Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Meta Financial Group Fiscal Year 2020 Second Quarter Investor Conference Call. 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 call over to Brittany Kelley Elsasser, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Meta Financial Group conference call and webcast to discuss our financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020, released earlier this afternoon. 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 statements. 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 will 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. Participating in today's call are President and CEO, Brad Hanson; Executive Vice President and CFO Glen Herrick; and Executive Vice President and Head of Governance Risk and Compliance, Brett Pharr. Before I turn the call over, we want to apologize in advance for any potential technical difficulties that we may encounter as we are working remotely in different locations during this time. Now, I would like to turn the call over to President and CEO, Brad Hanson.

Thank you, Brittany. I'd like to welcome everyone to our fiscal 2020 second quarter earnings call. Before we address our quarterly results, I want to take this opportunity to provide an update on how we are addressing COVID-19. Our priorities are the health and safety of our employees and ensuring customers have access to the financial services they need to make it through these difficult times. In early March, we implemented our Pandemic Plan led by Brett Pharr, which is part of our business continuity program. We acted swiftly with minimal disruption to our business and put preventative health measures in place to protect employees and customers by, among other things, banning nonessential business travel, mandating remote work options for certain employees, and implementing social distancing and enhanced cleaning measures at all office locations. We believe those early actions have had a positive impact. The effect of our planning is evident as employee engagement and productivity remain high, and we continue to serve our customers and effectively manage our business while dealing with the fallout from this crisis. We expect to see declines in our various business lines as our customers and partners feel the trickle-down effect from this economic disruption. However, I believe we are well-positioned to weather this storm and will capture new opportunities during the recovery. As an essential business, we are striving to do our part to protect the integrity of our nation's financial system, support financial stimulus programs, and keep the money moving. We are proactively reaching out to small business customers to assess their credit situations, offer flexible repayment options where appropriate, and make them aware of financial assistance options like the Paycheck Protection Program established by the Cares Act. Through April 20th, we authorized 502 applications, totaling $190 million for this emergency small business lending program administered by the SBA. We are proud to be accepting applications from all small businesses, not just our clients. In addition, we have taken appropriate steps to protect the safety and soundness of the bank by reinforcing underwriting standards and limiting lending to certain high-risk industries. Credit quality is always a high priority for our company and we remain disciplined in our approach to underwriting and servicing our loan portfolios. Glen will discuss our asset quality in his prepared remarks. Maintaining strong capital levels also remains a key strategic focus for the company. As of March 31st, 2020, the bank's capital leverage ratio was 8.52%. However, it's important to understand that the ratio was temporarily dampened by the seasonality of the high assets related to the tax business services. Our quarter-end bank capital leverage ratio based on asset levels as of March 31st was 9.71%, which we believe better reflects our anticipated balance sheet going forward. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 2.6 million shares at a weighted average price of $31.78 per share under our share repurchase authorization. To further ensure that we maintain a strong capital position while facing these current economic uncertainties, we suspended our stock repurchase program in March until we have better visibility into the duration and economic impact associated with the pandemic. Along with these actions and a strong flexible balance sheet, we have many levers we can use to effectively manage our capital position. While we plan to continue to take actions to preserve liquidity, manage credit risks, and reduce costs, we anticipate an adverse effect on earnings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we expect reaccelerating demand in each of our businesses once the pandemic subsides, consumers get back to work, and businesses seek financing to rebuild their operations. In spite of the pandemic, we reported strong fiscal 2020 second quarter results including earnings of $52.3 million or $1.45 per diluted share, representing growth of 79% over the prior year's second quarter earnings per share. Now, let me turn the call over to Glen Herrick, our CFO, to provide more detail on our fiscal 2020 second quarter financial results.

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon everyone. For the second quarter of fiscal 2020, we reported GAAP net income of $52.3 million or $1.45 per diluted share compared to $32.1 million and $0.81 per diluted share for the same quarter of the prior year. We did see the early signs of growing uncertainty and volatility during the second fiscal quarter. As a result, loan growth slowed with total gross loans and leases increasing 1% on a linked-quarter basis to $3.61 billion at March 31. That said, year-over-year loan growth increased 5% from March 31, 2019. We do expect impacts in many of our business lines during the fiscal third quarter resulting from COVID-19 which could be partially offset by programs recently enacted by the government to assist small businesses through the pandemic, including the CARES Act. As Brad mentioned, we authorized 502 applications totaling $190 million in loan requests for the Paycheck Protection Program and funded 224 loans totaling $79 million as of April 20th. We expect to fund the majority of the remaining authorized applications in the coming week. The current interest rate environment impacted yields as well. Loan yields were 6.76% for the quarter compared to 7.32% for the previous quarter and 8.05% for the second quarter of the prior fiscal year. Purchase accounting accretion added four basis points to loan yields in the second fiscal 2020 quarter versus eight basis points in the prior quarter and 29 basis points in the second fiscal 2019 quarter. Turning to the liability side of the balance sheet, average payments deposits were $3.31 billion for the quarter, rising 11% compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year and now represent 65% of total average deposits. Cost of funds improved by 34 basis points, mostly as a result of the current rate environment compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year. Net interest margin decreased to 4.78% for the fiscal 2020 second quarter, down 16 basis points from the fiscal 2020 first quarter. Adjusting for the impact from our seasonal tax refund advance loans and related funding, net interest margin was 5.01%. As Brad mentioned, credit performance remains a priority for the company. During the quarter, we took a provision for loan and lease losses of $37.3 million. $15.8 million was related to additional allowance for potential losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and $19.6 million, which related to our 2020 tax season loans. At this time, it is too early to gauge what the ultimate impact of COVID-19 will have on credit and we have not recognized significant asset deterioration to date. However, the company is being prudent in taking steps to mitigate potential losses related to certain higher-risk industries, including transportation, hotels, retail and entertainment, and small ticket leasing equipment, as you can see on slides 11 and 12 of our investor deck. At March 31, our total allowance for loan and lease losses was $65.4 million or 1.81% of total loans and leases, an increase from 0.84% at December 31, 2019 and 1.42% at March 31, 2019. The company's commercial finance allowance coverage ratio increased from 80 basis points to 128 basis points on a linked-quarter basis and the Community Bank coverage ratio increased from 68 basis points to 149 basis points. While we are anticipating an upward trend in past dues and non-performing assets in subsequent periods, we do not expect to see a corresponding 1:1 increase in charge-offs as we are able to recover on certain collateral-based relationships. Management believes the structure of the credit protections across our consumer and warehouse finance lending lines was adequate as of March 31, 2020. We are working closely with our partners and customers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and we'll continue to closely monitor the allowance and we'll adjust accordingly in future periods as appropriate. Non-performing loans at March 31, 2020, represented 0.87% of total loans and leases, an increase of 25 basis points compared to December 31, 2019. The increase during the quarter was primarily related to two agricultural relationships in the legacy Community Bank portfolio and an increase from our term lending portfolio. As we previously mentioned, we saw pressure on net interest margin and as a result net interest income decreased 5% year-over-year. While it is still too early to fully understand the scope of potential financial impacts from COVID-19, we do expect the slower loan demand and lower yields will pressure net interest income in the near term. Non-interest income was $120.5 million for the fiscal second quarter, an increase of 15% from the same quarter of fiscal 2019, driven primarily by the gain on divestiture of the Community Bank division. Excluding the gain on sale, non-interest income represented 60% of total revenue and benefited from higher rental income and other income, which were partially offset by lower payments and tax product fee income. For the 2020 tax season through March 31, we originated $1.33 billion in refund advance loans, which represented a 10% decline compared to the 2019 tax season, largely due to a partner reduction, which represented $252 million of originations in 2019. Slide 17 of our investor deck contains a further breakout of net tax product income. Going forward, we don't expect any material impact to the tax services business line as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we are mostly past the peak of tax season. Non-interest expense decreased by 17% to $91.7 million for the fiscal second quarter compared to the same quarter of fiscal 2019. As Brad mentioned, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we put in place health and safety measures including temporarily banning non-essential travel, which resulted in reduced costs. We also implemented expense reduction initiatives to include limiting non-essential hires for the foreseeable future. These initiatives have resulted in savings in compensation and other expenses, such as meals, travel, and entertainment. As a result of our expense reduction initiative, we saw significant improvements in our efficiency ratio. Year-over-year on a rolling 12-month basis our efficiency ratio improved from 73.4% as of March 31, 2019 to 62.9% as of March 31, 2020. Finally, let me discuss our outlook. Given the deteriorating economic environment and the uncertainty around the business impacts following the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, we are suspending fiscal 2020 earnings per share guidance. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation and provide updates as necessary. With that I'll turn the conversation back to Brad for closing comments.

Thanks, Glen. We want to ensure all of our stakeholders that we are putting people first while still maintaining high-functioning business and support operations. From a financial and regulatory perspective, we have instilled even more diligent monitoring processes regarding credit quality, capital forecasting, and financial stability. While we had a strong second quarter, the macro backdrop remains uncertain. We intend to be as transparent as possible regarding our business and the effects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. That completes our prepared remarks, so I'll ask Glen and Brett to join me for Q&A. Operator, please open the line for any questions.

Thank you. And our first question comes from Steve Moss with B. Riley FBR. Your line is now open.

Good afternoon.

Hi, Steve.

I want to start with Glen. I think you mentioned that the increase in non-performance was related to agriculture. Could you provide more details on what drove the increase in 30-89 past due this quarter?

Yes, just a couple of larger relationships just tripped past those dates. We continue to have both in the legacy community banking portfolio and commercial finance and collateralized ones that we typically see will move in and out of various buckets.

Okay. Regarding about 6% of loans that were deferred due to COVID-19, could you provide insight into the borrowers and the types of industries involved?

Brett, do you want to comment on that?

Yes. This is Brett. One of the things that we did was stratify the portfolio based on various economic scenarios, and we identified areas that were of concern. We've got those listed in the investor package, and you can see what those were. We focused on those primarily and looked at those to see, are they getting the assistance they need from the PPP program or are there other things that need to happen to assist them through that. So that's the process we went to kind of dividing up the portfolio. Some areas of the portfolio, of course, are of no concern.

Okay. Is there any particular focus on the industries mentioned in the deck? I noticed a couple of them like energy and retail.

Yes, that's right. And of course, we have hotels in there as well. In the energy sector, half of it's self-liquidating, so you don't worry about those as much, but the term you pay close attention to.

Okay. That's helpful. And then just kind of wondering here pretty healthy reserve builds for the pandemic just kind of wondering just kind of how we think about the provisioning going forward, maybe any color that you gave with regard to inputs. Obviously, you're still on the card method. And just any color you can give around CECL perhaps would be helpful too?

Certainly. We set aside $16 million specifically due to the pandemic based on what we knew as of March 31, aiming to ensure a strong earnings quarter. It's possible that we may take additional provisions above our usual run rate in the next quarter or two, depending on how successful the government programs are. Some significant efforts are underway, and we need to see how they materialize. We're actively monitoring the situation and have adjusted our allowance accordingly. With the CECL implementation on October 1 for our fiscal year, we're preparing for that, and we anticipate providing more insights and guidance about the impacts of CECL in the upcoming quarters.

Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate all the color.

Yes. Thanks, Steve.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Michael Perito with KBW. Your line is now open.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hope everyone is doing well given everything going on. Thanks for taking my question.

Yes. Thanks, Mike.

I wanted to start by following up on the credit topics that Steve mentioned earlier. Regarding the commercial real estate portfolio managed by Central Bank but recorded on your balance sheet, can you confirm if you are still overseeing and directing the underwriting process? Additionally, could you provide more details about the hotel exposure specifically within the CRE segment of that portfolio?

Yes. Yes, we're controlling the underwriting. We're working very closely with Central. The folks that are servicing our legacy runoff portfolio were our employees a month ago. They're building their operations team really off of our team, and so we continue to manage that very closely. And I'll defer to Brett on the credit. He and his team have really been leading the efforts throughout the year, but certainly stepped up efforts here in the last six weeks.

Yes. I mean, we contacted every one of those to have direct conversations about the impact they're having, some of which are certainly catastrophic at the moment. Others for a variety of reasons, they might be medical personnel or national reserve people have some occupancy. So obviously, we did modifications to get them through this time period. They applied for and received PPP support from Central. And now, it's a waiting game for those to see if it comes back and how fast it comes back.

Okay. And then maybe on that topic, can you talk about what the customer outreach looked like on maybe some of the more granular portfolios? Obviously in terms of the Community Bank commercial real estate portfolio, I'm sure there are some bigger customers in there. But when you think about kind of the Crestmark portfolio on the consumer book there's obviously a lot more granular, a lot more people to reach out to. How have you guys kind of gone about trying to get in touch with your customers and see kind of what kind of shape they're in, what they need and stuff like that?

In the commercial finance portfolio, we have literally talked to every customer. Now in some cases that might be, I'm fine don't worry about me. Move on. Others, we found out if they applied for PPP through us or through some other source and then where appropriate we obviously had conversations about modifications.

And I would add Mike, if you think about Crestmark, their leadership team almost in its entirety was all here in 2008, 2009 through the recession. So while different cause, being pulled out a lot of the same playbook and instead of business development, you're really focused on working with existing clients on helping them servicing them through this period.

And on the consumer side?

The consumer side, we have significantly more protections. And so we are working with our partners and the servicers to provide modifications in forbearance where appropriate and stepped up support and earlier contacts on past dues, typical things you would start that you would expect consumer lenders to start rolling out. And if you recall, whether it's our direct consumer or our warehouse lending, we have a senior position there.

Yes, I think you guys in the past have disclosed like, kind of, where the loss rates would need to get in that book for you guys really to not be made whole. Is that something you can maybe revisit or remind us what that looks like today?

Yes, if you refer to the deck on pages 15 and 16, the waterfall in the warehouse will give you a general idea of the protections in place and the over-collateralization we have. Additionally, regarding consumer credit, when we partner with a stated interest rate of 36% and our yield is around 9%, that's where much of the protection comes from.

Can you provide more details about the nonstrategic partners you have exited in the tax business? Additionally, should we consider the 2020 tax season as a better indicator of future production following the end of those partnerships?

Yes, I'll address that. I believe this year serves as a better indicator of future performance and provides a foundation for us to build upon. It was a more effective and efficient year as we eliminated partnerships that were not strategic or valuable to our operations. We managed our overhead more effectively and experienced smoother operations. Overall, we were satisfied with this year's results.

Got it. So going forward while the volume and revenue might be lower than 2019, the expenses and the credit and all those aspects will be more efficient as well, and you guys feel good about that dynamic moving forward with the exit of those partnerships.

Yes. You'll notice that those represented about 20% of the volume, and we had about a 10% decrease. So you can see that our core business performed well overall even though our overall business was slightly down.

Was the majority of the business seasonally typical? I know there were some extensions of deadlines, and I don't think that would usually affect the customer base you are targeting. But is there any reason to believe that there might be a bit more impact in the other quarters from tax revenues than a typical year, considering the delays in filing dates?

I go ahead Glen.

Sorry, Brad. No, really where we saw the quarter flips this year is some of the activity was pulled forward actually into our first fiscal quarter that a year ago might have been in January. This year it got pulled forward to December. But through the six months now, our customers are materially done. They're getting refunds. So they're not going to wait for July 15 to file their taxes.

Yes. Excellent. Thank you guys for taking my questions. Appreciate all the added color. And that's helpful. Thank you. And do well.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.

Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask about the deferrals that came in after the end of the quarter. Brett, you mentioned that you've spoken to everyone in the portfolio at this point. I'm curious about the trend in deferrals after the quarter ended. Would you say it's accelerating or decelerating? Do you expect significant growth to continue despite little change in the outlook?

It's really too soon to tell, Frank, now that the PPP loans are going out, and a lot of our customers are drawing on those. And while our volume clearly doesn't match our entire portfolio, but a lot of our commercial finance customers may have their primary bank, their operating lines with a community bank. And so we know they're also drawing down the PPP loans. So again, we'll have to see how successful these government stimulus efforts are.

I guess, in terms of provisioning, I would assume that basically what you know March 31 just sort of drives the provision so that the significant deferrals that came in after the end of the quarter would be more of sort of a 2Q concern as far as additional provisioning would be concerned.

We are monitoring various metrics and dimensions, and while the provision build was completed on March 31, it was not solely based on the deferrals or loan modifications at that time. We anticipated a significant volume of that in April, which is partially reflected in our build. It may not account for everything, but some of it is included.

Got you. I just wanted to ask a quick question about credit. In terms of the hotel portfolio within the Community Bank's commercial real estate book, do you have the average loan-to-value ratio for that portfolio?

We have not disclosed that. Brett, do you have that handy?

I don't have it handy. We followed standard underwriting criteria, but I don't have a number handy.

Yes.

Okay. Regarding the increase in non-performing loans for the quarter, you mentioned the two agricultural loans and then the term lending. It seems to me that the rise in term lending is related to being past due but still accruing. I'm curious if this situation might be classified as a deferral instead of being marked as non-performing, considering the current environment. Was this related to factors not associated with COVID-19? Can you provide any insights on that?

Yes. This is Brett. That transaction was not COVID-related. And as you know, these things are heavily collateralized as well.

Okay. So can you say that you don't expect a significant loss regarding the increase in non-performing term lending?

That's correct.

Okay. And then just shifting gears to loan growth or just given the tighter underwriting standards. Brad, you mentioned the transportation which is a decent-sized piece of the commercial finance book. What are your thoughts here? And then given the short-term nature of some of these loans, should we anticipate contraction in the overall commercial finance book at this point in the near term at least? And then, is there any change in strategy to drive growth elsewhere? I mean, you mentioned the consumer book holding up well and I saw you actually reduce the reserves related to consumer book. So just curious any change in strategy? And then in the near term, what are the thoughts on growth or lack thereof in the commercial finance book?

We might anticipate some contraction, as a decrease in sales leads to fewer receivables that need factoring. However, historically, when traditional banks scale back, we have seen them gravitate towards commercial finance, which can open up new opportunities for growth. While these changes aren't likely to happen simultaneously, we expect to see some opportunities arise in the coming quarters.

Great. And sorry just one last one if I could. Just in terms of the stimulus program and the direct checks to U.S. citizens. My thought or stuff I've read has suggested that some of that could come through from the IRS to prepaid cards that would be attached to these consumers' tax refunds. Can you talk at all about your expectation there in terms of additional deposit balances from the stimulus?

There are some additional deposit balances from certain reloadable prepaid programs that benefit from this situation. However, in other portfolios, the volume is lower, which balances out depending on the portfolio type. Additionally, there are various payment methods being utilized, including some insurance benefits being loaded onto cards for individuals who have lost their jobs, where their direct deposits are no longer being credited to the card. It's a mixed situation; some areas are seeing slight increases while others are declining. Overall, we are continuing to monitor the portfolios and assessing the duration of this context, as well as the potential for additional stimulus programs to be introduced.

Okay. So you haven't noticed any clear trend either way in terms of the various factors affecting card usage or deposit flows compared to what you might typically expect?

There are no significant trends at the moment, just some increases and decreases. We have a diverse range of prepaid products that balance each other out. I wouldn't say we've noticed any dramatic shifts or trends at this time.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. And that concludes the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back to CEO, Brad Hanson.

All right. Well thank you. I'd like to thank everybody for participating in our quarterly investor call. We truly appreciate your support and we thank you for taking time to listen today. Have a great evening, and everybody please stay safe.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.