Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Meta Financial Group Investor Conference Call for the second fiscal quarter of 2022. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Justin Schempp, Vice President of Investor Relations and Financial Reporting. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Welcome to the Meta Financial Group second fiscal quarter of 2022 conference call and webcast. Our CEO, Brett Pharr, President Anthony Sharett, and CFO Glen Herrick will discuss our operating and financial results. After which, we will take your questions. Additional information, including the earnings release and investor presentation, may be found on our website at metafinancialgroup.com. As a reminder, our comments may include forward-looking statements. Those statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual and anticipated results to differ. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release, investor presentation, and in Meta's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent filings for additional information covering factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.
Additionally, today we may be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures on this conference call. References to non-GAAP measures are only provided to assist you in understanding Meta's results and performance trends. Reconciliations for such non-GAAP measures are included within the appendix of the investor presentation. Now, let me turn the call over to Brett Pharr, our CEO.
Thank you, everyone, for joining Meta Financial Group's second fiscal quarter 2022 earnings call. I want to begin by referencing the exciting news of our new name, Pathward Financial, which we announced last month. Pathward is born out of our company's purpose to power financial inclusion for all and our commitment to providing a path forward to people and businesses so they can reach the next stage of their financial journey. The name reflects our dedication to removing barriers that prevent millions of Americans from achieving access to the financial system and will serve as a constant reminder of our mission to create a path forward for the unbanked, underbanked, and underserved to help them achieve economic mobility. We will make some changes immediately to integrate the Pathward name and work with our partners in the coming months to ensure a successful transition for each of them.
We will complete the transition to Pathward by calendar year-end, including the launch of a new brand identity and website. Until then, we will continue to serve our customers under existing brand names. During the Q2 , we recognized $2.8 million of pre-tax expenses related to these rebranding efforts, and we continue to estimate our total rebranding expenses will range between $15-$20 million. Turning now to our financial results for the Q2 . Net income was $49.3 million, down $9.8 million compared to $59.1 million in the prior year. Earnings per share for the quarter was $1.66, as compared to $1.84 in the prior year.
Our income taxes and tax rate were up significantly compared to last year, as uncertainty around government infrastructure funding and supply chain constraints delayed the development of renewable energy projects in our pipeline. While this is beginning to return to normal, our fiscal 2022 tax rate will be higher than expected. In addition, the 2022 tax season yielded mixed results. Year-over-year, total tax product revenue was up slightly, while total tax services product expense was approximately flat. However, we believe child tax credits and excess liquidity from various stimulus programs reduced our expected year-over-year increase for our Taxpayer Advance product. Otherwise, the balance of our businesses posted good results. Our Commercial Finance portfolios saw continued healthy loan growth from satisfying the robust demand of small and medium-sized businesses for credit.
We believe our collateralized Commercial Finance portfolios are especially well-positioned for any potential down economic cycles as they have demonstrated during prior cycles. Our core banking-as-a-service business continues to grow with increased activity from both new and existing partners, and our pipeline of opportunities remains strong. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the prospects of a rising rate environment. Our low cost of funds deposit base, combined with the mix of our earning assets, position Meta for meaningful interest income growth under a rising rate scenario. Now, let me turn the call over to our president, Anthony Sharett, to provide updates on our lines of business.
Thank you, Brett. During the quarter, we have further refined how we innovate and co-create with our partners and clients across our businesses to foster and deepen our relationships. We remain focused on executing on our strong pipeline of banking-as-a-service opportunities, building out new and enhanced products and capabilities to serve a broad variety of fintechs, neobanks, challenger banks, and others wishing to offer banking services through their distribution channels. Turning to Commercial Finance, we were pleased with how well the division performed during the quarter.
Our Commercial Finance loan portfolio totaled $2.9 billion at March 31, an increase of 4% on a linked-quarter basis, and a 16% increase year-over-year, reflecting growth across our product lines. We continue to see strong demand for our commercial credit with a healthy pipeline of loans and leases. Total non-performing loans and leases as a percentage of total loans and leases improved 21 basis points from the prior quarter to 0.95%. The allowance as a percentage of loans and leases increased from 1.84% in the prior quarter to 2.38% in the current quarter due to the increase in seasonal reserves for the tax service loan portfolio.
Excluding the reserves for tax loans, reserves dropped from 1.84% to 1.59%, primarily driven by a reduction in Commercial Finance-specific reserves as the portfolio remains healthy. Overall, net charge-offs for the quarter were $11.2 million, primarily attributable to the charge-offs on two Commercial Finance relationships. Let me briefly touch on today's macroeconomic environment. Historically, our Commercial Finance portfolio has performed well during recessionary cycles and periods of economic stress, both as it relates to demand as well as credit losses. In fact, we found such periods have opened up further opportunities for us, in particular for our working capital lines such as asset-based lending and factoring. Lastly, I want to highlight the continued progress in our environmental, social, and governance efforts. Earlier this week, Meta published its second annual ESG report.
In addition to detailing our community impact program and our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, it contains enhanced quantitative reporting, which we will use to measure our ESG progress. Now, let me turn the call over to Glen Herrick, our CFO, to provide an overview of our financials.
Thank you, Anthony, and good afternoon, everyone. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 totaled $49.3 million, or $1.66 per share, a decrease of $9.8 million from the Q2 of fiscal year 2021. Excluding $2.8 million of rebranding expenses and $900,000 of severance expenses, our adjusted net income for the Q2 , net of taxes, was $52.1 million. The Q2 net interest income of $83.8 million represents a 13% increase from the prior year's $73.9 million. Net interest income benefited from strong loan and lease growth, favorable shifts in our earning asset mix, and additional tax loan interest.
Quarterly average loans and leases grew $124 million, or 3% compared to the prior year, driven by growth across our operating units, which was partially offset by the sale of the remaining community bank portfolio, lower average tax services loans, and Paycheck Protection Program loan paydowns. Continued balance sheet optimization, combined with the reduction in excess cash from stimulus payments, helped improve the Q2 net interest margin to 4.8% compared to 4.59% in the linked quarter and 3.07% in the prior year. Non-interest income of $109.8 million is down slightly from the $113.5 million recorded in the prior year.
Payments fee income was $26.3 million, declined from $29.9 million in the Q2 of fiscal year 2021, which was inflated due to several rounds of stimulus payments. Core payments and deposit fee income remained strong. In addition, the quarter's non-interest income included a $1.3 million loss on the MoneyLion investment. During the second fiscal quarter, Meta sold the entirety of its equity investment in MoneyLion. In total, we recognized a cumulative loss of approximately $400,000 on the investment dating back to the Q4 of fiscal 2021. This sale is in no way a view on MoneyLion's future, and we continue to serve as MoneyLion's banking-as-a-service partner and anticipate growth in this relationship in the years ahead.
Net total tax services product income, net of losses and direct product expenses, was approximately flat for the quarter. Fiscal year to date, it was up 6% over the prior year. Refund Advance originations for the 2022 tax season were $1.83 billion as compared to $1.79 billion last year. We expect Refund Transfer volumes and product income for the overall tax season to end the season similar to last year. We also expect Taxpayer Advance volumes to return to a more normalized levels in the 2023 tax season, absent further stimulus or additional changes to tax credit payments. Non-interest expenses increased 7% year-over-year.
Excluding the $2.8 million of rebranding expenses and $900,000 in separation costs, core expenses of $99.5 million increased 4% from the prior year. The year-over-year increase in expenses reflects additional spending supporting the company's growth, as well as overall compensation and other inflationary pressures. Income tax expense increased to $8 million for the quarter, representing an effective tax rate of 13.8%. As compared to $1.1 million with an effective tax rate of 1.9% for the prior year. As previously noted, the increase was due to a reduction in renewable energy investment tax credits when comparing to the prior year period. We repurchased 736,000 shares during the quarter at an average price of $57.01.
As of March 31, we have 4.9 million shares remaining under the current repurchase program. At the end of March, we submitted the necessary notifications of our intention to retire our floating rate subordinated debt of $75 million at par in order to reduce interest expense, which is now set for redemption on May 15, 2022. The company remains well capitalized with a regulatory leverage ratio for the bank of 7.8%. As a reminder, our March quarter leverage ratios are seasonally lower as a result of the higher average assets during the tax season. When using end of period assets, the bank's leverage ratio was 8.9%. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open up the line for questions.
Yes, thank you. If you would like to submit a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, that's star one. As a reminder, if you are on a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question. We'll pause here briefly as questions are registered. Our first question comes from Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Frank, your line is now open.
Hey, guys.
Hey, Frank. How are you doing?
Good. How are you guys?
Good.
Well, just starting with the card fee income, I wondered if it would be, you know, possible, just given the pipeline you guys have currently, and then considering the stimulus of last year and, you know, year-over-year limitations from that. Any color you can, you know, provide in terms of where you expect that to trend for the remainder of the fiscal year?
Hey, Anthony, why don't you talk about our business pipeline, and then Glenn, you might just give him any information on the fee income specifically.
Sure. Thanks, Frank. As you noted, fiscal year 2021 was elevated due to the numerous rounds of stimulus. We certainly recognize that. Going forward, we expect continued growth from both existing and new partnerships with a focus on fee income generating opportunities. Our pipeline remains strong. Glenn?
Hi, Frank. We would expect, as you know, the March quarter is seasonally our highest quarter of card fee income, not only from our activities directly in the tax space, but many of our partners have customers that load their tax refunds on their cards.
We would expect card fee income to be a little lower in the coming quarters compared to tax season, but then reset that base for growth from there.
Okay. Then in terms of expenses. Sorry if I missed something in the release. I saw, you know, the rebranding efforts. Was there anything else other than the tax business that kind of bumped expenses higher on a temporary basis? Just wondering, again, same sort of question on the expense base. Any sort of color on where that could flesh out in a more normal quarter?
Yeah, Frank, of course, we reported the amount that was associated with the rebrand. You know, I'll tell you, we're experiencing inflationary pressures like everybody else in some of these categories, particularly around compensation. Some of our particular disciplines are hot right now. Some of that has to do with the inflationary pressures there. Frank, we also noted we had $900,000 of separation expense this quarter.
Okay. You got the separation expense, you got the rebranding, and then there's, in terms of the comp line, a significant amount that just flows through this quarter for the tax season, right? Is that right?
Correct.
Should that kind of?
Correct. Comp expense will be lower the next three quarters.
Okay. I guess as I'm thinking about comp from the December quarter, is that a better run rate or than-
It's a good-
in the March?
It's a good starting point. You know, we'll see how things shake out. As Brett mentioned, there's a lot of pressure on compensation. Given our history in banking-as-a-service, you might imagine there's a lot of pressure on our staff, especially as folks entering this market go looking for talent.
Sure. Okay. One thing from the model that caught my attention. You might have mentioned it, Glen, but the tax services, of course, I can't find it right now, but the tax services yield in the quarter was much higher than the year ago period. Just wondering if you could talk a little bit about. I know that's really only, you know, an issue that we see in the March quarter, the tax business loans. Why was that so much higher just year-over-year, those yields?
One of our tax partners, there was a new product or sub-product that had an interest component to it that had not been there.
I mean, I guess, thinking about next year as we do our modeling for next year, it's not unreasonable to assume that that product would be back again. It's not a temporary blip, I guess.
No, that's not temporary.
Okay. All right. Just if I could sneak in one last one, just on the you talked about in the release, you had at the end, I think it was end of period, you had $1.85 billion in customer deposits at other banks. You know, I assume that's still the direct stimulus stuff, but I'm just wondering if you have expanded that at all to additional partnerships?
Yeah. Frank, one of the things that we learned through the stimulus program is really how to better exercise our deposit transference capability, which is what you're talking about. You know, we continue to expect to maintain a flat balance sheet. The way we'll do that and still generate meaningful growth in card fee income is by increasing our use of deposit transference. I don't know that we have disclosed any numbers on it, but not all of those deposits that are off the balance sheet are stimulus related.
Okay. Great. Well, I'll let someone else jump in and ask a question. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you, Frank. Our next question comes from Michael Perito with KBW. Michael, your line is now open.
Hey. Good afternoon, guys.
Hey, Michael.
On the total tax season, I think you guys said and wrote in the release that you expect the kind of total season revenues, I think if I heard you correct, to be similar year-over-year. I guess the specific question is, last year, you guys had quite a bit more Refund Transfer volume in the fiscal Q3 than normal. I think there might have been some delays. You know, it feels like 10 years ago now, so who can remember? I just guess said another way is that it seems like that could be expected to occur to some degree again. And I just want to clarify that I'm hearing that correctly.
Hey, Glen, why don't you take that?
Sure. Hi, Mike. Yeah, so we're really talking about net tax business earnings. We are 6% ahead of last year-over-year. To your specific question, we think that'll contract a little bit because last year, while we will still have some that'll carry over into the Q3 , there was a higher percentage of carry over last year in the Q3 because of more delays last year on a relative basis than the delays this year by the IRS.
Got it. Okay. All right. You're talking something more like fiscal 2020 than fiscal 2021, which was unusually elevated. Not to say that that's what it'll be.
Yeah.
directionally.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Great. Then on the margin, I saw in the presentation you guys kind of have the updated parallel and ramp shock. You know, obviously it's a pretty dynamic rate environment here, Glenn. I was curious if you could maybe spend a minute and just give us your thoughts about where, you know, we go from the 4.78% here today, or the 4.41%, I should say, today to, you know, if we do get some type of scenario where you get a 50 basis point hike in May.
You know, 'cause I and correct me if I'm wrong, I guess the reason for the question is you guys, you know, with your funding, there should be less of kind of a law of diminishing returns here as we get deeper into the tightening cycle, correct? I mean, you guys would expect to be able to maintain your benefit per hike probably at a better rate than other banks whose deposit betas would theoretically rise as the rates go higher. Does that make sense? Are you able to give us any indication of where the NIM might go in the current kind of consensus outlook on the forward curve?
Hey, hey, Mike.
Hi.
This is Brett. I think you described it very well. What I would say is that we have to go through a little bit of a period of repricing. Even though when you have variable rate transactions or you have very short duration items, it takes a little bit of time. Your description, this is our best time, right? Because rates are going up. We are unlike others, we have the greatest benefit of rates going up, and we're gonna, you know, receive a great deal of benefit from it. Most of it's gonna show up in fiscal year 2023 and onward just because of the repricing time that it takes, even for short duration.
Mike, I would-
Got it.
I would add on specifically. You know, we talk about 4% in the ramp model. We're comfortable with that at 100 basis points. As Brett alluded to it, you know, it all depends. Where's the demand? For us, it's less around the deposit beta and more about the loan pricing beta and where competition goes, how fast the liquidity washes out at other banks or finance companies. But certainly it should be a net positive for us.
Okay. Then just lastly for me on the charge-off, the non-tax related charge-offs in the quarter. I think I saw somewhere on the presentation that there were a couple factoring relationships that you guys charged off. Wondering if you could give us a little bit more color there. Any other credit commentaries as you look forward? Obviously, there's some increasing concerns about some, you know, consumer and small business health deterioration, later this year into 2023. Curious what you guys are seeing as well, just more broadly as it stands today.
It's a good question. We have, you know, very robust collateral management process that the last part of your question, as we go into a recession, benefits from two things. One is we will have much more control of collateral and therefore any potential losses. Secondly, particularly our working capital lines are going to get the opportunity to grow quite a bit because others will be fleeing traditional banks, and they'll need our collateral managed process, which throughout multiple cycles has done extremely well with very little loss rates. What happens in some of these is every once in a while you get a one-off, and we got a couple of one-offs through this. The portfolio is very strong. It's performing well.
All of our collateral management controls are executing as they have been for a decade in that business. Even as we enter into what could be a recessionary environment, we're very confident about the control environment we have there.
Yeah. I would add our, you know, our non-performing loans are at a low point over the last 18 months.
Great. Thank you guys for taking my questions. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. There are no further questions in queue. As a reminder, to submit a question, that's star followed by one. Our next question comes from Steve Moss with B. Riley Securities. Steve, your line is now open.
Good afternoon, guys. Not sure what happened there. In terms of just want to just touch on your expectations for, you know, taxes next season. I guess a little surprised by the weakness here. You know, we saw a lot of inflation over the last 9-12 months. I know we had stimulus, but kind of what gives you guys the comfort that, you know, we get a rebound next year? I just thought the higher inflation we saw here would've, you know, perhaps impacted the consumer a bit more to drive demand at a better level.
Hey, Glen, you wanna take that?
Yeah. Steve, are you talking specifically like on the tax rate and the investment tax credits, or are you talking about?
No
card activity?
The Refund Advance product.
The refund advances. Okay. I'm sorry. A large component of the customers that our partners serve in the tax business are those with earned income tax credits, where they receive sizable refunds every year. Those refunds were lower this year on average because of the child tax credits that were received throughout calendar year 2021. That's where you see our refund transfer, our tax payment processing product did well, and we'll grow that a little bit year-over-year. The refund advances, which are tied closer to the refund amounts, those are basically the same year-over-year. We thought they would be higher this year.
Okay. That's helpful. I just appreciate that clarity there. And then maybe just on, you know, the changing environment here, with rates moving, kind of curious. I mean, obviously you guys benefit from rate hikes. Just kind of curious, are you seeing any changes in loan pricing already here just given, you know, moves in the curve and if there's any dislocation out there that's already creating some, maybe some extra activity for you guys?
Yeah. A couple things. You know, one, obviously, variable rate items that did not have floors. You know, some of them do have floors. Variable rate items that have floors, obviously we're getting more on it right now. I think that's going on. There still is excess liquidity out there. Particularly on some of the fixed rate stuff, we're seeing some pricing that we're not willing to chase. You might see that more in like the leasing portfolio, et cetera. The last thing I would say is the migration out of banks, traditional lenders, is already starting. We are looking at more ABL deals, dollars-wise than we have in a long time.
We're going into those and picking and choosing, you know, which ones that we want to do that meet our credit profile and our pricing profile. We think that's just the beginning. As rates have their impact and goes through the economy, I think we'll get a lot more opportunities to grow the working capital. If you look at our asset-based lending and factoring line growth over the last 12 months, you know, linked quarter, it's already had significant growth, but most of that was through same client additional sales, post-COVID. Now we're getting new lines put on the books as well. I expect to see that line to be growing quite a bit, you know, over the next few quarters.
Okay. That's really helpful. And then maybe just in terms of, you know, obviously with the stresses coming on the system, just kind of curious as to, you know, how we think about, you know, reserve modeling going forward, with CECL and all that stuff. Just kind of curious, you know, is this kind of like the bottom in the reserve ex tax and just kind of what your guys' thought process is there?
Glenn, I'll let you take that one.
Yeah. You know, hard to predict, Steve, on if this recession actually occurs or not. Certainly that's where bets are going. If you're a bank investor, it seems like everyone's assuming that there's going to be a recession. Yeah, and even if there is some pullback in the economy, given that we still haven't unwound all our COVID pandemic CECL factors, I wouldn't think this would be a bottom necessarily for us at all. In fact, again, depending on how bad it gets, there could still be some room for us to bring down allowance levels. Yeah, I wouldn't expect them to head higher from here unless things get really bad.
Okay.
maybe just on the security.
Especially in the asset I was just going to emphasize, and that's, you know, that's primarily based on the asset classes that we have and really being focused on the collateralized Commercial Finance.
Right. Okay. Maybe on the securities portfolio here, just kind of curious as to, you know, what the duration of the portfolio is. Kind of, you know, curious how you're thinking about cash flows and what your, you know, reinvestment rate is these days, or, you know, given that you're seeing more customer demand, if we should start thinking more about a bit of a, you know, continuing to see that remixing to loans.
Yeah. We're gonna reprice hard. We'll reprice hard this year again. Duration, we're 4-4.5 years. We're right in that range. Hopefully we've taken the worst of the OCI impact, you know, kind of measure that more towards the five-year. We also have a number. We'll amortize off $30+ million a month easily, that will amortize off. As well as we have a number of variable rate securities that we could liquidate as our Commercial Finance portfolio grows.
Okay. You know, lastly maybe just on, you know, I hear you guys on the redemption of the sub debt, just kind of curious on your level of appetite to buy back here going forward?
Yeah. I mean, one, obviously, we talked about the sub debt. You know, we have to remember, as I alluded to earlier, we are gonna manage as best we can to a flat balance sheet, which means unlike other financial institutions, we don't have to grow capital to grow income. As it is available, we will distribute it to our shareholders in a tax-efficient way, and right now the best way for that to happen is through stock buybacks, when we can.
All righty. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate all that.
Thank you, Steve. Our next question comes from William Wallace with Raymond James. William, your line is now open.
Thank you. Hi, guys.
Hi, William.
Hi. Question on the loans. Your loan growth was a little bit lighter than I might have anticipated given what we've been seeing across the industry. I'm wondering, one, it looks like maybe more of the consumer products are a little bit slower. I'm wondering, is any of this by design or is it just a function of it is what it is? Or can you just maybe provide a little commentary around the loan growth and how that performed relative to your expectations?
Yeah, I mean, I'd hit a few themes. Depends on which lines you're looking at, but if you look linked quarter to linked quarter, remember we're down $150 million in PPP loans from, you know, a year ago. We got rid of the entire community bank portfolio, which is documented in the presentation, which was pretty big. Last year, the tax refund pay downs came slower, and so, you know, you had a little bit more of a hangover there. Actually, if you clean all that up, total loans, we had a pretty good growth rate.
Well, I guess I'm looking at it on a sequential basis. In the Q4 , excluding the community bank impact, it looks like you were growing in the 20s% annualized, and then in the fiscal Q1 it looks like it was even in the 30s% annualized. This looks pretty clean to me. It's low single digits. That's where my question is being derived from. It's really more sequential than year over year.
Yeah. Glen, anything you want to add to that?
No. I mean there's some seasonality in some of the Commercial Finance. We're never targeting, you know, 20%+ loan growth. So I think annualized we'll be in the mid-teens as we talked about off of a larger denominator in our Commercial Finance. So it's what we expected. Consumer, we're not in a rush. A lot of those are forward flow commitments, and so depending on the timing of the sales, those will move up and down. We're never gonna hold a lot of consumer loans on balance sheet. Then you've got various timing in your government guaranteed, your SBA loans as well.
We're happy with Commercial Finance loan growth, and we're very optimistic about opportunities there over the next couple quarters for sure.
Okay. Do you all look for other avenues to deploy liquidity into other, higher yielding assets other than your Commercial Finance business? Is that, you know, maybe credit sponsorship or with some of your fintechs or anything like that?
Go ahead, Glen.
Yeah. Well, that's what our consumer credit products primarily are. They're. We don't call it credit sponsorship anymore. They all. It's really banking as a service partnership lending is what we're doing. We want to be more than just renting out a charter and we think we've proven that and bring some different capabilities as well as other products to that mix and that's where we'll use that. You see our warehouse finance portfolio is a way for us to deploy liquidity into very, very good risk adjusted returns than the securities portfolio. So, some of that is, you know, to retain flexibility as our commercial finance loan portfolio grows. So long way of saying yes, William, to all that.
Fair enough. Okay. I appreciate it. That's all I had. I'll step out. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks, Wally.
Thank you, William. That concludes the Meta Financial Group Q2 fiscal year conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.