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CURN (CURN) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

CURN (CURN)

Q3 2026 Earnings Call· Thu, Sep 10, 2026

CURN Q3 2026 Earnings Call Key Takeaways

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CURN Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Currency Exchange International Q3 2026 financial results conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, September 10th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Bill Mitoulas of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Bill Mitoulas

Investor Relations

Thank you, Kelsey, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Currency Exchange International conference call to discuss the financial results for the third quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. Thank you for joining us. With us today are President and CEO Randolph Pinna and Group CFO Gerhard Barnard. Gerhard will provide an overview of CXI's financial results and his latest perspective on the company's operations. Randolph will then provide his commentary on CXI's strategic initiatives, sales efforts, and business activities, after which, we will open it up for your questions. Today's conference call is open to shareholders, prospective shareholders, and members of the investment community, including the media. For those of you who may happen to leave our call before its conclusion, please be advised that this conference call will be recorded and then uploaded to CXI's Investor Relations website page, along with the financial statements and MD&A. Please note that this conference call will include forward-looking information, which is based on a number of assumptions, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our financial statements and MD&A reports for more information about the factors that could cause these different results and the assumptions that we have made. With that, I will turn the call over to Gerhard. Gerhard, please go ahead.

Gerhard Barnard

CFO

Thank you, Bill, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. Today, I will review CXI's financial performance for the third quarter and the first nine months of fiscal 2026. Unless otherwise indicated, all amounts are presented in USD, and comparisons are against the same period last year, meaning the third quarter of 2026 compared to the third quarter of 2025. Before I begin, a brief note on how CXI discusses performance. We use both reported results prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting standards and certain adjusted non-GAAP measures. We believe the adjusted measures help explain the underlining performance of the business by excluding specific items that are non-reoccurring or introduced specific significant period-to-period volatility, such as stock-based compensation expense. However, adjusted results include close to $1 million of discontinued operations losses incurred by EBC in the normal course of business. EBC, Exchange Bank of Canada. Full definitions and reconciliations are included in our financial statements and MD&A on page 24 and 25, just to highlight that. The third quarter continued to deliver substantial payments growth that more than offset the lower banknotes revenue and overall drove a 5% increase in total revenue. At the same time, higher bank service charges due to substantial volume increases and share price-related stock-based compensation increased reported operating expenses. Even with those increases, adjusted EBITDA increased 3% and adjusted net income increased 31%. The main highlights of the third quarter are: Revenue increased by $1.1 million, roughly 5% to $22.4 million. The payments revenue increased by about $1.8 million or 54% to close to $5.2 million. While banknotes revenue decreased by $700,000 or 4% to $17.2 million. Reported EBITDA was $8.1 million, fairly consistent with last year and down about 1%. Adjusted EBITDA increased by $220,000 or 3% to $8.5 million. Net income from continuing operations was at $5.3 million, consistent with last year. Reported group net income increased by $1 million or 24% to $5.3 million because of the prior year quarter including a $1 million loss from EBC's discontinued operations. Adjusted group net income increased by $1.3 million or 31% to $5.6 million. Diluted earnings per share was $0.87, so $0.87 compared to $0.67 last year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.93 compared to $0.68. Let's talk about revenue performance. Total revenue of $22.4 million was 5% higher than last year, as I mentioned. The payments business increased its revenue by 54%, representing 23% of our total revenue. A year ago, they represented 16% of our total revenue. So a huge growth there. Banknotes represented $17.2 million or 77% of our total revenue compared to 84% last year. Compared to the second quarter of 2026, revenue increased by $4.4 million or 25%. As we know, our cyclical trend is Q1, Q2, a little slower, Q3, Q4, we pick up speed with all the international traveling. That sequential increase is consistent with the normal seasonality of our business, as banknotes activity is generally stronger from March to September. Let's look at payments. Payments revenue increased by $1.8 million or 54% to $5.2 million, as mentioned. Business trading volume increased 33% to $2.4 billion, up from $1.8 billion last year. CXI processed 68,700 payment transactions during the quarter, compared to roughly 51,700 in the prior period. The growth came from both sides of the customer base. Continued onboarding of new clients and higher activity from existing clients from financial institutions and credit unions. Our investments in core banking integrations and scalable infrastructure continue to support this growth and advance our one provider, one platform strategy. Let's look at banknotes. Banknotes revenue, as I said, decreased $700,000 or 4% to roughly $17.2 million. This decline was primarily driven by the impact of a temporary disruption from branch relocations and due to a decrease in the demand of exotic currencies with higher margins. Excluding these effects, underlying revenue was fairly consistent with last year as growth was constrained by economic and geopolitical conditions that contributed to a more moderate travel environment and lower activity in certain foreign currency transactions. Wholesale banknotes revenue remained broadly stable, declining by about $150,000 or 1%. As mentioned, growth was constrained and the business was also affected by an unfavorable shift in the currency mix, with the decrease in the demand for exotic currencies with higher margins. We have exotic and travel currencies, and Randolph will speak a little bit more about that. These pressures were partly offset by growth in agent activity and business from newly onboarded domestic financial institutions and money services businesses. Wholesale banknotes represented 50% of total revenue, compared to 53% last year. During the quarter, we added 21 new financial institution clients, continuing to expand our presence in the wholesale market. Direct-to-consumer channels. Our OnlineFX revenue, that is our e-commerce drive. Our e-commerce or online revenue decreased by $200,000 or 20%. Lower activity in certain exotic currencies, particularly Vietnamese dong, accounted for the most of this specific decline. Excluding that impact, activity was consistent with last year, although broader economic uncertainty continued to constrain our growth here. OnlineFX represented 4% of total revenue, compared to 5% last year. So a small business segment growing substantially in the future. Revenue from company-owned branches decreased by $360,000 or 6%. The principal cause was the temporary closure of four established revenue-generating branches that are being relocated. We are basically forced by the stores to relocate our branch on their request. That impact was partly offset by strong growth from the locations opened in 2025. A new and reopened branch plays revenue catch-up for a year or so compared to a well-established branch and its revenue generation. CXI opened two branches during this quarter, one in Newport Beach, California, and one in SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. Those locations, as I said, are still ramping up and have not yet had enough time to replace the revenue from the temporary closed branches. Excluding openings and closings, branch revenue increased modestly, although growth remained affected by weaker demand for exotic currencies, as mentioned. At July 31st, CXI had 39 operating company-owned branches. We also expanded our agent network. CXI now has 51 airport agent locations and about 480 non-airport agent locations. A new airport agent location opened at O'Hare International Airport during this quarter. Turning to operating expenses. Operating expenses increased by $1.4 million or 11% to $14.6 million. The largest drivers were bank service charges, salaries and benefits, stock-based compensation, and our IT cost. Operating expenses represent 65% of revenue, compared to 62% last year. Let us deal with bank charges. Bank charges increased by almost three-quarters of a million to $955,000. There are two main reasons for this increase, as we have discussed last quarter as well. Firstly, the significant growth in payments' transaction volumes resulted in higher processing costs. Secondly, CXI moved its payment processing activity away from EBC during the fourth quarter of 2025. Therefore, all related bank services charges are now recognized in continuing operations, while a significant portion of those costs were incurred through EBC's corresponding banking relations and remained in discontinued operations in the prior quarter. So for further clarity, in the same quarter last year, $488,000 of CXI's bank charges were included through EBC's corresponding banking relations in discontinued operations. These bank charges were not included in CXI's continuing operations. Adjusting, and this is important, adjusting for the impact of this $488,000 in bank charges, the increase over the last year was $258,000. So we are adding the $488 back. Now that $258,000 is equivalent to the increase in wire transaction growth of roughly 17,000 wires. As you can see, bank charges only increasing by pretty much the number of additional wires that has been sent quarter-over-quarter. Other significant expense movements, salaries and wages increased by $207,000 or 3%. This increase reflects the full absorption of certain staff and director costs that has previously been shared by EBC, together with higher sales commission related to payments' growth. These increases were partly offset by headcount savings following the closure of our Miami vault. Information technology expenses increased about $215,000 or 29%. This is primarily due to CXI absorbing the full cost of certain software licenses that has been allocated to EBC last year. The increase also includes costs for compliance monitoring software intended to scale our compliance capabilities as the business continued to grow. Marketing and publicity increased by $100,000 close to 23% as we continue to increase spending on digital customer acquisition and marketing execution through a performance marketing agency. Stock-based compensation increased roughly by $315,000 to $460,000. This expense includes equity-settled stock options and cash-settled RSUs and DSUs. The increase primarily reflects the movement in CXI's share price during the quarter. Because a significant portion of this expense is share price sensitive and can create volatility, as I mentioned, this is excluded. Profitability and earnings. Let's look at our reported EBITDA at $8.1 million, down about 1%. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and the applicable prior year items as mentioned, adjusted EBITDA increased 3% to $8.5 million. Net income from continuing operations was $5.3 million, consistent with last year. Basic and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.89 and $0.87 respectively, compared to $0.85 and $0.84. So fairly consistent with last year. Reported group net income increased 24% to $5.3 million. Important to note, the prior year quarter included a $1 million loss from discontinued operations. On an adjusted basis, the group net income increased 31% to $5.6 million, and adjusted earnings per share increased to $0.93 from $0.68. Interest revenue also contributed to the quarter's financial performance. At the end of the quarter, CXI had $29 million invested in AAA-rated money market funds, compared to no funds invested at the same time last year. Let's quickly deal with the nine months performance. Over the nine months, revenue increased by $3.2 million or 6% to closely $56 million. Payments revenue increased by $5.2 million or almost 60% over the last nine months to $14.1 million, supporting a $2 million or 5% decline in the banknotes revenue. Reported EBITDA decreased by $1 million or 6% to $15.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $340,000 or 2%. Net income from continuing operations for the nine months decreased by $244,000 or 3% to $9.4 million. Let's look at the adjusted group net income increased by $2.2 million or 29% to almost $10 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased to $1.66 from $1.23. For the nine-month period, payments as business trading volume increased 40% to roughly $6.6 billion from $4.7 billion. Payments for the nine months represents 25% of the total revenue compared to 17% last year. Banknotes revenue decreased 5%, and as I mentioned, this was primarily driven by a temporary disruption from branch renovations. Now, nine-month expenses and adjusted results. Operating expenses for the nine-month period increased by $4.9 million or 14% to roughly $40 million. The most significant increase was the bank services charges, which rose by $2.1 million. Similar to the three-month analysis discussed previously, that increase reflected both payments volume growth and the transfer of CXI's processing activity from EBC to CXI's continuing operations. Other noticeable increases over this nine-month period included $1.2 million in salaries and benefits, $725,000 in stock-based compensation, and about $650,000 in information technology. CXI has also spent an additional $300,000 on marketing in the last nine months. These increases were partly offset by a reduction in legal and professional fees that in the prior period included costs associated with EBC strategic review and other one-time advisory services. Reported net income from continuing operations was $9.4 million, down roughly 3%. As mentioned, reported group net income for this nine-month period was $2.6 million compared to $7 million last year. The current year's group results included a $6.8 million loss from continued operations, of which $6.4 million were the reclassification of the cumulative foreign currency translation losses of EBC, as we've discussed in detail in the second quarter. Now let's look at the balance sheet. The balance sheet remains strong and provides capacity to support seasonal working capital needs and growth priorities. At the end of the quarter, cash and cash equivalents totaled $105 million. This includes $65 million, roughly $65 million of banknotes in transit, in our vaults, at tolls, and at consignment locations. $11.7 million in operating accounts, and as mentioned, $29 million invested in AAA-rated money market funds. Now, it is important to remember that cash is also the company's primary operating product. As I like to call it, cash is our widgets. A substantial portion of the operating cash balance consists of banknotes, depending on seasonality. That could be between $50 million and $75 million, and those notes are held in our vaults, while operating bank accounts include customer settlement balances, accounts payable funding, and minimum balances maintained with certain banking partners. Working capital increased to $85 million. Total equity is at $90.3 million, and our $40 million revolving credit facility was completely undrawn at quarter end. Now, for the first nine months, reported cash flow from operating activities was an inflow of roughly $8.2 million, and adjusted operating cash flow, which removes specific non-cash items and volatile working capital movements, created an inflow of $13.7 million compared to $12.3 million of the last year. We also continue to focus on return on capital to our shareholders. During the nine-month period, CXI repurchased and canceled 241,700 common shares for $4.2 million under its Normal Course Issuer Bid or share buyback. Now to summarize, Q3 demonstrated the strength of our diversified model. Payments delivered another quarter of substantial organic growth. Banknotes performance continued to be affected by shifting demand for higher margin exotics, branch relocation activity, and a more moderate travel environment. We continue to add wholesale customers, expand our agent footprint, and invest in our direct-to-consumer platform. CXI's strong liquidity and capital position allows us the flexibility to support seasonal demand, continue investing in the business and AI and financial institutions integrations, and pursue our strategic priorities across both payments and banknotes. With that, I'll turn it over to our CEO, Randolph Pinna.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Thank you, Gerhard. Thank you everybody for joining this early morning. I appreciate everybody's support, and I feel that this was a good quarter. I want to start, one of our shareholders, a longtime shareholder that runs a successful fund in Montreal, has always given me the advice to bring out what he called the elephant in the room. The biggest product that CXI offers is currency exchange, the physical banknotes. The reality is, based on geopolitical situations, two wars that have been going on for too long, inflation and other concerns has reduced the banknote activity for the group. It is noticed in our stores. It is noticed in our online store. It is noticed at our wholesale bank customers. The fact is that we remain flat is actually a positive note, knowing that we've added additional transacting locations. As Gerhard said, we've added additional agents and some other bank branches. We've expanded our online store to have in other states. We've continued to grow our banknote business in spite of a tougher, or as Gerhard calls it, a moderate travel air time. We noticed that the biggest effect is on inbound travel. There are especially places like Canada, where the locals are choosing other destinations instead of the U.S. at this time. We do feel that's a temporary measure, so longer term, when things get back to more normal, we are excited to know that we have additional states to service, we have additional branches to take care of, and we feel we're in a great situation to take advantage of any rebound in the travel industry. With all of this, we are continuing to focus our banknote business. While our payments focus is very good and clear, and we'll talk about that next, but on banknotes itself, our plan is to continue to add additional locations, additional agents, and diversify our client type to some select non-financial institution retailers, such as national brands, maybe grocery stores or regular retail stores, that will appreciate the complementary advantage of offering currency exchange, generating them new income, as well as increasing their existing store sales. We've identified several industry types besides grocery stores, for example, that we see as opportunistic, where clients will naturally want to do their currency exchange with their current relationship. We are also selectively beginning to expand international customers. Banks in certain select jurisdictions are interested in doing currency exchange with an established U.S. processor of cash and payments. We are carefully expanding our international as we go forward with some select customers. We are very happy with our banknote business right now, and we do feel we will continue to be the leader of foreign currency exchange for both banks and non-banks in the U.S. on a go-forward basis. Moving to payments, we see that this is a very good result for our business. We're very pleased. I have to give a shout-out to Wade Bracy, who's the managing director of the entire wholesale unit, as well as Chris Johnson, our lead vice president, leading the entire sales team and the implementation team. To begin with on payments, what's new this year is our Software as a Service. We have established a direct relationship with the Federal Reserve Bank, and we are now connected to the FedLine. This enables us to utilize our current rails that are very often in place at banks for currency exchange or checks that now can actually use us for all of their payments. We can connect them to the Federal Reserve for domestic payments, and of course, we are the foreign currency exchange processor for foreign wire payments. We are continuing to see this grow. We are adding on new banks every month to our domestic offering, which increases our fee income, as well as gives us some more foreign currency wire transfers as well. We are very pleased with this growth, and we anticipate additional growth on that over the months ahead. We will continue to focus on integrations as well, in tapping into existing flows of wire transfers, typically on core banking software systems, but there are other opportunities as well. As you have seen, Chris and Wade are very focused on growing our existing customer revenues by improving our technology and our capabilities, notably SWIFT with our Swift GPI. As well as we have now, our treasury unit has established two new wholesale correspondent relationships, which will lower those wire fees that Gerhard was talking about because it is expensive to send wires to foreign banks. All the rails need to be compensated. But with our higher volume now, we have been able to onboard a global wholesale bank, which I am very pleased with, and this will help us on a go-forward basis on our current flows. Most importantly is Chris Johnson and the entire sales team have been successful in expanding our customer base, getting new opportunities for us to process wire transfers. This is a focus for us going forward. In summary, I feel the company is doing very well on the banknote side, growing and diversifying our revenue types, our customer types, and we are continuing to diversify our overall revenues by expanding our payments software services, our wire hub, as we call it, for doing both domestic processing as well as FX processing. With that being said, I would like to open it up to questions. I just remind you, if you could just ask one and maybe a follow-up question just to allow others to get their questions in and then re-queue if you have more than that. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Again, just as a reminder, we do ask everybody to stick to two questions. If you wish to ask another one, please press star one. Your first question comes from Robin Cornwell from Catalyst Research. Please go ahead.

Robin Cornwell

Analyst · Catalyst Research. Please go ahead

Hi, good morning, and a great quarter. My first question is on the EBITDA margin for payments. Could you discuss a little bit more as to how your transaction volumes are increasing substantially, but also the probably size of each transaction is maybe getting bigger? If it does get the individual transactions, if they do get larger and larger, are you able to maintain your EBITDA margin?

Gerhard Barnard

CFO

Thank you for that question, Robin. We are actually able to increase our EBITDA margin in the payments-specific product line. If you look at our financials a few quarters ago, we were able to publish that specific segment report, which clearly indicates that we are pretty much above the 20% EBITDA margin at this point in time. Important to notice, when we look at payments back and forth, we do international and, as Randolph said, domestic payments. There is a transaction fee when we do the foreign exchange, so euros to U.S. Obviously, there is a FX fee. We also do U.S. to U.S. wires. In short, if you look at our wire business, the size of the transaction, if it is U.S. to U.S., is at a fee. It does not necessarily increase our revenue on the foreign exchange side for that. Overall, the gross margin of the payments business is basically affected by the charges of wire fees as well as commissions paid, and our new signed-on correspondent banks will assist in negotiating bank charges or wire fees down over the next quarter or two.

Robin Cornwell

Analyst · Catalyst Research. Please go ahead

You expect the margins can be pretty well maintained with higher volumes.

Gerhard Barnard

CFO

We're very happy with the margins in the payments business. As we continue to manage the cost, which is mostly the wire fees with enhanced correspondent and international banking relationships, that would contribute positively to the EBITDA margin.

Robin Cornwell

Analyst · Catalyst Research. Please go ahead

Okay, great. Thank you. My second question is, you mentioned the new wholesale bank relationship with a very large global bank. I wondered if you could expand on this relationship and how it's progressing, how you see it progressing, and also whether or not is this an exclusive? In other words, sometimes when you do big relationship deals with global banks, they kind of get you into an exclusivity. Maybe you could expand on that whole relationship.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Sure. I'll take that, Gerhard. First of all, I want to give a shout-out to both Gerhard and Katie Davis in the finance unit for establishing this relationship. Wade was also involved. I was involved. It is a global bank, so they process for other banks around the world, of course, and other FX providers. It was a volume thing where we're now large enough. The Exchange Bank of Canada relationship that was in existence prior too helped us with this team. No, there's not an exclusivity where we have to do X volume with them. With the improved pricing, we will want to do X plus a little more. We do have respect for our current banks as well, so we're not wanting to just move and put everything into one basket. It is a new global bank relationship. They're based in Europe, and I don't have permission to mention their name, so I have to keep that confidential. It's a well-known processor of FX around the world, and we're just very pleased to have that relationship. We've also expanded domestically here in North America with another bank as well. As we continue to focus on what you were asking about is the margin on processing payments is done by revenue. How much do we charge? How much does it cost for me to execute? While we've done better with the Swift automation and recognition on the best way to move and convert money and when to convert money is on one end, but also the cost to move that money is the other. Katie and Gerhard have executed on their strategic goal of diversifying and improving the alternatives we have for the processing rails that we can use. To finish that question is no, we didn't have to say, "You get 90% of our volume" or anything like that. There's no exclusivity there. Certainly it's not in the reverse because they are a processor for tons of institutions around the world. We're just happy to be a member of them. I'll be seeing them at the big large conference in Miami later this month to shake hands in person, which we've already done when we signed our deal. Hopefully that answered your question, Robin.

Robin Cornwell

Analyst · Catalyst Research. Please go ahead

Okay, that's great. Thank you. That's all for me.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Thank you, Robin.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Jason Senensky. Please go ahead.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Hey, Jason.

Speaker 5

Analyst

Hey, guys. Hey, guys. Good morning. I just wanted to first follow up on the payments questions that Robin Cornwell was asking. I think if I'm not mistaken, it does look like the EBITDA for that segment was kind of flattish year-over-year. In other words, the margins compressed. Gerhard, is that just related to the bank charge issue with the closure of EBC? Or why did the margins compress for the segment year-over-year?

Gerhard Barnard

CFO

Yeah, you're right. Hello, Jason. Yes. I think that will sort itself out the moment we have these bank charges from discontinued to continued operations out of our reported numbers. Yes.

Speaker 5

Analyst

Okay. I'm just trying to understand, going forward, it sounds like this initiative you just discussed about the global correspondent bank, that should help you get your costs down. Is there also an operating leverage component to the payments business where as you continue to grow revenue, you should just naturally see margin expansion as you leverage your fixed cost?

Gerhard Barnard

CFO

Yeah. Jason, I think you touched on what Randolph also mentioned is the largest cost for us in the payments business is the fees related to sending the wires. We continue to address that with international and correspondent banking relationships. The second largest cost is our commission paid to our sales teams, which we are very happy to do because they continue to grow this business. We are addressing the one charge that really goes straight down to the bottom line, and that is the cost of sending a wire.

Speaker 5

Analyst

Right. Okay. It sounds to me like this year there was kind of a one-time issue with the EBC closure and your cost to fulfill the wire effectively going up for that reason. But going forward, it sounds like that obviously will not be an issue and you should actually be able to get the cost to fulfill to go down. So you should presumably see EBITDA grow faster than revenue in the payments business going forward?

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Yeah. I would agree with that, Jason, because we do not need another Wade or someone like that. We may have to hire an additional person in the processing unit, but the heavier cost will be spread out as the business continues to grow. Simultaneously, we are driving down the physical cost of each transaction. So yes, I am comfortable with saying that we should see an improved margin over time as it continues to grow.

Speaker 5

Analyst

Okay. That is helpful. The second question I wanted to ask was just kind of big picture. The company has reported, I think, $1.65 of adjusted EPS year to date. Last year in Q4, you did about $0.70. Assuming there was nothing unusual in the Q4 last year, you are tracking to something like $2.30, $2.40, $2.50 of EPS for this year. That is in USD, obviously. So even before you reflect the excess capital that you have talked about before, the stock looks like it is trading at under 10 times earnings. So my questions on this are twofold. One, putting together everything you have talked about with some of the softness you have seen in banknotes, what we just talked about with the payments business, it feels like the outlook for EPS is to grow going forward. Maybe confirm that it does not feel like there is anything unusual that would cause EPS not to grow from here. The second part of that is just on the buyback. If I look at CXI, it looks like you have a limit on the buyback of CAD 27, which with the EPS you are reporting, that is like, I do not know, 8 times earnings or something. Again, not even reflecting the excess capital. The question is, am I right that there is a limit on the buyback to CAD 27? If so, why do you have a limit at that level? It just seems like a very low valuation for the company.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

The first question, Jason, was about do I feel if there is going to be-

Speaker 5

Analyst

Well, yeah, basically, Randolph-

Randolph Pinna

CEO

I would say yes. There is nothing that we are aware of that is going to have us not perform as we typically do each quarter. That is the easiest question to answer is that we are confident that this fourth quarter, which we are already started, is similar to fourth quarters that we have always had. As Gerhard said at the beginning of the call, the third and fourth are our better quarters of the year, whereas the first and second are the more softer ones in the quarter. I am comfortable confirming that we are expecting a normal fourth quarter, which could likely, we have seen this whole year, have softer than normal banknote activity due to the wars and some personal sentiment about coming down south to America from Canada, for example. But it should be a decent quarter, normal. We don't forecast publicly those numbers, but I don't have any knowledge of any critical thing that's going to change it. If we have a third war or something, then something could deviate, but I suspect that things will be similar to how they've been this whole year in both categories, payments and in banknotes.

Speaker 5

Analyst

Okay. The second question just on the buyback. It does appear that you have this CAD 27 limit. I'm basically asking how you arrived at that given the low implied price to earnings multiple plus the excess capital that you're holding.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Well, we are keen on buying back stock. We're limited by how much we can buy per day. Each quarter, the board reviews that buyback and approves additional funds for the buyback. Based on the trading or the opportunities, if there's a block or anything, then we can participate in that. Our move towards buyback has not changed.

Speaker 5

Analyst

All right. Okay, thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. You may proceed with your conference.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Okay. I just want to thank everybody again for their support of CXI. As always, Gerhard and I, along with Bill, are happy to have any follow-up calls and discuss what has been publicly discussed here. Please reach out to Bill or us if you want. We look forward to seeing you at our next call, if not sooner. Thank you. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation, and you may now disconnect. Have a great day, everyone.

Randolph Pinna

CEO

Thank you.