October 24, 2016 (New York/San Francisco/London) – Financial innovation firm R3 has announced the addition of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) to its partnership dedicated to designing and applying distributed and shared ledger-inspired technologies to global financial markets.

Synchrony Financial – the first credit card company to join the consortium – will be collaborating with the world’s largest financial institutions to develop ground-breaking commercial applications for the financial services industry that leverage the appropriate elements of distributed and shared ledger technology.

The R3 team of financial industry veterans, technologists and blockchain and cryptocurrency experts collaborate with consortium members on research, experimentation, design and engineering to help advance this technology to meet banking requirements for identity, privacy, security, scalability, interoperability and integration with legacy systems.  

 Consortium members work closely with R3 to develop Corda™ and a diverse range of commercial products for the financial markets participants. Corda™ is R3’s shared ledger platform specifically designed to record, manage and synchronise financial agreements between regulated financial institutions. It is heavily inspired by and captures the benefits of blockchain systems, without the design choices that make blockchains inappropriate for many banking scenarios.

 Synchrony Financial Executive Vice President and CIO, Carol Juel, noted, “We are excited to be a part of the R3 consortium to explore use cases for distributed and shared ledger technology.  Having access to the R3 network and research will be valuable as we think through the many opportunities for blockchain to be leveraged across the consumer finance landscape.”

David Rutter, CEO of R3, commented: “R3 is the largest collaborative consortium of its kind in financial markets, comprising members from all corners of the industry. We welcome Synchrony Financial to the consortium and look forward to giving them access to a huge pool of expertise from electronic financial markets and distributed and shared ledger technologies, led by our team of technologists and industry experts.”

 Synchrony Financial joins the global network of R3 partners united in its lab environment, the R3 Lab and Research Centre, which has quickly become a centre of gravity for collaborative research and testing of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies. 

About R3

R3 is leading a consortium with over 70 of the world’s largest financial institutions to develop ground-breaking commercial applications for the financial services industry that leverage the appropriate elements of distributed and shared ledger technology.

Operating in New York, London and San Francisco, the R3 team is made up of financial industry veterans, technologists, and new tech entrepreneurs, bringing together expertise from electronic financial markets, cryptography and digital currencies. 

 The R3 Lab and Research Centre has quickly become a centre of gravity for collaborative research and testing of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies, and is where R3 works with its partners to define, design and deliver the next generation of financial infrastructure.

 About Synchrony Financial

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) is one of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies. Our roots in consumer finance trace back to 1932, and today we are the largest provider of private label credit cards in the United States based on purchase volume and receivables.¹ We provide a range of credit products through programs we have established with a diverse group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations and healthcare service providers to help generate growth for our partners and offer financial flexibility to our customers. Through our partners’ over 350,000 locations across the United States and Canada, and their websites and mobile applications, we offer our customers a variety of credit products to finance the purchase of goods and services. Synchrony Financial offers private label and co-branded Dual Card^™ credit cards, promotional financing and installment lending, loyalty programs and FDIC-insured savings products through Synchrony Bank. More information can be found at www.synchronyfinancial.com, 
facebook.com/SynchronyFinancial, www.linkedin.com/company/synchrony-financial and twitter.com/SYFNews.

Press contacts

R3:

 Nick Warren/Ellie McFatridge

Chatsworth Communications

+44 (0)207 440 9780

contact@chatsworthcommunications.com

 Charley Cooper

R3

+1 917 855 8529

charley@r3cev.com

 Synchrony Financial – (855) 791-8007 or media.relations@synchronyfinancial.com