The Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bancorp Inc. Q4 and Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a 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 Friday, January 31, 2025. I would now like to introduce your Thank you, Operator.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for the Bancorp's fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 financial results conference call. On the call with me today are Damian Kozlowski, Chief Executive Officer, and Paul Frankel, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning's call is being webcast on our website at www.thebancorp.com. There will be a replay of the call available via webcast on our website beginning at approximately 12 p.m. Eastern time today. The dial-in for the replay is 1-888-660-6264 with a passcode of 18739. Before I turn the call over to Damian, I would like to remind everyone that our comments and responses to questions reflects managers' view as of today, January 31st, 2025. Yesterday, we issued our fourth quarter earnings release and updated investor presentation. Both are available on our investor relations website. We will make certain forward-looking statements on this call. These statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions we mentioned today. These factors and uncertainties are discussed in our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures during this call. Additional details and reconciliations of GAAP to adjusted non-GAAP financial measures are in the earnings release and the investor presentation. Please note that the Bancorp undertakes no obligation to publicly release results of any revisions to forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Now, I would like to turn the call over to the Bancorp's Chief Executive Officer, Damian Kozlowski. Damian?

Thank you, Andres. Good morning, everyone. The Bancorp earned $1.15 a share for the fourth quarter and $4.29 for the full year of 2024. The year-over-year EPS increase for the quarter was 41% and 23% for the full year. EPS was driven by higher total revenue year-over-year of 8%, excluding $19.6 million of consumer FinTech non-interest income correlated with related provision for credit losses. The increase in EPS was led by the growth of total FinTech fees, 16% year-over-year growth in year-end deposits, and a significant reduction of shares year-over-year of approximately 10% due to an enhanced 24 buyback of $250 million. FinTech Solutions continues to build volumes and is the major driver of profitability growth from both fees and lower-cost stable deposits. For full year 24, GDB grew 15% over the prior year. However, the fourth quarter saw significant acceleration, with GDB growing 19% year-over-year. Total fee growth was 18% for the year from all FinTech activities, which ballooned to 29% in the fourth quarter year-over-year, driven by credit sponsorship, and 78% growth in ACH card and other payment processing fees, which includes rapid funds transfers. The FinTech Solutions Group continues to add new partnerships and expand existing programs. For example, credit sponsorship continues to grow significantly, and we anticipate balances to approach a billion by the end of 25 with the addition of new partnerships. Fourth quarter credit sponsorship fee grew 91% quarter-over-quarter, with quarter-end loan balances growing from $280 million to $454 million, or 62%. Year-end substandard loans in our Rebel portfolio declined 14% compared to September 30, 24, due to a loan portfolio sale, and the percentage further declined on January 2 with a loan repayment. We expect this trend to continue with little to no loss. We continue to maintain significant coverage on these loans with low leverage and expect further progress by the end of the first quarter. Lastly, led by the broad-based and increasing growth in our FinTech Solutions Group, We are affirming 25 guidance of 525 a share. The guidance does not include 150 million of share buybacks for 25 or 37.5 million per quarter. Buybacks have been reduced 100 million in 25 from 24 to facilitate the repayment of 96 million of senior secured debt. Depending on prevailing rates, we may reissue $100 million or more of senior secure debt. Those proceeds would likely be used for further buybacks of shares. I now turn the call over to my colleague and CFO, Paul Frankel.