Pathward Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASH) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brett Pharr: Well, a couple of things. You’re correct. There is some seasonality in the fourth quarter and I think in my comments, I highlighted a level that’s probably more like core. We do think that — and this is one of our advantages that the liquidity is gradually wiping out in the general economy and there may be some minor shrinkage even in that core just because of what’s going on in the economy. I don’t — because we have plenty of money in the securities portfolio, I don’t need to pull those deposits back on to the balance sheet to fund the next asset rotation. We’ve got plenty on the balance sheet to do that and there is no sense in inflating the size of our balance sheet until we kind of keep working through that asset rotation.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. That makes sense. And then just lastly on credit. You talked in the release about the increase in provisioning and increase in NPA. I assume it was kind of part and parcel same, I think you talked about one relationship on the commercial finance side. Any additional color you can give on that relationship and hopefully your comfort in limiting losses there?

Brett Pharr: Yeah, one of the things I talk about all the time is, we are a collateral managed credit facility. We don’t do unsecured credit. And even though something might be in a nonperforming, there is collateral behind it. We’re kind of experts at liquidating that, whether it’s working capital or working with partners on equipment and those kinds of things. And so just because you see in nonperforming doesn’t mean that’s a loss. What that means is, we’re working it down with the collateral that we have. We’re seeing continued good performance in the credit portfolio. We’re not seeing any negative impacts as of yet. You always have companies coming and going, that’s true, but we’re not seeing any trends to the negative side at all.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. But can you say where that — is that in working capital, or is that a term loan? Just trying to get a little bit more color on

Brett Pharr: Glen, do you want to respond to that. I mean we know, but I don’t know what we can disclose on that.

Glen Herrick: Yeah, that’s a term loan, Frank. And I would also note that, for us, NPLs is a better metric than NPAs. As we continue to mix shift earning assets in the loans from securities, our NPAs are going to go up, just as we reduced the securities percentage. And our numbers are pretty low. And so, if we get $1 million, $3 million or $4 million loan, it can spike up short term, but we feel real confident about our outlook.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay, great. Thank you.

Brett Pharr: Thanks, Frank.

Glen Herrick: Thanks, Frank.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Tim Switzer of KBW. Please proceed.

Tim Switzer: Hey, good afternoon. I’m on for Mike Perito. Thanks for taking my question.

Brett Pharr: How are you doing?

Tim Switzer: Good. On the — I guess just on prior conversation that we’re having, could you walk us through some of the collateral you have in different pieces of your loan book, particularly some of the higher loss categories, such as like the term lending, and factoring and I guess kind of like run through the terms, you have on those as well?