality perspective, our percentage of Vantage 660+ cardholders remains above pre-pandemic levels due to prudent credit tightening and a more diversified product mix, with co-brand and proprietary cards representing a larger proportion of our portfolio.

Total non-interest expenses of $574 million increased 14% from the third quarter of 2023. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by the impact from our repurchased Convertible Notes, which increased Total non-interest expenses by $96 million. Excluding the impact from our repurchased Convertible Notes, Adjusted total non-interest expenses, a Non-GAAP financial measure, decreased 5% from the third quarter of 2023, driven by a decrease in Card and processing expenses, including fraud, partially offset by an increase in Employee compensation and benefits expense due to higher short-term and long-term incentive compensation.

We continued strengthening our balance sheet during the third quarter of 2024, by reducing debt and dilution risk, while growing our Common equity tier 1 capital ratio to 13.3% as of September 30, 2024, a 40 basis points improvement year-over-year. Additionally, DTC deposits increased to $7.5 billion as of September 30, 2024, with average DTC deposits now representing 41% of our total funding, up from 35% a year ago.

During the third quarter of 2024 we made further progress with the implementation of our mitigation strategy in response to the final rule on credit card late fees published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Industry organizations have challenged the final rule in court, and the ultimate outcome of such challenge, including the impact on the final rule, is uncertain. The final rule had an original effective date of May 14, 2024; however, on May 10, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted an injunction and stay of the final rule, and the injunction granted remains in effect as of the date of this report. We are closely monitoring the ongoing litigation related to the rule, but also continue to execute on our mitigation strategy given the uncertainty surrounding the timing and outcome. Because of that uncertainty, our full year 2024 financial outlook assumes the final rule does not take effect this year. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) — Business Environment” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 for our 2024 financial outlook inclusive of impacts from the CFPB's final rule on credit card late fees.

Our 2024 financial outlook reflects slower Credit sales growth as a result of continued moderation in consumer spending and strategic credit tightening, both of which consequently will impact growth in Credit card and other loans and Net interest and non-interest income, as well as the Net loss rate. In addition, our 2024 outlook assumes ongoing interest rate decreases by the Federal Reserve Board, which will slightly decrease Total net interest income.

Based on our current economic outlook, strategic credit tightening actions, higher gross credit losses, and visibility into our new business pipeline, we expect 2024 Average credit card and other loans to be down low-single digits on a percentage point basis relative to 2023. Total net interest and non-interest income, excluding the gains on portfolio sales during the years of comparison, is anticipated to be down in the low- to mid-single digits on a percentage point basis from 2023, with full year Net interest margin expected to be lower than 2023 reflecting higher reversals of interest and fees due to expected higher gross credit losses, declining interest rates, and a continued shift in product mix to co-brand and proprietary products.

As a result of efficiencies gained from our ongoing investments in technology modernization and digital advancement, along with disciplined expense management, we expect Total non-interest expenses excluding the impact from our

repurchased Convertible Notes, a Non-GAAP financial measure, to be down mid-single digits on a percentage point basis relative to 2023. Total non-interest expenses are projected to be higher sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with the third quarter’s Adjusted total non-interest expenses, a Non-GAAP financial measure, due to higher sales volumes and marketing expenses.

Our 2024 financial outlook continues to assume a full year Net loss rate in the low 8% range. As a result of the recent hurricanes we have frozen delinquency progression for cardholders in Federal Emergency Management Agency identified impact zones, which will result in a modest shift of approximately $10 million in net credit losses from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2025, and therefore a slightly lower net loss rate in the fourth quarter and consequently an offsetting higher net loss rate in the second quarter of 2025.

In our 2024 financial outlook, we also expect our full year normalized effective tax rate, excluding the impact from our repurchased Convertible Notes, a Non-GAAP financial measure, to be in the range of 25% to 26%, with quarter-over-quarter variability due to the timing of certain discrete items.

We remain disciplined in our commitment to our capital priorities and are confident in our ability to adapt our business to potential regulatory and economic changes while achieving strong financial results.

Note: We are unable to provide a quantitative reconciliation of the forward-looking 2024 financial outlook for the Non-GAAP financial measures above, to their most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP measures, as we cannot reliably predict all of the necessary components of such forward-looking GAAP measures without unreasonable effort.

The following discussion provides commentary on the variances in our results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, compared with the same periods in the prior year, as presented in the accompanying tables. This discussion should be read in conjunction with the discussion under “Business Environment” above.

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financial measure and has been adjusted for the $96 million impact from our repurchased Convertible Notes, decreased in both periods of comparison.

The Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes includes amounts that relate to the previously disclosed discontinued operations associated with the spinoff of our former LoyaltyOne segment in 2021 and the sale of our former Epsilon segment in 2019, and primarily relate to contractual indemnification and tax-related matters. For additional information refer to Note 22, “Discontinued Operations and Bank Holding Company Financial Presentation” to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

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Given the nature of our business, the credit quality of our assets, in particular our Credit card and other loans, is a key determinant underlying our ongoing financial performance and overall financial condition. When it comes to our Credit card and other loans portfolio, we closely monitor Delinquency rates and Net principal loss rates, which reflect, among other factors, our underwriting, the inherent credit risk in our portfolio and the success of our collection and recovery efforts. These rates also reflect, more broadly, the general macroeconomic conditions, including the compounding effect of persistent inflation relative to wage growth, and higher interest rates. Our Delinquency and Net principal loss rates are also impacted by the size of our Credit card and other loans portfolio, which serves as the denominator in the calculation of these rates. Accordingly, changes in the size of our portfolio (whether due to credit tightening, acquisitions or dispositions of portfolios or otherwise) may cause movements in our Delinquency and Net principal loss rates that are not necessarily indicative of the underlying credit quality of the overall portfolio.

The Delinquency rate is calculated by dividing outstanding principal balances that are contractually delinquent (i.e., balances greater than 30 days past due) as of the end of the period, by the outstanding principal amount of Credit card and other loans as of the same period-end.

The following table provides the delinquency trends on our Credit card and other loans portfolio based on the principal balances outstanding as of the dates presented:

As part of our collections strategy, we may offer temporary and short term programs in order to improve the likelihood of collections and meet the needs of our customers. Our modifications, for customers who have requested assistance and meet certain qualifying requirements, come in the form of reduced payment requirements, interest rate reductions and late fee waivers. We do not offer programs involving the forgiveness of principal. These temporary loan modifications may assist in cases where we believe the customer will recover from the short-term hardship and resume scheduled payments. Under these consumer relief programs, those accounts receiving relief may not advance to the next delinquency cycle, including charge-off, in the same time frame that would have occurred had the relief not been granted. We evaluate our consumer relief programs to determine if they represent a more than insignificant delay in payment granted to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty, in which case they would then be considered a Loan Modification. For additional information, see Note 2 “Credit Card and Other Loans – Modified Credit Card Loans” to our unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements.

The net principal loss rate is calculated by dividing net principal losses for the period by the Average credit card and other loans for the same period. Beginning in January 2024, we revised the calculation of Average credit card and other loans to more closely align with industry practice by incorporating an average daily balance. Prior to 2024, Average credit card and other loans represent the average balance of the loans at the beginning and end of each month, averaged over the periods indicated. The following table provides our net principal losses for the periods presented:

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We maintain a strong focus on liquidity and capital. Our funding, liquidity and capital policies are designed to ensure that our business has sufficient liquidity and capital resources necessary to support our daily operations, our business growth, and our credit ratings related to our Parent Company’s senior unsecured notes and our public secured financings, and meet our regulatory and policy requirements, including capital and leverage ratio requirements applicable to Comenity Bank (CB) and Comenity Capital Bank (CCB) under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regulations, in a cost effective and prudent manner through both expected and unexpected market environments. We also monitor our Double Leverage Ratio, which reflects our Parent Company’s investment in its subsidiaries relative to its consolidated equity, and is often used by regulators and other stakeholders as a measure of the use of debt by a parent entity to fund its subsidiaries.

Our primary sources of liquidity include cash generated from operating activities, our bank credit facility, issuances of senior unsecured or convertible debt securities by our Parent Company, financings through our securitization programs, and deposits with the Banks. More broadly, we continuously evaluate opportunities to renew and expand our various sources of liquidity. We aim to satisfy our financing needs with a diverse set of funding sources, and we seek to maintain diversity of funding sources by type of instrument, by tenor and by investor base, among other factors, which we believe will mitigate the impact of disruptions in any one type of instrument, tenor or investor.

Our primary uses of liquidity are for underwriting Credit card and other loans, scheduled payments of principal and interest on our debt, operational expenses, capital expenditures, including digital and product innovation and technology enhancements, stock repurchases and dividends.

We may from time to time retire or purchase our outstanding debt or convertible debt securities through cash purchases or exchanges for other securities, in open market purchases, tender offers, privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. Such repurchases or exchanges would depend on prevailing market conditions, our liquidity requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors, and may be funded through cash on hand, borrowings under our revolving credit facility, the issuance of debt or convertible debt securities or other sources of liquidity. The amounts involved may be material.

We will also need additional financing in the future to repay or refinance our existing debt at or prior to maturity, and to fund our growth, which may include issuance of additional debt, equity or convertible securities or engaging in other capital markets or financing transactions. Given the maturities of certain of our outstanding debt instruments and the macroeconomic outlook, it is possible that we will be required to repay, extend or refinance some or all of our maturing debt in volatile and/or unfavorable markets.

Because of the alternatives available to us, as discussed above, we believe our short-term and long-term sources of liquidity are adequate to fund not only our current operations, but also our near-term and long-term funding requirements including dividend payments, debt service obligations and repayment of debt maturities and other amounts that may ultimately be paid in connection with contingencies. However, the adequacy of our liquidity could be impacted by various factors, including pending or future legislation, regulation or litigation, macroeconomic conditions and volatility in the financial and capital markets, limiting our access to or increasing our cost of capital, which could make capital unavailable, or available but on terms that are unfavorable to us. These factors could significantly reduce our financial flexibility and cause us to contract or not grow our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We have a robust liquidity risk management framework in place which includes ongoing monitoring of our liquidity and funding positions against our risk appetite metrics and key risk indicators. During times where there may be potential risks from adverse developments in the banking industry and/or increased financial sector volatility, we may invoke our contingency funding plan to enhance daily monitoring of our liquidity and funding positions, determine potential mitigating actions if necessary and provide enhanced reporting to our Boards of Directors, at both the Bread Financial and Bank-levels, and regulators.

We maintain a significant majority of our liquidity portfolio on deposit within the Federal Reserve banking system, and we also have a small investment securities portfolio, classified as available-for-sale, which we hold in relation to the Community Reinvestment Act. We do not have any investment securities classified as held-to-maturity.

In November 2023, we obtained credit ratings for our Parent Company from the major credit rating agencies, Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s), Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Fitch Ratings (Fitch), in order to facilitate debt financings and broaden the investor base for our Parent Company debt securities.

Our management approach is designed, among other things, to maintain appropriate and stable Parent Company senior unsecured debt ratings from the credit rating agencies which help support our access to cost-effective unsecured funding as a component of our overall liquidity and capital resources.

The table below provides a summary of the credit ratings for the senior unsecured long-term debt of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. as of September 30, 2024:

We also seek to maintain appropriate and stable credit ratings for our credit card securitizations issued through World Financial Network Credit Card Master Note Trust (WFNMNT) from the rating agencies (DBRS, S&P and Fitch). The table below provides a summary of the structured finance credit ratings for certain of the asset-backed securities, specifically the Class A notes of WFNMNT as of September 30, 2024:

Credit ratings are not a recommendation to buy or hold any securities and they may be revised or revoked at any time at the sole discretion of the rating agency. Downgrades in the ratings of our unsecured or secured debt could result in higher funding costs, as well as reductions in our borrowing capacity in the unsecured or secured debt markets. We believe our mix of funding, including the proportion of our DTC and wholesale deposits, to total funding, reduces the impact that a credit rating downgrade could have on our funding costs and capacity.

As referenced above, our primary sources of liquidity include cash generated from operating activities, our bank credit facility, issuances of senior unsecured or convertible debt securities by our Parent Company, financings through our securitization programs, and deposits with the Banks.

Certain of our long-term debt agreements include various restrictive financial and non-financial covenants. If we do not comply with certain of these covenants and an event of default occurs and remains uncured, the maturity of amounts outstanding may be accelerated and become payable, and, with respect to our credit agreement, the associated commitments may be terminated. As of September 30, 2024, we were in compliance with all such covenants.

In June 2023, we entered into our credit agreement with Parent Company, as borrower, certain of our domestic subsidiaries, as guarantors, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent and lender, and various other financial institutions, as lenders, which provides for a $700 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility (the Revolving Credit Facility). As of September 30, 2024, all $700 million remained available for future borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility.

On October 18, 2024, we amended our Revolving Credit Facility to extend the maturity date from June 13, 2026 to October 18, 2028, as well as to delete the provisions relating to our prior term loan facility (which was repaid in full and terminated in December 2023) and make certain other amendments.

In June 2023, we issued and sold $316 million aggregate principal amount of 4.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 (the Convertible Notes). The Convertible Notes bear interest at an annual rate of 4.25%, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year. The Convertible Notes mature on June 15, 2028, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted. In connection with the issuance of the Convertible Notes, we entered into privately negotiated capped call (Capped Call) transactions with certain financial institution counterparties. These transactions are expected generally to reduce potential dilution to our common stock upon any conversion of Convertible Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount of the Convertible Notes, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap, based on the cap price. For additional information on the issuance of our Convertible Notes

and our Capped Call transactions, see “Consolidated Liquidity and Capital Resources” under Part II of our 2023 Form 10-K.

In August 2024 we entered into separate, privately negotiated repurchase agreements with a limited number of Convertible Note holders to repurchase $238 million aggregate principal amount of our outstanding Convertible Notes for a final aggregate cash repurchase price of $374 million, which was funded with cash on hand. The final aggregate cash repurchase price, or settlement value, was subject to adjustment as a portion of the repurchase price for select repurchases was based in part on the daily volume-weighted average price per share of Parent Company’s common stock over an agreed measurement period beginning in August 2024 and ending in September 2024. In connection with these aggregate repurchases, we recognized an $87 million inducement expense in Other non-interest expenses representing the total settlement value, inclusive of transaction fees, in excess of the total conversion value (calculated in accordance with the indenture governing the Convertible Notes), as well as a $60 million reduction in Additional paid-in capital (APIC) related to the total conversion value paid in excess of the carrying value of the Convertible Notes repurchased and a deferred tax impact.

In September 2024 we entered into two additional separate, privately negotiated repurchase agreements with holders of our Convertible Notes who approached us to repurchase $25 million aggregate principal amount of our outstanding Convertible Notes for a final aggregate cash repurchase price of $38 million, which was funded with cash on hand. The final aggregate cash repurchase price, or settlement value, was subject to adjustment as a portion of the repurchase price was based in part on the daily volume-weighted average price per share of Parent Company’s common stock over an agreed measurement period during September 2024. In connection with these aggregate repurchases, we recognized a $9 million inducement expense in Other non-interest expenses representing the total settlement value, inclusive of transaction fees, in excess of the total conversion value (calculated in accordance with the indenture governing the Convertible Notes), as well as a $7 million reduction in APIC related to the total conversion value paid in excess of the carrying value of the Convertible Notes repurchased and a deferred tax impact.

In summary, in total through August and September 2024, we recognized a $96 million inducement expense in Other non-interest expenses representing the settlement value, inclusive of transaction fees, in excess of the conversion value, and a $67 million reduction in APIC representing the excess of the conversion value over the carrying value of the Convertible Notes repurchased and a deferred tax impact.

Following the settlement of these repurchases, $54 million of Convertible Notes remained outstanding as of September 30, 2024. We may, from time to time, seek to retire or repurchase our remaining outstanding Convertible Notes through cash purchases or exchanges for other securities, in open market purchases, tender offers, privately negotiated transactions or otherwise.

Beginning on October 1, 2024, the Convertible Notes became convertible at the option of the holders during the quarterly period ending December 31, 2024, due to the last reported sales price per share of Parent Company’s common stock having exceeded 130% of the conversion price for each of at least 20 trading days, whether or not consecutive, during the 30 consecutive trading days ending on, and including, the last trading day of the immediately preceding quarter i.e., the quarter ended September 30, 2024 (the Common Stock Sale Price Condition). The Common Stock Sale Price Condition is remeasured each quarter, so the Convertible Notes may continue or cease to be convertible in future quarters depending on the performance of our stock price. Upon any such conversion, we will pay cash up to the aggregate principal amount of the Convertible Notes to be converted and pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of our common stock, or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock (at our election), in respect of the remainder, if any, of our conversion obligation in excess of the aggregate principal amount of the Convertible Notes being converted. As of the date of this report, we have not received any conversion requests.

All of the Capped Call transactions continue to remain outstanding, notwithstanding the repurchases noted above. Although we do not trade or speculate in derivatives, the Capped Call transactions are expected to remain outstanding, possibly until maturity, with the objective of optimizing the economic value we receive under these transactions, in line with our strategic objectives designed to potentially offset certain of the economic impacts of the Convertible Notes.

In January 2024, we issued and sold an additional $300 million aggregate principal amount of 9.750% Senior Notes due 2029 (Senior Notes due 2029) at an issue price of 101.00% of principal plus accrued interest from December 22, 2023. The Senior Notes due 2029 issued in January 2024 were issued as additional notes under the same indenture pursuant to which the initial $600 million of Senior Notes due 2029 were issued on December 22, 2023. The Senior Notes due 2029 that were issued in both December 2023 and January 2024 constitute a single series of notes and have the same terms, other than the issue date and issue price. We used the proceeds of the January 2024 offering of Senior Notes due 2029, together with $100 million of cash on hand, to fund the redemption of $400 million in aggregate principal amount of our outstanding 7.000% Senior Notes due 2026.

We utilize a variety of deposit products to finance our operating activities, including funding for our non-securitized credit card and other loans, and to fund the securitization enhancement requirements of the Banks. We offer DTC retail deposit products, including Individual Retirement Account savings and certificates of deposit which CCB began offering in June 2024, as well as deposits sourced through contractual arrangements with various financial counterparties (often referred to as wholesale deposits, and includes brokered deposits). Across both our retail and wholesale deposits, the Banks offer various non-maturity deposit products that are generally redeemable on demand by the customer, and as such have no scheduled maturity date. The Banks also issue certificates of deposit with scheduled maturity dates ranging between October 2024 and September 2029, in denominations of at least $1,000, on which interest is paid either monthly or at maturity. The following table summarizes our retail and wholesale deposit products by type and associated attributes as of the dates presented:

As of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, deposits that exceeded applicable FDIC insurance limits, which are generally $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, were estimated to be $543 million (4% of Total deposits) and $509 million (4% of Total deposits), respectively. The measurement of estimated uninsured deposits aligns with regulatory guidelines.

Overall, we continue to improve our funding mix through actions taken to grow our DTC deposits and reduce our Parent Company unsecured borrowings, while maintaining the flexibility of secured, unsecured, and wholesale funding. Typical seasonality of credit card and other loan balance pay downs in the first quarter of each year, and efforts undertaken in 2024

to reduce our long-term unsecured debt, lowered our funding requirements by approximately $1.5 billion from year-end 2023. As a result, we opportunistically reduced our wholesale and brokered deposits, repurchased a portion of our outstanding Convertible Notes and paid down a portion of our secured conduit line balances, shown further below.

We sell the majority of the credit card loans originated by the Banks to certain of our master trusts (the Trusts). These securitization programs are a principal vehicle through which we finance the Banks’ credit card loans. For this purpose, we use a combination of public term asset-backed notes and private conduit facilities (the Conduit Facilities) with a consortium of lenders, including domestic money center, regional and international banks. Borrowings under the Conduit Facilities are included in Debt issued by consolidated VIEs in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The table below summarizes our conduit capacities, borrowings and maturities for the periods presented:

In May 2024, WFNMNT issued $570 million of Series 2024-A public term asset-backed notes, which mature in April 2027. The offering consisted of $500 million of Class A notes with a fixed interest rate of 5.47% per year, $44 million of zero coupon Class M notes, and $26 million of zero coupon Class B notes. The Class M and B notes were retained by us and eliminated from the Consolidated Balance Sheet. As well, in August 2024 WFNMNT issued $500 million of Series 2024-B public term asset-backed notes, which mature in July 2027. The offering consisted of $500 million of Class A notes with a fixed interest rate of 4.62% per year.

As of September 30, 2024, we had approximately $11.6 billion of securitized credit card loans. Securitizations require credit enhancements in the form of cash, spread deposits, additional loans and subordinated classes. The credit enhancement is principally based on the outstanding balances of the series issued by the Trusts and by the performance of the credit card loans in the Trusts.

Early amortization events as defined within each asset-backed securitization transaction are generally driven by asset performance. We do not believe it is reasonably likely that an early amortization event will occur due to asset performance. However, if an early amortization event were declared for a Trust, the trustee of the particular Trust would retain the interest in the loans along with the excess spread that would otherwise be paid to our Bank subsidiary until the investors were fully repaid. The occurrence of an early amortization event would significantly limit or negate our ability to securitize additional credit card loans.

We have secured and continue to secure the necessary commitments to fund our credit card and other loans. However, certain of these commitments are short-term in nature and subject to renewal. There is no guarantee that these funding sources, when they mature, will be renewed on similar terms, or at all, as they are dependent on the availability of the asset-backed securitization and deposit markets at the time.

Regulation RR (Credit Risk Retention) adopted by the FDIC, the SEC, the Federal Reserve Board and certain other federal regulators mandates a minimum five percent risk retention requirement for securitizations. Such risk retention requirements may limit our liquidity by restricting the amount of asset-backed securities we are able to issue or affecting the timing of future issuances of asset-backed securities. We satisfy such risk retention requirements by maintaining a seller’s interest calculated in accordance with Regulation RR.

On February 21, 2024, our Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program to acquire up to $30 million in shares of our outstanding common stock in the open market during the period ending on December 31, 2024. The rationale for this repurchase program, and the amount thereof, was to offset the impact of dilution associated with issuances of employee restricted stock units, with the objective of reducing the Company’s weighted average diluted share count to approximately 50 million shares for 2024, subject to then current estimates and assumptions applicable as of the date of approval.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2024, under the authorized stock repurchase program, we acquired a total of 0.3 million shares of our common stock for $11 million. Following their repurchase, these 0.3 million shares ceased to be outstanding shares of common stock and are now treated as authorized but unissued shares of common stock. As of September 30, 2024, we had $19 million remaining for future repurchases under the authorized stock repurchase program.

In the normal course of business, we enter into various contractual obligations that may require future cash payments, the vast majority of which relate to deposits, debt issued by consolidated VIEs, long-term and other debt and operating leases.

We believe that we will have access to sufficient resources to meet these commitments.

The table below summarizes our cash flow activity for the periods indicated, followed by a discussion of the variance drivers impacting our Operating, Investing and Financing activities:

Although we cannot precisely determine the impact of inflation on our operations, we have generally sought to rely on operating efficiencies from scale, technology modernization and digital advancement, and expansion in lower cost jurisdictions (in select circumstances) to offset increased costs of employee compensation and other operating expenses impacted by inflation. We also recognize that a customer’s ability and willingness to repay us has been negatively impacted by factors such as inflation and the effects of higher interest rates, which results in higher delinquencies that could lead to increased credit losses, as reflected in our elevated Reserve rate. If the efforts to control inflation in the U.S. and globally are not successful and inflationary pressures continue to persist, they could increase the risk of a recession, which may adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.

With respect to seasonality, our revenues, earnings and cash flows are affected by increased consumer spending patterns leading up to and including the holiday shopping season in the fourth quarter of each year and, to a lesser extent, during the first quarter of each year as Credit card and other loans are paid down. Net loss rates for our Credit card and other loans portfolio also have historically exhibited seasonal patterns and generally tend to be the highest in the first quarter of the year. While the effects of the seasonal trends discussed above remain evident, macroeconomic trends, such as those discussed within the Business Environment sections of our quarterly and annual reports on Forms 10-Q and Form 10-K generally have a more significant impact on our key financial metrics and can outweigh any seasonal impacts that we may experience.

CB is subject to various regulatory capital requirements administered by the State of Delaware and the FDIC. CCB is also subject to various regulatory capital requirements administered by the State of Utah and the FDIC. Failure to meet minimum capital requirements can trigger certain mandatory and possibly additional discretionary actions by our regulators. Under capital adequacy guidelines and the regulatory framework for prompt corrective action, both Banks must meet specific capital guidelines that involve quantitative measures of their assets and liabilities as calculated under regulatory accounting practices. The capital amounts and classification are also subject to qualitative judgments by these regulators about components, risk weightings and other factors. In addition, both Banks are limited in the amounts they can pay as dividends to the Parent Company. For additional information about legislative and regulatory matters impacting us, see “Business–Supervision and Regulation” under Part I of our 2023 Form 10-K. For additional detail regarding the CFPB’s final rule relating to credit card late fees, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) — Business Environment” and “Risk Factors” included herein and in our 2023 Form 10-K and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

As referenced above, our business is subject to extensive federal and state laws and regulations, as well as related regulation and supervision, including by the FDIC, CFPB and other federal and state authorities. Pending and future laws and regulations (state and federal) may adversely impact our business. We actively monitor legislation and rulemaking that could impact our business and operations, including the FDIC’s proposed rulemakings during the quarter. Among other rulemakings, in August 2024 the FDIC issued (i) proposed rule changes that would expand the scope of deposits that constitute “brokered deposits,” which are subject to greater regulatory requirements (the Proposed Brokered Deposits Rule), and (ii) proposed rule changes that would permit the FDIC to determine that parent companies of legacy industrial banks/loan companies (such as CCB) are “covered companies” subjecting them to regulation by the FDIC (the Proposed ILC Parent Company Rule). We have submitted a comment letter to the FDIC in opposition to the Proposed ILC Parent Company Rule, and we intend to participate in the comment letter process in opposition to the Proposed Brokered Deposits Rule.

Quantitative measures, established by regulations to ensure capital adequacy, require the Banks to maintain minimum amounts and ratios of Tier 1 capital to average assets, and Common equity tier 1, Tier 1 capital and Total capital, all to risk weighted assets. Failure to meet these minimum capital requirements can result in certain mandatory, and possibly additional discretionary actions by the Banks’ regulators that if undertaken, could have a direct material effect on CB’s and/or CCB’s operating activities, as well as our operating activities. Based on these regulations, as of September 30, 2024 and 2023, each Bank met all capital requirements to which it was subject, and maintained capital ratios in excess of the minimums required to qualify as well capitalized. The Banks seek to maintain capital levels and ratios in excess of the minimum regulatory requirements inclusive of the 2.5% Capital Conservation Buffer. Although Bread Financial is not a bank holding company as defined under the Bank Holding Company Act, we seek to maintain capital levels and ratios in excess of the minimums required for bank holding companies.

The Banks adopted the option provided by the interim final rule issued by joint federal bank regulatory agencies, which largely delayed the effects of the current expected credit loss (CECL) model on their regulatory capital for two years, until January 1, 2022, after which the effects are phased-in over a three-year period through December 31, 2024. Under the interim final rule, the amount of adjustments to regulatory capital deferred until the phase-in period includes both the initial impact of our adoption of CECL as of January 1, 2020, and 25% of subsequent changes in our Allowance for credit losses during each quarter of the two-year period ended December 31, 2021. In accordance with the interim final rule, we began to ratably phase-in these effects on January 1, 2022.

As of September 30, 2024 the actual capital ratios and minimum ratios for each Bank, as well as Bread Financial, are as follows:

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