Pathward Financial, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Meta Financial Group fourth quarter and fiscal year 2020 investor conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Following 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 Kelly Elsasser, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Meta Financial Group conference call and webcast, where President and CEO Brad Hanson and Executive Vice President and CFO Glenn Herrick will discuss the results of our fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. Also participating in the call is Brett Farr, Co-President and COO of Metabase. 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 statement. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release, investor presentation, and in MEDIS 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 statement. 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. Now, I will turn the call over to Brad Hanson.

Brad Hanson Thank you, Brittany. Everyone I know is talking about what a crazy year 2020 has been, so I want to start by recognizing the exemplary performance of my team during this difficult time and express my appreciation to our dedicated staff for continuing to serve our customers and shareholders from a remote working environment. Despite some of the challenges, including substantial rate cuts and sizable loan loss provision, we reported net income of $104.7 million for fiscal year 2020, an increase of 8% compared to fiscal 2019. And earnings per share increased 18% to $2.94 over the same period. While the share price is down considerably from pre-COVID-19 levels, our strong operating performance has afforded us the opportunity to start buying back shares at what we believe are favorable prices. In September, we reinstated our previously announced share repurchase program and bought back approximately 898,000 shares through October 23rd at a weighted average of $21.80 per share. During the past year, we were able to close on the sale of our retail community bank just before implementing our pandemic plan in response to COVID-19. We funded $219 million of PPP loans to 689 borrowers and partnered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service and Fiserv to further support the government stimulus package by distributing $6.4 billion of economic impact payments on 3.6 million prepaid cards. At the same time, we closed several new relationships and extended existing relationships while maintaining focus on our three strategic initiatives. Increasing the percentage of funding from low cost core deposits in exchange for higher cost deposits. Optimizing our interest earning asset mix by replacing lower return assets with higher return loans. and improving our efficiency ratio by managing expenses and improving operating leverage. In addition to this, we have been working hard to solidify the foundations of our company by further enhancing operating procedures, governance programs, organizational structure, our talent pool, and pay for performance programs. We are getting faster, safer, and more efficient. We are also focused on developing our aspirational culture, corporate and social responsibility programs, and diversity and inclusion initiatives. In the year ahead, we expect to see progress in our messaging and communications, our websites, and our technical capabilities as we strive to upgrade and enhance the competitive advantages that our platform gives us in enabling FinTech providers at scale, entering new product segments, and looking for ways to leverage the vast amounts of data accumulated over the years. Now let me turn the call over to Brett Farr.