Axos Financial, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Axios Financial fourth quarter 2020 financial results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to our hosts, Johnny Lai, Vice President, Corporate Development, and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Great, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for your interest in Axos. Joining us today for Axos Financial Inc.' 's fourth quarter 2020 financial results conference call are the company's president and chief executive officer, Greg Garabrant, and executive vice president and chief financial officer, Andy Micheletti. Greg and Andy will review and comment on the financial and operational results for the three and 12 months ended June 30th, 2020, and they will be available to answer questions after the prepared remarks. Before I begin, I would like to remind listeners that prepared remarks made on this call may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of current views and assumptions of management regarding future events and performance. Actual results could differ materially from these expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties. Therefore, the company claims the safe harbor protection pertaining to the four linking statements contained in the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The call is being webcast and there will be an audio replay available in the Invest Relations section of the company's website located at accessfinancial.com for 30 days. Details for this call were provided on the conference call announcement and in today's earnings press release. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Greg for his opening remarks.

Thank you, Johnny. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to welcome everyone to Axos Financial's conference call for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, ended June 30, 2020. I thank you for your interest in Axos Financial and Axos Bank. Axos announced record net income of $183.4 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. up 18.2% over the $155.1 million earned in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. Access's return on average equity for fiscal 2020 was 15.65%, and the bank's efficiency ratio was 39.81%. Fiscal year 2020 earnings per share increased 20.2% to $2.98 for diluted share, compared to $2.48 for diluted share in the fiscal year 2019. Excluding acquisition-related expenses, non-GAAP earnings per share increased 20.59% to $3.13 per share in fiscal year 2020, equating to a non-GAAP return on equity of 16.49%. Our book value per share was 20.56 at June 30, 2020, up 17.7% from the prior year. We had an excellent quarter with higher net interest margins, double-digit growth in net interest income and non-interest income, strong deposit growth, positive operating leverage, and stable credit performance. The highlights of this quarter include the following. Ending loans and leases increased by approximately 258.4 million, up 10% annualized from the first quarter of 2020, and up 13.3% year-over-year. Strong originations in jumbo single-family, Commercial specialty real estate and mortgage warehouse were offset by lower production in non-real estate lender finance and higher payoffs in multifamily and certain C&I loan portfolios. Excluding PPP loans, ending loan and leases increased by 11.6% year over year. Net interest margin was 3.89% for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, up eight basis points from 3.81% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, 31st, 2020, excluding HRB block-related loans. Our efficiency ratio for the three months ended June 30, 2020, was 49%, compared to 51.1% in the comparable period ended June 30, 2019. Earnings per share was 75 cents, up 13.6%, compared to 66 cents in the fourth quarter of 2019, despite 132% year-over-year increase in our loan loss provision, and a 33.3% tax rate this quarter compared to 26.6% in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Capital levels remain strong with Tier 1 leverage of 9.25% at the bank and 8.97% at the holding company, both well above our regulatory requirements. Our credit quality remains strong with a small percentage of our loans in forbearance or delinquent on principal and interest payments. Our conservative underwriting, with an emphasis on keeping asset-based loans with low loan devalues on our balance sheet, continues to serve us well. Total loan originations for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2020, was $1.63 billion compared to $1.78 billion in the year-ago period. Originations for investment were down 12.2% year-over-year, and originations for sale were up 16.4% year-over-year, due to strong gain-on-sale mortgage banking production in Q4 of 2020. Our gain-on-sale mortgage banking group had a strong quarter, with originations increasing 111% linked quarter to approximately $291 million. Record low interest rates drove strong demand for refinance and purchase transactions, and capacity constraints within the single-family mortgage lending industry resulted in a gain-on-sale margin of 321 basis points compared to 222 basis points in the quarter ended March 31, 2020. The outlook for mortgage banking remains strong. Our pipeline of single-family agency mortgages was $309 million at the end of the June quarter. We participated in the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program, originating approximately $167 million of loans for 848 existing and new clients through June 30, 2020. We built our own PPP loan portal and deployed resources to quickly open deposit accounts and underwrite and fund PPP loans. In addition to providing much-needed capital to our borrowers, participation in the PPP also helped generate incremental relationships and deposits for our small business and commercial banking groups. We have transitioned to helping clients get their PPP loans forgiven instead of making additional loans. Since we do not expect to recognize the majority of our processing fees associated with PPP loans until we submit a borrower's loan forgiveness application to the SBA, PPP loans had an immaterial impact on our fourth quarter net interest margin, loan yield, and non-interest income. Our net interest margin for the banking business unit was 3.95% in the fourth quarter compared to 3.85% ex-HR block in the prior quarter and 3.87% in the fourth quarter of 2019. On the asset side, the vast majority of our asset-based loans are variable rate with 95% of all variable rate loans being at their floor as of June 30, 2020. Excluding PPP loans, the average rate in our loan book was 5.21% in the 6-30-2020 quarter compared to 5.56% in the quarter ended June 30, 2019. Yields on loans originated in the quarter ended 6-30-2020 were 5.31% for jumbo single family mortgages, 4.77% for multifamily, and 5.26% for CNI loans. Approximately 58% of our loans are 5-1 arms, with single-family and multifamily mortgages as the underlying collateral. With the slowdown in prepayment activity and stability in new jumbo mortgage and multifamily loan yields, we expect to maintain overall yields in our residential real estate mortgage loan book. The majority of our small-balance commercial real estate portfolio, which represents another 3% of our loan balances at 6-30-2020, are term loans with fixed interest rates and staggered prepayment penalties through the first five years of the loan. In our CNI loan book, our asset-based lender finance and commercial specialty real estate loan portfolios have rates that adjust to an index. Of the $3 billion of lender finance and commercial specialty real estate loans outstanding at 6-30-2020, approximately 92% are at their floor rate. Our equipment leasing portfolio, which accounts for the remaining $156 million of CNI loans outstanding, is comprised of fixed-rate loans and leases. We are making steady progress diversifying our consumer and commercial deposits and reducing our weighted average cost of funds through cross-marketing initiatives and software-enabled platforms. Consumer deposits, representing approximately 52% of our total deposits at 6-30-2020, is comprised of consumer direct checking, saving, money market, and non-interest-bearing prepaid accounts. Our consumer checking, savings, and money market deposit balances increased by $354 million from 3-31-2020 with strong growth in small business deposit accounts and balances. We reduced our high-yield savings and money market deposit rates in March following the Fed's rate action and reduced them further in the June quarter and again in early July, resulting in a 57 basis point sequential decline in our average interest-bearing demand and saving deposit cost. Average non-interest-bearing demand deposits was $2.1 billion in the quarter into June 30, 2020, essentially flat-link quarter, despite the seasonal decline in our prepaid deposit balances. We are making good progress in our specialty commercial and treasury management businesses, and our involvement with the SBA PPP program provides incremental small business and commercial deposits. Our credit quality remains strong. Our annualized net charge-offs to average loans and leases was 67 basis points this quarter, compared to 65 basis points in the corresponding period last year. Excluding charge-offs related to Emerald Advance and Refund Advance loans, our net charge-offs to average loans and leases were five basis points for the fourth quarter and eight basis points for the full year 2020. Non-performing assets, the total asset ratio was 82 basis points for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, compared to 55 basis points in the third quarter ended March 31, 2020. The majority of our nonperforming assets are comprised of single-family and multi-family loans with low loan-to-values. Of the 82.1 million of nonperforming single-family mortgage loans, approximately 71% had a loan-to-value at or below 65%. The vast majority of our single-family nonperforming loans are for properties located in prime markets where housing supply is low and demand is high. we remain well-reserved with our allowance for loan loss representing 86.2% coverage of our non-performing loans and leases at June 30, 2020. We have taken proactive measures to manage loans that became delinquent, whether they are COVID-related or not. As of June 30, 2020, we have provided no deferrals of payment obligations on commercial loans of any kind, including all commercial real estate, multifamily, small-balance commercial, Crestle, lender finance, and leasing, except for one $5.6 million loan in our equipment finance business unit that was provided three months of interest-only payments. At June 30, 2020, access had 58 basis points of its multifamily and small-balance commercial loans that were greater than 30 days delinquent. Of those 11 loans, seven loans with a combined balance of $7.3 million have either been sold at par plus accrued or come current since June 30, 2020. We have two hotel loans held for sale for 24.5 million balance with a 56.4% LTV at origination. Of the portfolio of single family loans, the bank granted forbearance on approximately 5% of its portfolio until June 30, 2020. Of that 5% that were granted forbearance, 3% brought their loan current prior to the expiration of the June 30, 2020 forbearance period. Of those loans that were granted forbearance, the LTV breakdown is as follows. 19% had a loan to value below 50%, 39% had a loan to value between 51 and 60%, 40% had a loan to value between 61 and 70%, and 2% of the loans granted forbearance had a loan to value greater than 70%, with only one loan greater than 75% LTV at origination, which was an 80% LTV purchase, but is a current loan to value of approximately 65%. The 2% of the loans that were granted forbearance and had not brought themselves current by 6-30-2020, the LTV breakdown is as follows. 20% had a loan to value below 50%, 38% had a loan to value between 51 and 60%, 39% had a loan to value between 61 and 70%, and 3% of the loans granted forbearance that had not, made current by 630, had a loan devalued greater than 70 percent, with no loan greater than 75 percent LTV. Auto loan deferrals were 9.7 percent, representing balances of 28 million, and 5 percent for consumer unsecured loans, representing balances of $2.7 million of deferrals. We have a consistent track record of maintaining low credit losses through multiple economic cycles, given our conservative underwriting guidelines senior structures in our commercial lines and loans, and the collateralized nature of our loan book. During the great financial crisis, our peak annual net charge-offs for loans we originated was less than one basis point for single-family mortgages and for multifamily loans. While the depth and duration of this economic downturn is uncertain, we believe our disciplined underwriting and proactive risk management will help us manage through this cycle. Approximately 94% of our loans outstanding at June 30, 2020 were collateralized by hard assets, with an average LTV in the 50s, including $9.5 billion of real estate assets and $550 million of loans secured primarily by consumer receivables. Single-family mortgages representing 40% of our total loan portfolio had a weighted average loan-to-value of 60%. At the end of June 30, 2020 quarter, 62% of our single-family mortgages have loan-to-value ratios that are below 60%. 32% have loan-to-value ratios between 61% and 70%. 5% have loan-to-value ratios between 71 and 80, and approximately three basis points, or 1.3 million of combined balances, have an loan-to-value ratio greater than 80%. We have a well-established track record of strong credit performance in jumbo single-family lending, with lifetime credit losses in our originated single-family loan portfolio of less than three basis points of loans originated. Our mortgage warehouse loan book, with June 30, 2020 balances of $474 million, is secured by single-family mortgages that can be sold if the borrower is unable to turn the book. Our initial advance rate on single-family mortgage warehouse loans varies between 90% and 100% of the note amount, and we typically curtail an additional 15% on day 45 and day 60. Our weighted average exposure to loan-to-value on the $31 million in non-agency loan balance is outstanding, distributed among four warehouse clients was approximately 51%. We took advantage of competitors scaling back or exiting the mortgage warehouse business and grew balances by approximately $94 million, or 25%, compared to March 31, 2020. Our warehouse clients are benefiting from the elevated level of refinancing activity and higher margins across the industry due to capacity constraints. We believe that any potential losses in our real estate secured loan book will be manageable, even in the sharp economic and housing downturn. Multifamily loans representing 18% of our total loan portfolio at 6-30-2020 had a weighted average loan-to-value of 56%. The lifetime credit losses in our originated multifamily portfolio are less than one basis point of loans originated over the 18 years we have originated multifamily loans. At the end of June 30-20-20 quarter, 44% of our multifamily mortgages have loan-to-value ratios that are below 55%. 33% have loan-to-value ratios between 56 and 65%, 20% have loan-to-value ratios between 66 and 75%, and less than 3% greater than 75% loan-to-value. The average debt service cover of our multifamily loans was 1.79 at 6-30-2020. As stated, we have granted no deferrals in the multifamily loan book. Our small balance commercial real estate portfolio of $371 million representing 3% of our total loans at 6-30-2020, had a weighted average loan-to-value of 52%. At the end of the June 30, 2020 quarter, 51% of our small-balance commercial real estate loans have loan-to-value ratios at or below 50%. 18% have loan-to-value ratios between 51% and 60%. 24% have loan-to-value ratios between 61% and 70%. 4% are between 71% and 75%. And 3% are between 76% and 80%. In our small balance commercial real estate portfolio, we had approximately 66 million of loans to hotels and resorts, representing less than 1% of our total loans outstanding. The weighted average loan to value of this book is approximately 52%, including 51% for the hotel and resort deals. The average debt service cover of our small balance commercial real estate loan portfolio was 1.71 at 6.30, 2020. We granted no deferrals in the small balance commercial loan book. Our commercial A loan book, including lender finance and commercial specialty real estate, is comprised of loans and lines of credit secured by single-family, multifamily, commercial real estate, land, and consumer receivables. The lender finance book is comprised of real estate and non-real estate transactions. The weighted average advance rate on the real estate lender finance book is 28.1%, with no transaction with advance rate greater than 50%. The non-real estate lender finance book backed primarily by consumer loans is approximately $546 million with an average advance rate of 49.6% of the receivables balance. These structures generally require rapid paydowns in the event of any significant collateral deterioration in the receivables and are also paid down rapidly in the event of origination's decline. We have granted no deferrals in our lender finance loan book. The weighted average loan-to-cost of our commercial specialty real estate loan portfolio was 43%, with strong junior partners supporting the capital structure. We hold senior positions in all our lender finance and commercial specialty real estate loans, and every deal has significant capital support from borrowers and sponsors. We monitor the performance of the underlying collateral housed in a bankruptcy remote special purpose vehicle, allowing us to identify credit deterioration and take swift action to protect our principal and interests. In our commercial bridge and construction portfolios, we work with experienced developers and well-capitalized sponsors, such as the related group in Blackstone. The projects are located in gateway cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and Denver. The average Crestle loan size is approximately $18 million. The average remaining term is 15.6 months, and the average loan to cost is 43%. We've granted no deferrals in the Crestle loan book. We have no direct exposure to airlines, casinos, theme parks, oil and gas exploration companies, retailers, or movie theaters. Our equipment leasing portfolio represents our entire exposure to the oil and gas sector, aircraft, or restaurants. The average debt service coverage ratio for the five equipment leases in these higher-risk industries was 2.4% at the end of the fourth quarter. All the above-mentioned credits were current as of June 30, 2020. Although some of our leases to companies that have cash flow-based leverage on their balance sheet, we have no cash flow-based leverage loans. We have sole and absolute discretion to approve and deny draws on all of our real estate lender finance and mortgage warehouse lines. We have approximately $270 million of hotel and $150 million of retail mixed-use exposure in our commercial specialty real estate portfolio, representing 2.5% and approximately 1.4% of our total loans outstanding in June 30, 2020, respectively. The majority of our hotel loans are AB notes where we hold a senior position. Only one of our hotel borrowers is not current on their loan payments. The average LTV of the hotel and retail commercial specialty real estate loans is 56 percent, and no deferrals were granted for hotel loans. Our non-real estate consumer lending is comprised of approximately $291 million of auto loans, $50 million of personal and secured loans, and $27.5 million of H&R Block refund advance loans. We source our auto loans primarily from dealers located in 10 states and lend to prime borrowers with an average FICO of 769. We fully underwrite and service every auto loan we hold on our balance sheet, and the portfolio continues to perform in line with expectations. We have managed the credit risk of our personal unsecured loan book by focusing on prime borrowers with an average FICO score of 751 and an average loan size of $14,000. Given the rapid deterioration in the economy and high unemployment rates nationwide, we temporarily suspended originations of new personal unsecured loans and recently reopened a very small origination bucket at even more conservative underwriting standards. We charged off 1% of the total refund advance loans in the fourth quarter and had an outstanding balance of approximately $27.5 million as of June 30, 2020. Given the processing delays at the IRS related to the 90-day extension and the federal tax filing deadline, we are experiencing a more extended repayment timeframe for refund advance loans this year in comparison with prior years. In our securities business, we ended the quarter with approximately $207 million of margin loans, up $48 million from March 31, 2020, as some introducing broker-dealer clients became more bullish in the June quarter. Despite elevated price volatility in the stock market since March, we've successfully managed our margin business with no incurred losses. Provisions for loan losses was $6.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2020, up $3.7 million compared to the same period a year ago. Approximately $3.4 million of the $6.5 million loan loss provision in the fourth quarter was attributable to loan growth, and $3.1 million was attributable to deterioration in the economy. For the 12 months into June 30, 2020, we increased our allowance for loan losses by 18.7 million. The 75.8 million of loan loss reserves in June 30, 2020 represents approximately 71 basis points of total loans and leases, and 13.6 times our annualized net charge-offs, ex-block-related Emerald Advance and refund loans in the quarter into June 30, 2020. Because our fiscal year ends on June 30, we adopted the current expected credit loss methodology, or CECL, on July 1, 2020, the original required date for our year end. The immediate impact of adopting CECL, otherwise known as the day one adjustment, is estimated to be an increase in the bank's allowance for current loan losses of between $35 million to $55 million. The adoption of CECL means that we are now considering loan losses well beyond the approximate one-year time frame generally used under the incurred loss method. While we currently see an improving economy and a modest impact due to COVID-19, the additional CECL reserves reflect long-term uncertainty of a variety of events, including a possible resurgence of COVID-19 cases or retained or more severe governmental shutdowns, additional and extensive government moratoriums, including real estate foreclosures and tenant evictions, and uncertainty of policy changes resulting from an election year and potential long-term changes in certain business models that may impact the valuation of commercial and residential real estate values. The after-tax impact of the day-one adjustment is expected to be between $24.5 million and $38.5 million and is recorded directly against stockholders' equity in accordance with GAFT. For regulatory purposes, we elected to defer and phase in the impact to our capital ratios over five years. Under this phase in, the day one adjustment will not reduce Tier 1 capital for the first two years and then phase in one-third of the impact over the last three years of the five-year election. Andy will provide additional details on CECL loss models and the impact on regulatory capital. We continue to generate strong returns with return on average common shareholder equity of 14.71% and 15.65% in the three months and 12 months into June 30, 2020, respectively. Our efficiency ratio for the banking business segment was 41% for the quarter into June 30, 2020, an improvement of more than 200 basis points compared to 43.2% in the year-ago period. We continue to maintain strong operating efficiencies while investing in a prudent manner for future growth. Our capital ratios remain strong at 9.25% at the bank and 8.97% at the holding company. Despite our higher provision for loan loss reserves, our Tier 1 and CET1 capital ratios remain healthy at 9.25% and 11.89% respectively for the bank at June 30, 2020. Even though the expedient and broad-based monetary and fiscal support provided by U.S. government agencies have resulted in a rapid snapback in credit spreads and market liquidity, we believe there will be further rationalization in the competitive landscape among banks and non-bank lenders. Our top priority for capital is funding growth of our existing businesses while selectively evaluating businesses that could enhance our asset and deposit capabilities, increase our fee income and returns, or reduce our funding cost. Our loan pipeline remains solid with approximately $1.2 billion of consolidated loans in our pipeline at June 30, 2020. We have a healthy liquidity position and a diverse set of funding sources. Our on-balance sheet deposits increased by 26.2% year-over-year, with checking and saving deposits increasing by 37.4%. Our consumer commercial cash and treasury management, small business banking, and specialty deposits continue to show strong growth. Concurrently, we reduced our average interest-bearing funding costs by 52 basis points length quarter and 73 basis points year-over-year to 1.25%. Our weighted average interest-bearing funding cost at June 30, 2020, was 90 basis points, reflecting actions we took toward the end of last quarter. Client cash deposits from AFS and Axos Securities, currently held at other banks, was approximately $487 million at 6-30-2020. We have the ability to bring back a good portion of our off-balance sheet deposits if it's economically advantageous to do so. We also have access to approximately $3.8 billion of FHLB borrowings $3.6 billion in excess of the $243 million we had outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter. Furthermore, we had $1.8 billion of liquidity available at the Fed discount window as of June 30, 2020. With many banks, brokers, and fintechs reducing rates on all deposit products, including consumer online savings and money market deposits and commercial deposits, we have more flexibility than ever to fund our balance sheet growth at attractive rates. We have a relatively stable outlook with respect to loan growth and net interest margin. In jumbo single-family mortgages, many banks and non-banks have pulled back on the aggressive lending terms and conditions they offered in the prior 12 to 18 months. Pricing on new jumbo mortgages remain attractive despite some activity in the secondary market for non-agency mortgages and the reemergence of a few non-bank lenders. The purchase market for single-family mortgages has rebounded strongly since most states relaxed their health-related restrictions due to pent-up demand and mortgage rates near record lows. The multifamily and small-balance CRE dynamics vary by geographic market and property type. Rent payments in our primary markets where we lend are holding up relatively well. The stimulus checks, forbearance programs, federal subsidies on unemployment insurance, and the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program have provided short-term cash flows for renters and borrowers. The diverse nature of our local economy on the West Coast and our limited exposure to urban markets have resulted in relatively stable values in our multifamily and commercial real estate markets. We continue to see opportunities to grow our multifamily and small-balance CRE portfolios on a selective basis for high-quality borrowers at low leverage points. In our two largest CNI lending categories, lender finance and commercial specialty real estate, we continue to evaluate new opportunities but are pivoting to leveraging real estate assets at even more conservative advance rates. We have tightened our credit underwriting standards with respect to all our lending products. We continue to see demand for our lending products at these higher credit standards. Access clearing continues to benefit from a flight to safety, with ending deposits increasing by approximately 9% linked quarter to $450 million. These client deposits, held in approximately 90,000 individual brokerage accounts, provide a stable, low-cost source of funding. We have chosen to keep the majority of the $450 million in other banks earning interest income for the securities business. We have the ability to bring these deposits back to our bank on relatively short notice to fund our loan growth. Like other broker-dealers such as Schwab and E-Trade, Axios Clearings rates earned from cash deposits have significantly compressed due to the Fed's zero interest rate policy. With impending consolidation in this industry and the ability for the clearing and custody business to generate incremental fee income, sticky low-cost deposits and new retail relationships to the bank, we continue to be bullish on Axos Securities' long-term strategic value to our organization, given the bank's long-term loan growth prospects that can be funded by these low-cost deposits generated from the security business. Overall, we feel good about our ability to maintain an annual net interest margin within a range of 3.8% to 4%. We anticipate being more opportunistic with respect to loan growth until we get more clarity on the sustainability of economic and housing recovery. We see stability in our new loan rates across most of our largest lending categories. In C&I, we may have some degradation in new loan yields as we enter new institutional lending relationships that provide high-quality loans with strong risk protection at marginally lower rates compared to our lender finance and commercial specialty real estate loans. The excess liquidity in PVP loans will have a short-term drag on our NIM until they are no longer on the balance sheet With excess deposits and some longer-term CDs that can be called prior to maturity, we see additional downward pricing flexibility in some of our deposit categories, which should help us keep our net interest margin stable. Now I'll turn the call over to Andy, who will provide additional details on our financial results.