Consumer creditworthiness has held up better than expected during the past year, aided by massive fiscal stimulus to combat the economic dislocation and higher unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Synchrony Financial's operating performance and balance sheet strength have benefited from fiscal and monetary support by the U.S. government, prudent management of credit and liquidity, and regulatory restrictions on shareholder payouts. We revised our outlook on Synchrony Financial and its bank subsidiary, Synchrony Bank, to stable from negative and affirmed our issuer credit ratings at 'BBB-' and 'BBB', respectively. The stable outlook indicates our view that Synchrony is well-positioned to absorb any remaining fallout from the pandemic, including higher credit losses, which we expect will peak toward the end of
