Pathward Financial Inc (CASH) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Pathward's Financial's fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2025 investor conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

女士們，先生們，感謝你們的支持，歡迎參加 Pathward's Financial 第四季和 2025 財年投資者電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次電話會議正在錄音。

I'd now like to turn the conference call over to Darby Schoenfeld, Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff, and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將電話會議交給高級副總裁、參謀長和投資者關係主管 Darby Schoenfeld。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and welcome. With me today are Pathward Financial's CEO, Brett Pharr; and CFO, Greg Sigrist, who will discuss our operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year of 2025 after which, we will take your questions. Additional information, including the earnings release, the investor presentation that accompanies our prepared remarks, and supplemental slides may be found on our website at pathwardfinancial.com.

謝謝接線員，歡迎您。今天與我一起出席的還有 Pathward Financial 的執行長 Brett Pharr 和財務長 Greg Sigrist，他們將討論我們 2025 年第四季和全年的營運和財務業績，之後我們將回答您的問題。更多信息，包括收益報告、隨附我們準備好的評論的投資者演示文稿以及補充幻燈片，可在我們的網站 pathwardfinancial.com 上找到。

As a reminder, our comments may include forward-looking statements. Those statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual and anticipated results to differ. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

提醒一下，我們的評論可能包含前瞻性陳述。這些聲明受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與預期結果不同。本公司不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release, investor presentation, and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent filings for additional information covering factors that could cause actual and anticipated results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

請參閱收益報告、投資者介紹以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（包括我們最近提交的文件）中的警示性語言，以獲取有關可能導致實際和預期結果與前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的因素的更多資​​訊。

Additionally, today, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. References to non-GAAP measures are only provided to assist you in understanding the company's results and performance trends, particularly in competitive analysis. Reconciliations for such non-GAAP measures are included in the earnings release and the appendix of the investor presentation.

此外，今天我們將在電話會議上討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。提供非 GAAP 指標的參考只是為了幫助您了解公司的績效和績效趨勢，特別是在競爭分析方面。此類非公認會計準則指標的對帳資訊包含在收益報告和投資者報告的附錄中。

Finally, all time periods referenced our fiscal quarters and fiscal years, and all comparisons are to the prior year period unless noted otherwise.

最後，所有時間段均參考我們的財政季度和財政年度，並且所有比較均與上一年同期進行，除非另有說明。

Now let me turn the call over to Brett Pharr, our CEO.

現在，讓我將電話轉給我們的執行長 Brett Pharr。

Thanks, Darby, and welcome, everyone, to our earnings conference call. We had quite the fiscal year from completing the sale of our insurance premium finance business and the transportation portfolio, hiring a new Chief People and Culture Officer, contracting with several new partners, and winning multiple awards.

謝謝，達比，歡迎大家參加我們的收益電話會議。我們度過了一個相當成功的財政年度，完成了保險費融資業務和運輸業務組合的出售，聘請了新的首席人才和文化官，與幾家新合作夥伴簽約，並贏得了多個獎項。

The Pathward team has done a phenomenal job sticking to the 2025 strategy we laid out at the end of last year, overcoming challenges, and executing day in and day out. . I'm very proud of all that we were able to accomplish together this year.

Pathward 團隊堅持我們在去年年底制定的 2025 年策略，克服挑戰，日復一日地執行，做得非常出色。。我對我們今年共同取得的成就感到非常自豪。

But it doesn't stop there. While we celebrate past accomplishments here with you today, we are also planning for the future. I'll dive deeper when it comes to our 2026 strategy in just a moment, but let me start by going over some of the full year highlights.

但它並沒有就此止步。今天，我們在這裡與大家一起慶祝過去的成就，同時也規劃未來。稍後我將更深入地探討我們的 2026 年策略，但首先讓我回顧一下全年的一些亮點。

We reported earnings per diluted share of $7.87 for the year, which was above the high end of the guidance range we provided last quarter and represents year-over-year growth of 9%. Net income for the year was $185.9 million.

我們報告的全年每股攤薄收益為 7.87 美元，高於我們上個季度提供的指導範圍的高端，同比增長 9%。全年淨收入為1.859億美元。

Our results were driven primarily by an increase in noninterest income of 10% when compared to last year. We also expanded our full-year net interest margin and adjusted net interest margin which includes rate-related card expenses associated with deposits on the balance sheet to 7.34% and 5.92%, respectively.

我們的業績主要得益於非利息收入較去年同期成長 10%。我們也將全年淨利差和調整後淨利差（包括與資產負債表上的存款相關的利率相關卡費用）分別擴大至 7.34% 和 5.92%。

Performance metrics remain strong with return on average assets for the year of 2.46% and return on average tangible equity of 38.75%. There were some moving pieces to the fourth quarter, and Greg will be providing additional detail shortly.

績效指標依然強勁，全年平均資產回報率為 2.46%，平均有形股本回報率為 38.75%。第四季發生了一些變動，格雷格很快就會提供更多細節。

We did a lot of work in 2025 to execute on our strategy, and we believe our efforts have laid the groundwork for a successful future that will allow us to grow. We had fantastic results in our Consumer segment.

我們在 2025 年為執行我們的策略做了大量工作，我們相信我們的努力為我們未來的成功發展奠定了基礎。我們在消費者領域取得了出色的成績。

During our last earnings call, we announced the signing of an agreement with Checkout.com. This quarter, we are proud to announce new agreements. First, we entered into an agreement with Trustly to support the expansion of their pay-by-bank product offering. Through this partnership, Pathward is enabling settlement to their merchants, starting with a pilot launch of a major national retailer.

在上次財報電話會議上，我們宣布與 Checkout.com 簽署了一項協議。本季度，我們很榮幸地宣布新的協議。首先，我們與 Trustly 達成協議，支持其擴大銀行支付產品範圍。透過此次合作，Pathward 正在為其商家提供結算服務，首先在一家大型全國零售商處進行試點。

Second, we are very pleased to announce that we have signed a multi-year agreement for merchant acquiring sponsorship with Stripe. After the quarter ended, we signed a new contract with Greenlight to support their family finance and team card issuing business.

其次，我們非常高興地宣布，我們已經與 Stripe 簽署了一份多年的商家收單贊助協議。本季結束後，我們與Greenlight簽署了新合同，以支持其家庭金融和團隊發卡業務。

In Credit Solutions, we mentioned earlier in the year that we signed one new contract during 2025. We have now gone live and are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Upstart to offer personal loans through Upstart's AI lending marketplace.

在信貸解決方案方面，我們在今年稍早提到，我們將在 2025 年簽署一份新合約。我們現在已經上線並很高興地宣布，我們已經與 Upstart 合作，透過 Upstart 的 AI 借貸市場提供個人貸款。

Additionally, we would like to congratulate our partner Clair for the recent announcement regarding the availability of Clair On-Demand Pay as part of Intuit Enterprise Suite and QuickBooks payroll on the Intuit platform. These two partnerships allow us to facilitate products, personal loans, and early wage access that align with our purpose of financial inclusion.

此外，我們要祝賀我們的合作夥伴 Clair 最近宣佈在 Intuit 平台上推出 Clair On-Demand Pay 作為 Intuit Enterprise Suite 和 QuickBooks 薪資單的一部分。這兩個合作關係使我們能夠提供符合我們金融包容性目標的產品、個人貸款和提前發薪管道。

Finally, in Professional Tax Solutions, we had a great year, and we are not sitting still. After tax season ended, we continue to invest in technology improvements that we believe will set us up for greater efficiency in 2026. There was also a tax code change for the 2025 tax year, and that could yield a positive consumer reaction in the tax preparation market we serve.

最後，在專業稅務解決方案方面，我們度過了美好的一年，而且我們不會停滯不前。納稅季節結束後，我們繼續投資於技術改進，我們相信這將使我們在 2026 年實現更高的效率。2025 納稅年度的稅法也有所變化，這可能會在我們服務的報稅市場引起消費者的正面反應。

Switching over to the Commercial segment and Commercial Finance. We continue to optimize the balance sheet through divestitures and a focus on risk-adjusted returns, grew total loans and leases 14%, and improved many of the metrics we measure to gauge success. We increased origination dollars for FTE by 200%, and we decreased days to fund on average by 36%.

轉向商業領域和商業金融。我們繼續透過資產剝離和關注風險調整後的回報來優化資產負債表，貸款和租賃總額增加了 14%，並改進了許多衡量成功的指標。我們將 FTE 的發起金額增加了 200%，並將平均籌資天數減少了 36%。

It is imperative that we leverage the foundation we laid in 2025 to build, adapt, and move forward in order to grow our business, which includes growing with the partners. We believe that by virtue of our capabilities, we've developed strategic partnerships that enable and provide expanded financial access to customers and businesses alike. And so doing, Pathward continues to power financial inclusion.

我們必須利用 2025 年奠定的基礎來建立、調整和前進，以發展我們的業務，其中包括與合作夥伴共同成長。我們相信，憑藉我們的能力，我們已經建立了策略合作夥伴關係，從而為客戶和企業提供了更廣泛的金融服務管道。透過這種方式，Pathward 將繼續推動金融包容性。

Building on our success in 2025 and delivering on our long-term strategy, being the trusted platform that enables our partners to thrive, we are introducing our fiscal year 2026 goals. There are similar themes that go from last year, and most of these components are still top of mind for us when we think about the business with a few small tweaks compared to what you're used to seeing.

基於我們在 2025 年取得的成功並履行我們的長期策略，成為讓我們的合作夥伴蓬勃發展的值得信賴的平台，我們正在推出我們的 2026 財年目標。從去年開始就有類似的主題，當我們考慮業務時，這些組成部分中的大多數仍然是我們最關心的問題，與大家過去所見的相比，只進行了一些小的調整。

I'd like to go into a bit more detail and share what each of these elements will look like for us in 2026. Number one, maintain an optimized balance sheet. You have heard about our balance sheet optimization strategy over the recent past, and we are now at a juncture where the team has done a great job at closing the gap and getting us to where we believe our optimal asset mix might be.

我想更詳細地介紹一下這些元素在 2026 年對我們意味著什麼。第一，保持優化的資產負債表。您最近已經聽說了我們的資產負債表優化策略，現在我們正處於一個關鍵時刻，團隊在縮小差距和使我們達到我們認為的最佳資產組合方面做得非常出色。

Maintaining this balance will also take work. However, getting here was a challenge that we delivered on, and we are confident we can continue on that path.

維持這種平衡也需要努力。然而，到達這裡是一個挑戰，我們克服了它，我們有信心繼續沿著這條道路前進。

Number two, technology to facilitate evolution and scalability. We believe that in order to remain the partner bank of choice in the marketplace, we need to continue investing in technology. As in 2025, this investment will remain a part of our run rate in 2026.

第二，促進發展和可擴展性的技術。我們相信，為了繼續成為市場上首選的合作銀行，我們需要繼續投資科技。與 2025 年一樣，這項投資仍將是 2026 年運行率的一部分。

We believe that our ability to drive revenue growth is predicated on our ability to produce profitable outcomes with enhanced technological capability. We believe we can find synergies and opportunities to streamline platforms, create new products, and further innovation.

我們相信，我們推動收入成長的能力取決於我們利用增強的技術能力創造獲利成果的能力。我們相信，我們可以找到協同效應和機會來簡化平台、創造新產品並進一步創新。

Number three, people and culture are important assets. With Anjana Berde at the helm as our Chief People and Culture Officer, she has provided a fresh look at how we can reimagine the human capital function within the business. She and her team will be focused on continuing to build a talent pipeline as well as reinforcing our commitment to collaboration with the Talent Anywhere remote working environment.

第三，人才和文化是重要資產。在安賈娜貝爾德 (Anjana Berde) 擔任我們首席人才與文化長的領導下，她為我們如何重新構想企業內部的人力資本功能提供了全新的視角。她和她的團隊將致力於繼續建立人才管道，並加強我們與 Talent Anywhere 遠距工作環境合作的承諾。

Our commitment to remote working remains an opportunity to help us recruit the talent we need. It also allowed our employees to deliver better outcomes, resulting in multiple areas of recognition.

我們對遠距工作的承諾仍然是幫助我們招募所需人才的機會。這也使我們的員工能夠取得更好的成果，從而獲得多個領域的認可。

There are two instances that come to mind. One, I mentioned last quarter, when Pathward was named one of the 2025, 2026 Best Companies to Work for according to the US News and World Report on the Finance and Insurance list in the Midwest list.

我想到兩個例子。一是，我上個季度提到過，根據《美國新聞與世界報道》中西部地區金融和保險榜單，Pathward 被評為 2025 年、2026 年最適合工作的公司之一。

The second is that Pathward achieved Great Place to Work certification for the third year in a row. This recognition is something we are extremely proud of and is really a reflection of our amazing employees and the culture they exemplify. Sustaining this momentum is certainly something we aim to do this coming year as well.

第二，Pathward連續第三年獲得「最佳職場」認證。我們為獲得這項認可感到非常自豪，這實際上反映了我們出色的員工以及他們所體現的文化。保持這股勢頭當然也是我們明年的目標。

Number four, mature risk and compliance framework. As you know, this part of our trusted platform helps our partners develop products and services for their customers while managing a regulatory framework that is often complex.

第四，成熟的風險與合規框架。如您所知，我們值得信賴的平台的這一部分可幫助我們的合作夥伴為其客戶開發產品和服務，同時管理通常很複雜的監管框架。

In 2026, we are building on two things: first, we will continue to lean on past experiences and stay true to where our program is built on, knowledge, monitoring, and relationships; second, we will be investing further in our risk capabilities to help ensure we continue to have a scalable platform well into the future. We believe that these two components together will serve us well and are imperative to furthering partner success.

2026 年，我們將在兩方面繼續努力：首先，我們將繼續借鑒過去的經驗，堅持我們計劃的立足點，即知識、監控和關係；其次，我們將進一步投資於我們的風險能力，以確保我們在未來繼續擁有一個可擴展的平台。我們相信，這兩個組成部分的結合將為我們提供良好的服務，並且對於促進合作夥伴的成功至關重要。

Number five. The last part of our 2026 strategy is the client experience and continuing to pull through the pipeline of opportunities. Through various successes and deepening of those relationships, we frequently evaluate potential new opportunities and add more partners to our universe.

第五。我們的 2026 年策略的最後一部分是客戶體驗和繼續抓住機會。透過各種成功和深化這些關係，我們經常評估潛在的新機會並為我們的合作夥伴增添更多合作夥伴。

The work underway in this area has already begun. We cannot rest on our laurels as we recognize the rewards for delivering in an expanding market, things like reducing time to onboard partners or launch new programs and hiking our ability to offer multi-threaded solutions across our suite of products are meaningful ways we aim to help our partners achieve their goals while driving Pathward's growth.

該領域正在進行的工作已經開始。我們無法滿足於現狀，因為我們認識到在不斷擴大的市場中交付成果的回報，諸如減少加入合作夥伴或啟動新計劃的時間以及提高我們在整個產品套件中提供多線程解決方案的能力等，都是我們旨在幫助我們的合作夥伴實現目標同時推動 Pathward 增長的有意義的方式。

Based on our 2025 successes and what we are looking to deliver in 2026, we are maintaining our 2026 guidance for earnings per diluted share of $8.25 to $8.75.

根據我們 2025 年的成功以及我們對 2026 年目標的期望，我們維持 2026 年每股攤薄收益 8.25 美元至 8.75 美元的預期。

Now I'd like to turn it over to Greg, who will take you through the financials in more detail.

現在我想把麥克風交給格雷格，他將向你們更詳細地介紹財務狀況。

Thank you, Brett. Net income for the quarter ended September 30 grew 16%, with earnings per diluted share growing 26% to $1.69. These results were primarily driven by strong growth in noninterest income of 13% compared to the prior year period.

謝謝你，布雷特。截至9月30日的季度淨利成長16%，每股攤薄收益成長26%，達到1.69美元。這項業績主要得益於非利息收入較去年同期強勁成長13%。

For the full year, net interest income grew by 3% and noninterest income increased 10%. The growth in noninterest income through the year was driven in part by our success in optimizing the balance sheet by ensuring our loans either had high risk-adjusted returns or optionality.

全年淨利息收入成長3%，非利息收入成長10%。全年非利息收入的成長部分得益於我們成功優化資產負債表，確保我們的貸款具有高風險調整回報或可選性。

Our strategy of third-party delivery with stable partners is helping to drive secondary market revenues. As a result, we expect to continue to have secondary market revenues of about $5 million to $7 million per quarter on a run rate basis.

我們與穩定合作夥伴進行第三方交付的策略有助於推動二級市場收入。因此，我們預計二級市場收入每季將繼續保持在約 500 萬至 700 萬美元的水平。

Net interest margin in the quarter was 7.46%, and adjusted net interest margin, which includes rate-related card expenses associated with deposits on the balance sheet, was 6.04%. Despite the interest rate environment, we have improved these metrics year over year through our focus on risk-adjusted returns, which includes holding to our spread and discipline.

本季淨利差為 7.46%，調整後的淨利差（包括與資產負債表上的存款相關的利率相關卡費用）為 6.04%。儘管利率環境如此，我們透過專注於風險調整後的回報（包括堅持我們的利差和紀律），逐年改善了這些指標。

During the quarter, we moved more than half of our held-for-investment consumer portfolio to held-for-sale due to an agreement to sell those loans in early October, which generated a $14.3 million release of our credit provision.

在本季度，由於 10 月初達成了出售這些貸款的協議，我們將一半以上的持有待投資消費者投資組合轉為持有待售，從而釋放了 1,430 萬美元的信貸準備金。

In conjunction with that, we took the opportunity to surrender some of our bank-owned life insurance policies, which comes through as an additional expense on the income tax line and further optimize the securities portfolio which together generated a loss of almost $6 million and will provide us with approximately $70 million of liquidity to redeploy within our balance sheet strategy.

同時，我們藉此機會放棄了部分銀行持有的人壽保險單，這作為所得稅的額外支出，並進一步優化了證券投資組合，這總共產生了近 600 萬美元的損失，並將為我們提供約 7000 萬美元的流動資金，以便在我們的資產負債表策略中重新部署。

On the expense side, legal and consulting was elevated in part due to restatement costs of approximately $2 million. This was partially offset by a decrease in compensation and benefit expense. For the year, the largest increase in expense was in the other expense line. The primary driver was better performance in our held-for-investment consumer portfolio, which generated higher payments to our partners based on the positive performance.

在費用方面，法律和諮詢費用增加，部分原因是重述成本約為 200 萬美元。這被薪資和福利費用的減少部分抵消。今年，支出增幅最大的是其他支出項目。主要驅動因素是我們持有的投資性消費者投資組合表現更好，該投資組合基於積極的績效為我們的合作夥伴帶來了更高的回報。

In the future, we believe the impact to the other expense line will be significantly less since we've already closed the sale I mentioned a moment ago. And we are now primarily originating held-for-sale in Credit Solutions.

將來，我們相信對其他費用線的影響將會小得多，因為我們已經完成了我剛才提到的銷售。我們現在主要在信貸解決方案中發起持有待售業務。

Deposits held on the company's balance sheet at September 30 totaled $5.9 billion, which is a modest increase of $12 million versus a year ago. As is typical this time of the year, our deposit base is generally at the lowest point seasonally. Custodial deposits held at partner banks on September 30 were $210 million, which is in line with last year. Average custodial deposits during the quarter were also in line with last year.

截至 9 月 30 日，該公司資產負債表上的存款總額為 59 億美元，比去年同期小幅增加了 1,200 萬美元。正如每年這個時候一樣，我們的存款基礎通常處於季節性最低點。9 月 30 日，合作銀行的託管存款為 2.1 億美元，與去年持平。本季的平均託管存款也與去年持平。

Going forward, we would expect custodial deposit balances to run lower than in prior years due to the rundown in programs such as EIP. This will translate to lower servicing fees on the card and deposit fee income line and noninterest income.

展望未來，我們預計由於 EIP 等計劃的縮減，託管存款餘額將低於前幾年。這將意味著信用卡和存款費用收入線以及非利息收入的服務費降低。

Loans and leases at September 30 were $4.7 billion compared to $4.1 billion last year. The majority of the growth came from our Commercial Finance verticals. Within term lending, we saw significant growth in structured finance with the expansion of renewable energy.

截至 9 月 30 日的貸款和租賃總額為 47 億美元，而去年同期為 41 億美元。大部分成長來自我們的商業金融垂直領域。在定期貸款方面，隨著再生能源的擴張，我們看到結構性融資顯著成長。

We also saw growth in asset-based lending and warehouse finance. Nonperforming loans did increase in the quarter, primarily driven by one working capital loan, which we believe is well collateralized. As we have communicated before, our nonperforming loans as a percentage of total loans can have movement from quarter to quarter. But that generally is not correlated to a change in our annual net charge-off rate given our collateral managed approach.

我們也看到資產抵押貸款和倉庫融資的成長。本季不良貸款確實有所增加，主要原因是一筆營運資金貸款，我們認為該貸款的抵押品充足。正如我們之前所傳達的，我們的不良貸款佔總貸款的百分比每季都會有所變動。但考慮到我們的抵押品管理方法，這通常與我們的年度淨沖銷率的變化無關。

When we have loans that move into nonperforming status, we then work to bring the loan back to performing status or recover the collateral and resolve the outstanding balance. This quarter is no exception. We believe we have the path to working through many of the larger NPLs over the next few quarters since they are well collateralized for the amounts we have in NPL status. This is where we excel and is a secret to the success of our Commercial Finance team.

當我們的貸款轉為不良狀態時，我們會努力使貸款恢復到正常狀態或收回抵押品並解決未償餘額。本季也不例外。我們相信，我們有能力在未來幾季內解決許多較大的不良貸款，因為它們對於我們不良貸款狀況下的金額有良好的抵押。這就是我們的優勢所在，也是我們商業金融團隊成功的秘訣。

Our allowance for credit loss ratio on Commercial Finance was 118 basis points in the quarter as compared to 129 basis points for the same quarter last year primarily driven by a mix shift in the portfolio.

本季度，我們的商業金融信貸損失準備率為 118 個基點，而去年同期為 129 個基點，這主要是由於投資組合的組合變化所致。

Our annual net charge-off rate in Commercial Finance for 2025 was 64 basis points compared to 52 basis points in 2024, well within our historic range. If you look at Pathward as a whole, whether it is in Partner Solutions or Commercial Finance, we find niche places in the markets that are difficult to operate in and become good at it.

我們 2025 年商業金融的年度淨沖銷率為 64 個基點，而 2024 年為 52 個基點，遠低於我們的歷史範圍。如果從整體上看 Pathward，無論是在合作夥伴解決方案領域還是商業金融領域，我們都會在市場中發現難以運作的利基市場，並擅長於此。

We believe this is part of the reason we can deliver a return on average assets for the year of 2.46% and a return on average tangible equity of 38.8%. Our liquidity remains strong with $2.3 billion available. This is higher than where we were last year at this time, and we're extremely pleased with our position.

我們相信，這也是我們能夠實現年度平均資產回報率 2.46% 和平均有形資產回報率 38.8% 的原因之一。我們的流動性依然強勁，有 23 億美元可用。這比我們去年同期的水平要高，我們對自己的狀況非常滿意。

During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 181,000 shares at an average price of $82.95. This brings full-year repurchases to almost 2.1 million shares, with almost 5 million shares still available for repurchases under the current stock repurchase program. The sale of the majority of our held-for-investment consumer portfolio will put downward pressure on both pretax income and our net interest margin in 2026.

本季度，我們以平均每股82.95美元的價格回購了約18.1萬股。這使得全年回購量達到近210萬股，根據現行股票回購計劃，仍有近500萬股可供回購。出售我們持有的大部分投資性消費者投資組合將對 2026 年的稅前收入和淨利差造成下行壓力。

However, despite that, we are still reiterating our fiscal year 2026 guidance with an EPS range of $8.25 to $8.75, which includes the following assumptions: no rate cuts during the year, an effective tax rate of 18% to 22%, and expected share repurchases.

然而，儘管如此，我們仍重申 2026 財年的指導，每股收益範圍為 8.25 美元至 8.75 美元，其中包括以下假設：年內不降息、有效稅率為 18% 至 22% 以及預期股票回購。

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.

我們的準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，請打開熱線以回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Tim Switzer, KBW.

（操作員指示）Tim Switzer，KBW。

Hey. Good afternoon, Thanks for taking my question.

嘿。下午好，感謝您回答我的問題。

Hi, Tim.

你好，提姆。

So first off, congratulations on the new partnerships. Great to hear that. Are you able to provide some details on the Upstart program in terms of -- like will that look similar to your other Credit Solutions products such as the one you mentioned with Clair in terms of like the financial statement impact on the balance sheet and like where revenue will be recognized in the income statement? And are you still fully indemnified for any credit losses on -- in this program as well?

首先，恭喜新的合作關係。很高興聽到這個消息。您能否提供有關 Upstart 計劃的一些詳細資訊 - 例如，它是否與您的其他 Credit Solutions 產品（例如您與 Clair 提到的產品）類似，例如財務報表對資產負債表的影響以及收入將在損益表中確認的位置？並且，對於該計劃中的任何信用損失，您是否仍能獲得全額賠償？

Yeah. Generally speaking, this is in the same category of all our marketplace lending, where we're doing it through the third party, in this case, Upstart. And yes, it has all the credit indemnifications. It had come on the balance sheet, go off the balance sheet approach to it. So yes, it's very similar to that.

是的。一般來說，這與我們所有的市場借貸屬於同一類別，我們透過第三方（在本例中為 Upstart）來進行。是的，它具有所有的信用賠償。它既出現在資產負債表上，也採用資產負債表外的方法。是的，它與此非常相似。

Now Clair is a little bit unique because it's early way, yes, that was a different thing. But very much aligned with all of our other consumer lending kinds of programs that have the credit protections.

現在，克萊爾 (Clair) 有點獨特，因為它是早期的方式，是的，那是不同的東西。但這與我們所有其他具有信用保護的消費者貸款計劃非常一致。

Got you. That's great to hear. And how long should these loans remain on the balance sheet? And is there some -- within the contract of Upstart something in terms of how quickly you guys will move them off the balance sheet, either back to Upstart or do you plan to sell to a partner? Do they just mature very quickly?

明白了。聽到這個消息真是太好了。這些貸款應該在資產負債表上保留多久？在 Upstart 的合約中，是否有關於你們將多快將其從資產負債表中移除的內容，是將其重新歸還給 Upstart 還是計劃出售給合作夥伴？它們成熟得很快嗎？

Yeah. I mean, to Brett's point, these are very similar to the other marketplace programs we'd have. We shifted that entire program to the majority of the program to held for sale several years ago, Tim. So these are all held for sale out of the gate. And like the other marketplace one thing we do, this is our hope period is 30 days or less.

是的。我的意思是，正如布雷特所說，這些與我們擁有的其他市場計劃非常相似。幾年前，我們將整個計劃的大部分內容轉移到待售狀態，Tim。所以這些都是預先準備好要出售的。就像我們做的其他市場一樣，我們希望的期限是 30 天或更短。

Okay. Got you. And then my last question on that. Is this an exclusive partnership start, or they still going to be leveraging their own balance sheet and other partners that have out there?

好的。明白了。這是我的最後一個問題。這是獨家合作關係的開始嗎，還是他們仍將利用自己的資產負債表和其他合作夥伴？

I don't believe this is exclusive. So there are multiple things. This is a good-sized company. So -- but a lot of our partners have multiple banks they work with.

我不相信這是獨一無二的。所以有很多事情。這是一家規模相當大的公司。所以——但是我們的許多合作夥伴都與多家銀行合作。

Got you. Makes sense. And then related to all this, your secondary market revenue was a bit above the -- I think you guys have said it should be like a $5 million to $7 million quarterly range.

明白了。有道理。然後與所有這些相關的是，你們的二級市場收入略高於——我想你們說過它應該是每季 500 萬到 700 萬美元的範圍。

And I know that can fluctuate quite a bit. So as you guys are trying to optimize the balance sheet. So can you talk about, I guess, what drove the upside this quarter? Was it SBA or USDA? And is that $5 million to $7 million still a good target going forward?

我知道這可能會有很大波動。所以你們正在嘗試優化資產負債表。那麼，您能否談談推動本季業績上漲的因素是什麼？是 SBA 還是 USDA？那麼，500萬到700萬美元仍然是未來的好目標嗎？

Yeah. I think this quarter, Tim, is really just being opportunistic as you get near year-end too, you're out there getting some bids. And there were probably a few things we thought were going to slip to October, but just the demand was out there. So we decided to hit the bids to be candid.

是的。提姆，我認為這個季度實際上只是機會主義，因為接近年底了，你會在那裡獲得一些投標。我們原本以為有些事情可能會延到 10 月份，但需求就在那裡。因此，我們決定坦誠地接受投標。

So -- but going forward, we do believe we're going to dial it back to that $5 million to $7 million range. We're really excited about the opportunities with our partners there, particularly on the renewable USDA side. I do think that's what drove the majority of it. But we do believe we're going to dial that back a little bit next year because, again, we really like that optionality and the ability to keep those yields on the balance sheet.

所以——但展望未來，我們確實相信我們會將其調回 500 萬至 700 萬美元的範圍內。我們對與那裡的合作夥伴所獲得的機會感到非常興奮，特別是在可再生美國農業部方面。我確實認為這是推動大部分事情發生的因素。但我們確實相信明年我們會稍微減少一點，因為我們真的很喜歡這種可選性以及將這些收益保留在資產負債表上的能力。

Got you. Make sense. Thank you.

明白了。有道理。謝謝。

Thanks, Tim.

謝謝，蒂姆。

Joe Yanchunis, Raymond James.

喬揚丘尼斯、雷蒙德詹姆斯。

Hey. Good afternoon.

嘿。午安.

Hey, Joe.

嘿，喬。

Hi. So how has demand for early wage access loans changed? And are you seeing any incremental demand from the current government shutdown?

你好。那麼提前薪資貸款的需求又發生了什麼樣的變化呢？您是否看到目前政府關門期間需求增加？

I don't think we would have seen the impact of that yet. And if you think about total employees, that represents across the entire nation, that's probably not that significant. And frankly, I'm not sure federal government employees would be the people that are getting that -- those kinds of transactions.

我認為我們還沒有看到其影響。如果你考慮代表整個國家的員工總數，那麼這可能就沒那麼重要了。坦白說，我不確定聯邦政府僱員是否會獲得此類交易。

So we're talking about people that are at the very bottom of the economy and are looking at $200 for 10 days. So this is a different kind of market. So -- but that being said, Clair contracts with Intuit is going to bring significant volume in there because of the scale and breadth that they have. And we're very excited about that and expect that to have a much larger volume in the weeks and months to come.

所以我們談論的是那些處於經濟最底層、10 天內收入只有 200 美元的人。所以這是一個不同類型的市場。所以——但話雖如此，Clair 與 Intuit 簽訂的合約將會帶來顯著的業務量，因為他們擁有龐大的規模和廣度。我們對此感到非常興奮，並預計未來幾週和幾個月內交易量將會大幅增加。

Got it. I just wasn't sure if any of your partners were leveraged to that type of consumer. And then as you mentioned in it, I know it's early, but if we were just to think about the recent changes in the tax law, which I believe normally is beneficial to your tax business, how much growth in the tax business is implied in your fiscal year '26 EPS guidance?

知道了。我只是不確定你們的合作夥伴是否利用了這種類型的消費者。然後，正如您所提到的，我知道現在還為時過早，但如果我們只考慮稅法的近期變化，我認為這通常對您的稅務業務有利，那麼您的 26 財年每股收益指引中隱含著多少稅務業務的增長？

Every tax year is different. We say that every year, and we actually experienced that. Your data point about changes in the tax law speaks well where the business is a very valid thing that happens. We don't have huge growth expectations.

每個納稅年度都不同。我們每年都這麼說，而且我們確實經歷過。您關於稅法變化的數據點很好地說明了在業務中發生的非常有效的事情。我們沒有太大的成長預期。

One reason is, we came off of a really good year. And so that's looking at that going forward. But we expect to have a solid tax year. I think some of the tax law changes are going to help with that.

原因之一是，我們剛剛度過了非常好的一年。這就是我們展望未來的事。但我們預計今年的稅收將會穩健。我認為一些稅法的變化將有助於解決這個問題。

Yeah. And incrementally, I'd just say in terms of setting the guide, we obviously look at a range of outcomes across all of this. But our historic growth rate in that business is probably mid-single digits. And you ought to think about that just calibrating probably the range we're looking at.

是的。並且，我想說，在製定指南方面，我們顯然會逐步考慮所有這些因素的一系列結果。但我們在該業務的歷史成長率可能只有個位數的中段。您應該考慮校準我們正在觀察的範圍。

I appreciate that. And just continuing to hop around here, maybe address a little bit on the prepared remarks, but NPLs took higher in the quarter. We saw past due loans declined suggesting that some of these credits are moving, that you made. I understood you pride yourselves on working out problem loans. I was wondering if you had an opinion on when you thought this portfolio concentration would peak?

我很感激。我只是繼續在這裡跳來跳去，也許會稍微談談準備好的評論，但本季的不良貸款有所增加。我們看到逾期貸款減少，這表明其中一些貸款正在轉移，這是您所做的。我知道你們對解決問題貸款感到自豪。我想知道您是否認為投資組合集中度何時會達到高峰？

Well, so a couple of things. One is there actually isn't a tie between the past due loans and the NPLs because a lot of times, these are episodes, an event happens and then you immediately go to NPL and often it's without warning, you have the collateral and you manage the collateral, but we move very quickly in those situations. So I don't think you can correlate those two things.

嗯，有幾件事。一是逾期貸款和不良貸款之間實際上沒有聯繫，因為很多時候，這些都是偶發事件，一個事件發生後，你立即進入不良貸款狀態，而且往往沒有任何警告，你有抵押品，你管理抵押品，但在這種情況下，我們的行動非常迅速。所以我認為你不能將這兩件事連結起來。

And when you look at our business going back to -- when we bought Crestmark in 2018, you'll have a quarter where these things got to spike and then you go along and then you work your way down. So some of them are resolved quickly, some of them are not.

當你回顧我們的業務時——當我們在 2018 年收購 Crestmark 時，你會發現在一個季度裡，這些事情會激增，然後你就會走下去，然後你就會下降。因此，有些問題很快就解決了，有些則沒有。

And these are stories, right? There's three or four stories and you work through the stories and some of them resolved very quickly because you liquidate the collateral, some of them are tied up in some legal thing, but you still have the collateral and it may take some time.

這些都是故事，對吧？有三到四個故事，你要處理這些故事，其中一些故事會很快得到解決，因為你清算了抵押品，其中一些故事與某些法律問題有關，但你仍然有抵押品，這可能需要一些時間。

But mainline is looking at net charge-offs, and you'll see that net charge-offs are not correlated with the whole discussion of NPLs.

但主線是專注於淨沖銷，你會發現淨沖銷與整個不良貸款討論並不相關。

Yeah. And the only thing I would add, Joe, is that balance out there at NPLs for the quarter end, there's three loans that make up roughly half of it. We talked about two of those last quarter. We had I think a positive outlook at the end of last quarter that hasn't changed. The one we mentioned this quarter, again, well collateralized. We're feeling pretty good about that.

是的。喬，我唯一要補充的是，本季末的不良貸款餘額中，有三筆貸款約佔一半。上個季度我們討論了其中的兩個。我認為上個季度末我們的樂觀前景至今沒有改變。我們本季提到的那個，再次，有很好的抵押。我們對此感覺很好。

But when you look at the I do believe those are going to resolve themselves over the next quarter or two, could take three quarters because they have to rehabilitate or otherwise work down. But just to give you some context on what's out there right now.

但當你看到我確實相信這些問題將在未來一兩個季度內解決，可能需要三個季度，因為他們必須恢復或以其他方式解決。但只是為了讓你了解目前的情況。

Okay. All right. That's helpful. And then lastly for me, as we just think about the pace of share repurchases in '26, how should we think about maybe the buyback ratio as we look out in the coming quarters?

好的。好的。這很有幫助。最後，對我來說，當我們考慮 26 年股票回購的速度時，我們應該如何考慮未來幾季的回購率？

Yeah. We had obviously slowed down that buyback ratio just to get some additional capital out there. And I think we've gotten pretty close to where we want to be to what our target was. So I think going forward, you're going to see that buyback ratio get back to its historic norms, which is probably in that 80% to 90% payout ratio range.

是的。我們顯然已經放慢了回購率，只是為了獲得一些額外的資本。我認為我們已經非常接近我們想要達到的目標了。因此我認為，展望未來，你會看到回購率恢復到歷史正常水平，大概在 80% 到 90% 的派息率範圍內。

I appreciate it. Thank you for taking my questions.

我很感激。感謝您回答我的問題。

We appreciate you asking. Thanks, Joe.

感謝您的詢問。謝謝，喬。

Thank you for your question. There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So I'll pass the call back to the management team for any closing remarks.

感謝您的提問。目前沒有其他問題。因此，我會將電話轉回給管理團隊，以便他們發表最後的評論。

This is Brett Pharr. Thanks for joining the call today, and have a great evening.

這是布雷特法爾。感謝您今天參加電話會議，祝您有個愉快的夜晚。

That concludes the conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。現在您可以斷開線路了。