Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Warren Gardiner: Hi Brian, it’s Warren. So, I think, yes, you throw out a couple of numbers there, all correct, of course. But when we think about those revenue synergies, I think the best way to be thinking about it is – and you pointed out one point that I think is important is it takes a little bit long for these to implement. But I think about it more the OpEx of it being more hockey stick like. And so I think in the early year you probably don’t have as much, but that as we obviously move to the next couple of years and through year five, you’re going to see those start to build. So, – and part of that is, look, we’ve got to integrate the companies and we start to get going on some of the areas that we’ve talked to out on not only the core products, but also on some of the data products that we want to cross-sell across the platform as well.

And so that takes a little bit of time in addition to some of the implementation timelines we talked about as well. So, I think about it. Certainly, we’re going to have some here. Ben talked about a number of wins that we’ve had. But again, there’s going to be an implementation time line for those. But certainly, we are off to a very strong start there, and it’s really encouraging in terms of us getting to those targets ultimately.

Brian Bedell: Okay, fair enough. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Simon Clinch from Redburn Atlantic. Simon, please go ahead.

Simon Clinch: Hi everyone. Thanks for taking my call. I was wondering if we could just drill down just to your comments about the mortgage market and the performance of the transaction side. I’m just curious to – I guess, how you’re getting your market information on mortgage originations being down nearly 20%. We’re hearing sort of different figures thrown around as well beyond that. So, I’m curious of how you build that number. And then ultimately, how are you thinking about what’s going into that fourth quarter guide for the IMT pro forma revenues as well? Thanks.

Warren Gardiner: Hi Simon. So, we generally look at the composite, the forecasters as you’re aware of the NBA, Sandy and Freddie, and we’re looking at those. We also have some other data around our loan volumes and, of course, MERS registrations that we all pulled together. And so that – your fair – it’s a fair question to ask because, obviously, the forecasters are working with somewhat imperfect information, and you see revisions here and there at times too. So, – but that’s generally what we saw. We did see in the quarter some Encompass closed loans down in the high teens. So, I think we did well versus the market. And so that’s an encouraging sign, of course. There is, within those transaction revenues, which is what you might be referencing to some extent there, some other elements there.

I mean, professional services fees are in there. Now, with Black Knight, we have default management revenues. You’ve got some MERS registrations that there’s deferrals related to. So, there are some things in there that, of course, are not perfectly correlated with what’s going on in the mortgage market over this current period, if you will, that will create some noise. But I think in terms of how we’re performing within the closed loan component of that, it’s been encouraging. And again, it’s part of its adoption and new customers coming online at some of the sales we’ve had. And I think as you move into next year, and certainly based on what you heard from Ben, we continue to have success there. So, I think that, that will continue to drive that kind of an outcome.

Simon Clinch: Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America. Craig, please go ahead.

Craig Siegenthaler: Thanks. Good morning everyone. After the pricing adjustments in the energy complex earlier this year, we wanted to see if you had an update on the ability to adjust pricing in the future, both outside of the energy complex over the near-term and then longer term in the energy business. And we know this has not been a big focus for ICE in the past, but inflation is higher and a key competitive of yours has been more aggressive with pricing hikes.

Warren Gardiner: Thanks for the question, Craig, it’s Warren. So that’s something we’re thinking about, I think, as I said on prior calls. And you’re right, it’s – the headline price changes are not something we had traditionally done. We have always gone into markets and injected market maker tiers and things – in incentive programs and things of that nature. But it’s not something that we’ve done historically at the headline level. We did do it this year, and I think it’s been relatively successful. We certainly are, as we move into our budget season here at the moment, thinking about what we might be able to do on that front. I think as we said previously, it’s something that we will pick our spots on. I don’t expect us to do it on the same products every year.

But certainly, we have not done a lot on many other products across, not just energy, but other areas of futures. And so we’ll be thoughtful about that. Again, it all comes back to us thinking about what kind of value we’ve created for the customer and pricing appropriately for that. And so as we think through that, you’ll see some – potentially see some announces there. But I don’t know that I’d expect it to be on the same products every single year. We’ll – again, I think we’ll pick our spots as we think through that.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley. Michael, please go ahead.

Michael Cyprys: Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. We’ve seen regulators – banking regulators propose new capital rules for the banks, which could make some of their bespoke off exchange-driven products a bit more capital intensive. So, just curious if you’re taking that where you guys see the biggest opportunity maybe to bring derivatives from OTC to the exchange-traded market, how you might quantify that? And just bigger picture, just given the capital proposals that can make certain products and businesses more capital intensive for the banks. I guess where do you see the biggest opportunities from that?

Jeff Sprecher: This is Jeff. Thanks for the question. I think it’s a complicated environment because while the Basel rules are being discussed, every country that we do business in seems to be thinking about implementing them slightly differently, which sort of begs the question, will the market coalesce around a single standard? And who in that coalescing process has the influence to drive the consensus? And we don’t really know yet. But you’re right in that some of the proposals in the most draconian cases could be significant on banks. And we – if you step back and you just look at our business in a macro level, and I mentioned it even in the prepared remarks that I wrote that ICE believes in standardized, transparent, widely distributed, regulated businesses.

And any regulatory or government action that pushes the market towards more transparency and more standardization is good for us. In some cases, I made the point – I tried to make the point in my prepared remarks that it’s been my experience that whenever there’s been an economic change, either an economic downturn or even an economic upturn as there’s a transition to a different economic environment seems like regulators take a look and try to figure out what’s different. And we have tended to benefit over the history of this company from those changes. It’s partly why I say that we’re not anti-regulation, and we are willing to adapt to regulation because I think the kind of way we do business is what ultimately regulators are looking for transparency and wide distribution and standardization.