Oct 29, 2026 earnings call — Record revenue and margin expansion
Generated record total revenue of $43.9 million and expanded net interest margin to 2.47%.
Revenue $0.0B (est $0.0B) · EPS $0.57 (est $0.78)
Key quotes
"New funded originations came on to the balance sheet this quarter at a weighted average yield of 7.51%."
"Fintech deposits increased just over $1 billion during the quarter to $4.7 billion, including $2.9 billion held off balance sheet at quarter end."
"We established a $2.6 million specific reserve and reversed $600,000 of interest income."
Analyst Q&A 4
fourth-quarter margin guidance
Q (Brett Rabatin · StoneX): He asked about the fourth-quarter margin guidance, suggesting it implies a 15 basis point rise in earning asset yields and a 15 basis point fall in funding costs.
A: The call had a technical interruption and management did not answer Brett's question in this exchange. The operator asked Brett to repeat his question after the issue was resolved.
rate hikes impact on NII
Q (Timothy Switzer · KBW): He asked whether a 125 basis point rate increase would reduce or change annualized NII in 2027 by about 2% to 3%, and whether the impact changes over time.
A: Management clarified the scenario was two rate hikes assumed in December and March, not a single 125 basis point move. They said that assumption produces the 2% to 3% impact on 2027 NII and that this includes the September hike; they also explained each future hike has less impact over time because lower-yielding loans pay down and get redeployed into higher-rate channels.
"We assumed that we would get a rate hike in December, and we would get a rate hike in March." — Kenneth Lovik (CFO)
margin, fintech deposits, and credit trends
Q (Brett Rabatin · StoneX): He re-asked the margin guidance details (15 bps up on asset yields, 15 bps down on funding) and asked about franchise finance, SBA trends, and the four CRE loans that were in special mention.
A: Management said earning assets should show some growth and fintech deposits reprice over months so deposit costs may be flattish while asset yields rise; they noted past interest reversals reduced margin by 9 basis points and loan yields by 12 basis points. On credit, they said two of the four CRE credits have been upgraded back to performing, the SBA and franchise pools are improving overall, and one franchise loan was reserved for late but management expects to recover and believes reserves are adequate.
"As Ken said, if you take the charge-offs we did have first and second quarter, take where we're going to be anticipated in the fourth quarter, we definitely moved the needle by millions over the course of the year." — David Becker (CEO·CHAIR)
cash, deposit growth, and loan plans
Q (Nathan Race · Piper Sandler): He asked about deposit growth expectations for the fourth quarter, whether cash will come down, loan growth for Q4 and 2027, index mix (prime vs SOFR), expense growth, and capital targets for buybacks.
A: Management said cash was elevated at quarter end and they expect average cash to come down about $100 million in Q4 and into next year. They expect average loan balances to be up low- to mid-single digits in Q4 and roughly 10% loan growth next year, noted the balance is about 57% fixed and 43% variable with roughly $2.1 billion of quickly repriceable assets, expect expense growth to be much less than 10%, and said they prefer to deploy excess capital into loan growth rather than buybacks.
"Maybe the average balance hopefully will be down about $100 million or so if we look into the fourth quarter and into next year." — Kenneth Lovik (CFO)