Pathward Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASH) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

We’ve talked about that for I think nearly a year now. So it hasn’t materialized. But that would be the next thing that would happen if the economy really slows down as people are starting to talk about.

Eric Spector: Got it. That’s helpful color. And then just kind of wanted to touch more on the capital side, so obviously regulatory capital remains strong. But TCE is then just curious if you’re hearing any pushback from regulators on that. And that impacts your capital return opportunities at all. Looks like we’ve already started to repurchase some shares during the quarter, so maybe that’s the answer. But just curious if TCE plays into the equation at all at this point?

Brett Pharr: We obviously watched that. And as you said, that’s a factor. And we’re comfortable. Our board’s comfortable. You could assume regulators have a say in your capital levels and share repurchases as well. And I would say in a banking 30 plus years where as liquid a bank as I’ve seen.

Eric Spector: Okay. And then just one last question. Just wanted to touch on what you’re seeing on the SBA front. We’re seeing growth opportunities. And do you remind us like how much of that book is government guaranteed? That’s my last question, I’ll step back. Thanks for taking the questions.

Brett Pharr: Yes, we talked about. I’ve mentioned my comments that we’ve been identifying additional SBA partners where we can get volume coming through. And so, I would say the SBA business in general industry wide has slowed down. But we’re able to get some more transactions because of new partners that we’ve brought on. So we’re excited about that. The exact percentage of how much is government guaranteed or not varies depending on market conditions. Sometimes we sell off the government guaranteed portion. So I don’t know, do we have those numbers?

Glen Herrick: It usually range about two-thirds, it moves up and down, as Brett said, but plus or minus two-thirds of it would be typically guaranteed.

Eric Spector: Got it. All right, well, that’s it for me. Thanks again.

Brett Pharr: Thank you.

Glen Herrick: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for your question. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. You may proceed.

Frank Schiraldi: Hey, guys, good afternoon.

Brett Pharr: Hey Frank.

Frank Schiraldi: I wanted to ask on the guide, the increase in guide. Anything you can point to specifically, is it just as simple as a bit of a change in rate outlook that’s driving that increase here?

Brett Pharr: Yes, I mean, I think the higher for longer, what’s going on should help us with NIM. And so we’re feeling very comfortable about that. Obviously, we’re just a few days into the year. So we’re not getting carried away. But we felt like with the — what we’re seeing with the rate environment, we could bump it some and then we’ll see what happens as we get through the year.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. And then in terms of the expense base, I get the card processing expense that increase there. As far as, if you look at the other expense line was a bit elevated bounce around a bit, but it was a bit elevated link quarter and same with legal and consulting expense. So any sort of color or range you can give in terms of anything one time, sort of in the quarter and where you expect a better run rate, maybe to be on the expense side?

Brett Pharr: Yes. I would say this quarter is a pretty good run rate, Frank, excluding the rate related processing expenses.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay.

Brett Pharr: And I’ll remind you, as you’re aware, we do have a number of variable expenses. So where our expenses go partially driven by where our revenues go, but again, we’re, we’ll grow revenue at least two times expense grow.