Versabank (VBNK) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to VersaBank's first-quarter fiscal 2025 financial results conference call. This morning, VersaBank issued a news release reporting its financial results for the first quarter ended January 31, 2025. That news release, along with the bank's financial statements, MD&A, and supplemental financial information are available on the bank's website in the Investor Relations section as well as on SEDAR+ and EDGAR.

女士們、先生們，早安。歡迎參加VersaBank 2025財年第一季財務業績電話會議。今天上午，VersaBank發布新聞稿，報告其截至2025年1月31日第一季的財務業績。該新聞稿以及該銀行的財務報表、MD&A 和補充財務資訊可在該銀行網站的投資者關係部分以及 SEDAR+ 和 EDGAR 上查閱。

Please note that in addition to the telephone dial-in, VersaBank is webcasting this morning's conference call. The webcast is listen-only. (Operator Instructions) 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 one hour following completion of the call. Details on how to access the replays are available in this morning's news release.

請注意，除了電話撥入之外，VersaBank 還將透過網路直播今天上午的電話會議。網路廣播僅供收聽。（操作員指示）對於參加今天電話會議的人員，可以在銀行網站上取得隨附的幻燈片簡報。此外，今天的電話會議將在通話結束後約一小時後透過電話和網路存檔以供重播。有關如何觀看重播的詳細資訊請參閱今天上午的新聞稿。

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's 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.

我想提醒我們的聽眾，本次電話會議中關於未來事件的陳述本質上是前瞻性的，並且基於 VersaBank 管理層做出的某些假設和分析。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有重大差異。請參閱今天演示中的 VersaBank 前瞻性聲明建議。

I would now like to turn the call over to David Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer of VersaBank. Please go ahead, Mr. Taylor.

現在我想將電話轉給 VersaBank 總裁兼執行長 David Taylor。請繼續，泰勒先生。

Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. With me is our Chief Financial Officer, John Asma.

大家早安，感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。和我一起的是我們的財務長約翰‧阿斯瑪 (John Asma)。

Before I begin, I will note that you will see a change in a number of terms we use to describe our business. With the start of a new fiscal year, in the context of the evolution of the bank, including the U.S. bank acquisition, we have taken the opportunity to update the manner in which we are describing our asset and deposit classes.

在我開始之前，我要指出的是，您會看到我們用來描述業務的許多術語發生了變化。隨著新財年的開始，在銀行發展的背景下，包括美國銀行的收購，我們藉此機會更新了我們描述資產和存款類別的方式。

The first quarter of fiscal 2025 has been a tremendously busy and eventful one in terms of moving our strategy forward. We signed our first RPP partner in the United States following the U.S. bank acquisition. We completed a very successful $86 million capital raise including full execution of over-allotment option to support our U.S. RPP opportunity.

就推動我們的策略而言，2025 財年第一季是極度繁忙和多事的一年。在美國銀行收購之後，我們在美國簽下了第一個 RPP 合作夥伴。我們非常成功地完成了 8,600 萬美元的融資，包括完全執行超額配售選擇權以支持我們的美國 RPP 機會。

We aligned the structure of DRT Cyber to position our digital deposit receipts for renewed opportunity and our cybersecurity service business for planned divestment. And we accomplished all of this as we achieved yet another record for total assets.

我們調整了 DRT Cyber​​ 的結構，以便我們的數位存款收據獲得新的機會，並且我們的網路安全服務業務能夠按計劃進行剝離。我們在實現這一切的同時，總資產又創下了新高。

Let me start with the signing of our first U.S. partner post U.S. bank acquisition. We are thrilled to partner with Watercross Financial, a rapidly growing point-of-sale originator of home improvement loans in the U.S. Watercress has a proven track record of originating high-quality consumer loans through its expanding network of contractors nationwide. It's no accident that our first partner finances home improvement sector as that has been our biggest driver of significant growth in our Canadian business in recent years.

首先，我要說一下我們在收購美國銀行後簽署的第一個美國合作夥伴協議。我們很高興與 Watercross Financial 合作，Watercross Financial 是美國快速成長的家居裝修貸款銷售點發起機構。 Watercress 透過其在全國範圍內不斷擴大的承包商網絡，在發放高品質消費貸款方面有著良好的記錄。我們的第一個合作夥伴為家居裝修行業提供資金並非偶然，因為這是我們近年來加拿大業務大幅增長的最大動力。

Immediately following the agreement, we provided our first tranche of funding and shortly thereafter our second. Importantly, the program is functioning just as it should and meeting both our partners and our expectations. We expect our funding with Watercrest to steadily expand throughout the year and contribute meaningfully to U.S .growth this year.

協議達成後，我們立即提供了第一筆資金，不久後又提供了第二筆資金。重要的是，該計劃正在按預期運行，滿足了我們的合作夥伴和我們的期望。我們預計，我們對 Watercrest 的資助將在全年穩步成長，並為今年美國的成長做出有意義的貢獻。

We are working with multiple other firms in our robust pipeline to add our next partners. And we are confident that these can be finalized quicker now that we have been through this once. Moreover, with the program now formally functioning in the United States under our U.S. license, we have further evidence of its value for potential new partners.

我們正在與我們強大的管道中的多家其他公司合作，以增加我們的下一個合作夥伴。我們相信，既然我們已經經歷過一次了，這些就能更快完成。此外，隨著該計劃現在在美國根據我們的美國許可證正式運行，我們有進一步的證據證明其對潛在的新合作夥伴的價值。

John will run through Q1 numbers in detail in a few minutes. But I want to highlight a few items to provide some perspective on the quarter.

幾分鐘後，約翰將詳細介紹第一季的數據。但我想強調幾點，以便對本季提供一些看法。

One, from a consolidated perspective, the quarter reflects the start-up nature of the U.S. operations that is essentially full costs ahead of any generation of revenue and profits from our U.S. RPP. Specifically, we had close to a full cost load but a de minimis revenue as we signed our first U.S. partner only at the very end of the quarter.

首先，從綜合角度來看，本季反映了美國業務的初創性質，即全部成本先於我們在美國產生的任何收入和利潤。人民進步黨。具體來說，我們的成本負擔已接近滿負荷，但收入卻很少，因為我們在本季末才簽下了第一個美國合作夥伴。

Two, our Canadian digital banking operations continues to demonstrate the power of the operating leverage in the business, in particular, the power of receivable purchase program at scale to drive efficiency and return on common equity. I will note here that our Canadian banking operations bear the vast majority of our corporate overhead costs, including our public company costs. So as an indicator of its true potential efficiency and return on equity of our U.S. business, it is actually significantly understated and the U.S. business is expected to be even more efficient than the Canadian business at scale.

二，我們的加拿大數位銀行業務繼續展示業務中經營槓桿的力量，特別是大規模應收帳款購買計畫在提高效率和普通股回報率方面的力量。我要在此指出的是，我們的加拿大銀行業務承擔了我們公司絕大多數的管理費用，包括上市公司費用。因此，作為我們美國業務的真正潛在效率和股本回報率的指標，它實際上被嚴重低估了，預計美國業務的效率甚至會高於加拿大業務的規模。

Three, I noted on our last call that there are a number of favorable trends that we believe will support incremental expansion of our net interest margin in 2025. While NIM on credit assets continues to be dampened by the lag effect of the atypical inverted yield curve that existed throughout fiscal '24, we began to see small sequential increases in NIM on credit assets in Q1. This was driven to a large extent by the cost of funds catching up to yields as market interest rates declined. Notably, with an outsized proportion of term deposits coming due in the near term, as well as continued expansion of our insolvency trustee deposits, we expect further declines in our cost of funds in the near term.

第三，我在上次電話會議上指出，我們認為有許多有利趨勢將支持我們在 2025 年逐步擴大淨利差。儘管信貸資產的淨利差繼續受到整個 24 財年存在的非典型倒掛殖利率曲線的滯後效應的抑制，但我們開始看到第一季信貸資產的淨利差出現小幅連續增長。這在很大程度上是由於市場利率下降，資金成本追趕收益率所致。值得注意的是，由於近期有大量定期存款到期，以及我們的破產受託人存款持續增加，我們預計近期資金成本將進一步下降。

And finally, our EPS for the quarter reflects the significantly higher number of shares outstanding in Q1. As a result of our December capital raise. In fact, the weighted average shares of Q1 was 12% higher than Q1 last year. And this is of course ahead of being able to put that capital to work as we have now started to do.

最後，我們本季的每股盈餘反映了第一季流通股數量的顯著增加。這是我們 12 月籌集資金的結果。事實上，第一季的加權平均股價比去年第一季高出 12%。當然，這比我們現在開始將這些資本投入使用還要早。

As a reminder, this provided a 30% increase in our capital base which we deploy at approximately 12 times or more at around 2.5% spread. That is very accretive.

提醒一下，這使我們的資本基礎增加了 30%，我們以大約 2.5% 的利差部署了大約 12 倍或更多的資本。這是非常有益的。

I'd now like to turn the call over to John to review our financial results in detail. John?

現在我想把電話轉給約翰來詳細回顧我們的財務結果。約翰？

Thanks, David. Before I begin, I remind you that our 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. All of the following numbers are reported in Canadian dollars as per our financial statements unless otherwise noted.

謝謝，大衛。在開始之前，我想提醒您，我們的第一季財務報表和 MD&A 可以在我們網站的「投資者」部分以及 SEDAR 和 EDGAR 上查閱。除非另有說明，以下所有數字均按照我們的財務報表以加幣報告。

Starting with the balance sheet, total assets at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2025 grew 15% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to a new high of just under $5 billion. Cash and securities were $545 million or 11% of total assets, up from 6% in Q1 last year and level with Q4 of last year, ahead of expected deployment in Q2. Book value per share increased to a record $16.03. Our CET1 ratio increased to 14.61%. And our leverage ratio was 9.67% with both remaining above our internal targets.

從資產負債表開始，2025 財年第一季末的總資產年增 15%，季增 3%，達到略低於 50 億美元的新高。現金和證券為 5.45 億美元，佔總資產的 11%，高於去年第一季的 6%，與去年第四季持平，且高於第二季的預期部署。每股帳面價值增至創紀錄的16.03美元。我們的CET1比率增至14.61%。我們的槓桿率為 9.67%，均高於我們的內部目標。

Total consolidated revenue was $27.8 million compared with $28.9 million last year. The small year-over-year decrease was driven by lower overall net interest margin as well as lower non-interest income. Consolidated non-interest expense was $15.7 million compared with $12 million in Q1 of last year and $19.4 million for Q4 of last year which included one-time expenses mostly related to acquisition. The year-over-year increase reflects incremental operating costs associated with VersaBank USA operations and higher operating costs to support current and anticipated increased business activities ahead of any revenue generation.

總合併收入為 2,780 萬美元，而去年同期為 2,890 萬美元。年比小幅下降是由於整體淨利差下降以及非利息收入下降所致。合併非利息支出為 1,570 萬美元，而去年第一季為 1,200 萬美元，去年第四季為 1,940 萬美元，其中包括主要與收購相關的一次性支出。同比成長反映了與 VersaBank USA 營運相關的增量營運成本，以及在產生任何收入之前支援當前和預期增加的業務活動的更高營運成本。

As a reminder, DRT Cyber expenses are included in consolidated net interest expense and totaled $3 million for the quarter which were elevated and I will describe in a moment.

提醒一下，DRT Cyber​​ 費用包含在合併淨利息費用中，本季總計 300 萬美元，該費用有所增加，我稍後會進行描述。

Looking at the income statement on a segmented basis, the vast majority of revenue was, of course, driven by our digital banking operations and within that, our Canadian banking operations as we didn't fund our U.S. partner until the end of the first quarter.

從分段角度來看損益表，絕大多數收入當然是由我們的數位銀行業務以及其中的加拿大銀行業務推動的，因為我們直到第一季末才為我們的美國合作夥伴提供資金。

Revenue for the Canadian business operations was $23.8 million, up slightly from Q4 of last year. Net income for the Canadian banking operations was $8.8 million or $0.30 per share. Revenue for U.S. banking operations was $2 million. And income from the U.S. banking operations was $103,000.

加拿大業務營運收入為 2,380 萬美元，較去年第四季略有成長。加拿大銀行業務的淨收入為 880 萬美元，即每股 0.30 美元。美國銀行業務收入為 200 萬美元。來自美國銀行業務的收入為103,000美元。

Within DRTC, the cybersecurity component generated revenue of $2 million, up from $1.9 million in Q1 of last year. Net loss was $757,000 impacted by higher operating expenses related to the onboarding support cost for new cybersecurity offerings. Within DRTC, digital media revenue was $342,000 and net income was $33,000.

在 DRTC 內部，網路安全組件創造了 200 萬美元的收入，高於去年第一季的 190 萬美元。淨虧損為 757,000 美元，受新網路安全產品的入職支援成本相關的營運費用增加的影響。在 DRTC 內部，數位媒體收入為 342,000 美元，淨收入為 33,000 美元。

Our credit asset portfolio grew to a new record $4.35 billion at the end of Q1 driven once again by our receivable purchase program which increased 10% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to $3.4 billion. Our RPP portfolio represents 79% of our total credit asset portfolio at the end of Q1, up slightly from the end of Q4.

我們信貸資產組合在第一季末增長至創紀錄的 43.5 億美元，這再次得益於我們的應收帳款購買計劃，該計劃同比增長 10%，環比增長 3%，達到 34 億美元。截至第一季末，我們的 RPP 投資組合占我們總信貸資產投資組合的 79%，較第四季末略有上升。

David previously mentioned changes to the naming of our asset categories. One of those changes was to simplify the commercial real estate portfolio and public sector and other portfolio to the combined multi-family residential loans and other portfolio. Our multi-family residential loans and other portfolio grew 5% year-over-year to $928 million. We are seeing the ramp-up of our CMHC insured loan program which drove a 2% sequential increase in multi-family residential loans and other portfolio. We currently have $231 million outstanding at the end of the quarter.

David 之前提到我們資產類別命名的變更。其中一項變更是將商業房地產投資組合和公共部門及其他投資組合簡化為合併的多戶住宅貸款及其他投資組合。我們的多戶住宅貸款和其他投資組合年增 5%，達到 9.28 億美元。我們看到 CMHC 保險貸款計劃正在擴大，這推動了多戶住宅貸款和其他投資組合連續 2% 的成長。截至本季末，我們尚未償還債務 2.31 億美元。

As a reminder, our multi-family loans and other portfolio is primarily business-to-business mortgages and construction loans for residential properties. We have very little exposure to commercial use properties.

提醒一下，我們的多戶型貸款和其他投資組合主要是企業對企業抵押貸款和住宅建設貸款。我們很少接觸商業用途的房產。

Turning to the income statement, our digital banking operations, net interest margin on credit assets, that is excluding cash and securities, was 2.36%. That was 27 basis points or 10% lower on a year-over-year basis, and 2 basis points or 1% higher on a sequential basis, primarily due to the lag effect of a typical inverted yield curve that existed throughout 2024 which dampened the RPP portfolio margins.

談到損益表，我們的數位銀行業務，信貸資產（不包括現金和證券）的淨利差為 2.36%。與去年同期相比，這一數字下降了 27 個基點，即 10%，與上一季相比，這一數字上升了 2 個基點，即 1%，這主要是由於 2024 年全年存在的典型倒掛收益率曲線的滯後效應抑制了 RPP 投資組合的利潤率。

Net net interest margin, including the impact of cash securities and other assets, was 2.08%, which was primarily due to higher than typical liquidity in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, but still remaining among the highest of the publicly traded Canadian Schedule I banks.

包括現金證券和其他資產的影響在內的淨淨息差為 2.08%，這主要是由於 2025 財年第一季的流動性高於典型水平，但仍是加拿大上市第一類銀行中最高的。

Our provision for credit losses or PCL in Q1 increased this quarter to 0.09% on average credit assets, compared to negative 0.01% last year and with a 12-quarter average of 0.02%. The increase this quarter was due to changes in forward-looking information used in our credit risk models.

本季度，我們的信貸損失準備金或 PCL 佔平均信貸資產的比例上升至 0.09%，而去年同期為負 0.01%，12 個季度的平均水平為 0.02%。本季的成長是由於我們的信用風險模型中使用的前瞻性資訊的變化。

I'd now like to turn the call back to David for some closing remarks, David?

現在我想把電話轉回給大衛，請他做最後發言，大衛？

Thanks, John. 2025 is off to a great start and unfolding on plan. Looking ahead, we expect another year of solid growth in credit assets. We will increasingly benefit from the operating leverage of our business model as those assets scale. We still expect minimum of low double-digit growth in our Canadian assets with potential upside from increased consumer spending in the lower interest rate environment. That said, we could see this growth dampened if the recent tariff situation is prolonged and meaningfully impacts consumer spending in Canada.

謝謝，約翰。 2025 年開局良好，一切進展順利。展望未來，我們預期信貸資產仍將維持穩健成長。隨著這些資產的規模擴大，我們將越來越多地受益於我們商業模式的經營槓桿。我們仍然預計，我們的加拿大資產至少會實現兩位數的低成長，而在低利率環境下，消費支出的增加可能會帶來上行潛力。話雖如此，如果最近的關稅情況持續下去並對加拿大的消費者支出產生重大影響，我們可能會看到這種增長受到抑制。

We expect to begin to see a more meaningful contribution of our growing CMHC insured multi-family residential loan business in our opportunistic real estate portfolio. These zero risk-weighted loans require no capital and generate a very attractive spread. We are still targeting $1 billion in commitments by the end of fiscal 2025, although the pace of drawdowns on commitments to-date has been slower than expected. Each of these will drive greater efficiency, growth and profitability, and higher return on common equity as we continue to capitalize on the operating leverage of our business model.

我們期望看到我們不斷增長的 CMHC 承保多戶住宅貸款業務在我們機會性房地產投資組合中做出更有意義的貢獻。這些零風險加權貸款不需要資本，並產生非常有吸引力的利差。我們仍計劃在 2025 財年末實現 10 億美元的承諾，儘管迄今為止承諾的減少速度低於預期。隨著我們繼續利用我們商業模式的經營槓桿，上述每一項都將推動更高的效率、成長和獲利能力，以及更高的普通股權益回報率。

We also expect to see the continuation of several favorable trends that support net interest margin. The yield curve has returned to its normal upward slope. While there's still a lag effect in the very near term, we will see benefit thereafter increasing in 2025. In addition, we should continue to see the benefit of our low-cost insolvency trustee deposit business as bankruptcy activity in Canada continues to increase.

我們也預計，支持淨利差的幾個有利趨勢將持續下去。殖利率曲線已恢復正常的上升趨勢。雖然短期內仍存在滯後效應，但我們將在 2025 年看到效益的成長。此外，隨著加拿大破產活動的持續增加，我們應該繼續看到低成本破產受託人存款業務的好處。

In the United States, we're off and running with our first partner post U.S. bank acquisition with the benefit of USD86 million in capital we raised in December. We have a robust and growing pipeline as our discussions with both potential partners and others in the industry continue to validate that our RPP is both unique and very attractive solution for companies who finance big-ticket goods and services at the point of sale. We will grow our U.S. RPP business as quickly as our balance sheet capacity permits.

在美國，我們在收購美國銀行後與第一位合作夥伴一起開始運營，並於 12 月籌集了 8,600 萬美元的資金。我們擁有強大且不斷增長的管道，因為我們與潛在合作夥伴和業內其他人士的討論不斷證實，我們的 RPP 對於在銷售點為高價商品和服務提供融資的公司來說既獨特又非常有吸引力的解決方案。我們將在資產負債表容量允許的範圍內盡快擴大美國 RPP 業務。

And I will note here, at this time, we do not expect tariffs to have any negative impact on the ramp up of our U.S. RPP business. In fact, the uncertainty in the markets could make our RPP solution even more attractive as alternate sources of funding get more expensive.

我要指出的是，目前我們預計關稅不會對我們美國 RPP 業務的成長產生任何負面影響。事實上，隨著替代資金來源變得更加昂貴，市場的不確定性可能會使我們的 RPP 解決方案更具吸引力。

Finally, we continue to be very encouraged by our favorable stance of the Trump administration on digital assets which we believe will be very beneficial for our proprietary digital deposit receipts or DDRs for short. And we are now actively pursuing this renewed opportunity. Our DDRs are highly encrypted digital assets based on a one-for-one on actual deposits that combine the safety of a traditional banking and with the efficiency, cost savings, security, and flexibility of blockchain technology. This uniquely provides superior security, stability, and regulatory compliance compared to conventional alternatives.

最後，我們繼續對川普政府對數位資產的有利立場感到非常鼓舞，我們相信這將對我們的專有數位存款收據（簡稱 DDR）非常有利。我們現在正在積極尋求這個新的機會。我們的 DDR 是基於一對一實際存款的高度加密數位資產，結合了傳統銀行的安全性以及區塊鏈技術的效率、成本節約、安全性和靈活性。與傳統替代方案相比，這獨特地提供了卓越的安全性、穩定性和法規遵循。

Importantly, our DDRs are backed by the bank's very own military-grade cybersecurity technology which we call VersaVault. We have tremendous head start, having successfully completed the pilot program with our proprietary DDRs, provided a secure representation of federally regulated bank deposits on the Algorand, Ethereum, and Stellar blockchains. Our DDRs have the potential to be an ultra low-cost source of deposits funding for VersaBank as well as any bank that uses our technology while enabling consumers and businesses to confidently engage in rapidly developing field of digital commerce.

重要的是，我們的 DDR 由銀行自己的軍用級網路安全技術（我們稱之為 VersaVault）支援。我們擁有巨大的領先優勢，已成功完成利用我們專有的 DDR 進行的試點計劃，並在 Algorand、以太坊和 Stellar 區塊鏈上為受聯邦監管的銀行存款提供了安全的代表。我們的 DDR 有可能成為 VersaBank 以及任何使用我們技術的銀行的超低成本存款資金來源，同時使消費者和企業能夠自信地參與快速發展的數位商務領域。

To pursue this opportunity, we have transferred the intellectual property and other resources related to DDRs to our wholly-owned subsidiary exclusively for DDR assets. The name Digital Meteor is indicative of the potential for DDRs to significantly disrupt the conventional banking deposit framework.

為了抓住這個機會，我們已將與 DDR 相關的智慧財產權和其他資源轉移給專門負責 DDR 資產的全資子公司。Digital Meteor 這個名字表明 DDR 有可能顯著顛覆傳統的銀行存款框架。

With that, I'd like to open up the call for questions. Operator?

現在，我想開始提問。操作員？

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。女士們、先生們，我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員指示）

Joe Yanchunis, Raymond James.

喬揚丘尼斯、雷蒙德詹姆斯。

I apologize. Good morning. Let me start over. So the digital deposit receipts, it sounds like a very exciting opportunity. How should we think about that in the near term? And can you quantify the level of these deposits, say, by year end that you would consider a success?

我很抱歉。早安.讓我重新開始。因此，數位存款收據聽起來是一個非常令人興奮的機會。我們近期應該如何考慮這個問題？您能否量化這些存款的水平，例如，到年底您認為成功的水平是多少？

Well, Joe, what we have in mind is piloting the project again in the United States. We completed a pilot project for what we call VCAD or CADVs being a digital representation of deposits with our bank in Canada. And now that we have a national bank license in the United States, we plan to do a similar pilot very soon, actually. We're working with the regulators to put that together. Once we've had a successful pilot project, then we'll start raising deposits in this fashion probably towards the middle to the end of the year. And I think it's an extremely attractive product. It's sort of like the modern-day checking account where one of our depositors can pay for some goods or services rather write an old fashioned paper check, but transferred digital deposit receipt that of course would be insured. And it's a deposit with a national bank to another person's wallet and thereby, (inaudible) that business sort of like having a certified check. Because, obviously, they are drawn on our bank and and our bank's deposits attract FDIC insurance. So I think towards the end of this year, you'll probably see it rolled out. But right now, the plan is just to start a pilot in the United States.

嗯，喬，我們考慮的是在美國再次試行該計畫。我們完成了一個試點項目，我們稱之為 VCAD 或 CADV，它是我們在加拿大的銀行存款的數位化表示。現在我們在美國擁有國家銀行執照，實際上我們計劃很快進行類似的試點。我們正在與監管機構合作，以實現這一目標。一旦我們的試點計畫成功，我們就會開始以這種方式籌集存款，大概在年中到年底。我認為這是一個極具吸引力的產品。這有點像現代的支票帳戶，我們的儲戶可以用它來支付一些商品或服務，而不必寫老式的紙質支票，而是轉移當然有保險的數位存款收據。這是將錢從國家銀行存入另一個人的錢包，因此（聽不清楚）這種業務有點像保付支票。因為，顯然，它們是從我們的銀行提取的，而我們銀行的存款受到聯邦存款保險公司 (FDIC) 的保險。所以我認為到今年年底，你可能會看到它推出。但目前該計畫還只是在美國開始試行。

Understood. Well, certainly look forward to seeing how that matures and grows over time. And then (inaudible) if we could just pivot over to the non-interest expenses. Should we think about this being the current run rate moving forward where we're at right now?

明白了。嗯，當然期待看到它隨著時間的推移如何成熟和發展。然後（聽不清楚）如果我們可以轉向非利息支出。我們是否應該認為這就是我們目前所處的當前運行率？

Yeah, I would. Maybe even a little bit more. The one thing that impacts our financial statements is the exchange rate in that the expenses we have in the United States are a lot more expensive now in terms of Canadian dollars. And the salaries, of course, the salaries we are paying on the 14 people we assigned to the U.S. bank in terms of Canadian dollars are a lot more expensive. But yeah, that's what I would do. I'd run today's rate plus a little more maybe and that's a good number to estimate.

是的，我會的。或許還會多一點。影響我們財務報表的一個因素是匯率，因為以加幣計算，我們在美國產生的費用現在要貴得多。當然，我們向派往美國銀行的 14 名員工支付的工資以加幣計算要貴得多。但是是的，這就是我會做的。我會按照今天的匯率再多一點，這是一個很好的估計數字。

Got it. I appreciate that. And then last one from me here. How should we think about this growth in the U.S. RPP volume as we move throughout the year? How quickly do you think you can ramp that up?

知道了。我很感激。這是我最後一個問題。我們該如何看待美國 RPP 交易量在全年的成長？您認為您能多快實現這一目標？

Well, the first account we signed, Watercress, took a little while to plow through the legal work. But shortly after signing, we did the first draw about $10 million. We did another draw after that, about $15 million. And it looks like there's a lot more to come. I would look at it as gathering momentum. The next one's in the hopper. And the legal work shouldn't take anywhere near as long. So the original targets I gave for the year were in the order of, I think it was USD290 million. I think that's easily attainable just with a few RPP partners and there's quite a number lined up.

好吧，我們簽約的第一個帳戶 Watercress 花了一點時間來完成法律工作。但簽署後不久，我們就首次提領了約 1,000 萬美元。此後我們又進行了一次抽獎，金額約 1500 萬美元。看起來還會有更多。我認為它正在積聚勢頭。下一個在料斗裡。而且法律工作不應該花那麼長時間。所以我最初設定的年度目標是 2.9 億美元。我認為，只要有少數 RPP 合作夥伴，就可以輕鬆實現這一目標，而且已經有相當多的合作夥伴加入。

All right. I appreciate it. Thank you for taking my questions.

好的。我很感激。感謝您回答我的問題。

Thank you, Joe.

謝謝你，喬。

Tim Switzer, KBW.

提姆‧斯威策，KBW。

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a follow-up on the trajectory of the U.S. point-of-sale business and the originations there. Can you provide an update on how the conversation with some of your newer partners are going? And what it's going to take for them to want to launch quicker and start originating loans as soon as possible?

早安.感謝您回答我的問題。我對美國銷售點業務的發展軌跡及其起源進行了追蹤。能否介紹一下您與一些新夥伴的談話進度？那麼，他們需要做些什麼才能盡快啟動並開始發放貸款呢？

Well, it's sort of a matter of doing the paperwork. We have what we call a master person sale agreement, and it's a fairly hefty document. Our partners have and their lawyers have to get become familiar with it and interact with us. That's sort of what we experienced in Canada too. It's a unique new program and it takes a little while to understand how it all operates. But it's just simply do the paperwork. Everybody seems keen and excited. And in fact we've talked with some partners who have huge potential. Some of them dealt with us in the past in Canada. So they're familiar with the bank, they're familiar with the personnel actually. So like it did in Canada, it'll just start gathering momentum. And we got a little bit of help. The alternate financing is securitizations. And I guess, unfortunately, due to market conditions, securitizations are getting a little more expensive at this sort of a flight to quality again which plays into our hand. But of course, it's not so good for the stock market and investors.

嗯，這有點像是辦理文書工作的事情。我們有所謂的“主人銷售協議”，這是一份相當重要的文件。我們的合夥人和他們的律師必須熟悉它並與我們互動。這也是我們在加拿大所經歷的事情。這是一個獨特的新程序，需要花一點時間才能了解它的運作方式。但這只是簡單的文書工作。每個人看起來都很熱切和興奮。事實上，我們已經與一些具有巨大潛力的合作夥伴進行了交談。他們中的一些人過去曾在加拿大與我們打交道。所以他們熟悉銀行，其實也熟悉那裡的人員。因此，就像在加拿大一樣，它將開始積聚勢頭。我們得到了一點幫助。替代融資是證券化。我想，不幸的是，由於市場狀況，證券化在這種品質追求下會變得更加昂貴，這對我們有利。但當然，這對股市和投資人來說並不是好事。

Okay. Thank you. And as you begin to ramp up the originations in the U.S. business, how should we think about the capacity of the balance sheet which I think is pretty large now following the capital raise versus the loans that you want to put in into the syndication? And what does that mean for the related fee income?

好的。謝謝。當您開始加大美國業務的發起力道時，我們應該如何考慮資產負債表的容量？我認為，在資本籌集之後，資產負債表的容量現在相當大，而您想要投入銀團的貸款又是多少？這對相關費用收入意味著什麼？

Well, as we start to approach our our budgeted figure, we'll be sharing the loans through the syndication model with other community banks and maybe some investment firms. We're well under way with that with the program. The software is developed. The software works and is usually able to look after it. And we've been working with some large investment banking firms to package the participation into a security that hopefully has a decent bond rating. I'm looking for about AA, concerning our bank is A unsecured which gets a favorable risk weighting on a participant's balance sheet, about 20% versus 75%, 100%. So it'll make the product even more attractive.

好吧，當我們開始接近預算數字時，我們將透過銀團模式與其他社區銀行和一些投資公司分享貸款。我們的計劃進展順利。軟體已開發完畢。該軟體可以運行並且通常能夠照顧它。我們一直在與一些大型投資銀行公司合作，將參與度打包成一種證券，希望該證券能獲得不錯的債券評級。我正在尋找有關 AA 的信息，因為我們的銀行是無擔保的，在參與者的資產負債表上具有有利的風險權重，約為 20% 對 75% 或 100%。因此它會讓產品更加有吸引力。

With respect to management fees, we've been targeting around 1%. It remains to be seen. We haven't concluded a transaction yet. But the more attractive the product is, i.e. bond rating and risk-weighted at a very low level, the better fees we'll be able to earn, obviously. And the market conditions too. When the market's frothy, rates are narrow and we have to sharpen our pencils. And when the rates, as it seems to be happening now, increase the (inaudible) quality versus higher risk debt, then we do better.

對於管理費，我們的目標是1%左右。這還有待觀察。我們尚未完成交易。但產品越有吸引力，例如債券評級和風險加權處於非常低的水平，我們顯然就能賺到越多的費用。還有市場狀況。當市場泡沫氾濫時，利率就會變得狹窄，我們就必須削減開支。而當利率（現在似乎正在發生）提高（聽不清楚）品質而非高風險債務時，我們的表現就會更好。

Great. Thank you so much.

偉大的。太感謝了。

Andrew Scutt, ROTH Capital Partners.

羅仕證券資本合夥公司的 Andrew Scutt。

Good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. First one for me here, can you just parse out a little bit more detail of the impact of the flattening of the yield curve? You talked about the roll-off of some of the deposits on the book right now. And just kind of what you see, 2025 trajectory?

大家早安。感謝您回答我的問題。首先我想問的是，您能否更詳細地分析一下殖利率曲線趨平的影響？您現在談到了帳簿上部分存款的轉出。您認為 2025 年的發展軌跡是如何的？

Thanks, Andrew. Last year around this time, we're whining about our deposit rates, that would be Canadian deposit rates, increasing on a margin over the same-term government (inaudible). And they got to historical highs 80, 90 basis points, so the same term government (inaudible) bond. So those GICs, in Canada they call them GICs or CDs, are going through the system now they're maturing. So the unusually high margin we were paying over the risk-free rate is diminishing in 2025. So that gives us quite a tailwind on margins. And historically, we run around a 3% margin. And so you've started to see it inching up a little bit. We've only had the beginning of the maturities of those higher-priced GICs go through.

謝謝，安德魯。去年這個時候，我們抱怨我們的存款利率，也就是加拿大的存款利率，比同期政府的存款利率高出不少。（聽不清楚）。它們達到了歷史最高水準 80、90 個基點，因此同一期限的政府（聽不清楚）債券。因此，這些 GIC（在加拿大被稱為 GIC 或 CD）正在通過系統審核，並且日趨成熟。因此，我們支付的高於無風險利率的異常高額保證金將在 2025 年減少。因此這為我們的利潤帶來了很大的推動力。從歷史上看，我們的利潤率約為 3%。所以你開始看到它一點點上升。我們才剛經歷了這些高價 GIC 的到期日。

The other thing that's helpful for us, but not so helpful for the rest of Canada, is that there's been a huge increase in bankruptcies, about 26% year-over-year, might even be a lot higher in the next few months. And while that doesn't bode well for the Canadian economy, it dampens consumer enthusiasm to buy things and such, it certainly provides us with a lot more economically priced deposits. So all in all, keeping those things in mind, our margins should widen back up to where they used to be running around.

另一件對我們有幫助，但對加拿大其他地區卻不太有幫助的事情是，破產數量大幅增加，比去年同期成長約 26%，未來幾個月甚至可能更高。雖然這對加拿大經濟來說不是一個好兆頭，它抑制了消費者的購物熱情，但它確實為我們提供了更多經濟實惠的存款。總而言之，考慮到這些因素，我們的利潤率應該會回到以前的水平。

Great. Thanks for the the color there. And second one for me, a little bit of housekeeping, you guys took a bit of a provision in the quarter, I believe it was due to an accounting change. Can you just provide some details there?

偉大的。感謝那裡的色彩。對我來說，第二個是一些日常事務，你們在本季做了一些撥備，我相信這是由於會計變更造成的。能提供一些細節嗎？

We have our provisions based, as all the other banks do, on forward-looking models. It's a provision for expected losses or possible losses, and it's driven by a lot of factors. And we're in a little more unstable credit environment to both sides of the border, so our models are producing higher provisions than they have historically. Now mind you, there's still only tiny basis points, 1 or 2 basis points versus the industry's around 30, 40 basis points. But that's sort of what happens when you have disruptions in the credit markets that the models we use and all the other banks use start kicking up increased provisions for losses. No, they're not losses, but they're provisions for losses.

和所有其他銀行一樣，我們的準備金也是基於前瞻性模型。它是針對預期損失或可能損失的準備金，它受很多因素驅動。而且邊境兩邊的信貸環境都更加不穩定，所以我們的模式產生的撥備比歷史上要高。請注意，現在仍然只有很小的基點，1 或 2 個基點，而產業的基點約為 30、40 個基點。但當信貸市場出現混亂時，我們以及所有其他銀行使用的模型就會開始增加損失準備。不，這不是損失，而是損失準備金。

Great. Well, thanks for the time this morning and thanks for taking my questions.

偉大的。好吧，感謝您今天上午的時間，也感謝您回答我的問題。

Thank you. Look forward to seeing you soon, Andrew, in California. I'll be seeing you in California, right?

謝謝。安德魯，期待很快在加州見到你。我會在加州見到你，對嗎？

Thank you. We have no further questions. I will turn the call back over to Mr. Taylor for closing comments.

謝謝。我們沒有其他問題了。我將把電話轉回給泰勒先生，請他發表最後評論。

Well, I'd like to thank everybody for joining us today and I look forward to speaking to you at the end of our second quarter. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

好吧，我想感謝大家今天的參加，我期待在第二季末與大家交談。非常感謝。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，請您斷開線路。