Greetings and welcome to the FinWise Bancorp Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to management to begin.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today for FinWise Bancorp third quarter 2022 conference call. In addition to this call, we issued an earnings press release earlier this afternoon and posted it to the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.finwisebank.com. Today's conference call is being recorded and webcast on the company's website, investors.finwisebancorp.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. Forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates, and FinWise Bancorp assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to these forward-looking statements contained in the company's earnings press release and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hosting the call today are Mr. Ken Landvatter, CEO and President of FinWise Bancorp; and Mr. Javvis Jacobson, Chief Financial Officer of FinWise Bancorp. With that, I will turn the call over to Mr. Landvatter.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our third quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Our differentiated business model allowed FinWise to generate solid top line results during the third quarter even as we faced an economic environment that is becoming increasingly challenging. We remain confident that our business model lends itself to flexibility in both weakening and strengthening economic conditions and we remain exceptionally proud of our team's unwavering dedication to providing our clients and customers with best-in-class value and service, particularly during more challenging market conditions. During the third quarter, we generated total revenue of $20.3 million led by loan originations of $1.5 billion. We also walked back 20,000 shares for a total of approximately $0.2 million as part of our previously announced share repurchase program. The company's tangible book value per common share continued to grow increasing 32% year-over-year to $10.44 per share at the end of the third quarter. The overall environment for loan originations has decelerated this year across the industry and FinWise is not immune, even as the company's relationships with existing strategic platforms and interest from potential new platforms remains strong. Importantly, going forward, we expect to retain the guaranteed portion of certain SBA production, as gain on sale premiums have decreased and variable loan rates have increased. We expect to keep more of the guaranteed portion of certain SBA loans on the balance sheet to benefit the company through stronger government guaranteed held for investment loan growth and a higher recurring stream of interest income. Expenses remained well managed in the quarter. During Q3, the efficiency ratio improved to 42.3% from 52% in the previous quarter. As we have publicly discussed, while our efficient ratio is likely to increase longer term as we invest for growth. Near-term, we will continue…

Thank you, Kent. FinWise continued to move forward despite faster than anticipated deterioration in economic conditions during the quarter. The company's loan originations were $1.5 billion during Q3 '22, an average loan balances comprising held for sale and held for investment loans were $263.6 million during Q3 ‘22, as compared to $279.3 million in Q2 ’22 and $238.3 million in Q3, ’21. Total average interest earning assets were $335.4 million during Q3, compared to $373.2 million for Q2 ’22 and $294.3 million for Q3 ’21. As we've highlighted on prior calls, our loan originations have generally followed typical industry seasonality, including a general rebound in the third and fourth quarters of the year. However, if the current challenging economic environment continues or deteriorates further, we believe loan origination growth on a sequential quarter basis could be pressured and the typical seasonal rebound in originations in the second half of the year could be negatively impacted. Average interest bearing deposits were $104.8 million during Q3, compared to $127.2 million during Q2 ’22 and $112.2 million during Q3 ’21. The decrease from Q2 ’22 and Q3 ’21 was driven mainly by a decrease in certificates of deposits and money market accounts. As we have noted before, our non-interest bearing deposits have generally been highly correlated with our origination volume, due to the relationship between strategic platform deposit reserve accounts and total held for sale loans outstanding. Turning to the income statement. Net income was $3.7 million in Q3, compared to $5.5 million in Q2 ’22 and $8.4 million in Q3 ’21. The sequential quarter change was primarily driven by a one-time tax expense correction, higher provision for loan losses and lower fee income, due primarily to lower strategic program origination volume, partly offset by a decrease in non-interest expense. Certainly, this one-time…

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Andrew Terrell with Stephens. Please proceed.

Hey, Ken. Hey, Javvis.

Hey.

Hey, how are you?

Good. How are you guys?

Great. Thanks.

Good. Maybe just to start, just kind of housekeeping, Javvis, you have the amount of the tax expense, kind of, catch up this quarter. I know it was a bit outsized, do you have just what a normalized tax rate would have been this quarter? What the dollar amount of that impact was?

Yes, Andrew, let me give you some context for the correction right now, I think this will help. The matter stems from the Section 162(m) tax rule that applies to public companies and restricts the deduction of certain executive compensation over $1 million in the calendar year. That rule was not applicable to us as a private company, and was not incorporated in the provision calculations after we went public late last year. An understatement of 2021’s tax expense of approximately $939,000, which is less than 3% of the reported $31.6 million of net income for 2021 was identified when the reconciliation of our final 2021 income tax returns was made to the tax provision calculation for 2021. Although the 2022 year is not yet complete, we expect that the impact of the 2021 correction in the 2022 year will be less than 5% on an annualized basis. We are also correcting an understatement of tax expense of approximately $108,000 from Q1 ’22 and $337,000 from Q2 ’22 in Q3. After discussing the issue thoroughly with our auditors and audit committee, we're comfortable with the determination that this is an immaterial error corrected in Q3. The 2022 consulting fees paid to this executive will not be deducted for tax purposes. As a result, our effective tax rate is expected to be elevated for the rest of 2022, but come back to historical norms in Q1 of ‘23. Does that help, Andrew?

Yes. No, that was a great color. I appreciate it. Okay, I want to move over to the -- just the comments around retaining a higher portion of guaranteed SBA loans. I guess, I was hoping you could maybe size up the appetite and how should we think about what you might look to retain going forward? How that translates into loan growth? And then I guess is it safe to assume that over the near-term just with this backdrop, there's not going to be much in the way of, kind of, incremental SP credit retention or unguarantined SBA?

Yes. Andrew, I'll start with that one on the SBA retention. We don't really have a specific target that we're talking about, but we let the data guide us in this and where the SBA loan interest rates are increasing and the secondary market premiums declining. That's why we're talking about retaining more of the guaranteed portion for longer periods. We think it's a good use of our capital and it's important to note that the retention of this guarantee portion does not necessarily increase the credit risk of the profile of the bank. As far as we think that the amount that we intend to retain will be a meaningful amount. But again, we don't have a target percentage.

Okay, understood. And then outlook on the other portfolios as well, is it fair to think that we could see those, kind of, stable to generally declining at this point? Or is that an unfair assumption?

Andrew, this is Jim. I think stable was probably the right way to look at it in the near-term. But there's different ways that we've looked at monetizing the originations that come across our balance sheet. I think if you look at our history over the last few quarters, we've been very judicious in how we use that balance sheet, especially at a time of economic uncertainty. So we wouldn't rule out the ability to retain in the right circumstances or with the right credit enhancements, but certainly in the current environment, it would have to be a fairly strong asset.

Yes, understood. Okay, thanks, Jim. And I wanted to talk about I guess it's good to see the HSA business contribute to growth this quarter. Do you have how much in net balances that contributed? And then do you think we can continue to see kind of net deposit growth into the fourth quarter and into 2023?

So we haven't broken that out, but it'll be in the call report this week, Andrew. As far as the HSA amount, it's a significant number in the $30 million range.

Okay.

As far as it growing in the future, it'll have some fluctuation. But at this point, I don't think unless conditions change, we're going to expect to see much fluctuation in it on a material basis.

Okay, understood. Alright, I'll step back in the queue. Thanks for the time for the questions.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Liesch with Piper Sandler. Please proceed.

Hey guys, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Just want to touch base on the expenses here for the cessation of the commission accrual. So this is not about $8.6 million run rate, is this a good place to build off going forward? Just recognizing there's going to be more investments in the franchise?

Andrew, when you're looking at that $8.5 million on a quarterly basis, I think you need to -- we are looking at the contract with our former executive, that's not an insignificant number in that figure. And as you know, the contract has been disclosed that -- those payments will decrease quarter-over-quarter through the end of 2023. Does that help?

Yes. Well, you're saying that the line -- that this $9.5 million can decline from here?

Yes. I think just by a function of that contract, with the former executive, it should decline.

Okay, got it. And then just on the loan originations, the $1.5 billion you mentioned this quarter. Can you give us a sense on how that trended like where were originations in September versus August? And if we've started to see sort of a stabilization in monthly production?

Yes. Andrew, this is Jim. So we understand the desire to have some, kind of, intra quarter visibility on origination levels. The issue is this figures are volatile. So we've taken note of the request. Right now, we would kind of point to the trend that you're seeing across the last few quarters and we don't think that the intra quarter figures are as useful.

Got you, alright. I think that covers my questions, I'll step back. Thanks.

Thank you.

Our next question comes again from the line of Andrew Terrell with Stephens. Please proceed.

Hey guys, thanks for the follow-up. Just to the last point on the originations, I guess we can make an assumption for the fourth quarter. I think, I heard your kind of prepared comments that maybe we shouldn't see a stabilization or normal, kind of, seasonal rebound in the fourth quarter. So I guess I think about that heading into 2023, if 4Q because normally, seasonally a high point. Should we expect, I guess, flat to down, I guess, turning into the first part of 2023 as well? Is that a fair way to think about it?

Yes. I think that's a fair way to think of it.

Okay. I guess barring an improvement in macro?

Right.

Okay. And then on the buyback, I saw there was a little bit done this quarter. Just wanted to get your thoughts on just appetite for the repurchase moving forward?

Yes. As you've noticed, we did purchase shares in the third quarter. You still have significant number of shares you had to purchase under the recently announced program. And given the current market conditions, we'll certainly look at continues to continue our buyback, particularly given the stock has been trading below book value, Andrew.

Yes, makes sense. Okay, and if I could just ask one more. I saw the charge-offs stepped up a bit in both the SBA and ST portfolios this quarter. I was hoping you could just speak a bit about both within the ST book of business, how does the current level of losses, compared to what you were anticipating? Do you think we see a continued progression higher from here? And then similar question for SBA, within the SBA book specifically, are you more extensively reviewing any of this credit right now just given the rate moves upward that we've seen? And are there any areas or pockets of stress that you're seeing develop within the book?

Sure. So the net charge-offs for the quarter were comprised of about $2.8 million from the SP HFI book. And then about 250,000 from our SBA portfolio. On the SBA side, Andrew, about 241 of the 250 was related to SBA assets that we've carried as classified since 2019. These accounts started moving through the resolution process again once the courts reopened from COVID earlier this year. And so during Q3, we received sizable paydowns on those two classified accounts commensurate with the partial release of collateral, so while the accounts continue to be well reserved -- I’m sorry well secured from an LTV standpoint. On the remaining collateral, we felt it was prudent for our policies to charge off the remaining exposure during the quarter. And then moving to your question about the SP HFI portfolio. As we mentioned in the last few quarters, we began to see what we expected as far as normalization net charge-offs during the first quarter of the year. And we've been communicating our expectations on that normalization of credit since our capital raise last year. So the net charge also generally in line with our expectations and what we've been communicating since the capital raise. There's not -- as far as specific weakness, there's nothing, I would point to, there's nothing that would concern me. within the different portfolios that we manage generally in line with expectations.

Okay, understood. I appreciate the time.

Thank you.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. And this will conclude today's conference. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.