Versabank (VBNK) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to VersaBank's First Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. This morning, VersaBank issued a news release reporting its financial results for the first quarter ended January 31, 2023. That news release, along with the Bank's financial statements, and supplemental financial information are available on the Bank's website in the Investor Relations section, as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR. Please note that in addition to the telephone dial-in, VersaBank is webcasting this morning's conference call. The webcast is listen-only. If you are listening on the webcast, but wish to ask a question in the Q&A session following Mr. Taylor's presentation, please dial into the conference line, the details of which are provided in this morning's news release and on the Bank's website. For those participating in today's call by telephone, the accompanying slide presentation is available on the Bank's website. Also, today's call will be archived for replay, both by telephone and via the internet beginning approximately 1 hour following completion of the call. Details on how to access the replays are available in this morning’s news release. I would like to remind our listeners that the statements about future events made on this call are forward-looking in nature and are based on certain assumptions and analysis made by VersaBank management. Actual results could differ materially from our expectations due to various material risks and uncertainties associated with VersaBank’s businesses. Please refer to VersaBank’s forward-looking statement advisory in today’s presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. David Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer of VersaBank. Please go ahead, Mr. Taylor.

早上好，女士們，先生們。歡迎來到 VersaBank 的 2023 財年第一季度財務業績電話會議。今天上午，VersaBank 發布了一份新聞稿，報告其截至 2023 年 1 月 31 日的第一季度財務業績。該新聞稿連同銀行的財務報表和補充財務信息可在銀行網站的投資者關係部分獲取，如下所示以及 SEDAR 和 EDGAR。請注意，除了電話撥入外，VersaBank 還在網上直播今天上午的電話會議。網絡廣播是只聽的。如果您正在收聽網絡廣播，但希望在 Taylor 先生演講後的問答環節中提問，請撥入會議專線，詳細信息在今天上午的新聞稿和世行網站上提供。對於那些通過電話參加今天電話會議的人，可以在世行網站上獲得隨附的幻燈片演示。此外，今天的通話將在通話結束後大約 1 小時開始通過電話和互聯網進行存檔以供重播。有關如何訪問重播的詳細信息，請參閱今天上午的新聞稿。我想提醒我們的聽眾，本次電話會議上關於未來事件的陳述本質上是前瞻性的，並且基於 VersaBank 管理層所做的某些假設和分析。由於與 VersaBank 業務相關的各種重大風險和不確定性，實際結果可能與我們的預期存在重大差異。請參閱 VersaBank 在今天的演示文稿中的前瞻性聲明諮詢。我現在想把電話轉給 VersaBank 總裁兼首席執行官大衛泰勒先生。請繼續，泰勒先生。

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for today's call. With me is Shawn Clarke, our Chief Financial Officer. Before I begin, I'd like to remind you that our financial results are reported and will be discussed on this call, and our reporting currency, Canadian dollars. Those interested, we will provide U.S. translations for most of our financial numbers in our standard investor presentation, which will be updated and available on our website shortly. Now to the results. The first quarter was not only another record quarter for VersaBank but more importantly, one that was demonstrative of the true efficiency and return on equity generating capability of our branchless business-to-business digital banking model. And once again, this was complemented by the continued profitable contribution of our cybersecurity services business. Our digital banking operations continue to see very strong year-over-year growth and our loan portfolio at 46%, which drove our portfolio to an all-time high of just under $3.2 billion. Growth was again driven primarily by Canadian point-of-sale loan and lease portfolio, which was up 68% from Q1 last year. The combination of loan growth and stable net interest margin drove record revenue and record interest income. On the cost side, as we anticipated, the transitory costs related to growth investments and our move to NASDAQ that temporarily elevated our noninterest expense and dampened our profitability in 2022, substantially normalized in the first quarter, putting our efficiency ratio back on track towards its full potential. We continue to expect further normalization as our noninterest expense and importantly, we haven't only barely begun to realize the growth contributions of those investments we made last year. All this drove by far, our best quarter ever in terms of net income and EPS. Say for one outside quarter for net income in 2017 due to an accounting recognition when VersaBank amalgamated with PWC capital. Net income grew 69% year-over-year to $9.4 million, besting our previous record of $6.4 million by a full $3 million, and EPS grew 79% or $0.15 year-over-year to $0.34. Looking more closely at our performance, as I noted a moment ago, the first quarter financial results were marked once again by our best-ever revenue, net interest income, and net income and earnings per share. Outside of these record results, there are 3 metrics that I'd like to highlight. The first is our net interest margin. It is important to note that we have generated loan growth while maintaining our overall net interest margin and without taking on additional risk. This is something relatively unique compared to our peers. The second is our efficiency ratio. Now that we are through the bulk of our transitory costs for our strategic growth initiatives, the true scalability and efficiency of our model is emerging. The third, earnings per share growth, which outpaced net income growth as a result of our active share repurchase program. As we look ahead, in addition to the continued growth we expect in our Canadian loan portfolio, we expect to generate significant long-term growth from our launch of the United States receivable purchase program. This is our high-value-add financing offering for consumers and small business lenders. Based on our proprietary technology that provides them with a regular, reliable inexpensive funding alternative to help them succeed in their businesses. As I discussed in our last quarterly call, this acquisition is transformational. The next step in VersaBank's long-term growth strategy that will enable us to bring our track record of innovative digital banking solutions to address unmet needs to one of the world's largest banking markets. We have launched this program on a limited basis in the United States of the broad national rollout planned upon completion of the acquisition of the Minnesota-based Stearns Bank Holdingford, a fully operational OCC chartered national U.S. Bank. Specifically, this acquisition will enable us to broadly roll out our receivable purchase program to the underserved U.S. market, which has been so successful in Canada, where we call it our point-of-sale financing business. In December, we submitted the requisite filings to the OCC and the reserve seeking approval of the acquisition. And based on continuing dialogue, we remain optimistic with respect to near-term approval. In terms of an update on timing, which is ultimately the discretion of our regulators on both sides of the border, we anticipate receiving a decision to respect with its approval of the proposed application from the U.S. regulators during the second quarter of the calendar 2023. And as favorable, we will proceed to complete the acquisition as soon as possible, subject to Canadian regulatory approval. In interim, we continue to actively prepare for the significant opportunity to bring our differentiated and attractive financing solution to U.S partners. Topic of U.S. Receivable Purchase Program, or RPP, our U.S. portfolio continues to expand with loans now nearly $44 million. As I discussed on our last call, we have limited aborning of loans head of the fulsome rollout upon completing the U.S. acquisition. And in fact, command to date has continued to outstrip our self-imposed short-term capacity restrictions. Very comfortable with our progress and with the revised expectations for completion, we have made the decision to ramp up our U.S. RPP loans ahead of closing the acquisition or in this moment. I would now like to turn the call over to Shawn to review our financial results.

大家早上好，感謝您加入我們今天的電話會議。和我一起的是我們的首席財務官肖恩·克拉克 (Shawn Clarke)。在開始之前，我想提醒您，我們的財務結果已報告並將在本次電話會議上進行討論，我們的報告貨幣是加元。那些感興趣的人，我們將在我們的標準投資者介紹中為我們的大部分財務數據提供美式翻譯，這些信息將很快更新並在我們的網站上提供。現在到結果。第一季度不僅是 VersaBank 又一個創紀錄的季度，更重要的是，它證明了我們無網點企業對企業數字銀行模式的真正效率和股本回報能力。再一次，這得到了我們網絡安全服務業務持續盈利貢獻的補充。我們的數字銀行業務繼續實現非常強勁的同比增長，我們的貸款組合達到 46%，這推動我們的投資組合達到近 32 億美元的歷史新高。增長再次主要由加拿大銷售點貸款和租賃組合推動，較去年第一季度增長 68%。貸款增長和穩定的淨息差共同推動創紀錄的收入和利息收入。在成本方面，正如我們預期的那樣，與增長投資和我們轉向納斯達克相關的暫時性成本暫時增加了我們的非利息支出並削弱了我們在 2022 年的盈利能力，這些成本在第一季度基本正常化，使我們的效率比重回正軌充分的潛力。我們繼續期望我們的非利息支出進一步正常化，重要的是，我們不僅剛剛開始意識到我們去年所做的這些投資對增長的貢獻。所有這些推動了迄今為止我們在淨收入和每股收益方面最好的一個季度。由於 VersaBank 與普華永道資本合併時的會計確認，2017 年淨收入的一個外部季度。淨收入同比增長 69% 至 940 萬美元，比我們之前 640 萬美元的記錄高出整整 300 萬美元，每股收益同比增長 79% 或 0.15 美元至 0.34 美元。仔細觀察我們的表現，正如我剛才提到的，第一季度的財務業績再次以我們有史以來最好的收入、淨利息收入、淨收入和每股收益為標誌。除了這些創紀錄的成績外，我還想強調 3 個指標。首先是我們的淨息差。值得注意的是，我們在保持整體淨息差的同時實現了貸款增長，並且沒有承擔額外風險。與我們的同行相比，這是相對獨特的。第二個是我們的效率比。現在我們已經為我們的戰略增長計劃支付了大量的暫時性成本，我們模型的真正可擴展性和效率正在顯現。第三，由於我們積極的股票回購計劃，每股收益增長超過了淨收入增長。展望未來，除了我們預期加拿大貸款組合的持續增長外，我們還預計我們推出的美國應收賬款購買計劃將帶來顯著的長期增長。這是我們為消費者和小企業貸方提供的高附加值融資產品。基於我們的專有技術，為他們提供定期、可靠、廉價的資金替代方案，幫助他們在業務上取得成功。正如我在上次季度電話會議中所討論的那樣，此次收購具有變革性。 VersaBank 長期增長戰略的下一步將使我們能夠將我們在創新數字銀行解決方案方面的業績記錄帶到世界上最大的銀行市場之一，以滿足未滿足的需求。我們已在美國有限的基礎上啟動了該計劃，該計劃計劃在完成對總部位於明尼蘇達州的 Stearns Bank Holdingford 的收購後在全國范圍內推廣，Stearns Bank Holdingford 是一家全面運營的 OCC 特許全國性美國銀行。具體而言，此次收購將使我們能夠將我們的應收賬款購買計劃廣泛推廣到服務不足的美國市場，這在加拿大非常成功，我們稱之為我們的銷售點融資業務。 12 月，我們向 OCC 和儲備金提交了必要的文件，以尋求批准收購。基於持續的對話，我們對近期的批准保持樂觀。就時間更新而言，最終由我們邊境兩邊的監管機構自行決定，我們預計將在 2023 年第二季度收到美國監管機構批准其擬議申請的決定。如果有利，我們將盡快完成收購，但須獲得加拿大監管機構的批准。在此期間，我們繼續積極準備迎接重要機會，將我們差異化和有吸引力的融資解決方案帶給美國合作夥伴。美國應收賬款購買計劃 (RPP) 主題，我們的美國投資組合繼續擴大，目前貸款接近 4400 萬美元。正如我在上次電話會議上討論的那樣，在完成對美國的收購後，我們已經限制了全面推出的貸款負責人。事實上，迄今為止，指揮能力繼續超過我們自己施加的短期能力限制。對我們的進展和修訂後的完成預期非常滿意，我們決定在完成收購之前或此時增加我們的美國 RPP 貸款。我現在想把電話轉給肖恩來審查我們的財務業績。

Thanks, David. Before I begin, just a quick reminder that our full financial statements and MD&A for the first quarter are available on our website under the Investors section as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR. And as David mentioned, all of the following numbers are reported in Canadian dollars as per our financial statements, unless otherwise noted. Starting with our balance sheet. Total assets at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were just over $3.5 billion, up 46% from $2.4 billion at the end of Q1 last year and up 8% from $3.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2022. Cash and securities at the end of Q1 were $251 million or 7% of total assets compared with $155 million or 6% of total assets at the end of Q1 last year and $230 million or 7% of total assets at the end of fiscal 2022. Our total loan portfolio at the end of the first quarter expanded to another record balance of $3.24 billion, an increase of 46% year-over-year and 8% sequentially. I'll break this out into its component parts in a moment. Book value per share increased 8% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to another record of $12.77. These increases were both a function of higher retained earnings resulting from net income growth, partially offset by dividends paid, and also benefited from the lower number of outstanding shares as a result of our active share buyback program. Our CET1 ratio was 11.2%, down from 14.8% at the end of Q1 last year and down from 12% at the end of fiscal 2022, while our leverage ratio at the end of Q1 of this year was 9.21%, down from 12.7% at the same point last year and 9.8% at the end of fiscal 2022. Both of our CET1 and leverage ratios remain well above our internal targets. Turning to our income statement. Total consolidated revenue increased 42% year-over-year and 7% sequentially to a record $25.9 million, with the increase driven primarily by higher net interest income derived from our digital banking operations resulting from the strong growth in our loan portfolio that I mentioned earlier and the maintenance of our net interest margin. Consolidated net income for Q1 increased 69% year-over-year and 46% sequentially to a new record of $9.4 million, excluding Q1 2017, which is attributable primarily to a one-time recognition of deferred income tax assets pursuant to the amalgamation of VersaBank with PWC capital, as David mentioned earlier. In addition to the growth of net interest income, as expected, noninterest expense substantially reduced year-over-year and sequentially as the transitory costs related to our strategic investments in several strategic growth initiatives, including the U.S. Bank acquisition and the launch of the receivables purchase program in the U.S. rolled off. Consolidated earnings per share increased 79% year-over-year and 48% sequentially to $0.34, with the increase benefiting from strong earnings and the lower number of outstanding shares due to our active share repurchase program. During the first quarter, we repurchased and canceled just over 822,000 shares, bringing the total number of shares purchased under the NCIB as of the end of Q1 to just over $1 million. Primary driver of growth in our loan portfolio was once again our point-of-sale financing business, which increased 68% year-over-year and surpassing the $2.4 billion mark. This continue to be driven -- this growth continues to be driven mainly by strong demand for home, home improvement, HVAC, and on-receivable financing. As we noted on our last call, although we expect very healthy growth from our point-of-sale business in 2023, we won't see the same outsized growth as last year. Q1 of this year saw sequential growth in the point-of-sale portfolio of 9% relative to Q4 of last year, and we believe sequentially, quarterly growth in the same range through the remainder of the year is achievable as consumer spending in the sectors on which we focus remains active. Our point-of-sale portfolio represents 75% of our total loan portfolio as of the end of Q1, which was unchanged from the end of fiscal 2022. Our commercial real estate portfolio has expanded 5% year-over-year and 6% sequentially to $807 million at the end of Q1. As discussed in our last several quarterly calls, we have taken a more cautionary stance in respect to our commercial lending portfolios due to the expected volatility in valuations within this asset class in a rising interest rate environment as well as concerns related to higher construction costs resulting from supply chain disruptions in a very tight labor market. That said, we are seeing healthy demand for our construction and term financing products in the form of very high-quality deal flow. We expect this to continue throughout 2023. We remain very comfortable with the risk profile of our commercial real estate portfolios based on our criteria of working only with well-established, well-capitalized development partners to demonstrate excellent track records and of course, restricting transaction to modest loan-to-value ratios. Turning to the income statement for our digital banking operations. Net interest margin on loans, that is, excluding cash, securities, and other assets decreased 20 basis points or 6% year-over-year but was unchanged sequentially at 3.03%. The year-over-year decrease was due mainly to a shift in the bank's funding mix combined with rising interest rates over the respective periods, offset partially by generally higher yields earned on our lending portfolio. Net margin overall, which includes the impact of cash, securities, and other assets increased 6% or sorry, increased 6 basis points or 2% year-over-year and 2 basis points or slightly less than 1% sequentially to 2.83% and is attributable to higher yields earned on lending and treasury assets offset partially by higher cost of funds. Noninterest expenses for Q1 were $12.3 million compared with $10.6 million for the same period of 2022, however, down meaningfully from the elevated levels of $13.8 million for Q4 2022. The year-over-year increase is due mainly to higher salary and benefits costs resulting from an increase in staffing levels to support expanded revenue-generating business activity across the entire bank, higher costs related to employee retention in a very tight labor market, and higher costs related to investments in the bank's business development initiatives, offset partially by lower insurance premiums attributed to VersaBank's listing on the NASDAQ September 2021 as well as lower capital tax expense. The sequential decrease is due to the expected significant reduction in transitory costs related to strategic growth investments and our listing on NASDAQ that David and I have both mentioned earlier as well as lower capital tax expense. Cost of funds for Q1 was 2.95%, up 166 basis points year-over-year and up 50 basis points sequentially, with both increases due mainly to the larger proportion of wealth management deposits relative to our lower cost and solvency professional deposits versus the comparative periods as well as a general increase in market interest rates. The increase in our cost of funds remained significantly less than the Bank of Canada's increasing the benchmark rate of 425 basis points to the beginning of fiscal 2021. Insolvency Professional deposits once again contracted slightly in Q1 on both a year-over-year and sequential basis due to historically low bankruptcy activity candidates experienced primarily as a result of government support for both individuals and small businesses extended during the pandemic. Wealth Management or what we refer to as personal deposits expanded 87% year-over-year and 14% sequentially. Dave will talk a little bit more about our expectations around funding mix in just a moment. Our provision for credit losses or PCLs in Q1, once again, evidence that prudent risk mitigation strategies inherent in our lending models and outstanding credit quality of our loan portfolio, especially evident given the broader expansion and PCL ratios that our peers are reporting. Provision for credit losses for Q1 was $385,000 compared with a provision for credit loss of $2,000 in Q1 of last year and a provision for credit losses of $205,000 for the fourth quarter of 2022. The sequential and year-over-year changes were a function primarily of changes in the forward-looking information used by the bank in its credit risk models as well as higher lending asset balances. PCL as a percentage of average loans for Q4 was 5 basis points, and our average over the past 12 quarters was 0. Our PCL ratio will continue to remain one of the lowest in the Canadian banking industry. Turning now to DRTC, I would like to remind you that DBG's gross profit amounts are included in DRTC's consolidated revenue, which in turn is reflected in noninterest income in VersaBank's consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income. DBG's revenue for Q1 decreased 3% year-over-year and 19% sequentially $2.3 million as a function of lower service work volume in the current quarter. Historically, Q1 is softer for DBG attributed to the impact of the slower holiday period, which typically results in lower revenue-generating activity. Gross profit, however, increased 17% year-over-year and decreased 6% sequentially to $1.6 million with a year-over-year increase driven primarily by higher pricing on engagements and improved operational efficiency. DBG remained profitable on a stand-alone basis this quarter. DRTC consolidated revenue for the quarter, that is including revenue generated through the provision of various technology support and consultation services provide to VersaBank's digital banking operations increased 3% sequentially and 29% year-over-year to $1.8 million. DRTC recorded a net loss of just over $0.5 million compared to net income of $150,000 in Q1 last year and net loss of just under $0.5 million in Q4 of last year. The year-over-year trend was a function primarily of higher noninterest expenses attributable to higher salary and benefits expense due to higher staffing levels to support expanded business activity and higher costs associated with later retention amidst the current challenging labor market. I'd now like to turn the call back to David for some closing remarks. David?

謝謝，大衛。在我開始之前，請快速提醒一下，我們第一季度的完整財務報表和 MD&A 可以在我們網站的投資者部分以及 SEDAR 和 EDGAR 上找到。正如大衛所提到的，除非另有說明，否則以下所有數字均根據我們的財務報表以加元報告。從我們的資產負債表開始。 2023 財年第一季度末的總資產剛剛超過 35 億美元，比去年第一季度末的 24 億美元增長 46%，比 2022 財年末的 33 億美元增長 8%。現金和證券在第一季度末為 2.51 億美元，佔總資產的 7%，去年第一季度末為 1.55 億美元，佔總資產的 6%，2022 財年末為 2.3 億美元，佔總資產的 7%。我們的貸款組合總額為第一季度末餘額擴大至創紀錄的 32.4 億美元，同比增長 46%，環比增長 8%。稍後我將把它分解成它的組成部分。每股賬面價值同比增長 8%，環比增長 3%，達到 12.77 美元的歷史新高。這些增長既是由於淨收入增長導致留存收益增加，部分被支付的股息抵消，也得益於我們積極的股票回購計劃導致流通股數量減少。我們的 CET1 比率為 11.2%，低於去年第一季度末的 14.8% 和 2022 財年末的 12%，而我們今年第一季度末的槓桿率為 9.21%，低於 12.7%去年同期和 2022 財年末的 9.8%。我們的 CET1 和槓桿率仍遠高於我們的內部目標。轉向我們的損益表。合併總收入同比增長 42%，環比增長 7%，達到創紀錄的 2590 萬美元，增長的主要原因是我之前提到的貸款組合的強勁增長導致我們數字銀行業務的淨利息收入增加以及維持我們的淨息差。第一季度的綜合淨收入同比增長 69%，環比增長 46%，達到 940 萬美元的新紀錄，不包括 2017 年第一季度，這主要歸因於根據 VersaBank 的合併一次性確認遞延所得稅資產與普華永道資本合作，正如大衛之前提到的那樣。正如預期的那樣，除了淨利息收入的增長外，非利息費用同比和環比大幅減少，因為與我們在幾個戰略增長計劃中的戰略投資相關的暫時性成本，包括美國銀行的收購和應收賬款的啟動美國的採購計劃開始實施。合併每股收益同比增長 79%，環比增長 48% 至 0.34 美元，增長得益於強勁的收益和我們積極的股票回購計劃導致的流通股數量減少。第一季度，我們回購和註銷了超過 822,000 股股票，使截至第一季度末在 NCIB 下購買的股票總數超過 100 萬美元。我們貸款組合增長的主要驅動力再次是我們的銷售點融資業務，該業務同比增長 68%，超過 24 億美元大關。這將繼續受到推動——這種增長繼續主要受到對住宅、家居裝修、暖通空調和應收賬款融資的強勁需求的推動。正如我們在上次電話會議上指出的那樣，儘管我們預計 2023 年我們的銷售點業務將實現非常健康的增長，但我們不會看到與去年相同的超額增長。與去年第四季度相比，今年第一季度銷售點組合的環比增長為 9%，我們相信，由於該行業的消費者支出，今年剩餘時間的季度環比增長是可以實現的我們所關注的仍然活躍。截至第一季度末，我們的銷售點組合占我們總貸款組合的 75%，與 2022 財年末持平。我們的商業房地產組合同比增長 5%，環比增長 6%第一季度末增至 8.07 億美元。正如我們在最近幾個季度電話會議中所討論的那樣，由於在利率上升的環境下該資產類別的估值預期波動以及對由此導致的更高建設成本的擔憂，我們對我們的商業貸款組合採取了更加謹慎的態度在非常緊張的勞動力市場中供應鏈中斷。也就是說，我們看到以非常高質量的交易流形式出現的對我們的建築和定期融資產品的健康需求。我們預計這種情況將持續到 2023 年。根據我們的標準，我們仍然對我們的商業房地產投資組合的風險狀況感到非常滿意，我們的標準是僅與成熟、資本充足的開發合作夥伴合作，以展示出色的業績記錄，當然，限制交易適度的貸款價值比。轉向我們數字銀行業務的損益表。貸款的淨息差，即不包括現金、證券和其他資產，同比下降 20 個基點或 6%，但環比持平於 3.03%。同比下降主要是由於銀行融資組合的轉變以及相應時期利率的上升，部分被我們的貸款組合所獲得的普遍較高的收益率所抵消。包括現金、證券和其他資產的影響在內的總體淨利潤率增長 6% 或較上年同期增長 6 個基點或 2%，環比增長 2 個基點或略低於 1% 至 2.83%，並且歸因於貸款和國庫資產的較高收益率被較高的資金成本部分抵消。第一季度的非利息支出為 1230 萬美元，而 2022 年同期為 1060 萬美元，但與 2022 年第四季度的 1380 萬美元的高水平相比大幅下降。同比增長的主要原因是工資和福利成本增加增加員工人數以支持擴大整個銀行的創收業務活動，在非常緊張的勞動力市場中與員工保留相關的成本增加，以及與銀行業務發展計劃投資相關的成本增加，部分被較低的保險抵消VersaBank 於 2021 年 9 月在納斯達克上市帶來的溢價以及較低的資本稅支出。環比下降是由於預期與戰略增長投資和我們在納斯達克上市相關的暫時性成本顯著下降，大衛和我之前都提到過，以及較低的資本稅費用。第一季度的資金成本為 2.95%，同比上升 166 個基點，環比上升 50 個基點，兩者均上升主要是由於理財存款相對於我們較低成本和償付能力的專業存款所佔比例較大。期以及市場利率普遍上升。我們的資金成本增幅仍遠低於加拿大銀行在 2021 財年年初將基準利率提高 425 個基點的幅度。破產專業存款在第一季度同比和環比再次小幅收縮由於歷史上較低的破產活動，候選人的經歷主要是由於政府在大流行期間延長了對個人和小企業的支持。財富管理或我們所說的個人存款同比增長 87%，環比增長 14%。稍後，Dave 將更多地談談我們對資金組合的期望。我們在第一季度為信貸損失或 PCL 提供的準備金再次證明了我們的貸款模型中固有的審慎風險緩解策略和我們貸款組合的出色信貸質量，考慮到我們的同行報告的更廣泛的擴張和 PCL 比率，這一點尤其明顯。第一季度的信貸損失準備金為 385,000 美元，而去年第一季度的信貸損失準備金為 2,000 美元，2022 年第四季度的信貸損失準備金為 205,000 美元。連續和同比變化主要是功能銀行在其信用風險模型中使用的前瞻性信息的變化以及更高的貸款資產餘額。 PCL 佔第四季度平均貸款的百分比為 5 個基點，過去 12 個季度的平均值為 0。我們的 PCL 比率將繼續保持在加拿大銀行業中最低的比率之一。現在轉向 DRTC，我想提醒您，DBG 的毛利潤金額包含在 DRTC 的合併收入中，而這又反映在 VersaBank 的合併損益表和綜合收益表中的非利息收入中。由於本季度服務工作量減少，DBG 第一季度的收入同比下降 3%，環比下降 19% 230 萬美元。從歷史上看，由於假期較慢的影響，DBG 第一季度較為疲軟，這通常會導致創收活動減少。然而，毛利潤同比增長 17%，環比下降 6% 至 160 萬美元，同比增長的主要原因是更高的業務定價和更高的運營效率。 DBG 本季度仍保持獨立盈利。 DRTC 本季度綜合收入，包括通過向 VersaBank 的數字銀行業務提供各種技術支持和諮詢服務產生的收入，環比增長 3%，同比增長 29%，達到 180 萬美元。 DRTC 錄得淨虧損超過 50 萬美元，而去年第一季度的淨收入為 150,000 美元，去年第四季度的淨虧損略低於 50 萬美元。同比趨勢主要是由於更高的非利息支出導致工資和福利支出增加，這是由於更高的人員配置水平以支持擴大的業務活動以及與在當前充滿挑戰的勞動力市場中保留後期相關的更高成本。我現在想把電話轉回給大衛，讓他做一些結束語。大衛？

Well, thanks, Shawn. As many of you know, I'm an avid pilot, and we aviators have a term that describes the absolute best conditions for flying, that being CAVOK. Which means Ceiling and Visibility, okay. As I look out to the foreseeable future for VersaBank, we have CAVOK. As a side note, I'm sitting here at London Airport looking out my window and today, it is indeed CAVOK. Our comps for Canadian digital banking operations will benefit throughout 2023 from the outsized loan portfolio growth of 2022, and we continue to see sequential quarterly growth in the neighborhood of 8%. We expect net interest margin on loans to remain robust. We expect meaningful add to our loan portfolio through our U.S. Receivable Purchase Program. With each passing month, with more discussions with our existing and potential customers for our RPP offering in the United States. We are more confident in the uniqueness and attractiveness of our offering. Case in point, last week, we attended KBW Fintech Conference in New York City, providing us with an opportunity to discuss our solution with a number of potential partners, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Although the approval process for our U.S. Bank acquisition is taking longer than expected, it has not, in any way, changed our belief on the size of the opportunity. In the interim, we made the decision to expand our limited pre-acquisition rollout to better capitalize on the near-term demand I described earlier. And as we await the opportunity for broad rollout, notably, we expect to generate a larger spread compared to Canada when we roll it out broadly. Last quarter, I discussed how I specifically designed VersaBank to perform well in good times and even better in more challenging times. A core component of this model in addition to risk mitigation being at the core of everything we do is our high-value insolvency professional deposit business. As a reminder, we have almost singularly addressed the unserved market opportunity to provide integrated technology to easily enable bankruptcy trustees to park deposits with us. We have the vast majority of the market for personal and small business bankruptcies in Canada. And the solvent fees plummeted during the pandemic due to government financial support, reduced consumer spending, and a halt to collection activity, hitting a low of over 7,500 per month for the period April 2020 to February 2022. This compares to an average over the 2 years preceding the pandemic of over 11,300 per month. As expected, we are now seeing those numbers begin to climb. Now up to 9,000 for January 2023, an obvious leading indicator with respect to our insolvency deposit growth. And we are now very recently seeing this flow through in terms of account openings and quite dramatically. At the same time, we are continuing to add new trustees and partners, further expanding our already impressive market share. This obviously bodes well for the low-cost deposits moving forward. To conclude, as discussed at the outset of this call, we view our results for the first quarter as clearly evidence of the operating leverage inherent in our branchless business-to-business digital banking model and the resulting return on equity-generating capability. We continue to grow our loan portfolio in Canada and add a significant additional long-term growth we expect in United States. We expect to continue to see the torque in our operating leverage. Notably, our U.S. Receivable Purchase Program will be serviced by the same technology centers in London, Ontario, and Saskatoon Saskatchewan to service our Canadian point-of-sale portfolio and essentially the same number of personnel. That's operating leverage. With that, I would like to open the call to questions. Michelle?

好吧，謝謝，肖恩。正如你們許多人所知，我是一名狂熱的飛行員，我們飛行員有一個術語來描述飛行的絕對最佳條件，即 CAVOK。這意味著天花板和能見度，好的。當我展望 VersaBank 可預見的未來時，我們擁有 CAVOK。附帶說明一下，我坐在倫敦機場，看著窗外，今天確實是 CAVOK。我們對加拿大數字銀行業務的補償將在整個 2023 年受益於 2022 年的超大規模貸款組合增長，我們將繼續看到 8% 左右的連續季度增長。我們預計貸款的淨息差將保持強勁。我們希望通過我們的美國應收賬款購買計劃對我們的貸款組合進行有意義的添加。每個月過去，我們都會與我們的現有和潛在客戶就我們在美國的 RPP 產品進行更多討論。我們對我們產品的獨特性和吸引力更有信心。舉個例子，上週，我們參加了在紐約市舉行的 KBW 金融科技大會，為我們提供了一個與許多潛在合作夥伴討論我們的解決方案的機會，並且反響非常積極。儘管我們收購美國銀行的審批過程比預期的要長，但它並沒有以任何方式改變我們對機會規模的看法。在此期間，我們決定擴大有限的收購前部署，以更好地利用我之前描述的近期需求。在我們等待廣泛推廣的機會時，值得注意的是，當我們廣泛推廣時，我們預計與加拿大相比會產生更大的傳播。上個季度，我討論了我如何專門設計 VersaBank，使其在景氣時期表現出色，甚至在更具挑戰性的時期表現更好。除了風險緩解是我們所做一切的核心之外，該模型的核心組成部分是我們的高價值破產專業存款業務。提醒一下，我們幾乎獨特地解決了未服務的市場機會，以提供集成技術，使破產受託人能夠輕鬆地將存款存放在我們這裡。我們擁有加拿大個人和小型企業破產案件的絕大部分市場。由於政府財政支持、消費者支出減少以及催收活動停止，在大流行期間，溶劑費用大幅下降，在 2020 年 4 月至 2022 年 2 月期間創下每月 7,500 多筆的低點。相比之下，過去 2 年的平均水平在大流行之前的幾年裡，每月有超過 11,300 人。正如預期的那樣，我們現在看到這些數字開始攀升。現在到 2023 年 1 月將達到 9,000，這是我們破產存款增長的明顯領先指標。我們最近在開戶方面看到了這種流動，而且非常顯著。與此同時，我們正在繼續增加新的受託人和合作夥伴，進一步擴大我們已經可觀的市場份額。這顯然預示著低成本存款的發展。總而言之，正如本次電話會議開始時所討論的那樣，我們將第一季度的業績清楚地證明了我們無網點 B2B 數字銀行模式固有的運營槓桿以及由此產生的股本生成能力回報。我們繼續擴大我們在加拿大的貸款組合，並增加我們預期在美國的顯著額外長期增長。我們希望繼續看到我們的經營槓桿的扭矩。值得注意的是，我們的美國應收賬款購買計劃將由倫敦、安大略省和薩斯喀徹溫省薩斯卡通的相同技術中心提供服務，以服務我們的加拿大銷售點組合和基本上相同數量的人員。這就是經營槓桿。有了這個，我想打開問題的電話。米歇爾？

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Your first question will come from David Feaster at Raymond James.

謝謝你，先生。女士們，先生們，我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）您的第一個問題將來自 Raymond James 的 David Feaster。

I just wanted to start on -- I appreciate all the color on the loan growth front. I was just hoping to get maybe some more detail on the U.S. expansion. Glad to hear you're kind of going to be accelerating that. I'm just curious how -- you've had good reception thus far. But how is demand in the states, the pipeline of new partnerships, and just kind of the road map for the U.S. expansion? And maybe where do you think that portfolio gets to by the end of the year? What we like -- I don't know if you have any targets for that.

我只是想開始——我欣賞貸款增長方面的所有色彩。我只是希望獲得有關美國擴張的更多細節。很高興聽到您要加快這一進程。我只是很好奇——到目前為止，你們的反響如何。但各州的需求、新合作夥伴關係的管道以及美國擴張的路線圖如何？也許您認為該投資組合到年底會達到什麼水平？我們喜歡什麼——我不知道你是否有任何目標。

Well, David, that's what I'm saying in the comments. We had purposely limited our lending activity in the United States pending receipt of the approval to acquire the Stearns Holdingford Bank. We just wanted to test the market and get the legal documentation in place and our internal systems in place. And that we did, and we were expecting that we would be able to operate the bank around now. So it just sort of slowed it down. But it looks like it will be a little longer before we're able to operate the U.S. bank. So we've made the decision to lend directly from our Canadian bank for the time being, so as not to lose the momentum that we've been gathering by talking to various potential partners. So to answer your question, there's a huge number of points of -- well, they don't call them point-of-sale in the United States, but let's call them Receivable Purchase Program partners in the United States that are really keenly interested in itching up to our program. And the fact that as I was saying the last visit we had in New York City, encouraged him KBW, I met many potential new partners who are very keenly interested in signing up. And that's why I made the decision to fund it from Canada for the time being. I didn't want to disappoint them, and I'd like to keep the momentum going. We don't have any year-end targets. But quarter-by-quarter, you'll start seeing it grow. And I expect we'll have the approvals, and then we'll be able to really ramp up with the U.S. bank.

好吧，大衛，這就是我在評論中所說的。在獲得收購 Stearns Holdingford Bank 的批准之前，我們有意限制了我們在美國的貸款活動。我們只是想測試市場並獲得適當的法律文件和適當的內部系統。我們做到了，我們期望我們現在能夠經營銀行。所以它只是放慢了速度。但看起來我們還需要更長的時間才能運營美國銀行。因此，我們決定暫時直接從我們的加拿大銀行提供貸款，以免失去我們通過與各種潛在合作夥伴交談而積累的勢頭。所以要回答你的問題，有很多點——好吧，他們在美國不稱它們為銷售點，但我們稱它們為美國的應收賬款採購計劃合作夥伴，他們真的很感興趣渴望我們的計劃。事實上，正如我所說的我們上次在紐約市的訪問，鼓勵他 KBW，我遇到了許多非常有興趣註冊的潛在新合作夥伴。這就是為什麼我決定暫時從加拿大資助它。我不想讓他們失望，我想保持這種勢頭。我們沒有任何年終目標。但是逐個季度，您會開始看到它增長。我希望我們能獲得批准，然後我們才能真正與美國銀行合作。

That makes sense. And maybe just touching on the CRE book. You talked about some of the cautiousness that you might have had in the past few quarters. I'm just curious maybe what changed? Is it availability of credit in the market? Where are you seeing demand that provides good risk-adjusted returns for you? And I mean, have you tightened underwriting standards in that segment at all?

這就說得通了。也許只是觸及 CRE 書。你談到了過去幾個季度你可能會表現出的一些謹慎態度。我只是好奇也許發生了什麼變化？它是市場上信貸的可用性嗎？您在哪裡看到為您提供良好的風險調整後回報的需求？我的意思是，你們是否收緊了該領域的承保標準？

Well, we operate with sort of a mantra and it goes like this. Bad loans are made in good times. So quarter-over-quarter, you'd see me saying we're being quite cautious because we believe in quite rightly so that there was somewhat of a real estate bubble in Canada and probably all of North America prices were way too high. And so we are very cautious in our lending during that period of time. Now we've seen the prices reset. And getting down to we may call it reassembled pricing, which gives us a bit of comfort. And secondly, as usual, a use or tactic. Our competitors are usually licking their wounds around about this time from finding themselves over lent on various properties. So that's the reason why the resurgence now in our optimism in the CRE portfolio, lack of competition, and pricing coming to reasonable levels. And of course, we have the who's who in the industry as clients. So this is typical for us. I've done this every -- coming out of every recession in my 45 years of being a banker.

好吧，我們的運作有點像口頭禪，它是這樣的。不良貸款是在繁榮時期產生的。所以每個季度，你會看到我說我們非常謹慎，因為我們非常正確地相信加拿大存在房地產泡沫，而且可能所有北美的價格都太高了。因此，在那段時間裡，我們對貸款非常謹慎。現在我們已經看到價格重置了。開始我們可以稱之為重組定價，這給了我們一點安慰。其次，像往常一樣，使用或策略。我們的競爭對手通常會在這段時間四處舔舐傷口，因為他們發現自己在各種房產上過度借貸。因此，這就是為什麼我們現在對 CRE 投資組合、缺乏競爭和定價達到合理水平的樂觀情緒重新抬頭的原因。當然，我們有業內知名人士作為客戶。所以這對我們來說很典型。在我 45 年的銀行家生涯中，每次走​​出經濟衰退時，我都這樣做過。

Okay. That makes sense. And then maybe last one for me. I mean you've been extremely active repurchasing stock. We're still trading well below tangible. You've got plenty of capital. I'm just curious your appetite for repurchasing stock here and how you think about capital when you've got such strong organic growth at the same time? Just curious your thoughts on capital return, capital priorities, and yes, supporting the organic growth?

好的。這就說得通了。然後也許是我的最後一個。我的意思是你一直非常積極地回購股票。我們的交易價格仍遠低於有形資產。你有足夠的資本。我只是好奇你在這裡回購股票的胃口，以及當你同時獲得如此強勁的有機增長時你如何看待資本？只是好奇您對資本回報、資本優先級以及支持有機增長的看法？

Well, we just love buying back our stock at these prices. I mean it's about -- it's the best -- as Warren Buffet would say, it's very best investment. It's 0 risk, yes, we buy it back, we get the return, Yahoo. I kind of doubt we're going to have that opportunity much longer. I think the market probably wondered if we had something to do with the crypto industry and we got sort of treated the same way as others have. There's no reason why our stock should drop below book the kind of earnings. So this quarter, we sort of, I think, shaken that misconception off. Obviously, our model is very powerful. It works extremely well. And the earnings we just produced are -- leave most of the industry in the dust. So I'd love to buy back -- keep buying back the stock. But I can't see the stock stand down this level for much longer with these kind of numbers coming up.

好吧，我們只是喜歡以這些價格回購我們的股票。我的意思是它是——這是最好的——正如沃倫·巴菲特所說，這是最好的投資。這是 0 風險，是的，我們回購它，我們得到回報，雅虎。我有點懷疑我們會有更長的機會。我認為市場可能想知道我們是否與加密行業有關係，我們得到的待遇與其他人一樣。我們的股票沒有理由低於賬面收益。所以這個季度，我認為我們有點擺脫了這種誤解。顯然，我們的模型非常強大。它工作得非常好。我們剛剛產生的收益——讓大多數行業都望塵莫及。所以我很想回購——繼續回購股票。但隨著這些數字的出現，我認為該股不會在這個水平上停留更長的時間。

Yes. That makes sense. Well, congrats on a great quarter. I appreciate all the questions.

是的。這就說得通了。好吧，祝賀一個偉大的季度。我感謝所有的問題。

Thanks David. Look forward to seeing you sometime in Florida. I'm still in the frozen north here but I hope to turn the airplane sell 180 degrees and head back.

謝謝大衛。期待在佛羅里達與您相見。我仍然在寒冷的北方，但我希望將飛機轉 180 度然後返回。

It's sunny and beautiful. So come on down.

它陽光明媚，美麗。所以，下來吧。

My wife tells me that too.

我妻子也這樣告訴我。

Your next question will come from Mike Rizvanovic at KBW Research.

您的下一個問題將來自 KBW Research 的 Mike Rizvanovic。

I wanted to just ask a couple of quick questions on the numbers here. So first on the POS holdback, I think you're down about 5.5%. You were, I think, well north of 10% or a little bit north of 10% in the depths of the pandemic. Do you have a line of sight as to how low that number might go? Or any maybe range, is it range bound? Can you get much lower from here? How do you sort of look at that number going forward?

我只想問幾個關於這里數字的快速問題。所以首先在 POS 滯留方面，我認為你下降了大約 5.5%。我認為，在大流行的最嚴重時期，你的比例遠高於 10% 或略高於 10%。您是否知道該數字可能會下降到多低？或者任何可能的範圍，它是范圍限制嗎？你能從這裡降低很多嗎？你如何看待這個數字？

Well, the number depends on the quality of the receivables that we're purchasing. So it's 100% dependent on the quality. So we don't have any particular overall target. It just by chance sort of settled in at 10% for a while. The portfolio has or migrated over to lower-risk assets. It might be something to do with the impending perhaps recession. We're seeing less riskier assets than we did in the past, i.e., now it's moving towards home improvement type loans, which generally are a lot less riskier than, say, hot tubs and motorcycles and RVs and that sort of thing. So we're seeing a migration towards the lower risk asset classes as consumers maybe spend less in the, what you call, luxury items, items they don't really need. Do they really need a new motorcycle when a recession might be coming? Maybe not. But maybe we really need to look at our house to make sure it's insulated property and our -- we've got a really energy-efficient furnace now that price and energy costs are higher. So that's the reason. It's just simply lower-risk portfolio than it was when times are buoyant.

好吧，這個數字取決於我們購買的應收賬款的質量。所以它 100% 取決於質量。所以我們沒有任何特定的總體目標。它只是偶然地暫時穩定在 10%。投資組合已經或轉移到低風險資產。這可能與即將到來的經濟衰退有關。我們看到的資產風險比過去低，也就是說，現在它正在轉向家庭裝修類貸款，這通常比熱水浴缸、摩托車和房車等風險要低得多。因此，我們看到了向風險較低資產類別的遷移，因為消費者可能會減少在所謂的奢侈品、他們並不真正需要的物品上的支出。當經濟衰退即將來臨時，他們真的需要一輛新摩托車嗎？也許不吧。但也許我們真的需要看看我們的房子，以確保它是絕緣的財產和我們的 - 我們有一個真正節能的爐子，現在價格和能源成本更高。這就是原因。與繁榮時期相比，這只是風險較低的投資組合。

Okay. Is it fair to assume that you've incorporated the same level of diligence to reflect a potential downturn? The 5.5 is low because of mix, but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily not including a bit of a buffer because of the macroeconomic environment, maybe not looking so robust anymore. Is that fair?

好的。假設您已採用相同水平的盡職調查來反映潛在的經濟衰退是否公平？ 5.5 因混合而較低，但這並不意味著您一定不會因為宏觀經濟環境而包括一些緩衝，也許看起來不再那麼強勁。這公平嗎？

Well, yes, absolutely. We generally run around at least 3x the amount of losses that our clients would show. So -- and that's what we had the depths of this third and the pandemic are the intrinsic losses that our models pointed to for our portfolio have been around just round numbers, $30 million, and we were holding about $100 million in cash pullbacks. That's generally where we run, but these are ballpark figures. It's done a lot more scientifically than that. Each individual portfolio is looked at and reviewed on a continuous basis, and we're always adjusting the cash holdbacks dependent on our view of what's in store for our partner on the overall economy.

嗯，是的，絕對。我們的損失通常至少是客戶所顯示損失的 3 倍左右。所以——這就是我們第三次的深度，而大流行是我們的模型為我們的投資組合指出的內在損失，大約是整數，3000 萬美元，我們持有大約 1 億美元的現金回撤。這通常是我們運行的地方，但這些是大概的數字。它比這更科學。每個單獨的投資組合都在持續的基礎上進行審查和審查，我們總是根據我們對合作夥伴對整體經濟的看法來調整現金儲備。

And Mike, one other piece of color you might want to keep in mind is that, as David mentioned, no change in our risk assessment process or the management process there. But in some cases, some of our seller partners post LCs as opposed to cash. So the risk -- the volume there is still there, the protection is still there, but just the structure of the holdback is modified slightly with some of our partners.

邁克，你可能要記住的另一種顏色是，正如大衛提到的那樣，我們的風險評估流程或那裡的管理流程沒有變化。但在某些情況下，我們的一些賣家合作夥伴會開立信用證而不是現金。所以風險——數量仍然存在，保護仍然存在，但我們的一些合作夥伴只是稍微修改了阻止的結構。

Okay. That's super helpful. And then just a quick one on your insolvency deposits down in the quarter. And we have seen the number tick up both on business and consumer. It is gradually normalizing. I think I was a little bit surprised that the number wasn't up sequentially just given that trend. Or is it maybe just the nature of the -- maybe the size of an average insolvency is smaller today than it was? What's driving the number coming in lower? And then as a quick follow-up to that, how important is this as a funding mix shift on your margins going forward?

好的。這非常有幫助。然後快速了解一下您本季度的破產存款。我們已經看到企業和消費者的數字都在上升。它正在逐漸正常化。鑑於這種趨勢，我認為這個數字沒有連續上升讓我有點驚訝。或者這可能只是 - 也許今天的平均破產規模比以前小？是什麼導致數字下降？然後作為對此的快速跟進，這對於您未來利潤率的資金組合轉變有多重要？

Well, the good news for us, the bad news for Canada is that we are opening more new accounts to receive the deposit fund liquidation of our -- of the unfortunate businesses and consumers that are going bankrupt. So we're opening more accounts, but these are sort of empty buckets that take about 2 years to fill up and then they're used to -- they're diverse to the creditors. So really, you're just seeing the lag effect. We're seeing more insolvencies now even in the figures earlier, and we're opening up a lot more accounts -- now we have most of the trustees in Canada dealing with us. So kind of the leading indicator is what's the new volume of account opening and a lot more have been open since the close of our fiscal year. So it's just simply the lag effect. I expect the insolvency deposits will reach a record high for us because we have a larger piece of the market share now than we had a few years ago, quite a larger piece. And already, we're seeing the new accounts be opened at an increasing pace. So it's still simply the lag. Now how important are these to our net interest margin? Well, they're pretty important. We pay on average about prime minus 2.8% on the insolvency deposits, something like that. And that's a good, stable, low-cost funding source. But frankly, I don't see that impacting our margin. Our margins always, of course, been the industry-leading margin in Canada a 1% higher than most banks. I think the margin will stay the same. What could impact the margin a little which is really positive because it has a tremendous boost to return on equity is our instant mortgage app is getting ready to roll out, and that gives us access to lower-margin conventional mortgages and CMHC mortgages, they're lower margin, but the risk weighting of course, CMHC 35% on conventionals. So might -- you might see that possibly as quarters to come depressed margin a little, but it certainly won't be depressed return on equity. Return on equity will continue to grow at the rapid pace you see it growing at.Â

嗯，對我們來說是個好消息，對加拿大來說是個壞消息，我們正在開設更多新賬戶，以接收我們即將破產的不幸企業和消費者的存款基金清算。因此，我們正在開設更多賬戶，但這些賬戶都是空桶，需要大約 2 年的時間才能裝滿，然後它們就習慣了——它們對債權人來說是多種多樣的。所以真的，你只是看到了滯後效應。即使在之前的數字中，我們現在也看到更多的破產，我們正在開設更多的賬戶——現在我們有加拿大的大部分受託人與我們打交道。因此，領先指標是新的開戶量是多少，自我們財政年度結束以來已經開立了更多的賬戶。所以這只是滯後效應。我預計我們的破產存款將達到歷史新高，因為我們現在擁有比幾年前更大的市場份額，相當大。而且，我們已經看到新賬戶的開設速度越來越快。所以它仍然只是滯後。現在這些對我們的淨息差有多重要？嗯，它們非常重要。我們平均支付大約 prime 負 2.8% 的破產存款，類似的東西。這是一個很好的、穩定的、低成本的資金來源。但坦率地說，我認為這不會影響我們的利潤率。當然，我們的利潤率始終是加拿大行業領先的利潤率，比大多數銀行高出 1%。我認為保證金將保持不變。可能會對利潤率產生一點影響的是真正積極的，因為它極大地提高了股本回報率，因為我們的即時抵押貸款應用程序正準備推出，這使我們能夠獲得利潤率較低的傳統抵押貸款和 CMHC 抵押貸款，他們'再降低利潤率，但風險權重當然是 CMHC 的 35%。所以可能 - 你可能會看到這可能會隨著季度的到來而降低利潤率，但它肯定不會降低股本回報率。股本回報率將繼續以您看到的快速增長速度增長。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question will come from Stephanie Woo at LodeRock Research.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題將來自 LodeRock Research 的 Stephanie Woo。

Stephanie on for Greg. Congrats on the quarter. So this quarter, I see surprising sequential growth and the point-of-sale loans, given the economy backdrop. And I think you guys also alluded to in the comments that going forward probably won't see the same type of growth going forward. Maybe just a little bit more color on the Canadian side of point of loan growth? That's my first question. And second, is it correct for me to assume that the U.S. expansion is going to be helpful for the NIM to go back to 3% going forward?

斯蒂芬妮代替格雷格。祝賀這個季度。因此，在經濟背景下，本季度我看到了令人驚訝的連續增長和銷售點貸款。而且我認為你們在評論中也提到未來可能不會看到同樣類型的增長。也許在貸款增長點的加拿大方面稍微多一點顏色？這是我的第一個問題。其次，我認為美國經濟擴張將有助於 NIM 回升至 3% 的假設是否正確？

Yes. And I appreciate that people have likely surprised that our loan growth is continuing at 8% per quarter or the other banks in Canada. Some are underwater, some are up here. And that's probably because the market that we're targeting -- that our partners are targeting is in the home improvement area. And as I was saying earlier, with energy costs going up, folks are quite rightly looking at getting new siting, new insulation, (inaudible) more efficiency. And that's been a sort of a financial for our partners to provide that type of financing. So discretionary purchase as saying earlier boats, cars, motorcycles, well, that's really dialed down. But thankfully, we're nicely diversified across the country and across all the industries, and we're seeing substantial significant growth in the point-of-sale on the home improvement, in particular. So that's Canada. And in Canada for loan growth, too, keep in mind that we've been working for quite a while on this innovative new program we call Instant Mortgage. That's an app that enables a developer who's selling homes to that is potential purchasers punch some numbers in and come back with a very quick approval for their conventional mortgage or the CMHC mortgage insights. So we expect to see some growth in that area. And we're comforted somewhat in that the market price of housing in certain communities seems to drop back to relatively reasonable prices. So unlike other lenders at first, we're lending in the bubble and maybe their loan-to-value ratios are -- have gone a lot higher than they were open for. Now we're getting in sort of at the right time, but carefully, so that will boost Canadian loan growth, too. In the U.S., the cost funds in the United States is a good bit less than vis-a-vis Canada relative to risk-free rate. So we see 4% net interest margins as being quite possible. And that will, as time progresses, that will boost our overall NIM. Just keep in mind, our NIM on loans -- overall NIM on loans is north of 3%. And on our treasury assets, it's about 1%. So if rates continue to go up, rates went up, we get a little bit more in our treasury assets. So the overall NIM improves. But then again, as I was saying, depending on how much and CMHCs and conventionals our Instant Mortgage app delivers that will tend to depress NIM, but it will increase ROE because these are really, really high ROE type assets. They absorbed in CMHCs case no capital and in convention mortgage case, 35% risk weighting. So NIM might slide back a bit betting on all these factors might hold, won't change much, but ROE should be increasing pretty dramatically.

是的。我很欣賞人們可能對我們的貸款增長繼續以每季度 8% 或加拿大其他銀行的速度增長感到驚訝。有些在水下，有些在上面。這可能是因為我們的目標市場——我們的合作夥伴的目標市場是家居裝修領域。正如我之前所說，隨著能源成本的上升，人們正在尋找新的選址、新的隔熱材料和（聽不清）更高的效率。這對我們的合作夥伴來說是一種提供這種融資的方式。所以說早期的船隻、汽車、摩托車等可自由支配的購買，嗯，這真的減少了。但值得慶幸的是，我們在全國和所有行業都實現了多元化，尤其是我們看到了家居裝修銷售點的顯著增長。這就是加拿大。在加拿大，為了貸款增長，請記住，我們已經為這項名為 Instant Mortgage 的創新新計劃工作了很長一段時間。這是一個應用程序，可以讓正在向潛在購買者出售房屋的開發商輸入一些數字，然後很快就批准他們的傳統抵押貸款或 CMHC 抵押貸款見解。因此，我們希望在該領域看到一些增長。令我們感到欣慰的是，部分小區的住房市場價格似乎已經回落到相對合理的價格水平。因此，一開始與其他貸方不同的是，我們在泡沫中放貸，也許他們的貸款價值比——已經比他們開放時高出很多。現在我們在適當的時候進入，但要謹慎，這樣也將促進加拿大的貸款增長。在美國，相對於無風險利率，美國的成本基金比加拿大低很多。所以我們認為 4% 的淨息差是很有可能的。隨著時間的推移，這將提高我們的整體 NIM。請記住，我們的貸款 NIM——總體貸款 NIM 超過 3%。而在我們的國庫資產中，這一比例約為 1%。因此，如果利率繼續上漲，利率上漲，我們的國庫資產就會增加一點。所以整體 NIM 提高了。但話又說回來，正如我所說的，取決於我們的即時抵押應用程序提供的數量和 CMHC 和常規，這往往會壓低 NIM，但它會增加 ROE，因為這些是非常非常高的 ROE 類型資產。他們在 CMHC 案例中吸收了無資本，在常規抵押貸款案例中吸收了 35% 的風險權重。因此，NIM 可能會稍微回落，押注所有這些因素可能會保持不變，不會有太大變化，但 ROE 應該會大幅增加。

Okay. Thank you so much. Best of luck on the U.S. expansion.

好的。太感謝了。祝美國擴張好運。

U.S. expansion? Basically, Stephanie, the approval to get the U.S. Bank is a little slower than we had expected. We're working well with our U.S. regulators and the Canadian regulators, and we expect it halfway through this calendar year. But in the meantime, there was so much interest for our product amongst U.S. point-of-sale companies that we thought, well, we should just roll it out anyways directly from Canada and satisfy the demand, just get it going. We hate to see really ideal partners wanting to deal with us and not doing it, not -- we made a strategic decision to slow it down. But now we said, you know what, we'll hitch our program up to some of our U.S. partners and that'll get it going.Â

美國擴張？基本上，斯蒂芬妮，獲得美國銀行的批准比我們預期的要慢一些。我們與美國監管機構和加拿大監管機構合作良好，我們預計本日曆年將完成一半。但與此同時，美國銷售點公司對我們的產品非常感興趣，我們認為，無論如何，我們應該直接從加拿大推出它並滿足需求，讓它繼續下去。我們討厭看到真正理想的合作夥伴想要與我們打交道而不去做，不是——我們做出了一個戰略決定來放慢速度。但現在我們說，你知道嗎，我們將把我們的計劃與我們的一些美國合作夥伴聯繫起來，這樣它就會開始。

Your next question will come from Trevor Reynolds at Acumen Capital.

您的下一個問題將來自 Acumen Capital 的 Trevor Reynolds。

Just a couple of quick ones. I think most of them have been touched on. But in terms of the asset classes that you're seeing demand for in the U.S., would they be similar to what you're seeing in Canada, or just maybe a little bit of insight on that?

只是幾個快速的。我想他們中的大多數人都被觸及了。但就您在美國看到的資產類別需求而言，它們是否與您在加拿大看到的類似，或者只是對此有一點了解？

No real theme to it. U.S. coast is a huge market, and we are interested in all asset classes. It's just what we see in Canada, too. We've got a trucking firm now on board. We've got another one coming up, a medical equipment. We're looking at recreational products. For us, we're sort of agnostic to asset classes. We look very carefully at the skill of our partners with respect to lending. So basically, if they're good lenders, they asked they'll have to somebody or irrelevant. If they're not good lenders, it doesn't matter what the assets classes and we don't have to deal them. There's no saving them if they haven't got their credit adjudication sorted out.

沒有真正的主題。美國海岸是一個巨大的市場，我們對所有資產類別都感興趣。這也是我們在加拿大看到的。我們現在有一家卡車運輸公司。我們還有一個即將推出，一種醫療設備。我們正在尋找娛樂產品。對我們來說，我們對資產類別有點不可知論。我們非常仔細地研究合作夥伴在貸款方面的技能。所以基本上，如果他們是優秀的貸款人，他們會要求他們必須向某人或無關緊要的人提供幫助。如果他們不是好的貸方，那麼資產類別是什麼並不重要，我們也不必與他們打交道。如果他們還沒有解決他們的信用裁決問題，就無法挽救他們。

Okay. And then just on the Instant Mortgage app, like is it -- you mentioned it's close to being ready. What's the timelines on that being rolled out? And what sort of growth are you expecting on that?

好的。然後就在 Instant Mortgage 應用程序上，就像它一樣——你提到它即將準備就緒。推出的時間表是什麼？你期待什麼樣的增長？

The app itself is developed many, many months ago, and the systems are in place, people know where to go. But there's been a few regulatory issues that we've been working through with the regulators, and we hope to have those resolved in about a month. And we have a partner lined up to the mortgage administration for as a wonderful partner that's worked for some other areas. So everybody is all set to go. And there's a fair amount of demand. It's in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. So a consumer just starting up. I mean I'd look for as long as we can get it going to bottom, I look for at least a couple of 100 million in the year.

該應用程序本身是在很多很多個月前開發的，系統已經到位，人們知道該去哪裡。但是我們一直在與監管機構合作解決一些監管問題，我們希望在大約一個月內解決這些問題。我們有一個合作夥伴在抵押貸款管理部門排隊，作為在其他一些領域工作的出色合作夥伴。所以每個人都準備好了。而且需求量很大。這是數億美元的數量級。所以一個消費者剛剛起步。我的意思是，只要我們能讓它觸底，我就會尋找，我希望一年至少有 1 億。

Got it. And just remind me who would be the primary people looking at this -- the Instant Mortgage...

知道了。提醒我誰會是主要關注這個的人——即時抵押貸款……

Usually new homebuyers. This is the apps designed to be resident in the sales office of the developer selling the units. So it's designed as a sales tool. It's an adjunct to our point of sale program, we just thought real estate home purchases, was the largest point of sale market, in Canada, in the States. So we would develop this app to aid in that not programmed to aid in the sales process. So when somebody wants to buy a house, and they haven't negotiated a mortgage with one of their traditional banks, we say not to worry, punch the numbers in here. And before you know it, you'll be approved for one of those types of mortgages. So it's designed to help our customers that we already deal with, for the most part by doing their financing for the construction of the residential units, is designed to help them in their sales process by taking that hurdle to closing a deal, i.e., I haven't got financing yet. And we say okay, here we are. Here's your thing. There was nothing like that in North America when we came up with it. It's still nothing like Canada, but there's something like a United States that works really well. And just disappointing to me that it took so long to get all the regulator's on side to let Canadians enjoy this sort of convenience and again, the mortgage committed a bit earlier at the point of sale.

通常是新購房者。這是專為銷售單位的開發商的銷售辦公室設計的應用程序。所以它被設計成一種銷售工具。這是我們銷售點計劃的附屬品，我們只是認為房地產購房是加拿大和美國最大的銷售點市場。所以我們會開發這個應用程序來幫助那些沒有編程來幫助銷售過程的人。所以當有人想買房子，但他們還沒有與他們的傳統銀行之一協商抵押貸款時，我們說不要擔心，在這裡輸入數字。在不知不覺中，您將獲得其中一種抵押貸款的批准。因此，它旨在幫助我們已經打交道的客戶，主要是通過為住宅單元的建設提供融資，旨在幫助他們在銷售過程中克服障礙以完成交易，即，我還沒有拿到融資。我們說好吧，我們到了。這是你的事。當我們想出它時，北美沒有這樣的東西。它仍然不像加拿大，但有一些像美國一樣運作良好的東西。令我失望的是，所有監管機構花了這麼長時間才讓加拿大人享受這種便利，而且抵押貸款在銷售點提前了一點。

Great. And then just last one, just on the digital currency. Maybe just some insight on where that sits, whether it's on the back shelf for now or what the plan is with that moving forward?

偉大的。然後是最後一個，就數字貨幣而言。也許只是對它的位置有一些了解，無論是現在在後面的貨架上還是未來的計劃是什麼？

It's on the back shelf. The digital deposit receipt that we developed is fully developed. We think eventually, banks will use Blockchain as a new channel for deposits. So I think it's inevitable. But given the regulatory environment north and south of the border and given all the busy good work we have on our point-of-sale business at really, really pace. We decided to leave this one on the shelf, and we don't have any particular time to take it off the shelf, it would be sometime maybe in the future when regulators say, "Hey, maybe that was a pretty good idea. You guys want to bring out to market." I always to regulators ask me to do it. Rather than -- because obviously, we love diversifying our deposit base. We embrace technology, but we've still got a lot to do with our core business, our spread business, it's growing the leaps and bounds. We're actually using artificial intelligence to enhance the efficiency in our banker where that's -- for me, that is the layup. The series in our bank that artificial intelligence seems ideally suited. So we're working with artificial intelligence people to improve our bank's overall efficiency so we can scale even faster. And a talk I was talking about, I think we'll be putting numbers out maybe in a year that banks thought were possible.

它在後面的架子上。我們開發的數字存款收據已經完全開發。我們認為最終，銀行將使用區塊鏈作為新的存款渠道。所以我認為這是不可避免的。但考慮到邊境南北的監管環境，以及我們在銷售點業務上所做的所有忙碌的工作，速度非常非常快。我們決定將其擱置，我們沒有任何特定的時間將其下架，也許在未來的某個時候，監管機構會說，“嘿，也許這是個好主意。你伙計們想推向市場。”我總是向監管機構要求我這樣做。而不是 - 因為很明顯，我們喜歡多樣化我們的存款基礎。我們擁抱技術，但我們仍然與我們的核心業務、我們的傳播業務有很多關係，它正在突飛猛進。我們實際上正在使用人工智能來提高銀行家的效率——對我來說，這就是上籃。我們銀行認為人工智能的系列似乎非常適合。因此，我們正在與人工智能人員合作，以提高我們銀行的整體效率，以便我們能夠更快地擴大規模。我正在談論的一個話題，我認為我們可能會在銀行認為可能的一年內公佈數字。

Your next question comes from Brad Ness at Choral Capital.

你的下一個問題來自 Choral Capital 的 Brad Ness。

Well, I'm going to jump into things. You had quarterly expenses, noninterest expenses at 12.3 million in the quarter. Is there any one time kind of transitory expenses in there?

好吧，我要開始了。你有季度支出，本季度的非利息支出為 1230 萬美元。裡面有沒有一次性的那種臨時性費用？

There's a little bit left from the previous year but not a whole lot anymore. That to 12.3 probably run rate for us now. It's like I said a little bit of hangover from the past, but there's pluses and minus going forward.

去年還剩下一點點，但已經不多了。現在對我們來說可能達到 12.3 的運行率。就像我說的是過去的宿醉，但未來有正有負。

And what type of growth should we see in that number kind of excluding a U.S. acquisition?

在不包括美國收購的情況下，我們應該看到什麼樣的增長？

Yeah. We've already absorbed the additional salary increases that came about by hiring some new employees in key areas is of course, also just the general wage increases that I guess post-pandemic gave us gave us all inflationary increases. So that's already in the numbers. And yes, I mean, there's potential for a little bit of a decline in that 12.3. But I wouldn't think about it that way. Because there's kind of a lot of moving parts involved

是的。我們已經吸收了通過在關鍵領域僱用一些新員工而帶來的額外加薪，當然，我猜大流行後給我們帶來的一般加薪也給了我們所有的通貨膨脹增長。所以這已經在數字中了。是的，我的意思是，12.3 有可能略有下降。但我不會那樣想。因為涉及到很多活動部件

And in light of continued upward pressure on interest rates. Do you think you can continue to maintain that interest margin on loans about 3%?

並且鑑於利率持續上行的壓力。你認為你能繼續保持3%左右的貸款利差嗎？

So saying this, there's a few factors, generally speaking, yes. You note that our cost of funds is about 1.5% less than the same term government, Canada. We have a really nice efficient gathering networking. And we've got, sooner or later, we know that those buckets I was talking about those insolvency accounts that we've opened are going to fill up with cheap deposits. So that helps. The thing that could depress NIM a little, which is kind of good, really good, actually, is the answer mortgage CMHC isn't conventionals. Because they have left, NIM, they're approximately 2%, all in after administration costs. So that that would depress NIM on a weighted average basis, but because very little capital they have, so it really boosts ROE. So henceforth, you're going to start seeing me talk more and more about ROE. I mean, obviously, we all know, that know about banks, that are we is highly correlated to this two percentage, a book value, market value presented percent of book and highly coordinated last analysis we did was 0.8, 0.6 was they are. So my mission is to move ROE up as fast as it can. So that stock starts trading where it should. In fact, I like to she is an outlier on the positive side, like because of the trajectory. So NIM covering around three could go up a little bit, down a little bit. But are we should really, really start moving.

所以這麼說，有幾個因素，一般來說，是的。你注意到我們的資金成本比加拿大同期政府低約 1.5%。我們有一個非常好的高效聚會網絡。而且我們遲早會知道，我所說的那些我們開立的破產賬戶的桶將被廉價存款填滿。所以這有幫助。可能會讓 NIM 有點壓抑的事情，這有點好，真的很好，實際上，抵押貸款 CMHC 不是傳統的答案。因為他們已經離開，NIM，他們大約有 2%，全部在管理成本之後。所以這會在加權平均基礎上壓低 NIM，但因為他們擁有的資本很少，所以它確實提高了 ROE。所以從今以後，你會開始看到我越來越多地談論 ROE。我的意思是，很明顯，我們都知道銀行，我們與這兩個百分比高度相關，賬面價值，市場價值佔賬面的百分比，我們所做的高度協調的最後分析是 0.8，他們是 0.6。所以我的任務是盡可能快地提高 ROE。這樣股票就可以在它應該交易的地方開始交易。事實上，我喜歡她在積極方面是一個異常值，就像是因為軌跡。所以 NIM 覆蓋大約 3 可能會上升一點，下降一點。但是我們真的應該開始行動嗎？

And when I do think about ROE, at the end of this year, it sounds like you're excited about artificial intelligence, when it can use due to your efficiency in the back room. You're excited about capital efficiency and Instant-Mortgage. And with continued strong loan growth and limited expense growth. I mean, is 17%, ROE something that we should be looking forward by the fourth quarter?

當我考慮 ROE 時，在今年年底，聽起來你對人工智能很興奮，因為你在後台的效率可以使用它。您對資本效率和即時抵押感到興奮。以及持續強勁的貸款增長和有限的費用增長。我的意思是，到第四季度我們應該期待 17% 的 ROE 嗎？

Well, I let me say this to your Brad. I brought a team down to lovely Fort Lauderdale for a strategic planning session. And there was one metric I had probably every slide, and it was ROE and the target I gave the staff was 18%. Some of them choke (inaudible) and such. But the building of the bank days are over, we're got the bank built now. And that's a realistic number, whether we get that by the end of this year, the last month, October, whether we can week, the month shows 18 or not, I don't know. But it's going to be moving up every month now because it has to take costs the same and revenue is growing by 8% a quarter right. As our loans have grown by that as a little plus and minus their two saying what central bankers do and how high the put rates. It could just dampen demand. But as I was saying earlier, Canadians, and I think their U.S. counterparts are quite rightly looking at energy costs and saying to themselves, hey, how do we save a few bucks on heating their house? And that's a wonderful market for point-of-sale business. So all in Brad, yeah, realistically, I said, '18 and '18 looks definitely when our model will turn. So 2024, we shouldn't be clicking our glasses together and saying, the team did it for me.

好吧，我讓我對你的布拉德說。我帶了一個團隊到可愛的勞德代爾堡參加戰略規劃會議。我可能每張幻燈片都有一個指標，那就是 ROE，我給員工的目標是 18%。他們中的一些人窒息（聽不清）等。但是建設銀行的時代已經結束，我們現在已經建成了銀行。這是一個現實的數字，無論我們是否在今年年底、最後一個月、10 月得到它，我們是否可以周，這個月是否顯示 18，我不知道。但它現在每個月都會上升，因為它必須保持成本不變，而且收入每季度增長 8%。隨著我們的貸款增長，加上和減去他們兩個說央行行長做什麼和看跌利率有多高。它可能只會抑制需求。但正如我之前所說，加拿大人，我認為他們的美國同行非常正確地關注能源成本，並對自己說，嘿，我們如何在他們的房子供暖上節省幾美元？這是銷售點業務的絕佳市場。所以所有在布拉德，是的，現實地，我說，'18 和'18 看起來肯定會在我們的模型轉向時。所以 2024 年，我們不應該一起敲擊眼鏡說，團隊為我做的。

Last question here. On your cyber initiative or I'll just call it the cybersecurity initiative. I'm always waiting for like a breakout quarter where revenues just jumped exponentially and kind of continues on a really strong path. And it's just, I continue to wait for that. What's going on with cybersecurity, and what type of growth expectations should we assume?

最後一個問題在這裡。關於您的網絡計劃，或者我將其稱為網絡安全計劃。我一直在等待一個突破性的季度，那裡的收入呈指數級增長，並且在某種程度上繼續走上非常強勁的道路。只是，我繼續等待。網絡安全發生了什麼，我們應該假設什麼樣的增長預期？

Well, the breakout quarter, I'm waiting for two. And here's what you can expect. Next quarter and a quarter and quarter after it'll be it'll be good growth in DRTC based on the new products and the customers and sort of how we're onboarding new customers. But to get a breakout, frankly, I think we've got to have a reseller signed up. Somebody who's got a huge customer base and wants to resell these products for us, when we don't have a sales force that can produce 10 times revenue growth. Somebody else could. The type of products we have our state-of-the-art, they work for our bank, they're fantastic. I mean, some of the customers we've on boarded or the who's who in North America, of course, you know, some of them. So you've got a first class product, oh, it's tough. In-house developed suite of wonderful products. I think other rap fights throughout North America would do would be really happy with her sweet. But, we've only grown a few people. And right now our focus is mainly on the bank growing the banks NIM business.

好吧，突破季度，我在等兩個。這就是您可以期待的。下個季度、一個季度和一個季度之後，DRTC 將根據新產品和客戶以及我們如何吸引新客戶的方式實現良好增長。但要取得突破，坦率地說，我認為我們必須有一個經銷商簽約。當我們沒有可以產生 10 倍收入增長的銷售隊伍時，擁有龐大客戶群並想為我們轉售這些產品的人。別人可以。我們擁有最先進的產品類型，它們適用於我們的銀行，非常棒。我的意思是，我們已經登機的一些客戶或北美的名人錄，當然，你知道，其中一些。所以你有一個一流的產品，哦，這很難。內部開發的精彩產品套件。我認為整個北美的其他說唱比賽都會對她的甜蜜感到非常高興。但是，我們只培養了幾個人。現在我們的重點主要放在銀行發展銀行 NIM 業務上。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Well, Brad, it's really good to hear from you. Are you still in the D.C. area?

嗯，布拉德，很高興收到你的來信。你還在華盛頓特區嗎？

I am. Let me know you're here.

我是。讓我知道你在這裡。

These days all show up in person sales. We had that way pretty soon.

這些天都出現在親自銷售。我們很快就做到了。

There are no further questions from the phone lines. At this time, I'll turn the conference back to David Taylor for any closing remarks.

電話線路上沒有進一步的問題。此時，我會將會議轉回給 David Taylor 作閉幕詞。

Well, I just like to thank everybody for dialing in and listening to us. It's an exciting quarter for us, and I very much look forward to talking to you next quarter. Stay tuned. VersaBank is centered on airport I'll say a passenger safety belt. So we're cleared to take off. Thank you. Bye.

好吧，我只是想感謝大家撥入並聽取我們的意見。這對我們來說是一個激動人心的季度，我非常期待下個季度與您交談。敬請關注。 VersaBank 以機場為中心，我會說是乘客安全帶。所以我們可以起飛了。謝謝。再見。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the conference call for this morning. We would like to thank everyone for participating and ask you to please disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，今天上午的電話會議到此結束。我們要感謝大家的參與，並請您斷開您的線路。