Thanks, everyone, for joining end of the day here. We have WEX is lucky enough to get to do the last interview with me, Melissa.
I am so excited about this.
So, I was saying before we started, just not to delay the start, but I've known Melissa for, I guess, 20 years.
Twenty years.
One of the longest running execs that I can think of, covering Fintech for a while? On both sides, IT services and payments, so hats off to you for that.
I always enjoyed working with Melissa, so thanks for being here. It's been a little bit.
I know. I'm excited to be here. Thank you.
Yeah, so Melissa is the CEO of WEX. We'll go through some of the questions I've gathered. We'll definitely take questions as well. So the one thing, you know, I guess I thought I'd start, Melissa, you know, again, known each other a very long time, the business has changed a lot. How would you describe the identity of the company? I mean, corporate payments, and B2B, and virtual card, those things really weren't part of the talk track-
Yes
You know, 20+ years ago. It's a top-of-mind question today. So when you, when you think about WEX, how, how does it fit.
Mm-hmm
In the broader scheme of fintech and some of the big themes?
Yeah. No, so our purpose is to simplify the business of running business, and so that, that has been new over the last 20 years, and so we're really focused around where we can solve customer problems, you know, across very specific verticals. So we've been hyper-focused around mobility, travel, and around benefits. And then we like those markets because those markets are growing. Benefits and mobility and travel, corporate payments, higher than GDP growers. They're big markets. We have a lot of opportunity to grow. The last few years have been a ride, you know, like, post-pandemic.
Mm-hmm.
We've been really focused on building resilience into the model, and you can see that coming through. We, you know, feel really good about the fact that we've continued to grow in, you know, pretty much any environment, and there have been a lot of different environments over the last few years. We've also been really focused around our cost structure, so we spent time, you know, building out the product and product capability that we have in each of the verticals and really looking for new areas to mine.
But then on top of that, you know, we're wrapping up, you know, at the end of this year, a two-year effort that's looking at how we can use technology in order to, you know, take some of the cost out of our system and redeploy that in areas that are even more optimal from a spending perspective.
Right.
The company really has morphed over time quite a bit.
So given some of those changes, including, you know, shifting to the cloud and, and-
Mm-hmm
It's a big lift and effort, is it more of a product company today versus, let's say, five, 10, 15 years ago?
Increasingly, what we're really focused on are two big macro trends within the company.
Mm-hmm.
One is the intersection between payments and software. And so that's, if you look across our products, we want to be embedded in the operating systems of our customers.
Mm-hmm.
We're doing that with our largest customers, but we've been really focused around how to do that with some of the smaller customers as well. As we're building concentric circles around what their needs are to move up into that value chain-
Right
A nd to move more into that software module. And then the second part has been really focused on how we can use the data that we have. I know you talked about the migration into the cloud. That migration to the cloud enabled us to really think about our data assets in a different way, and then with AI on top of that, we can create even bigger moats around our customer base. And so those are two macro themes that we're very focused on. So when we're building products, we're looking at what products can we build that really enhances the customer experience, links us even more into their operations, and where can we use data in order to create a much more personalized solution?
Okay, perfect. So you've had a really good run of winning a lot of new business over several years. Why is that? Just upfront, before we talk about the details.
Why?
But it seems like you've had-
Two reasons
A very good run.
Yeah
O n winning.
We have a lot of strength in sales. So, like, the commercial apparatus for us is a really important part of our growth algorithm.
Mm-hmm.
And so let's say that it's, you know, it's a discipline that we have, and it is something we want to just continue to build upon as the company gets bigger. And the second part is we're really focused around how the products are differentiated, and so we've taken unique product sets and arming them into, like, some really strong sales capability, and you see, if you look at our KPI growth, you know, we've seen tremendous KPI growth over the years, and it's because we just continue to add new customers.
Right. With some of these wins then, Melissa, who are you taking share from? Is, is it an incumbent situation? Is there an in-house solution that you're displacing across the board? What, what trends do you see?
I'd say the biggest trend across the portfolio is really inertia. Like, you're digitizing those things that have happened historically in a more manual way.
Right.
In the over-the-road segment, those are competitive wins, and that's a much more penetrated part of the marketplace. But even in our North American mobility business, when we're winning market share, you know, a large part of that is people who are either paying cash or using a general purpose credit card. In the benefits space, you've got this great macro that's happening, where you've got a continued adoption of consumer-directed healthcare benefits.
Yep.
And so, you know, so we've got, you know, some of this pull in our travel space. It's similarly, you've got growth of the underlying market, but you have additional spend pools that we continue to bring into the product set.
You've got a lot of the large players on the fuel side, the fleet side, already-
Mm-hmm
I n place. I think, what, nine out of the top ten?
9 to 10.
I know the SMB mid-market's still a bigger white space, but how much room is left to penetrate and when?
Yeah. So, in our mobility business, we think about winning and building in two different ways. One, we've got this machine of bringing in new customers, so we want to make sure we continue to add vehicles.
Right.
We have 19 million commercial vehicles globally. We have, you know, tremendous opportunity to continue to do that. As you talked about, the small end of the marketplace is less penetrated, but we continue to win competitively in the larger space as well. Then, we've been really focused around how we can supplement that unit growth with additional product offerings. So we've got 3 offerings out in the marketplace right now, and that are in different stages. We have an ability to have enhanced purchasing capabilities, so we've talked to our customers, really listened to what their needs were, and one of the things they wanted to be able to do is buy more.
Right.
And so-
Beyond what they're doing.
P eople can purchase, they can pay for tolls and parking and, you know, still very specific to the vehicle itself.
Sure.
But that is an additional revenue stream for us. We're using our network and offering that up to our over-the-road customers for some of the customers that historically wouldn't be qualified from a credit perspective.
Mm-hmm.
So it's a way to migrate them into our customer base, and then on the EV side of the business, we've got this great host of products that we've been rolling out. So I like the fact, in the mobility business, we've got this way that we've historically grown, which is bringing in new customers, but we're adding to that new sources of revenue opportunity, by rolling out new product capability. And, and again, like, the kind of the master theme of that is, how do you actually move up into the value chain and do more for that customer segment?
Right. So, extending the purchasing that they can do is a part of this TAM expansion. Now, something like Payzer, I think, was really interesting for me. I don't know if you put that in the-
Yes
T he same category.
I figured you'd go there next. Yeah.
Yeah, but I think, you know, 'cause field services is a hot area.
Yes.
I think a lot of these integrated payment companies are trying to go after field services. So you're buying a field service capability, you're gonna expose them on the payment side, and I presume they all have fleets, and-
Yes
A nd you're extending, you know, into that as well. Is that something new that we can expect you to do more of, which is buying software outright?
Yeah. So all of the products I just talked about, I think it was, like, that next concentric ring.
Yeah.
Payzer is moving out a few more rings to that-
Yeah
A nd so it's a thesis for us. So strategically, we have a thesis that we should be able to extend even further into the operating systems of our customers by solving unique problems that are verticalized. And so, you know, you talked about HVAC or, you know, plumbing. It's 150,000 field service management companies in our portfolio. And so we're in this test phase. If it works, we'll do more of it. But the thesis we need to prove out is, can we actually cross-sell into that, into that customer base in a way that is additive to the way that the portfolio was growing otherwise? And we're really excited about, to your point, this is a way to actually build your way into it. You could either build on the Payzer application itself-
Mm-hmm
Or do other M&A if this thesis proves out, and we'll know that in the course of this year.
How do we measure on the outside-
It-
P rogress there?
Is it working?
Yeah.
Well, I think two ways. The growth of the asset itself, you know, it is, you know, is important to us, so is it growing? And in my mind, that is probably more around, is the deal delivering on the return? And the second part is going to be, how effective are we at cross-selling, which will be probably less hard, less transparent for you. You know, like, and we will talk about that as we progress through the course of the year.
Okay, good. No, like I said, I thought it was different, and I, and I like the concentric circle concept, but it, it does seem like you're extending into a newer-
Yeah
A rea.
We talked about the fact we have 2% segment growth in our mobility segment, specifically for Payzer too, which is- that's another way of saying-
Oh, yeah
Y ou know, are they hitting that top-line number?
Okay, good. So we'll keep asking you on that. So I, when I'm on the road and talking to investors about WEX, I'm always surprised by the level of questions we get around credit performance-
Yes
A nd credit appetite.
Mm-hmm.
I know that the performance has been good, but there's always a trade-off.
Mm
T o tightening credit with growth. Where are we in the cycle now? What's your philosophy?
So we have embedded AI-based tools in our risk functions-
Right
A nd we continue to refine those. So, actually, we feel pretty good about the way that we're making decisions is much more granular, and so we're looking at sub-segment profitability levels when we're deciding who we're extending credit to, and they're much more live. Meaning that, as profitability levels change, then those models will change. And so, you know, as long as we continue to tune that, we feel like we're making that optimal call. The place I would say that we're continuing to refine is more on the fraud side. So the fraud tools, because you're in an environment where you have, you know, people's ability to when there's a fraud attack, it's much more, velocity-
Yeah
T han it would've been in the past. This is, like, the negative of where technology has moved. And so we, as a result, have really tightened up what we're willing to put through from a fraud perspective, and that's a place that we continue to do champion and challenger models. And we might loosen that up, as we learn that we're probably declining more than we need to on that side, but we'll be very careful about what we expose.
Okay. Last one on this is just. We talked about SMB still being a big opportunity, so you're probably letting a lot of business go by tightening out the credit. Can you solve for that, and make sure you're not missing out on some of the good work that otherwise may have been overlooked?
Yeah, it's more about how we offer the product; it's the way that we're thinking about that, as opposed to we may not approve more-
Yeah
C redit, but offering a different type of product to that customer so that it is, you know, appropriate for them in the moment that they're in, and then allowing them to build their way into some of the other product sets that we have is more of the line that we're thinking about right now.
Okay. Let's do one more on, on mobility and EV, just to get it out there. I know you've done a lot of hard work to talk about how that's going to evolve and, and how you can solve for revenue per user. But you rolled out this in-home reimbursement-
Yes
I think in the first quarter. What's been the receptivity there? And I'm curious, just we're always thinking about the next product that gets you to a place where you feel like you're done on the EV side. How close are you on that?
I don't think that we're anywhere near done-
Okay
W hich is the-
Tell us.
It's the exciting part. So-
Yeah
W hat we know from our customers is that they want one integrated bill and one integrated set of data for their ICE vehicles and their EV vehicles-
Mm-hmm
Be cause they're gonna make a migration over a long period of time.
Of course.
The adding in on the EV side just adds a lot of complexity to them. So the thing that is different than what we expected is we spend a lot more time on the consultative side-
Yeah
W ith even, think of the largest fleets in the world, that are either, government fleets that have been mandated to make a migration or, or because there is a sustainability commitment out there. So they know they have to make the migration, but actually how is a big question mark. And so the products that we were focused on initially were having this idea that no matter how you're using your EV vehicle, we're gonna make sure that you can actually pay for that and, and track the data associated with that. So we have a very robust network, both in the United States and Europe, and people charge or they're paying us subscription fees in order to have access to that. And then the second part, as you talked about, is the at-home reimbursement.
We feel really good about that product 'cause that allows people to get reimbursed into the individual employee's account, which is novel-
Mm-hmm
I n this space.
Mm-hmm.
It's really early, I would say, in that product, so what we know so far is that we're getting the fees that we had expected-
Right
W hich is an important part of that. So there's still very limited volume that's happening, across that part of the business.
Okay.
You know, I was looking at a chart just this week. It was showing the, in the period of time where people have started making adoption to now, you can see it's really important to be a part of that early adoption curve because now we're seeing they're adding more vehicles.
Right.
So as they're making this migration, which again, will happen over time, you can see units getting added to the existing, you know, customer and the customer experience. And so, while it's early, in the process and there's a lot of toe dipping-
Sure
T hat happens.
Sure.
You've got the governments, you've got the larger fleets that are more all in, and they're phasing it in over time, and then you've got the majority of fleets who are saying, "I wanna try this. I'm gonna try one or two EVs and see what it's like." And, and as they go through that process, we're working through them, what's the best solution for them? The last part will be Depot.
Yeah.
We intend to roll that out this year. But we have a two-year product roadmap that has a lot of additional features and functions that we think we can build into this space that will be value additive to our end customers.
Okay, so you're gonna do this build over a two-year process, and I've always wanted to ask you this one, so we haven't had a chance to. So the opportunity then to leverage that, would you be willing to extend that into the consumer environment and work with consumers? I mean, you're doing all the hard work-
Mm-hmm
O n the ground anyway.
Mm-hmm.
B2B is very different than B2C.
It's, um-
I know, but is that something on your-
It's-
On your roadmap or you're thinking?
It is not on our roadmap. You know, I would say primarily 'cause we've been really lasered focused around building what our customers need. Like, if at some point we see a heavy crossover, where, you know, that's an easy play to expose to other people, then maybe, but we're really focused around our customers and their own migration right now.
Okay, fair enough. It's hard. It's really tough, of course, to do both B2B and B2C. Making that pivot is hard, but I figured I'd ask because we're seeing a little bit more and more of that, using the consumer experience to help drive the B2B and vice versa.
There are some applications where there is a crossover, but I'd say generally, the behaviors—there's a lot of behaviors that are different. I mean, if you're a consumer fleet—I mean, if you're a business fleet, you're typically not single sourcing with one particular Auto OEM.
Right.
So you're just working through a different level of complexities, as opposed to a consumer, who will often be all in one particular brand name. And the way that we've thought about the product offerings is to have an open architecture, where we can plug in a lot of different applications. So API, connect them in, expose that to our customer segment, so they can pick, you know, which pieces of functionality that they wanna use and what they don't. And that's been our primary focus.
Okay. Now, thanks for going through that. So let's pivot to corporate payments, or let's do travel and OT. I'm sure you've gotten a lot of questions around Booking. I know that was a big topic.
Mm-hmm.
A t the meeting, I know you've got a lot of large OTAs as clients. I know Booking is unique. They've got a bank. They took some elements in-house, so there'll be some negative impact there. But why is this a one-off? Why isn't this a risk that we could see this extend into other OTAs?
Yeah. So you're right, we do business with 8 of the 10 largest online travel agencies-
Right
I n the world. Booking is very unique in the fact that they have built out, you know, a great deal of payment expertise internally over time. As you said, they own a bank. And this has been a process that we've worked through for, you know, a long period of time with them, of saying, "These are your assets. This is what we have, for underlying technology, and so how do we make this work in a way that's the best for both parties?
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, we like where we landed. We're excited about the relationship that we have with Booking. They're a great partner of ours. The way that this is going to happen, and I would say there's uncertainty in terms of timings. When we gave a guide, we gave, like, our best view of that.
Understood.
But the expectation is that there'll be minimal impact to the second quarter of bringing in-house some of the treasury services, that in the third quarter you start to have more of the migration and it's full effect in the fourth quarter. And so we think that this will have a negative headwind for, you know, four-ish quarters. And at the same time, we've been working with them to find additional pools of spend that we can actually move through this business. And so they a gain, a great partner. They've been migrating over from their agency model to the merchant model. That trend will continue, and so that's been something that we have benefited from.
And then on top of that, we're looking at areas of spend in other parts of the world that we can bring into this relationship, as well as other spend categories. So it is a very unique, like, the way that we think about this and the way that we look at our customer set.
Mm-hmm
T his is a unique relationship, that what we're doing is unique to them because of where they are in their space, and we're excited to continue to provide the underlying technology. We have gotten some questions around impact, so-
Yep
O ne of the things that we have, if you look at the impact in next year, we think it's an incremental headwind of about 1%.
Okay
R evenue growth next year. So I think, you know, some people are coming up with a bigger number than that. And so, you know, to the total company, this is not a huge impact. To the segment, it will be more meaningful.
Of course. Okay. No, thanks for clarifying the one point. But with them taking a little bit more in-house-
Mm-hmm
I would imagine they're gonna end up taking on a little bit more risk, and so that takes off some of the cost burden and the risk burden on you. So-
Yes.
I imagine there's some offset there, correct, on the-
Yeah
O n the bottom line?
Yeah. Now, it is a very scalable product.
Sure, I understand that.
Right? So it's not. But yeah, there from a built-to-funding, you know, perspective and from a risk perspective, there is some offsets to that.
Yeah.
At the same time, one of the things that we've been talking a lot about, and I'm sure you'll ask me at some point, is about the cost savings initiatives that we've had.
Yeah.
We've been really focused on how we can pull through $100 million of savings, you know, by the end of 2024. And so this will be a negative impact to us in 2025, but we also have some, you know, positives, some good guys that are running through, too.
Yeah. No, I do want to talk about the cost savings, but just thinking about, you know, the virtual card market is a lot more, I'd say, better understood.
Yes
I n the investment community now, and we're hearing a lot more about load management-
Mm-hmm
P laying one off of the other. So you want a lot of that business in the OTA business, from my understanding, around performance, and-
Yeah
L ower error rates and things like that beyond price.
Yeah.
Where are we now if we're thinking about how do you win in a jump-ball situation beyond price?
Yeah. Yeah, we win based on functionality.
Mm-hmm.
So when in the embedded payments products, which is what our travel customers use, is a combination of the. If you look at our Virtual Card platform, our payment platform, we have a huge number of products that sit below that-
Mm-hmm
W hich enables people on a global basis to tap into functionality in a way that's, which is quite easy. We have settlement capability and currency issuance capability across over 20 different currencies, which, and then locks down some of the fraud risk you have. We have the ability to handle chargebacks at, you know, significant volume. And then, as you talked about, uptime matters a lot-
Sure
A nd reliability. So when we look at how we compete, it's a combination of all of those things that actually matter to our customers, and the level of complexity that we can deal with, you know, I would say, you know, particularly across border volume, which is really quite complex and has required an infrastructure from a compliance perspective on a global basis, or ways that we compete in this space. And so we feel good about the underlying products we have, our ability to price that in the marketplace, and to continue to be competitive. We take that same product, and with a few of the, you know, less bells and whistles, is something we apply within the Fintech space.
So that same embedded, you know, capability is something that we have built upon and are exposing in you know, other areas outside of travel, which is another place that we're really bullish about our ability to compete, you know, for many of the same reasons.
Okay. So competitively, last one on this. So competitively, how do you stack up versus some of the, some of the upstarts that are out there talking about their, their virtual card platform?
Yeah, no, we stack up very well.
Mm-hmm.
And again, in terms of the sophistication of the product, the reliability of the systems, the ability to handle transactions on a global basis, we feel really good about where we stack up.
Okay. I mean, you mentioned taking out the $100 million, so we'll talk about that now. So I know there's some reinvestment that you're doing. I think you said, what? Half the savings you're gonna reinvest, but any other block step changes that maybe we can expect out of WEX with respect to margin or cost takeout?
Yeah. Well, you can actually see it coming through now. So if you look at where our margins have moved over the last year, you can see, like, incremental drop-through that has happened, you know, because of the work we've done. We did that reinvestment, we did front load in the course of the year. So when we give our guidance, you see more of that dropping through as you get to the back part of the year. But it's a series of activities that we've taken, where we're looking at where can we use technology to actually reduce something that may have been happening on either a manual or a suboptimal process way. So it's, you know, it's process technology, but the technology tools are so much better now that we have an ability to create a flywheel.
So we've been able to really actively work on either process change or, you know, places where we may have more than one item, consolidate that together. And I'll give you an example of, like, with our call centers. We started with this idea of a lot of process work, then we migrated to AI-based tools-
Yeah
Which are allowing us to do wrap-up work in a much more efficient way. And now we're migrating to that next level of the information that we're collecting from that AI tool allows us to even better inform how to service a customer in a way that deflects the call, but actually creates a better customer experience.
Sure.
In that process, we've taken the money that we were saving from that and created a data team and an AI team, which are, you know, it's not a small investment, it's a pretty big investment. But that can happen behind the scenes because we're moving money from something that was much more repetitive in nature and moving it into something that is enabling even more work, and that's when I talk about it being a flywheel-
Yeah
T hat team of people is then looking for the next order of opportunities.
Got it. Right, so the opportunities, you can absorb something like a bookings, or you have enough room to do that, expand margin. You are reinvesting in productivity, which will drive better results as well, right? That, I think that's the genesis of it all.
Yeah, it's, it's productivity, but it's also looking at ways that we can enhance the product set-
Right
T oo. So when we think about it, I think of that as defense and offense, right? On the defense side, like, we've got, we had 60 active experiences across the company that were AI-based last year-
Right
A nd they're all in different phases, and that will just create more momentum. But then on the product side, it's really important that we're embedding AI capability from a product perspective, and we have products that are in prototype that are, you know, starting to roll into the marketplace.
All right, good. Before I open it up, I just wanna rapid fire a few more, if you don't mind, Melissa. Just on the benefit side, your long-term growth target is 15-20.
Yes.
Build that up for us.
Yeah, sure.
How do you get there?
Yeah. So, you have underlying market growth, and our intention is to bring on more accounts than what's happening in the marketplace. So that is, you know, at this point in time, that moves you into either a high single digit or double digit, depending on the year.
Okay.
On top of that, we are seeing higher growth from our direct business, which is gives you a positive mix from a revenue perspective, because we're the custodian of those accounts. The custodian accounts themselves are growing faster than accounts because people's balances grow faster, you know, as they age.
Mm-hmm.
Spend volume is growing faster than account growth because healthcare costs keep going up.
Right.
And then we have a bunch of different products that we've been cross-selling into the mix, our COBRA-based product, Benefit Administration, most recently, our compliance products. And so it's, you know, it starts with the base of account growth, and you have—you start adding on all these incremental pieces.
All right, so a lot of that, the tail part is really the aging and the maturity of that book. But from a pipeline backlog standpoint, are you in the hunt for these deals to get there in the midterm?
Yeah, yeah. Actually, you know, it's interesting. Last year, we had way more, just no decisions than normal.
Yeah.
You could see that. Like, our accounts grew, excluding the impact of Medicare Advantage, 8%, and the-
Right
T he industry grew 5, I think.
Right.
So, like, we felt good about where we stand. We were getting, you know, like, more than our fair share from a customer perspective. But we're not seeing that same thing play out this year, at least so far this year.
Okay.
So we feel good about the sales cycles that we're in.
All right, let me. We're at the five-minute mark. Any questions from the audience before I do last two or three more? Happy to take them. I don't wanna hog the time. Anyone? Andrew, go for it, man. Just wanna do two more.
I wanted to ask a bit more about the Enhanced Acceptance product you mentioned before. So I think you started selling that in 1Q, right?
Mm-hmm.
And just how, how fast, basically, can that get cross-sold into the base? And is there any new issuing of cards that you have to do, or is that something you can kinda just implement directly into the cards you have out there?
Sure. So, so the product is a combination of our closed-loop network and Mastercard's network, and so it does require a card reissuance. So at this point, we're doing that, as cards go through the renewal cycles. We, from a customer perspective, we started testing it to see, you know, what happened from a behavior perspective, and we saw actually this, like, a big stratification of accounts. We had very active users. It also helped us look at where people are trying to use the product and can't. So are there other codes that we should be opening up because they're important to our customer segment.
And then we have customers that weren't using it at all, and so we're working on how do we actually and make sure the customer is aware of what they can do and are helping them through that process. So I'd say we're still very early in the cycle, but we see this as a meaningful opportunity for us because we know from talking to our customers that there is a segment of our business that wants this. And so as we go through the course of this year, I'd say we're learning a lot more about that, and we'll have a better idea of how that will play out into next year as this year progresses. Yeah.
Melissa, any implications to WEX from the network litigation settlement with the interchange reductions and surcharging?
Yeah. It's relatively small-
Yep
S o it's, it's not applicable, obviously, to our closed-loop network. So it's, and you start to get into it, you know, relatively small part of the overall portfolio, and a lot of the majority of our contracts are Keep Rate based, and so it's, it's pretty small.
Surcharging, does it matter?
Um, well-
Or could it be an opportunity?
Yeah, I-
If you're working with your merchants
I think that that is to be seen, right?
Okay. I know it's early, and I know we get a lot of questions on your corporate payment side, the direct side of the business.
Yes.
How, how big is it today? What do you do today? Why can't that be a bigger business sooner rather than later?
Yeah. That's, you know, we have built a sales force. We added 25 salespeople and wanted to test out the business case, which has worked. And so they're doing a wonderful job of growing the business, and I think you would expect that we will add to that. But at this point, we have 25 salespeople, so it's, you know, it's relatively small, but growing and starting to have an impact over the overall growth rate of the corporate payment segment.
Right. Some of that is cross-sell, but also new sale as well, but that 25 is, well, new to you.
It's all new. Yeah, yeah, 'cause historically we were just doing cross-selling of the, you know, the product on a direct basis, and so the 25 salespeople is a new thing.
You're at the lower end of your target leverage ratio. I know WEX has done a lot of deals that have been quite accretive over time. Has your appetite to do M&A changed at all? I know you've been so focused on, again, the cloud migration, the cost side of the equation, building out things around EV, now this Payzer acquisition. What's next for you on the inorganic front?
Yeah. So we've done a number of deals, even post-pandemic.
Yeah.
I think the thing that has been different in that period of time is, historically, we've done a combination of scale plays and then growth-related plays, and a lot of the scale plays we've like transitioned to share buyback. You know, and we're big believers in buying our own stock and the environment that we're in right now, and so we continue to look for assets that are growth-related assets that fill a strategic need that we have, that where we think is better than to actually build it. So we'll continue to look for those type of assets 'cause we-- one of the things that we looked at is we can do both. We can actually buy back stock, and we actually can do an M&A, and so we've got this 2%-3% in our long-term framework.
But when it comes to something that is you know, purely just for the math, at this point in time, that money's moving to share buyback.
Okay. Share buyback it is. So let me get you out with, I know there's a lot of talk about the macro and demand and tech trends. Is this a favorable demand environment for WEX in your mind, versus this time last year?
I think, well, you know, it's interesting. I would say we had three years of, like, really good macro. I would say this isn't a good macro. It's not bad, it's not great-
Yeah
... environment. And, you know, I say that because, you know, the over-the-road part of the customer base, not good. Everything else actually is still holding in there, you know, and pretty good. And so, you know, our products are definitely playing well in the space, and our sales are strong. But from an existing customer base, I would say it's good, but not great.
Terrific. We should close it out there, Melissa.
Yeah.
Great to see you.
Yeah.
Thank you for spending some time with us.
Thank you.
Thank you, Melissa.