Luvleen Sidhu: So, this is something that we don’t talk about often, because a core processor is behind the scenes. And the reason that I brought it up today was really, because there was a decision to be made, whether we wanted to convert to a new core processor or not, because our existing relationship was ending as of May 2024. And as I also mentioned, a core conversion, for those of you in banking or cover banks, is a massive undertaking. And so, you start that process of renegotiation much, much ahead of time. We went through a competitive RFP process, and we are very satisfied and proud of the team of where we landed. And this is a competitive market. We were able to really renew that in a satisfactory way, and you’re not going to see any incremental cost coming, from that line item going forward.
Mike Grondahl: Got it. And then maybe just lastly, Luvleen, if there’s one product feature, or new offering for the higher enrollment college business. Can you give us some insight into what that might be just so, we can understand kind of the enhanced efforts that you have there?
Luvleen Sidhu: Yes. I think that the one that we even talked about last quarter, we definitely want to focus on asking our customers and really being able, to determine the consumer insights that really lead to the product road map of what we continue to add, to our mobile banking experience. What came out as sort of the number one top thing, given the high spend of this portfolio is that can we earn money in our high spend categories and so, we structured a relationship with a provider where there’s also a rev share component for us. And so it’s our first sort of feature rollout that we expect during Q1, and that’s going to be a cash back rewards program. It’s an opportunity for our customers to feel that we responded to their number one ask and for them to earn money every time that they spend in high important areas like gas, groceries, et cetera. And third, it also leads to a rev share opportunity for us.
Mike Grondahl: Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Luvleen Sidhu: Yes. Thanks Mike.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem from Tieton Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Bill Dezellem: Yes. Thank you. I’d like to touch on the new checking account sign-ups that, hit a significant increase this quarter versus the prior year. What was that change versus – I’m sorry, versus the second quarter, what was the change versus one year ago? I’m thinking that just given the seasonality that might be an important comparison also?
Luvleen Sidhu: Yes, Bill, that’s driven by seasonality and also probably improved enrollment year-over-year. So, we also mentioned since post pandemic, there has been a bump in enrollment, especially on the community college side, and that’s helped with application flow into the system. And as you know, as you probably remember, Q1 and Q3, are our strongest seasons in this business. It’s kind of back to school, the beginning of new semesters. And so, you have the most sort of refund dollars, the most number of students enrolling in schools and potentially choosing us as a vehicle in, which they want to receive that money. Q2 and Q4, tend to die down relative to that. So, we saw about an 80-plus percent quarter-over-quarter increase in account sign-ups due to that seasonality between Q2 and Q3 and then year-over-year, I think it was about 6%, 7% or so. So it’s kind of been – it’s better than last year, but – the biggest thing is the seasonality quarter-to-quarter.
Bill Dezellem: And I know you talked about in your opening remarks the intent, to work on retention since you lose about as many accounts, to graduating students as you do new ones coming in. Are you also looking to increase that rate, of checking account sign-up at the front end? Or is that not one of the primary initiatives at this point?
Luvleen Sidhu: Yes. We’re really looking at a whole funnel experience here. Again, this is a regulatory related industry that we’re in. So, I just want to say that for us, we’re mindful and we’re always looking at what is best for our student that, is our primary driver. It’s also our mission. But we want to make sure that our students know what options are available to them. And we definitely believe that, our account is a really great option for them. And so, we’re going to continue to focus on the experience between, when their school lets them know that, they have money waiting for them and how can we make that as frictionless as an experience for them, to receive that money, and any of the choices that are available to them.
And hopefully, highlight and make our product better, as we respond to what our customers are looking for. So it’s an obvious choice to want to go with us. And so that then is also about engagement and then keeping them on, as we expand our products road map over time for retention. So it’s really being able to convert more upfront engage them, and get more activities through things like the cash-back rewards. And other products and features and then keeping them over a lifetime, by being able to expand the different products that, we offer them that could align to the different stages of life that, they would be going through.
