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

Page 3 of 3

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. And then just on credit, in terms of the NPA increase in the quarter, you mentioned the commercial finance side of it. Also, look like the tax business, and I think you noted in the release, the tax business drove some of that. And it looks like it’s mostly or all in 90 days past doing accruing, at least for the tax stuff. And I just kind of surprised, would think that at this point, you just write anything off that’s still outstanding. And so any color on that front?

Glen Herrick: Yes. We had a mixed shift in our tax lending this year from our BaaS providers to more of the independence. And obviously, revenues related to that, but also had higher loss rates, which we expected. So it’s just somewhat of a mixed shift there. And then timing of IRS, refunds when they do their drops. And there’s still some of them coming. But that’s where we’re at today. It just seems like the cycle has gotten pushed back later this year in a lot of the processes.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. It just seems like based on where the reserves are on that business. It seems like you don’t anticipate significant losses in this $5 million bucket that’s in NPA now. Is that fair?

Glen Herrick: That’s fair. Yes. That would not expect anything material from that.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. And then if I could just sneak in one last one. As you — I know you tend to have longer term partnerships. So, I guess you don’t have a ton renewing every day, but in terms of the partnerships that have renewed, I’m just wondering, are you seeing better pricing? Are you seeing more narrow pricing given that we’ve seen some of these smaller banks entering the market and to Brett’s point, maybe over time, they get crowded out. But that given that they’re in now, is that kind of what you’re seeing as partnerships renew tighter pricing?

Brett Pharr: Well, I mean, there’s been pricing pressure, but it’s probably been driven more by the rise in interest rates and the desire to focus on commission on deposits than anything else. And we don’t, like you said, we don’t have a whole lot of these going on at a time. So we’ll see how it rises out. But I would not say that we have experienced any benefit of what I think will be a washout yet. We’ve experienced pressure on pricing somewhat because of the interest rate rise. We’re just all factored in here.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. Yes, it’s in your guidance.

Brett Pharr: Yes.

Frank Schiraldi: Right. So you’re basically seeing more of an ask on the depository side in terms of some sort of return there?

Glen Herrick: Yes, that comes out. Now, what we tend to do is there’s a trade off of fees paid versus commission on deposits, et cetera. And that’s all part of the contract negotiations you go through. But again, we’re predicting and feel solid about our guidance around expanding them and the result of that. So we’re not too concerned about it.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. Great. I appreciate all the color and enjoy retirement Glen. Thanks.

Glen Herrick: Yes. Thank you, Frank. I’ll miss you. Thanks.

Frank Schiraldi: Me too.

Operator: Thank you for your question. I will now pass the line back to our CEO, Brett Pharr.

Brett Pharr: Thanks, everybody, for joining today. I do want to make one final comment today in Washington. The Federal Reserve held a hearing on the debit card interchange fee calculations. And I want to remind everybody that by legislation, the only authority they have for that calculation relates to banks that are over 10 billion in asset size. And so there may be some confusion out there. I want to be sure we cleared that off that. It’s a small issue where we are not impacted by that proposed change in rule by the Fed. So I just want to make that clear. We appreciate everybody joining today and look forward to having direct conversations with you. Thank you.

Operator: That concludes Pathward Financial Fourth Quarter fiscal year 2023 investor conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.

Follow Pathward Financial Inc. (NASDAQ:CASH)

Page 3 of 3