Navient Corp (NAVI) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Navient's fourth quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝大家的支持，歡迎參加 Navient 第四季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。演講者演講結束後，將有問答環節。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would like now to turn the conference over to Jen Earyes, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係主管 Jen Earyes。請繼續。

Hello, good morning and welcome to the Navient earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2024. With me today are David Yohan, Navient CEO; Edward Bramson, Vice Chair of the Navient Board of Directors; and Joe Fisher, Navient CFO. Navient has updates to share with you this morning and has posted two separate presentations that will be referred to during this call. Both are available on navient.com/investors.

大家好，早安，歡迎參加 Navient 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。今天與我在一起的是 Navient 執行長 David Yohan； Navient 董事會副主席 Edward Bramson；以及 Navient 財務長喬費雪 (Joe Fisher)。Navient 今天早上有更新內容要與大家分享，並發布了兩個單獨的演示文稿，將在本次電話會議中參考。兩者均可在 navient.com/investors 上找到。

First, we will refer to the January 2025 strategy update presentation posted on the website. Then, we will move to discuss the fourth quarter results and outlook for 2025. During this portion, we will refer to the fourth quarter 2024 earnings presentation, which you'll also find posted to our website. After the prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions.

首先，我們將參考網站上發布的2025年1月策略更新簡報。然後，我們將討論第四季的業績和 2025 年的展望。在此期間，我們將參考 2024 年第四季的收益報告，您也可以在我們的網站上找到該報告。準備好的發言結束後，我們將開始提問。

Before we begin, keep in mind, our discussion will contain predictions, expectations, forward-looking statements and other information about our business that is based on management's current expectations as of the date of this presentation. Actual results in the future may be materially different from those discussed here. This could be due to a variety of factors. Listeners should refer to the discussion of those factors on the company's Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC.

在我們開始之前，請記住，我們的討論將包含有關我們業務的預測、期望、前瞻性陳述和其他信息，這些信息基於管理層截至本報告發布之日的當前預期。未來的實際結果可能與此處討論的結果有重大差異。這可能由多種因素造成。聽眾應該參考該公司的 10-K 表格和向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中對這些因素的討論。

During this conference call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including core earnings, adjusted tangible equity ratio and various other non-GAAP financial measures that are derived from core earnings. Our GAAP results, description of our non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of core earnings to GAAP results can be found beginning in Navient's fourth quarter 2024 earnings release, which is posted on our website.

在本次電話會議中，我們將參考非公認會計準則財務指標，包括核心收益、調整後的有形權益比率以及源自核心收益的各種其他非公認會計準則財務指標。我們的 GAAP 結果、非 GAAP 財務指標的描述以及核心收益與 GAAP 結果的對帳可在 Navient 2024 年第四季度收益報告中找到，該報告已發佈在我們網站上。

Thank you, and I now will turn the call over to Dave.

謝謝，現在我將電話轉給戴夫。

Thanks, Jen. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining and for your interest in Navient.

謝謝， Jen。大家早安。感謝您的加入以及對 Navient 的關注。

Let me start by laying out what we will share on this morning's call. I'll provide a recap of 2024 and share some of our plans for 2025. Ed will then provide a strategy update, where we are in our transformation journey and how the actions, we have taken deliver value and better position us for the future. Lastly, Joe will share our fourth quarter results and our outlook for 2025. We'll then open it up for Q&A.

首先，讓我介紹一下我們在今天早上的電話會議上要分享的內容。我將回顧 2024 年並分享我們對 2025 年的一些計劃。然後，艾德將提供策略更新，說明我們在轉型歷程中所處的位置以及我們採取的行動如何創造價值並為我們的未來做好更好的準備。最後，喬將分享我們的第四季業績和 2025 年展望。然後我們將開始問答環節。

A year ago, we set out to create a more focused and streamlined company. We set an ambitious goal of finalizing several key transactions during 2024 on an aggressive timeline. I'm pleased to say we achieved the objectives within that aggressive timeline. These transactions create a platform consisting of a consumer segment focused on growth through earnest and a legacy portfolio focused on maximizing cash flows through cost efficiency.

一年前，我們開始創立一家更專注、更精簡的公司。我們設定了一個雄心勃勃的目標，在 2024 年內盡快完成幾項關鍵交易。我很高興地說，我們在這個緊迫的時間內實現了目標。這些交易創建了一個平台，該平台由專注於透過認真實現成長的消費者部門和專注於透過成本效率最大化現金流的傳統投資組合組成。

During the fourth quarter, we signed an agreement to divest the government services businesses within our business processing solutions segment. We anticipate that this transaction will close during the first quarter. This follows our servicing outsourcing agreement and the sale of our healthcare business earlier in the year. In many ways, the government services is the most important of the three actions, divesting GS enables us to eliminate the substantial shared service infrastructure and related expenses that supported servicing and BPS.

第四季度，我們簽署了一項協議，剝離業務處理解決方案部門內的政府服務業務。我們預計此次交易將在第一季完成。這是我們在今年稍早達成的服務外包協議和醫療保健業務的出售之後的又一項舉措。從許多方面來看，政府服務是三項行動中最重要的，剝離 GS 使我們能夠消除支援服務和 BPS 的大量共享服務基礎設施和相關費用。

We now have clear line of sight on the transition services we will provide under all three of these transactions. The transition services we provide for outsourcing and for healthcare are expected to wind down during the first half of this year. The government services transition services are expected to extend into early 2026 with many services completing before then. We have aggressive plans to eliminate these expenses as the TSAs expire, and we will not stop there. We're identifying additional opportunities in all parts of our business to become more efficient.

現在，我們對這三筆交易中將提供的過渡服務有了清晰的認識。我們為外包和醫療保健提供的過渡服務預計將在今年上半年結束。政府服務過渡服務預計將延續至 2026 年初，許多服務將在此之前完成。我們有積極的計劃來在 TSA 到期後消除這些費用，而且我們不會就此止步。我們正在尋找業務各環節中的更多機會來提高效率。

We have already begun to realize the expense reducing benefits of a variable cost servicing model. This has occurred sooner than we expected as our loan portfolios, especially our FFELP portfolio paid down more quickly. The healthcare sale unlocked value in a non-strategic business that was not reflected in our stock price. Proceeds from that sale gave us the flexibility to increase our share purchases during Q4 and retire some unsecured debt.

我們已經開始認識到變動成本服務模式降低費用的好處。這比我們預期的要早，因為我們的貸款組合，特別是我們的 FFELP 組合償還得更快。醫療保健業務的出售釋放了非策略性業務的價值，但這一價值並未反映在我們的股價中。該次出售的收益使我們能夠靈活地在第四季度增加股票購買量並償還一些無擔保債務。

There were a number of factors that impacted 2024 results, most significant was high levels of pre-payment activity which accelerated cash flows as well as the amortization expense of loan premium. The loss of a contract delayed the sale of government services and impaired its value. We recorded regulatory and restructuring costs associated with our transformation and settlement of the CFPB lawsuit. In short, we put a number of significant headwinds behind us.

有許多因素影響了 2024 年的業績，其中最重要的是高水準的預付款活動，這加速了現金流以及貸款溢價的攤銷費用。合約的遺失推遲了政府服務的銷售並損害了其價值。我們記錄了與我們的轉型和CFPB訴訟和解相關的監管和重組成本。簡而言之，我們已經克服了許多重大阻力。

Our consumer lending business generated strong loan origination growth during 2024. Refi volume growth exceeded $1 billion and $0.60 percent higher than the prior year despite a slightly higher average rate environment. In-school volume grew 13% with improving margins and unit acquisition costs, achieving the growth we set within our targeted segment of this market.

我們的消費貸款業務在 2024 年實現了強勁的貸款發放成長。儘管平均利率環境略高，再融資量仍成長超過 10 億美元，比前一年高出 0.60%。隨著利潤率和單位採購成本的提高，在校人數增加了 13%，實現了我們在該市場目標領域設定的成長。

Consumer lending is well positioned to continue to grow origination volume and then demonstrate operating leverage in 2025. We plan to increase loan origination volume by 30% this year. A large portion of that growth is expected in the second half of the year based on the current interest rate environment and the seasonal pattern of in-school originations.

消費貸款可望持續增加發放量，並在 2025 年展現出經營槓桿作用。我們計劃今年將貸款發放量增加30%。根據目前的利率環境和校內貸款的季節性模式，預計很大一部分成長將出現在下半年。

There are, as you all know, a number of comprehensive proposals the new administration may consider in determining federal education loan policies and practices. These proposals contain elements that would produce expanded opportunities for private lending. Among these are a reduction or elimination of loan forgiveness programs and the elimination of the Grad PLUS loan program.

眾所周知，新政府在製定聯邦教育貸款政策和實踐時可能會考慮一些全面的建議。這些提案包含了一些將為私人借貸創造更多機會的內容。其中包括減少或取消貸款減免計劃以及取消 Grad PLUS 貸款計劃。

The Grad PLUS loans include a program for graduate students. Origination levels in this program are roughly the current size of private student lending. A majority of our in-school lending is to graduate students. It's a market we understand well and are offering products and a customer experience tailored to the needs of this segment.

Grad PLUS 貸款包括一個針對研究生的計劃。該計劃的發起水平大致相當於當前私人學生貸款的規模。我們的校內貸款大多是提供給研究生的。我們非常了解這個市場，並提供根據該細分市場的需求量身定制的產品和客戶體驗。

It's too soon to tell what elements may be implemented or when they'll be implemented, but we possess the capacity, flexibility, products and customer experience and are excited about this potential sizable opportunity. With that said, our 2025 plans do not yet assume any expanded opportunities for our products as a result of policy changes.

現在判斷哪些元素可能會實施或何時實施還為時過早，但我們擁有能力、靈活性、產品和客戶體驗，並對這個潛在的巨大機會感到興奮。話雖如此，我們的 2025 年計畫尚未假設政策變化會為我們的產品帶來任何擴大的機會。

With that, let me turn it over to Ed.

現在，讓我把話題交給艾德。

Thank you, David. What we want to achieve today is to update you on the longer presentation that we did this time about a year ago. And at that time, we identified four areas to improve shareholder value, each of which we're going to touch on to some extent today, some of them in more detail than others and we'll get into that as we go through it.

謝謝你，大衛。今天我們想要做的是，向大家更新我們大約一年前這個時候做的更長的演示。當時，我們確定了提高股東價值的四個領域，今天我們將對每個領域進行一定程度的討論，其中一些領域的討論會比其他領域更為詳細，我們將在討論過程中逐步深入。

Before we start though, it might be worth saying that we are a firm that's invested in that only invest in turnaround and has done that for decades. And one of the things you find about turnarounds is that often it seems like there's a lot of work going on and nothing's really happening as a result and then suddenly it does. So it's good to be able to report on some positive things that are happening as we go through things today.

不過，在開始之前，值得說一下的是，我們是一家只投資轉虧為盈的公司，而且幾十年來一直都是如此。關於扭轉局面，你會發現一個現像是，通常看起來有很多工作要做，但實際上什麼都沒有發生，然後突然就發生了。因此，能夠報道今天發生的一些積極的事情是件好事。

So to begin with the areas that we're putting the primary focus on today. The first one is cost projections and we're going to talk about Phase 1 of that right now. And if we go to page three, entitling, the cost reductions Phase 1, which implies, as David said, that there's quite a bit more to come. And as David said, the disposal of BPS and the outsourcing of loan servicing not just simplified the business, but it was critical to being able to go after one of the first major cost reduction opportunities.

首先談談我們今天重點關注的領域。第一個是成本預測，我們現在來討論第一階段。如果我們翻到第三頁，標題為“成本削減第一階段”，這意味著，正如戴維所說，接下來還會有更多內容。正如 David 所說，出售 BPS 以及外包貸款服務不僅簡化了業務，而且對於抓住首批重大成本削減機會之一至關重要。

And what that is, you may recall last year, we classified the business into two pieces. Our total operating expenses in '23 were $700 million odd. Of that, about $200 million was incurred by Earnest and the extended part of BPS. Both of those entities essentially were standalone from a financial standpoint. So what that leaves is the corporate and shared expense segment that David referred to. And what was in that in '23 was the government services part of BPS, our internal loan servicing operations and then our corporate overheads. And all of those things were significantly shared expenses.

您可能還記得，去年我們將業務分為兩部分。我們1923年的總營運費用為7億多美元。其中，Earnest 和 BPS 的擴展部分承擔了約 2 億美元。從財務角度來看，這兩個實體本質上都是獨立的。所以剩下的就是戴維提到的公司和共享費用部分。1923 年，其中包括 BPS 的政府服務部分、我們的內部貸款服務業務以及我們的公司管理費用。所有這些都是顯著的共享費用。

So if you take just that part of last year, we've spent $523 million. And you can see that on the table. It also brought in $200 million of revenue. So a simple way to think about it is that loan servicing and corporate overheads on a net basis were about $320 million in 2023. If you look at the 2025 column, we're calling it continuing because it doesn't -- it takes account of all of the reductions in transition service expenses that David identified, and Joe will talk about later. So a way to think about it is that $204 million that you see is something you could call a run rate that we're currently at.

如果只算去年的這部分，我們已經花了 5.23 億美元。您可以在桌子上看到它。它也帶來了2億美元的收入。因此，一個簡單的思考方式是，2023 年的貸款服務和企業管理費用淨額約為 3.2 億美元。如果你看一下 2025 年的專欄，我們稱之為繼續，因為它沒有——它考慮到了 David 確定的所有過渡服務費用的減少，Joe 稍後會談到。所以，我們可以這樣想：您看到的 2.04 億美元就是我們目前的運行率。

So if you take the difference, what that shows is that the first phase of cost reductions has yielded something like a $120 million of annual savings. And I think what's interesting about that is that that's almost 40% of our shared costs and overhead that have been reduced already. But importantly, none of the costs that have come out have any effect on our ability to grow or introduce new products or anything else. They're strictly in essence recurring overhead costs or reduced cost of servicing for much closer.

因此，如果考慮差額，就表示第一階段的成本削減已產生了每年約 1.2 億美元的節省。我認為有趣的是，我們的共享成本和管理費用已經減少了近 40%。但重要的是，所產生的任何成本都不會影響我們發展、推出新產品或其他任何能力。從本質上來說，它們嚴格來說是經常性的間接費用，或是為了更接近目標而降低的服務成本。

So if you go to page four, sometimes it's important to put cost reductions in context. And if you think about it, the cash flow impact, which is the first one, basically says that our legacy loan portfolio, I think Joe's latest number later in the presentation, after unsecured debt, it has a positive inflow of about $6.5 billion and that's before the cost of collecting it. So by reducing our cost of collection and overheads by $120 million, you've added something like $1 billion to $1.5 billion of future cash flow to what we would previously have had. And I think an aspect of that to focus on is that what it also means is you have a recurring source of new capital to invest or return to shareholders each year. And so how you deploy that gets to be important.

所以如果你看第四頁，有時將成本降低放在上下文中是很重要的。如果你仔細想想，第一個因素是現金流影響，基本上表明我們的遺留貸款組合，我想喬在後面的演示中給出的最新數字，在扣除無擔保債務後，其正流入金額約為 65 億美元，而且這還未扣除收取債務的成本。因此，透過將我們的收款成本和管理費用減少 1.2 億美元，我們就可以在先前的基礎上增加 10 億到 15 億美元的未來現金流。我認為需要關注的一個面向是，它也意味著你每年都有不斷的新資本來源可以投資或回饋給股東。因此，如何部署它變得很重要。

Another aspect of the cost reductions is the impact on earnings. And in essence, what we get is roughly $1 uplift one-time in huge earnings capacity. And at the moment, it's a little bit less than $1 actually. But as the benefits from the outsourcing of servicing continue to grow, it's going to trend towards more than $1. So we're calling it $1 earnings per share for simplicity.

成本降低的另一個面向是對效益的影響。從本質上講，我們所獲得的是一次性約 1 美元的巨額盈利能力提升。目前，實際價格略低於 1 美元。但隨著服務外包的收益不斷增長，其成本將趨於超過 1 美元。因此，為簡單起見，我們稱之為每股收益 1 美元。

The third point on the chart is actually the strategic part because now that we've reduced our cost by this amount and hopefully more, our breakeven level for the consumer business in essence is less than it used to be. And what that means is two things. First of all, you can now grow the consumer business and carry the expenses of doing that while remaining profitable because your breakeven is lower. The other thing is our expenses are lower. And what that means is Navient is now more competitive in anything it chooses to do. And that's an important strategic item I think going forward.

圖表上的第三點實際上是戰略部分，因為現在我們已將成本降低了這麼多，甚至更多，我們的消費者業務的盈虧平衡水平實際上比以前更低了。這意味著兩件事。首先，您現在可以發展消費者業務並承擔這樣做的費用，同時保持盈利，因為您的損益平衡點較低。另一件事是我們的開支較低。這意味著 Navient 現在無論選擇做什麼都更具競爭力。我認為這是未來重要的戰略事項。

The other piece of context is that if we've chosen just to grow the consumer business to get to the same point, we would have had to add net something like $10 billion of new consumer loans. That would have taken quite a while to do and quite a lot of capital as well. Where we are today is we have the equivalent of adding those loans. We got them now and there's no additional capital involved. So I think it does put us in a much better competitive and strategic position going forward.

另一個背景是，如果我們選擇僅發展消費者業務以達到相同的水平，我們必須增加約 100 億美元的新消費者貸款。那將需要花費相當長的時間並且也需要大量的資金。我們目前的狀況相當於增加了這些貸款。我們現在已經得到了它們，並且不需要額外的資本。因此我認為這確實使我們在未來處於更有利的競爭和戰略地位。

If you turn to page five, we mentioned the consumer segment various times. And the reason for that is that the Federal segment, although it's a nice business, can't grow. They don't make FFELP anymore. So the Consumer segment could grow. It's actually -- we don't always focus on this. It's more than 70% of revenue nowadays. It's about $500 million in gross revenue. And what's been happening in part is that five years ago, the FFELP revenue was 60% of the total, now it's down to 30%. And that's as a result of the shrinkage of the product. But what it's also doing is it's making it easier for us to generate net revenue growth in the future than it has been in the past.

如果你翻到第五頁，我們多次提到了消費者細分。原因在於，儘管聯邦部門的業務不錯，但卻無法成長。他們不再製作 FFELP 了。因此消費者市場將會成長。事實上——我們並不總是關注這一點。如今，這一比例已超過收入的70%。總收入約5億美元。部分情況是，五年前，FFELP 收入佔總收入的 60%，現在降至 30%。這是由於產品收縮造成的。但它也使我們未來比過去更容易實現淨收入成長。

David also mentioned Earnest. And last year, we focused to quite some extent on Earnest, and you can go back and look at last year's slides to refresh yourself if you'd like to. But we, in essence, write all of our new business under the Earnest brand. And the brand has very positive attributes and Earnest has very positive consumer ratings. So it's a major asset if we want to grow the thing.

David 也提到了 Earnest。去年，我們專注於了 Earnest，如果您願意的話，可以回去看看去年的幻燈片來重溫一下。但實際上，我們將所有新業務都歸於 Earnest 品牌之下。該品牌具有非常積極的屬性，並且 Earnest 擁有非常積極的消費者評價。所以如果我們想發展它的話，它是一筆重要的資產。

The other thing is that its business model is distinct from what Navient has done in the past. It's essentially online. And the impact of that is that you can generate very positive economics from growth because online costs tend to stay fixed as the revenue grows. So it's an interesting opportunity for us.

另一件事是，它的商業模式與 Navient 過去的模式不同。它本質上是在線的。其影響是，您可以從成長中獲得非常積極的經濟效益，因為隨著收入的成長，線上成本往往保持不變。所以這對我們來說是一個有趣的機會。

At the moment, with the additional capital that we're generating from the cost savings and so on, you can certainly see opportunities to grow revenue in the products we currently have. And we're probably going to do some of that just to get some revenue momentum going again. In the longer run, there are other products that we're considering moving into. At the moment, they're in testing. So we'll probably talk about those a bit more later in the year.

目前，透過節省成本等方式獲取額外資本，您絕對可以看到我們現有產品的收入成長機會。我們可能會採取一些措施，以再次獲得一些收入成長動能。從長遠來看，我們正在考慮進軍其他產品。目前，他們正在進行測試。因此我們可能會在今年稍後進一步討論這些問題。

If you go to page six, another item that we touched on last year was our cost of equity, which puts us at a significant disadvantage today. We have a high cost of equity relative to any of our peers and also in the absolute sense. And what essentially accounts for that is that because our legacy portfolios have been running off for quite a higher rate on a rate that's higher than our expenses have been coming down, our profitability has declined and our return on equity has come down. You see that in the valuation metrics.

如果你翻到第六頁，你會看到，我們去年談到的另一件事就是我們的股權成本，這導致我們今天處於明顯的劣勢。與任何同業相比，我們的股權成本都很高，而且絕對值也很高。而本質上造成這種情況的原因是，由於我們遺留投資組合的運作速度相當高，而我們的支出卻在下降，所以我們的獲利能力下降，股本回報率也下降了。您可以在估值指標中看到這一點。

As you can tell from what we've been talking about already, we're getting ahead of that expense issue. But nonetheless, as you sit here today, we traded at 60% roughly of tangible book value. So when you're looking at allocating capital, if you look at it statically, what you would say is for every dollar that you put into something new, you end up with market value of $0.60. So that's not an attractive position to be in. And that's where the cost of equity is going to be an issue for us going forward.

從我們已經討論的內容中你就可以看出，我們正在解決這項費用問題。但儘管如此，今天當您坐在這裡時，我們的交易價格大約是有形帳面價值的 60％。因此，當您考慮分配資本時，如果從靜態的角度來看，您會說，您投入到新事物中的每一美元，最終都會獲得 0.60 美元的市場價值。所以這不是一個有吸引力的處境。這就是股權成本未來將成為我們面臨的問題的原因。

We put a little table on the chart. Typically, you wouldn't use price to book for calculating cost of equity, but it's a good way of illustrating our point. So for the reasons we mentioned, Navient is trading at about 60% of book. The peer group and we've put there who they are at the bottom of the page, is not particularly aspirational, but they are the ones that we're compared to. They, on average, trade at something like twice book and you can see what the range is from the chart.

我們在圖表上放了一張小表格。通常，您不會使用市淨率來計算股權成本，但這是說明我們的觀點的好方法。因此，基於我們提到的原因，Navient 的交易價格約為帳面價值的 60%。我們將同儕團體的資訊放在頁面底部，雖然不是特別具有吸引力，但他們是我們用來比較的對象。它們的平均交易價格大約是帳面價值的兩倍，你可以從圖表中看到其範圍。

Interestingly, if you get facts and just scan them, what you'll see is that the return on equity generally runs from low to middle teens and the expected growth rate in revenue is 3% to 4%. And both of those are better than Navient has been doing, but neither of them are things that we couldn't reasonably aspire to do. And starting to do that, obviously, getting the Consumer segment growing again organically is something that might have the effect of driving a re-raising and have a positive effect on our cost of equity.

有趣的是，如果你了解事實並瀏覽它們，你會發現股本回報率一般在低到中等水平，預期收入增長率為 3％ 至 4％。這兩項都比 Navient 所做的要好，但這兩項都是我們無法合理渴望實現的事情。顯然，開始這樣做會讓消費者部門再次實現有機成長，這可能會推動再次融資，並對我們的股本成本產生正面影響。

So if you go to page seven, this is also something that we talked about last year. And a shorthand way of saying capital allocation as we see it is that you put $1 into something and you end up with market value of more than $1, that's your objective.

如果你翻到第七頁，這也是我們去年談論過的事。我們認為，資本配置的簡單表述就是，你將 1 美元投入某個項目，最終獲得的市場價值超過 1 美元，這就是你的目標。

So if you look at where we are today, we have the likelihood of more cash to invest in the future because of what we're doing. And we're moving our philosophy of how you make that decision a little bit based on what we think the market value to shareholders is going to be from allocating one way or another. And obviously a change in the evaluation metrics would affect that decision. So share repurchases in recent years have been our default option because it's really been probably the best way of returning capital efficiently. It's not a bad use of capital by any means, if we're trading at 60% of book and we're still growing our earnings, we may be buying stock at less than 50% of future value.

因此，如果你看看我們今天的狀況，你會發現，憑藉著我們正在做的事情，我們很有可能在未來擁有更多的現金來進行投資。我們正在根據我們認為透過某種方式分配股東的市場價值來改變我們的決策理念。顯然，評估指標的改變會影響這個決定。因此，近年來，股票回購一直是我們的預設選擇，因為這實際上可能是有效回報資本的最佳方式。無論如何，這並不是一種糟糕的資本使用方式，如果我們的交易價格為帳面價值的 60%，而且我們的收益仍在增長，我們可能會以低於未來價值 50% 的價格購買股票。

So it's not a bad investment, but there two things that militate against continuing to do it exclusively. One of them is, obviously, it could reduce your capital to grow in the future. I don't think that's a significant issue for management today, but it is something to think about. I think probably more important, somewhat nuanced is that we've already done more than $5 billion of buybacks in the last 10 years. And leaving aside the investment merits, one of the things that's done is to shrink our market capitalization to the point where our liquidity is not what it used to be. So one of the things that we will be keeping in the back of our minds is the effect of share repurchases on the investability, if you like, of investors who become interested in that area.

所以這不是一個糟糕的投資，但有兩件事阻礙了它繼續專門做這件事。其中之一顯然是它可能會減少你未來的成長資本。我不認為這對當今的管理來說是一個重大的問題，但卻是值得思考的問題。我認為可能更重要的是，有些微妙的是，我們在過去 10 年裡已經進行了超過 50 億美元的回購。且不論投資價值如何，其中一件事就是讓我們的市值縮水到流動性不如從前的程度。因此，我們會牢記的事情之一就是股票回購對對該領域感興趣的投資者的投資能力的影響。

Growth, I think the benefits speak for themselves. In our particular case, what we're looking to do is to get to a good competitive cost position and keep it that way and have the operating leverage come through. So it would basically trade off the way we do and that takes us to the final page which I'm not really going to go through. But what we're trying to do now is to provide perspective on what our new strategy and the turnaround is directed towards doing and to tie the various strands of it together.

成長，我認為其好處是不言而喻的。在我們的特定情況下，我們希望獲得良好的競爭成本地位並保持這種狀態，並發揮經營槓桿的作用。因此，它基本上會按照我們的做法進行權衡，並將我們帶到最後一頁，而我實際上不會經歷這一頁。但我們現在試圖做的是提供關於我們的新策略和扭轉方向的觀點，並將其各個部分連結在一起。

And in a very simple sense, what we're saying is we're reducing our fixed cost base in ways that don't affect our ability to grow and that gives us the opportunity to get positive operating leverage. We're financing that growth with equity that we generate internally from our improved cost position. If as we expect that produces better returns on equity and better earnings, we hope to leverage that by recapturing that valuation discount that we have. So a combination of improving returns and improving valuation is what we're working towards and it's potentially an interesting investment thesis.

從簡單意義上講，我們要說的是，我們正在以不影響我們成長能力的方式降低我們的固定成本基礎，並使我們有機會獲得積極的營運槓桿。我們透過改善成本狀況而產生的內部權益為此成長提供資金。如果如我們預期的那樣，這會產生更好的股本回報率和更好的收益，我們希望透過重新獲得我們擁有的估值折扣來利用這一點。因此，我們努力實現提高回報和提高估值的結合，這可能是一個有趣的投資論點。

So there is more to come, and I will come back and update you again in the second half of the year. But for now I'm going to turn it over to Joe to review last year's performance and some guidance and all of us will stay around for questions at the end.

因此，接下來會有更多消息，我將在下半年回來再次向大家更新。但現在我要把時間交給喬來回顧去年的表現並提供一些指導，最後我們都會留下來回答問題。

Thank you, Ed, and everyone on today's call for your interest in Navient. I will review the fourth quarter and full year results for 2024 and provide our outlook for 2025 earnings per share.

謝謝 Ed，以及今天電話會議上的每個人對 Navient 的關注。我將回顧 2024 年第四季和全年業績，並提供 2025 年每股收益的展望。

Our fourth quarter GAAP earnings per share were $0.22, bringing our full year GAAP earnings per share to $1.18. On a core earnings basis, the fourth quarter results were loss per share of $0.24. Full year core earnings per share were $2.

我們第四季的 GAAP 每股收益為 0.22 美元，全年 GAAP 每股收益達到 1.18 美元。以核心獲利計算，第四季每股虧損 0.24 美元。全年每股核心收益為 2 美元。

Significant items included in the quarter included a $0.20 loss from the expected sale of our government services business, $0.06 of regulatory and restructuring expenses, primarily driven by the strategic actions we are undertaking to reshape and right-size the expense base of the company. And $0.23 related to lower expected recovery rates and reserve build for our private education loan portfolio. Adjusting for these significant items, we earned $0.25 on a core basis.

本季度包含的重要項目包括預期出售政府服務業務產生的 0.20 美元損失、0.06 美元的監管和重組費用，這主要受到我們為重塑和適當調整公司費用基礎而採取的戰略行動所推動。0.23 美元與我們的私人教育貸款組合的預期回收率下降和儲備金建立有關。調整這些重要項目後，我們的核心利潤為 0.25 美元。

Before I go into the segments, I would like to pause and acknowledge the devastating wildfires that struck Southern California this month. I encourage all borrowers who have been impacted by this disaster and other natural disasters in recent quarters to take advantage of the various relief programs that we and the Department of Education offer to help you during these challenging times.

在我開始介紹這些內容之前，我想停下來，了解本月襲擊南加州的毀滅性山火。我鼓勵所有受到這次災難以及最近幾季其他自然災害影響的借款人利用我們和教育部提供的各種救助計劃來幫助您度過這段艱難時期。

Let me now provide further detail on results by segment, beginning with the Federal Education Loan segment on slide four. The net interest margin for Q4 was 43 basis points, 3 basis points lower than the prior quarter. For the full year, segment NIM was 45 basis points, and we expect full year NIM to increase in 2025 to a range of 45 basis points to 60 basis points.

現在，讓我進一步詳細介紹各部分的結果，首先從第四張投影片上的聯邦教育貸款部分開始。第四季淨利差為43個基點，較上季下降3個基點。全年分部淨利息收益率 (NIM) 為 45 個基點，我們預計 2025 年全年淨利息收益率 (NIM) 將增加至 45 個基點至 60 個基點的範圍。

Prepayment activity was significantly lower in the fourth quarter than we experienced earlier in the year. Prepayments were $300 million or 1% of the FFELP portfolio in the fourth quarter. This compared to average prepayments for the first nine months of the year of $1.7 billion per quarter.

第四季的預付款活動明顯低於今年稍早的水平。第四季的預付款為 3 億美元，佔 FFELP 投資組合的 1%。相比之下，今年前九個月的平均預付款為每季 17 億美元。

Recently issued injunctions called certain federal forgiveness benefits and resulted in the lower consolidation activity. We anticipate that our FFELP portfolio balance will total nearly $27 billion at the end of 2025. Compared to the prior year, our greater than 90-day delinquency rates increased to 8.7%, the charge-off rate improved to 11 basis points and forbearance rates decreased to 14.7%.

最近發布的禁令要求某些聯邦寬恕福利，並導致合併活動減少。我們預計，到 2025 年底，我們的 FFELP 投資組合餘額將達到近 270 億美元。與前一年相比，我們的90天以上拖欠率上升至8.7%，核銷率改善至11個基點，寬容率下降至14.7%。

Now, let's turn to our consumer lending segment on slide five. Net interest margin in this segment was 277 basis points in the quarter, compared to 284 basis points in the third quarter. For 2025, we anticipate our Consumer Lending NIM will be between 270basis points and 280 basis points and our balance of Private Education Loans will decline by 4% as our legacy book runs off and the refinance loans become a greater percentage of our consumer lending book.

現在，讓我們轉到第五張投影片上的消費貸款部分。本季該部門的淨利差為 277 個基點，而第三季為 284 個基點。到 2025 年，我們預計我們的消費貸款 NIM 將在 270 個基點至 280 個基點之間，而隨著我們遺留賬簿的耗盡以及再融資貸款在我們的消費貸款賬簿中所佔的比例越來越大，我們的私人教育貸款餘額將下降 4%。

Originations grew over 60% to $363 million, compared to $223 million a year ago. Full year origination volume grew to $1.4 billion compared to $970 million a year ago. Late-stage delinquencies increased from the prior quarter to 2.7%, while forbearance rates decreased from the prior quarter to 2.7%. The decrease in forbearance is primarily a result of the disaster relief that was granted to borrowers impacted by federally declared natural disasters in the third quarter that returned to repayment in the fourth quarter.

發起額從一年前的 2.23 億美元成長了 60% 以上，達到 3.63 億美元。全年發放量從一年前的 9.7 億美元成長至 14 億美元。後期拖欠率較上一季上升至 2.7%，而延期償還率較上一季下降至 2.7%。償還寬限期的減少主要由於向在第三季度受到聯邦政府宣布的自然災害影響的借款人提供了災難救濟，這些借款人在第四季度恢復了還款。

Our allowance for loan loss, excluding expected future recoveries on previously charge-off loans for our entire Education Loan portfolio is $800 million, which is highlighted on slide six. Private Education Loan origination volume during the quarter added $6 million to the allowance. $32 million is related to the build for Private Education Loan balances as we continue to see reduced collections for Private Education Loans.

我們的貸款損失準備金（不包括我們整個教育貸款組合中先前核銷的貸款的預期未來回收金額）為 8 億美元，這在第六張幻燈片中突出顯示。本季私人教育貸款發放量為撥備金增加了 600 萬美元。 3200萬美元與私人教育貸款餘額的增加有關，因為我們持續看到私人教育貸款的收款減少。

Slide seven shows the results from our business processing segment. We anticipate closing on our divestment of the government services business in the first quarter. During the fourth quarter, we classified the business as held for sale and recognized a loss of $28 million or $0.20 per share. After this reclassification, the government services business had a book value of approximately $40 million.

第七張幻燈片展示了我們業務處理部門的成果。我們預計將在第一季完成政府服務業務的剝離。在第四季度，我們將該業務歸類為持有待售，並確認了 2,800 萬美元或每股 0.20 美元的損失。經過重新分類後，政府服務業務的帳面價值約為 4,000 萬美元。

In the third quarter, we completed the sale of our equity interest in the healthcare services business for $369 million, resulting in a $290 million gain on sale. Together, these two transactions will result in over $400 million of net proceeds and represent the divestment of the entirety of Navient's business processing segment.

第三季度，我們以 3.69 億美元的價格完成了醫療服務業務股權的出售，獲得 2.9 億美元的出售收益。這兩筆交易合計將產生超過 4 億美元的淨收益，並代表 Navient 整個業務處理部門的剝離。

Under the terms of these agreements, we will continue to provide services to BPS businesses for a period of time. Our expenses in providing these services and the revenue we receive under these transition services agreements, or TSAs as well as the TSA supporting the transfer of servicing will be reported in the other segment.

根據這些協議的條款，我們將在一段時間內繼續為 BPS 企業提供服務。我們在提供這些服務方面產生的費用以及我們根據這些過渡服務協議或 TSA 以及支援服務轉移的 TSA 獲得的收入將在另一個部門中報告。

Let's turn to expenses beginning on slide eight. Total expenses for the quarter were lower by 25% to $151 million. We anticipate that the expenses related to the total transition costs of our BPS businesses and outsource servicing will total approximately $60 million for 2025 with approximately 40% offset by revenues related to the TSAs. The completion of the TSAs are important steps in our ability to remove these expenses. We remain confident in our ability to achieve the level of expense savings outlined in the slides that Ed reviewed with you earlier.

讓我們從第八張幻燈片開始討論費用。本季總支出下降 25% 至 1.51 億美元。我們預計，2025 年與 BPS 業務和外包服務的總過渡成本相關的費用總計約為 6,000 萬美元，其中約 40% 由與 TSA 相關的收入抵消。完成 TSA 是我們消除這些費用的重要步驟。我們仍然有信心，我們有能力實現 Ed 之前與您一起審查的幻燈片中概述的費用節約水平。

Let's turn to our capital allocation and financing activity that is highlighted on slide nine. In the quarter, we repurchased 4.4 million shares for $65 million. In the year, we reduced our share count by 9% through the repurchase of 11.5 million shares, while increasing our adjusted tangible equity ratio to 10% from 8.2% a year ago.

讓我們轉到第九張投影片中重點介紹的資本配置和融資活動。本季度，我們以 6,500 萬美元回購了 440 萬股。今年，我們透過回購 1,150 萬股將股票數量減少了 9%，同時將調整後的有形權益比率從一年前的 8.2% 提高到 10%。

In total, we returned $249 million to shareholders through share repurchase and dividends. We continue to maintain disciplined asset liability and financing strategies. As we look to the next 12 months, we have $722 million of cash on hand and are well positioned to significantly grow our high-quality loan products, manage our outstanding debt and distribute to shareholders.

總體而言，我們透過股票回購和股利向股東返還了 2.49 億美元。我們繼續保持嚴謹的資產負債和融資策略。展望未來 12 個月，我們手​​頭上有 7.22 億美元現金，並且有能力大幅增加優質貸款產品、管理未償債務並向股東分配利潤。

Our 2025 outlook reflects a transition year in which we begin to take advantage of the more streamlined and leaner enterprise we are creating. Our primary focus will be on growing loan originations while delivering expense reduction. Our 2025 core earnings guidance is $1 to $1.20 per share. This range is after the $0.26 of net expenses related to the transition services agreements discussed earlier. Separately, identifying these net expenses is designed to provide a sense of earnings on a continuing basis.

我們的 2025 年展望反映出一個過渡年，在這一年中，我們開始利用我們正在創造的更精簡、更精簡的企業。我們的重點是增加貸款發放量，同時降低開支。我們對 2025 年的核心獲利預測為每股 1 美元至 1.20 美元。這個範圍是在扣除前面討論過的過渡服務協議相關的 0.26 美元淨支出之後的。另外，確定這些淨支出的目的是提供持續的獲利感。

We anticipate full year total loan originations to grow by 30% as we remain focused on high-quality borrowers. With the current expectation for moderately lower rates in the back half of 2025, we expect this growth to be backloaded into the second half of the year.

由於我們仍專注於優質借款人，我們預計全年貸款發放總額將增加 30%。由於目前預計 2025 年下半年利率將適度下降，我們預計這一增長將延續到今年下半年。

Our approach to share repurchases during 2025 will balance capital we allocate to loan growth with excess capital available to repurchase shares. We have $111 million of remaining authorization to repurchase shares, which we plan to deploy opportunistically in 2025. Our EPS range does not assume any additional share repurchases. Our current cash and capital positions provide ample capacity to repurchase shares, and we believe the current discount to tangible book value presents an attractive opportunity.

我們在 2025 年期間的股票回購方法將平衡我們分配給貸款成長的資本和可用於回購股票的多餘資本。我們剩餘的股票回購授權金額為 1.11 億美元，我們計劃在 2025 年適時部署。我們的每股盈餘範圍不假設任何額外的股票回購。我們目前的現金和資本狀況提供了充足的回購股票的能力，我們相信當前有形帳面價值的折扣代表著一個有吸引力的機會。

As I close, I'd like to thank all of our Navient team members for their significant accomplishments over the past year and continued dedication to generating value for all stakeholders.

最後，我要感謝 Navient 團隊的所有成員在過去一年中取得的重大成就以及持續致力於為所有利害關係人創造價值。

Thank you for your time and I will now open the call for any questions.

謝謝您的時間，現在我將開始回答大家的提問。

(Operator Instructions) Sanjay Sakhrani, KBW.

(操作員指示) Sanjay Sakhrani，KBW。

So a question for David and Ed. I definitely appreciate the strategic discussion and sort of fleshing out the progress being made and how to think about it going forward. I'm just curious, is the decision to do this firm, so we should really expect you guys to curtail capital return and really focus on growth? And then maybe just specific to the growth, could you just talk about how you guys plan to accelerate originations and growth and when we can get to that expense run rate that you guys discussed on the $200 million?

所以我想問 David 和 Ed。我非常欣賞這種戰略討論以及對所取得的進展的詳細說明和對未來發展的思考。我只是好奇，決定這麼做是否堅定，所以我們真的應該期望你們減少資本回報並真正專注於成長？然後也許只是具體到增長，您能否談談你們計劃如何加速發起和增長，以及我們何時才能達到你們討論的 2 億美元費用運行率？

Sanjay, this is Ed. It looks like my colleagues are pointing at me. So I think just to put the thing in context, we said, look, we're in the middle of a turnaround. So there's a lot more detail that needs to be fleshed out, which we'll do in the second half. But I think the basic question you're asking is what's the company going to look like? And what we're saying is that at the moment, it's valued as if it's sort of going away. So just take those existing assets and value them.

桑傑，這是艾德。看起來我的同事正在指著我。所以我認為，為了把事情放在上下文中，我們說，看，我們正處於轉折點。因此，還有很多細節需要充實，我們將在下半部分進行。但我認為，你問的基本問題是公司會是什麼樣子？而我們所說的是，目前，它的價值似乎正在消失。因此，只需獲取這些現有資產並對其進行估值。

I think what we're saying is there's an opportunity here to have it start to be stable to growing and that will change perceptions. I don't think it's right to get ahead of ourselves because we're in the middle of the turnaround. I can't tell you everything. But hopefully we'll have good news for you later in the year.

我認為我們所說的是，這是一個機會，可以讓它開始穩定成長，並改變人們的看法。我認為我們不應該太過於超前，因為我們正處於轉型期。我無法告訴你一切。但希望我們在今年稍後能為您帶來好消息。

And the expense run rate?

費用運行率是多少？

Sorry, what's your question expenses?

抱歉，您的問題費用是多少？

You guys talked about how sort of the core can come down to something more like $200 million. Is that just a philosophical? I'm sorry, I just want to make sure I understood that.

你們談到了核心金額如何可以縮減到 2 億美元左右。這僅僅是一種哲學嗎？很抱歉，我只是想確保我理解了這一點。

That's a real number based on TSA expenses running off from what we're currently spending on. What it doesn't include is the next set of things we'll be doing, which we don't want to give you a number for yet. And it also doesn't include Earnest, by the way, which wasn't part of that process.

這是一個基於 TSA 支出和我們當前支出計算得出的實際數字。它沒有包括我們將要做的下一組事情，我們現在還不想透露具體數字。順便說一句，它也不包括 Earnest，因為它不屬於該流程的一部分。

And maybe just a follow-up question for Joe. Same question I had last earnings call on the provisions. Maybe you could just talk about how you feel about recovery rates now that you've taken another one. It sounded like you guys were comfortable last quarter, but there's been more adjustments. Can you just walk through that again?

也許這只是對喬的一個後續問題。我上次關於收益電話會議的準備金問題也是同樣的問題。也許您可以談談現在您服用了另一顆藥物後對恢復率的感受。聽起來你們上個季度過得還不錯，但還有很多調整。你能再說一次嗎？

And I would say that as we continue to just monitor our portfolio, we have seen delinquencies pick up both in the FFELP and private portfolios. And so a portion of our reserve, $14 million was related to a reserve build on the roughly $16 billion portfolio. Obviously, there's a number of factors here at play, whether it's inflation, interest rates and some of the -- obviously, the federal portfolio and changes in policy potentially impacting the private portfolio. But at this point, we certainly feel appropriately reserved, but it is something that we'll monitor throughout the year.

我想說的是，隨著我們繼續監控我們的投資組合，我們發現 FFELP 和私人投資組合中的拖欠情況都有所增加。因此，我們的儲備金中有 1,400 萬美元與約 160 億美元的投資組合儲備金有關。顯然，這裡有許多因素在起作用，無論是通貨膨脹、利率還是一些——顯然，聯邦投資組合和政策變化都可能影響私人投資組合。但在這一點上，我們當然感到適當保留，但這是我們全年都會關注的事情。

Bill Ryan, Seaport Research.

比爾‧瑞安（Bill Ryan），海港研究公司。

First one, obviously there's some incremental excitement in student lending about the possibility of some government programs, which you mentioned moving to the private sector. Some of your peer stocks have kind of responded already to it in anticipation of the move. I was wondering if you can maybe talk a little bit about your infrastructure. I know you're predominantly graduate loans in the in-school channel already and you're in over 1,000 schools. But what is the capacity that you see in the company right now to ramp that up if that opportunity becomes available?

首先，顯然學生貸款領域對於一些政府專案的可能性越來越感興趣，正如您所提到的，這些專案將轉移到私營部門。您的一些同行股票已經對此作出反應，以應對這一舉措。我想知道您是否可以談談您的基礎設施。我知道你們在校內通路主要提供研究生貸款，業務範圍已經涵蓋了 1,000 多所學校。但是，一旦出現這樣的機會，您認為公司目前的能力如何提升呢？

As you know, there's a number of comprehensive proposals. Some focus more on Federal Education Lending policy, some focus on broader parts of the government structure, but they include potential changes in Federal Education Loan policy. And within those proposals, there's a large number of elements.

如您所知，有許多全面的提案。其中一些更關注聯邦教育貸款政策，一些關注政府結構的更廣泛部分，但它們都包括聯邦教育貸款政策的潛在變化。這些提案包含大量的要素。

I think there's two things in all those proposals that are foreseeable and the impact and potential opportunity for us are foreseeable as well. The first is lower levels of loan forgiveness and perhaps changes in IDR programs. Those have an impact on our federal -- our FFELP portfolio, for example, which was impacted last year by a high level of consolidation activity, which in turn was driven by high level of loan forgiveness programs that were offered in the Federal Loan program. So to the extent, those are more predictable and even lower than they have been in the past, that extends the life of our existing FFELP portfolio, which obviously we think is a good thing.

我認為所有這些提案中有兩件事是可以預見的，對我們的影響和潛在機會也是可以預見的。首先是降低貸款減免水平，並可能改變 IDR 計劃。這些都對我們的聯邦產生了影響——例如，我們的 FFELP 投資組合去年受到高水平合併活動的影響，而這又受到聯邦貸款計劃中提供的高水平貸款減免計劃的推動。因此，在某種程度上，這些水平比過去更加可預測，甚至更低，這延長了我們現有 FFELP 投資組合的壽命，顯然我們認為這是一件好事。

The second impact of lower levels of forgiveness is that if you have a federal loan today and you're considering refinancing it to a lower rate, you have to consider the possibility of that loan being forgiven or having some other IDR or other payment programs that might make that debt a little less burdensome than it is today. And so you hold off and not do that. So forgiveness could have two impacts on us that are foreseeable.

較低程度的減免的第二個影響是，如果你現在有一筆聯邦貸款，並且你正在考慮將其再融資至較低的利率，那麼你必須考慮這筆貸款被減免的可能性，或者考慮一些其他 IDR 或其他支付計劃，這些可能會使這筆債務的負擔比現在減輕一些。所以你就忍住不這麼做。因此，寬恕會對我們產生兩種可預見的影響。

The second is -- foreseeable impact is the discussion about the potential elimination of the Grad PLUS program. And that's a federal market today that is about equal to the size of the private loan market as it exists today. And this is a customer segment, the graduate, that we have emphasized where a majority of our in-school origination is in the Grad program. So we absolutely feel like we've got the products that meet the needs of that segment. We've got the customer experience that seems to delight them based on all of the work that we do. And we certainly have the financial and operational capacity to take on greater volumes if and when they present themselves.

第二是－可預見的影響是關於可能取消 Grad PLUS 計畫的討論。現今的聯邦市場大約與現有的私人貸款市場規模相當。這是我們重點關注的客戶群，即畢業生，我們的在校學生主要來自研究生課程。因此我們絕對覺得我們的產品能夠滿足這一細分市場的需求。根據我們所做的所有工作，我們獲得的客戶體驗似乎令他們滿意。如果有需要，我們當然有財力和營運​​能力來承接更大的業務量。

And just one quick follow-up. You're talking about the $0.26 of expenses, some of that kind of carrying through into 2026 as well. Just kind of thinking about the elimination of it is it going to be like first quarter of 2026? And how much residual spillover will there be into the next year?

最後再跟進一下。您談論的是 0.26 美元的費用，其中一些費用也將延續到 2026 年。只是想一下，如果消除它，是否會像 2026 年第一季那樣？明年還有多少殘餘溢出效應？

So the way I think about it, we've made some really great progress so far today, as Ed highlighted. If you think about -- if you go to slide eight and look at the corporate expenses, one thing to think about there is we had $55 million in the fourth quarter of '23. We have $50 million of expenses in the fourth quarter of '24. Roughly $7 million of that is related to TSA expenses. So that gives you about a $12 million quarterly delta between the two years. So it just demonstrates the progress we've made year-over-year.

所以我認為，正如艾德所強調的那樣，我們今天到目前為止已經取得了一些非常重大的進展。如果你仔細想想——如果你翻到第八張投影片，看看公司費用，你會發現，在 23 年第四季度，我們的公司費用為 5,500 萬美元。我們在24年第四季的支出為5000萬美元。其中約 700 萬美元與 TSA 費用有關。因此這意味著兩年之間的季度差額約為 1200 萬美元。這只是展示了我們逐年取得的進步。

I would say if you factor that in and thinking about how we'll end at the end of the year, you're roughly about 50% of the way there in terms of taking out expenses. So I'll say a wildcard in all of this is TSAs could go longer than we anticipated. But as I highlighted in the last quarter's call, our expectation is that our extend transaction here with CorroHealth, that would end at some point in the first quarter. And with MOHELA, we're anticipating that that would end in the first half of the year, towards the backend of the first half.

我想說，如果你考慮到這一點，並思考我們今年年底的收尾情況，那麼在扣除費用方面，你大約已經完成了 50% 的目標。因此，我想說，所有這一切中的一個不確定因素是 TSA 的時間可能會比我們預期的要長。但正如我在上個季度的電話會議上所強調的那樣，我們預計與 CorroHealth 的延長交易將在第一季的某個時候結束。對於 MOHELA，我們預計該專案將於今年上半年末結束。

Rick Shane, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的里克·沙恩 (Rick Shane)。

I apologize if I'm a bit confused, but hopefully, we'll get some clarity here. There's $110 million remaining on the repurchase authorization. Guidance excludes any additional repurchases. Are you going to be opportunistic? Are you going to be programmatic? Or are you essentially saying, hey, in anticipation of these potential opportunities, we're going to really dial back on the repurchases?

如果我有點困惑，我很抱歉，但希望我們能在這裡得到一些澄清。回購授權剩餘金額為 1.1 億美元。指引不包括任何額外回購。你要投機取巧嗎？您要採用程式化嗎？或者你實際上是在說，嘿，為了應對這些潛在的機會，我們真的會減少回購？

So in the past, when we've given this guidance in terms of what our plans are for the year, that was fairly programmatic throughout the year and done for modeling purposes. We will be opportunistic here and we plan -- or we expect to be purchasers at these levels. So certainly, the discount to tangible book value is attractive to us. But what we want you to take away is for modeling purposes to assume zero. That in no way means that we will not be buying shares this year. In fact, we are looking at it today and our purchasers as well.

因此，在過去，當我們就年度計劃給予指導時，這種指導在全年都是相當具有程序性的，並且是為了建模目的而做的。我們將在此抓住機會並製定計劃——或者我們期望成為這些層面的購買者。因此，有形帳面價值的折扣對我們來說無疑是有吸引力的。但是我們希望您記住，為了建模目的，假設為零。但這絕不代表我們今年不會買股票。事實上，我們今天正在關注這個問題，我們的購買者也是如此。

Got it. Yes. Obviously, if you're going to be opportunistic given where you're trading versus tangible, that's helpful clarification.

知道了。是的。顯然，如果您打算在交易地點而不是有形地點抓住機會，那麼這樣的澄清是有幫助的。

Look, the other thing here is and there's been conversation, you guys pointed out your discount to book, you pointed it out on a relative basis. Implicitly, your guidance at the midpoint for 2025 suggests about a 5% ROE. If you add back the potential expense savings, which don't sound like they're going to materialize until really '26, you're talking about maybe a 6% ROE. In that context versus the peers that you guys pointed out, the valuation actually kind of makes sense. I'm curious what you think the potential ROTCE of this business is? And how long it's going to take to achieve it?

你看，這裡的另一件事是，並且已經有過對話，你們指出了你們的預訂折扣，你們指出這是相對的。隱含地，您對 2025 年中點的指導顯示 ROE 約為 5%。如果加上潛在的費用節省，這些節省聽起來要到 26 年才會真正實現，那麼 ROE 可能就是 6%。與你們指出的同行相比，在這種情況下，估值實際上是合理的。我很好奇，您認為這家企業的潛在 ROTCE 是多少？要花多久時間才能實現？

So Rick, I mean, the first thing I'd say is that the valuation isn't just the static about ROE, and I know you understand that. I think your math on where we are in 2025 is probably about right. But the valuation is also going to depend on our ability to demonstrate growth and growth potential. I would call you back to last year, we managed to increase refi originations by 60% in a relatively stable, even slightly headwind interest rate environment. We're planning on increasing loan originations by 30% this year. Again, most of that will be backloaded. So it's going to be a combination of factors of return, et cetera.

所以里克，我的意思是，我想說的第一件事是估值不僅僅是關於 ROE 的靜態數據，我知道你明白這一點。我認為你對我們 2025 年狀況的計算可能是正確的。但估值也將取決於我們展示成長和成長潛力的能力。讓我回顧去年，我們在相對穩定、甚至略有逆風的利率環境下成功將再融資發放量提高了 60%。我們計劃今年的貸款發放量增加30%。再次，其中大部分將被推遲。因此，這將是回報等多種因素的結合。

Ed talked about the fact that one of the benefits of the expense reduction that we've done is it gives us an opportunity to lower our breakeven, which helps us grow a little faster as well. And so we'll come back to you in the second half of the year with a better sense of what those growth opportunities are and the levels that we can achieve with a lower expense base and the opportunities we see to grow that.

艾德談到，我們削減開支的好處之一是，它使我們有機會降低損益平衡點，這也有助於我們更快成長。因此，我們將在今年下半年再次向您介紹這些成長機會，以及我們以較低的費用基礎可以達到的水平，以及我們看到的成長機會。

I would like to just add something by way of clarification because it probably hasn't come across very clearly. I mean, if you phrase the question like what does it take to get to book value? You can sort of say arithmetically what it is because nothing else has changed.

我想補充一些說明，因為可能還沒表達清楚。我的意思是，如果你這樣表達問題，那麼你需要什麼才能達到帳面價值？你可以透過算術的方式說出它是什麼，因為其他一切都沒有改變。

One of the things that we're trying to evaluate in the next few months is -- and if you think about it, let's say that you're not growing and your return on equity has to be 10%, 12% to make book. So that's what you need to do. If you're starting to grow, you might need a lower return on equity to justify that. So the reason I think that David might have given you a less than direct answer is because we're trying to figure out what the best combination of growth and return would be for future share price.

我們在接下來的幾個月裡試圖評估的事情之一是——如果你仔細想想，假設你沒有成長，你的股本回報率必須達到 10% 或 12% 才能獲利。所以這就是你需要做的。如果您開始發展，您可能需要較低的股本回報率來證明這一點。因此，我認為大衛可能沒有給你一個不太直接的答案，因為我們正在試圖找出未來股價的最佳成長和回報組合。

And is the way somewhat to think of this that your generating a return that is below hurdle rate now because you're essentially preserving capital for a potential opportunity, again, effectively a doubling -- some probability of a doubling of your TAM and so it's a little bit like insurance, you have to pay for it now. You don't necessarily like it, but if you need it in the future, you need that capital in the future, you're going to be really glad you have it?

可以這樣想，您現在產生的回報低於最低收益率，因為您實際上正在為潛在機會保留資本，這實際上是翻倍了 — — 有一定機率您的 TAM 會翻倍，所以這有點像保險，您必須現在就付錢。你不一定喜歡它，但如果你將來需要它，你將來需要那筆資本，你會真的很高興擁有它嗎？

That's exactly right.

完全正確。

And maybe I'm less confused than I thought. Thanks, guys.

也許我並沒有自己想像的那麼困惑。謝謝大家。

Moshe Orenbuch, TD Cowen.

Moshe Orenbuch，TD Cowen。

Hoping -- I guess, given that your guidance for the -- I mean, the FFELP portfolio is running off and the guidance for originations at 30% higher basically still leaves you with 4% decline in the private portfolio in 2025. I mean, how long do you think it would take to get -- how many years would it take to get to a point where the business actually in total is growing? Or I mean, are there other products? I mean or is this just reliant on kind of changes in the grad program from an administrative or regulatory standpoint?

希望 — — 我想，鑑於你對 — — 我的意思是，FFELP 投資組合正在運行，並且對 30% 更高發起的指導基本上仍然會讓你的私人投資組合在 2025 年下降 4%。我的意思是，您認為需要多長時間—需要多少年才能達到業務整體實際成長的程度？或者我的意思是，還有其他產品嗎？我的意思是，這是否僅僅依賴於從行政或監管角度對研究生課程的改變？

Moshe, I think there's three parts of our answer to that, at least three parts of our answer to that. One part is, I think we've demonstrated growth, and we think there's additional growth in the products that we've had and that's reflected in the refi origination growth that we've had and that we're targeting. There are potential opportunities to expand growth in those products, particularly in the in-school market if there's Federal Education Loan policy changes. We're not counting on those. We're not assuming any of those, but we have the capacity to do that. And if those opportunities present themselves, we want to be ready for that.

摩西，我認為我們的答案有三個部分，至少有三個部分。一方面，我認為我們已經展示了成長，我們認為我們擁有的產品還有額外的成長，這反映在我們已經擁有的和我們所瞄準的再融資發起成長中。如果聯邦教育貸款政策發生變化，這些產品就有潛在的成長機會，特別是在校內市場。我們不指望這些。我們沒有假設任何這些，但我們有能力做到這一點。如果這些機會出現了，我們希望做好準備。

And the third opportunity is expansion in the product set, which we talked about somewhat last year, a little bit more. That's more to come on that, but that's another opportunity for us to grow our balances more rapidly than we have historically.

第三個機會是產品組合的擴展，我們去年討論過一些。這還有更多內容，但這是我們比歷史上更快增加餘額的另一個機會。

And maybe just to put a finer point on the 2025 guidance, the $1 to $1.20, if you think about it, besides the $0.26, which you'll get back as the expenses are reduced and the TSAs run off. But besides that, that $1 to $1.20, is the run rate higher or lower at the end of 2025 than it is at the beginning? Because you've got, as we said, a smaller portfolio. You do have some element of share repurchase, although it sounds like it's going to be significantly smaller after 2025. So when you think about that run rate of $0.25 to $0.30 a quarter or the average of that $1 to $1.20, is that going up or down over the course of 2025? And if so what are the drivers that you're thinking of?

也許只是為了對 2025 年的指導方針進行更詳細的闡述，如果你仔細想想，除了 0.26 美元之外，你還會在費用減少和 TSA 用完後收回這筆錢。但除此之外，1 美元兌 1.20 美元的匯率，到 2025 年底，其運行率是比年初高還是低？因為正如我們所說，你的投資組合規模較小。你確實有一些股票回購的因素，儘管聽起來 2025 年後股票回購的規模會小得多。因此，當您考慮每季 0.25 美元到 0.30 美元的運行率或 1 美元到 1.20 美元的平均值時，這個數字在 2025 年期間是上升還是下降？如果是的話，您考慮的驅動因素是什麼？

So there's a couple of things. It's not just a straight line in every single quarter and I'll try to avoid giving quarterly guidance here specifically. But I would say that you are at the -- our anticipation would be that you're at the high end of that range that you're talking about by the time you enter the fourth quarter. In the first and third quarter, there are seasonal factors that do pressure some of the expenses. So notably in the third quarter, your in-school originations where you're taking a larger provision at that time, and you tend to have higher expenses associated with that in the quarter.

因此，有幾件事。它並不是每個季度都是一條直線，我會盡量避免在這裡具體給出季度指導。但我想說的是，我們預計，到第四季時，你的業績將達到你所談論的範圍的高端。第一季和第三季度，季節性因素確實對部分費用造成壓力。尤其是在第三季度，您在校內支出的撥備金額會更大，因此本季的相關費用往往會更高。

Also, in the first quarter, we will have a little bit of additional expenses from the BPS business, as Dave and I both mentioned. It has not closed at this point in time. So there were I think about $40 million of expenses for the fourth quarter. And depending on if that close date is at the end of this month or next month, you would have expenses that are offset by revenue. So I know it's a long answer, but a long way of saying that we would anticipate that you'd be on the higher end of that range as we enter into the fourth quarter, absent anything that is out of our current forecast from the interest rate environment.

此外，正如戴夫和我都提到的，在第一季度，我們將從 BPS 業務中獲得一些額外支出。目前它尚未關閉。所以我認為第四季的支出約為 4,000 萬美元。並且根據截止日期是本月末還是下個月末，您將有由收入抵消的支出。所以我知道這是一個很長的答案，但是可以這麼說，我們預計，當我們進入第四季度時，您的收入將處於該範圍的高端，除非出現任何超出我們目前對利率環境的預測的情況。

Nate Richam, Bank of America.

美國銀行的 Nate Richam。

I was just curious how you all are thinking about approaching this year in terms of the in-school loan product. I think you noted 30% origination growth on the total private portfolio. Just wondering if you can break that down further between in-school and refinance. And then on that topic, just how many rate cuts are you guys expecting in your outlook?

我只是好奇你們今年對校內貸款產品有什麼想法。我認為您注意到了整個私人投資組合的發起量增加了 30%。只是想知道您是否可以進一步細分在校內和再融資之間。那麼關於這個話題，你們預計未來降息次數是多少？

Sure. So I'll tackle the second question first and then address the first one as well. So the second question, it's two rate cuts, so a relatively flat curve at this point. So the first one being in the first half of the year towards the backend and then the last cut at the end of the year. So there would be obviously pressure associated with that on the FFELP portfolio, which you wouldn't necessarily get the benefit as it relates to additional floor income in this year. So that would be a positive going into '26 should those two rate cuts occur.

當然。因此我將先解決第二個問題，然後再解決第一個問題。第二個問題是，由於已經降息兩次，因此目前的曲線相對平坦。因此，第一次削減是在上半年，然後最後一次削減是在年底。因此，FFELP 投資組合顯然會面臨壓力，您不一定能從中獲得與今年額外底線收入相關的利益。因此，如果這兩次降息真的發生，那麼對於 26 年來說將是一個正面的影響。

In terms of origination guidance, the way we think about it is, as Dave highlighted and I did as well that we do think that originations, we'll see that in the back-half of the year. But breaking down that 30%, it's roughly what you've seen from an in-school perspective, 10% consistent growth, high-quality borrowers, predominantly the graduate students. And on the refi side, that would translate to roughly about 40% to 50% growth again in the back-half of the year.

就發起指導而言，我們的想法是，正如戴夫和我所強調的那樣，我們確實認為發起會在下半年看到。但分解這 30%，從在校學生的角度來看，大致就是 10% 的持續成長，高品質的借款人，主要是研究生。從再融資方面來看，這將意味著下半年將再次實現約 40% 至 50% 的成長。

And then I apologize if you addressed this with Rick's question, but can you just talk a little further about the return profile of the Earnest business? I think you guys previously mentioned you're targeting around like mid-teens returns there. But just given the dynamics that we're seeing with like higher loss rates and delinquency rates and the lower recovery outlook, I guess, like, how do these recent vintages line up with the target return profile?

然後，如果您回答了 Rick 的問題，我深感抱歉，但您能否進一步談談 Earnest 業務的回報狀況？我想你們之前提到過，你們的目標是達到十幾歲左右的報酬率。但考慮到我們所看到的動態，例如更高的損失率和拖欠率以及更低的復甦前景，我想，這些近期的業績與目標回報率情況如何一致呢？

So we're targeting -- we have said we targeted mid-teen returns on Earnest. That's dependent on growth rates and our operating expenses, the operating leverage that we have in that business. You may see us take advantage of opportunities we see in the market to grow a little more rapidly. But in a steady state-run rate, we think that business could be a double-digit return business.

因此，我們的目標是——我們已經說過，我們的目標是 Earnest 的回報率達到 15% 左右。這取決於成長率和我們的營運費用，以及我們在該業務中的營運槓桿。您可能會看到我們利用市場上看到的機會實現更快的成長。但在穩定的運行率下，我們認為該業務可能實現兩位數的回報。

And then your second question on the recovery rate, I'm sorry?

那麼您的第二個問題是關於恢復率，對不起？

Yes. I was just curious like your recovery outlook just changed anything or if that's like related to certain vintages or not?

是的。我只是好奇，你的復甦前景是否發生了改變，或者這是否與某些年份有關？

Yes. So look, I'd characterize the recovery rate as a really small change on a large volume amount that is very much a legacy issue for us. We've got a large number of loans that were originated decades ago. Many of them were charged-off years and years ago.

是的。所以，我認為回收率只是大量數據中的一個很小的變化，這對我們來說是一個遺留問題。我們有大量幾十年前發放的貸款。其中許多人很多年前就被註銷了。

And as we continue to try to recover against those loans, we have a set of assumptions about that recovery that's in our reserve rate and we're continuously updating that. But this is not a reflection obviously of credit quality on the existing portfolio and the recovery rate on the much smaller amount of charge-off loans, more recent vintages is absolutely in line with our expectations. So this is very much a legacy issue and a relatively small change that we continue to update as we learn more and have more experience in recovering against those loans.

當我們繼續嘗試收回這些貸款時，我們對收回的準備率有一套假設，我們會不斷更新這些假設。但這顯然並不能反映現有投資組合的信用質量，而且近期較少量的核銷貸款的回收率完全符合我們的預期。因此，這在很大程度上是一個遺留問題和一個相對較小的變化，隨著我們了解更多資訊並累積了更多追討這些貸款的經驗，我們會繼續更新這項變更。

Terry Ma, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的馬特里 (Terry Ma)。

I just want to follow up on the Grad PLUS opportunity. I would imagine if that materializes, you would kind of compete for it more aggressively. So maybe just talk about how that business or potential business could kind of fit alongside Earnest because it kind of looked like Earnest mainly refis kind of grad loans, but then you would potentially be also kind of originating grad loans should the PLUS program be curtailed. So can those two businesses be complementary?

我只是想跟進 Grad PLUS 的機會。我想，如果這一目標實現了，你就會更積極地競爭。因此，也許只是談論該業務或潛在業務如何與 Earnest 相適應，因為 Earnest 看起來主要為畢業生貸款進行再融資，但如果 PLUS 計劃受到限制，那麼您也可能會發放畢業生貸款。那麼這兩項業務可以互補嗎？

Yes. So they are complementary today in terms of we are originating to graduate students. So the opportunity, if I'm understanding the question right, is if Grad PLUS were eliminated, is there additional opportunity for us? And I would say, yes, that is very much in our wheelhouse. That is, as Dave mentioned, the majority of what we're doing today from an in-school origination perspective. So we feel that that's attractive and fits very well with the Earnest brand.

是的。因此，就我們培養研究生而言，它們是互補的。所以，如果我理解正確的話，機會就是，如果 Grad PLUS 被取消，我們是否還有機會？我想說，是的，這完全符合我們的職責範圍。正如戴夫所提到的，這就是我們今天從校內發起的角度所做的大部分工作。因此，我們認為這很有吸引力並且與 Earnest 品牌非常契合。

I guess I'm just questioning what's to stop potential grad students from kind of walking next door and just kind of refinancing with Earnest?

我想我只是想知道，如何才能阻止潛在的研究生走進隔壁並與 Earnest 進行再融資？

So once they graduated? Sorry. So once the --

那麼他們一旦畢業了呢？對不起。因此一旦--

Yes.

是的。

I was thinking about a Grad PLUS loans, yes. So once they have graduated from school, they will certainly evaluate their options and that's going to be an interest rate play at that point for most of those borrowers. And it's going to depend on their credit history, certainly how quickly they went from an undergrad to a graduate program and then graduated for that, whether they would get a better rate or not.

是的，我正在考慮 Grad PLUS 貸款。因此，一旦他們從學校畢業，他們肯定會評估自己的選擇，而對於大多數借款人來說，這將是一個利率問題。這取決於他們的信用記錄，當然也取決於他們從本科升入研究生課程並畢業的速度，以及他們是否能獲得更優惠的利率。

It's also going to depend on whether they have a cosigner. But we think that establishing the brand early on and that familiarity with Earnest, as Ed highlighted, they have very high promoter scores, very well received. So we think that relationship would just add value to the fact that while interest rates do play a significant part in refinancing, I would think the relationship would help as well.

這也取決於他們是否有共同簽名人。但我們認為，由於早期建立了品牌並且熟悉 Earnest，正如 Ed 所強調的那樣，他們擁有非常高的推廣者分數，非常受歡迎。因此，我們認為，這種關係只會增加這一事實的價值：雖然利率在再融資中確實發揮重要作用，但我認為這種關係也會有所幫助。

Jeff Adelson, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的傑夫·阿德爾森。

Just on the new product expansion potential, I know you're in the testing phase still. It sounds like we'll get something later this year and we've asked about this in prior calls. But just any sort of incremental learnings you've had on that front as you've gone through the testing? Do you think you've identified something that's tangible that you'll be ready to announce later in the year? And just maybe any more incremental color on what those products or enhancements might look like at this point?

就新產品的擴展潛力而言，我知道您仍處於測試階段。聽起來我們好像會在今年晚些時候得到一些東西，我們在之前的電話中已經詢問過這個問題了。但是，當您進行測試時，您在這方面有什麼漸進式的學習嗎？您是否認為已經確定了一些切實可行的舉措並準備在今年稍後宣布？或許現在還能對這些產品或增強功能做進一步的了解嗎？

So I wouldn't go -- it's too soon to go into the products, but I think the way I could describe this, if you think about the assets that we think Earnest brings to the marketplace, right, they include an ability to create a simplified process for people to help manage their debt burdens. That's effectively what the refi product has done. We feel like our credentials and capabilities there are very, very strong.

所以我不會去談論產品，現在談論這些產品還為時過早，但我認為我可以這樣描述這一點，如果你想想我們認為 Earnest 為市場帶來的資產，對吧，它們包括為人們創建一個簡化流程以幫助管理他們的債務負擔的能力。這其實就是再融資產品所扮演的角色。我們覺得我們在那裡的資質和能力非常非常強。

We've got a customer experience after origination that we also -- that surprises and delights customers as well. And so we're looking for ways that other market opportunities where we can take the advantages that we have, combine them with some operating leverage given the online capabilities that Earnest has, the reduction in operating expense and try to find a match between the capabilities we can bring to the marketplace that can also provide a substantial return for our shareholders as well. So it's going to be built off the assets that we think we have relative to the opportunities in the marketplace where we think we can apply those assets.

我們在發起之後也獲得了讓客戶感到驚喜和高興的客戶體驗。因此，我們正在尋找其他市場機會，利用我們的優勢，結合 Earnest 的線上能力和營運費用的降低，創造一些營運槓桿，並嘗試找到我們可以為市場帶來的能力之間的匹配，同時也為我們的股東帶來可觀的回報。因此，它將建立在我們認為我們擁有的資產與我們認為可以應用這些資產的市場機會的基礎上。

And just to circle back on Grad PLUS, have you done any work on how much of that volume, that $14 billion, $15 billion would actually be in your sort of credit box or what you'd be willing to actually pursue against others?

回到 Grad PLUS 的問題，您是否研究過其中有多少，即 140 億美元、150 億美元實際上會進入您的信用額度，或者您願意實際向其他人索要多少？

Look, we've done some internal assessment. I'm not going to share that with you. I would just say that a lot of it's going to depend on exactly what the public policy changes are. But if you look at a couple of scenarios, I think there's a possibility here where the opportunity for us, a fair share of the underwritable part of that market could be a substantial opportunity for us. And I would just leave it at that.

看，我們已經做了一些內部評估。我不會和你分享這個。我只想說，這很大程度取決於公共政策的具體變化。但如果你看一下幾種情況，我認為這裡存在著一種可能性，對我們來說，在該市場可承保部分中獲得公平的份額可能是一個巨大的機會。我就不說了。

If I could add something add on your first question. One of the things that we're really testing for and looking at to talk about later in the year is sort of an overall business model question because there are certain kinds of products you can do that have relatively low headline NIM, but very good operating economics.

如果我可以補充一些內容，請回答您的第一個問題。我們目前正在測試並計劃在今年稍後討論的事情之一是整體商業模式問題，因為有些產品的整體淨利差相對較低，但營運經濟效益卻非常好。

And then you've got products that are more expensive to manage and generate and so on, which have higher headline NIMs. The real question I think you're asking is can you run those two in tandem and that's something we want to think about. And when we come back and talk later in the year, we'll be able to tell you what we're going to try. I hope that's helpful.

然後你會發現，管理和生產成本更高等的產品，其整體淨利差也更高。我認為你真正想問的問題是能否同時運行這兩者，這是我們想要考慮的問題。當我們今年晚些時候回來談話時，我們將能夠告訴您我們將要嘗試什麼。我希望這有幫助。

Mark DeVries, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的馬克‧德弗里斯 (Mark DeVries)。

I had a question for Joe. Could you discuss how expected paydowns on the FFELP portfolio match up with your debt maturities and needs to access lending markets down the road? And how the repositioning you guys are undergoing has kind of impacted your ability to access those markets?

我有一個問題想問喬。您能否討論一下 FFELP 投資組合的預期償還如何與您的債務到期日以及未來進入貸款市場的需求相符？你們正在進行的重新定位對你們進入這些市場的能力有何影響？

So over the years, obviously, we've done a fairly good job in terms of matching up the maturity profile with our cash flows. You may remember, Mark, you covered us long enough, seven years back when we used to talk about the towers that are ahead of us. We've really reduced that and given ourselves much more funding flexibility. So we have the ability today to go through multiple periods here without issuance.

因此，多年來，我們在匹配到期日狀況與現金流量方面顯然做得相當好。馬克，你也許還記得，七年前你報道我們很久了，當時我們常常談論我們前方的塔樓。我們確實減少了這筆金額，並給予了我們自己更多的資金彈性。因此，我們今天有能力在這裡經歷多個時期而無需發行。

Having said that, I think if there's opportunities that are attractive to us, we would look to issue just to continue obviously demonstrating access in that marketplace, but also funding any future opportunities that we see. So we feel very good with where we are positioned-wise, even considering the slowdown in the FFELP portfolio that we're seeing.

話雖如此，我認為如果有對我們有吸引力的機會，我們就會考慮發行債券，顯然這是為了繼續展示我們進入該市場的管道，同時也為我們看到的任何未來機會提供資金。因此，即使考慮到我們看到的 FFELP 投資組合的放緩，我們對自己的定位仍然感到非常滿意。

As you know, over the last several years, we've seen prepayments tick up and then come down, but our forecast here is more in line with what you've seen historically in terms of prepayments and that should give you a pretty decent sense of how those cash flows will match up.

如您所知，在過去幾年中，我們看到預付款項呈上升然後下降趨勢，但我們在此的預測與您在歷史上看到的預付款項情況更加一致，這應該可以讓您相當清楚地了解這些現金流將如何匹配。

And apologize if I missed this, but I saw there was a more than 500 basis points increase in FFELP delinquencies in the quarter. Could you discuss what drove that and kind of the implications for your business?

如果我錯過了這一點，請原諒，但我發現本季度 FFELP 拖欠率增加了 500 個基點以上。您能否討論一下導致這現象的原因以及這對您的業務有何影響？

So it's always difficult to say exactly what was the driver, just given that there's a number of factors today that I highlighted of whether that's overall interest rate environment and just the economy in general. But I would say that the tougher challenge for us on the FFELP portfolio is how much of the noise from just loan forgiveness and loan policy has limited some of the ability for connection with some of these borrowers. So it's something we'll continue to monitor. Obviously, you've seen forbearance and other rates improve here, but the delinquencies in the early stage did spike up and we did take a small provision in the quarter.

因此，很難確切地說出驅動因素是什麼，只是考慮到我今天強調的一系列因素，無論是整體利率環境還是整個經濟狀況。但我想說，對我們來說，FFELP 投資組合面臨的更嚴峻挑戰是，貸款減免和貸款政策帶來的噪音在多大程度上限制了我們與部分借款人的聯繫能力。因此我們會繼續監控此事。顯然，您已經看到寬容率和其他利率在這裡有所改善，但早期的拖欠率確實大幅上升，我們在本季度確實提列了少量撥備。

Ryan Shelley, Bank of America.

美國銀行的瑞安‧雪萊 (Ryan Shelley)。

Most of mine have been answered. Just one quick one here. As we think about sort of the growth opportunities going forward and it sounds like we'll get more color as the year goes on. But from a debtholder point of view, would you consider funding any of these potential growth opportunities by coming back to the market? And just on capital allocation as well, where should we think about ranking repayment of unsecured maturities?

我的大部分問題都已得到回應。這裡僅簡單介紹一下。當我們思考未來的成長機會時，聽起來隨著時間的推移我們將會獲得更多的色彩。但從債權人的角度來看，您是否會考慮重返市場來為這些潛在的成長機會提供資金？同樣在資本配置方面，我們該如何考慮對無擔保到期債務的償還進行排名？

Sure. I'll start with the first part of that question. So certainly, if there's significant growth opportunities in front of us, unsecured debt issuance would play a part of that. Today, we have also other funding options available to us. We have over $700 million of cash on hand. We also have unencumbered loans that we can borrow against totaling about $1.3 billion. And then as we've demonstrated before in our encumbered portfolio, the OC there is another $4.8 billion. So we do have other levers to pull in terms of pulling cash forward if we want to invest versus unsecured debt issuance.

當然。我將從該問題的第一部分開始。因此，如果我們面前有重大的成長機會，那麼無擔保債務發行肯定會發揮其中的作用。今天，我們還有其他融資選擇。我們手頭上有7億多美元的現金。我們還有總額約 13 億美元的無抵押貸款可供抵押。正如我們之前在我們的抵押投資組合中所展示的那樣，OC 還有另外 48 億美元。因此，如果我們想進行投資而不是發行無擔保債務，我們確實可以利用其他槓桿來提取現金。

Having said that, I think it really depends on the level of growth that we would see in both the in-school product, the refi and anything else that we determine we're going to pursue going forward. So I think it would play a role and just it depends on really the size and what changes in the market over the next two years.

話雖如此，我認為這實際上取決於我們在校內產品、再融資以及我們決定未來要追求的其他產品中看到的成長水平。所以我認為它會發揮作用，只是這實際上取決於市場規模以及未來兩年市場的變化。

I show no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn it back over to Jen for the closing remarks.

顯示隊列中目前沒有其他問題。現在我想將發言權交還給 Jen，請她做結束語。

Thanks, Michelle. And I want to thank everybody for joining today's call. Please contact me if we were not able to take your question or if you have any other follow-up questions. This concludes today's call.

謝謝，米歇爾。我要感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。如果我們無法回答您的問題或您有任何其他後續問題，請與我聯絡。今天的電話會議到此結束。

This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。