Earnings Labs

Axos Financial, Inc. (AX)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 29, 2020

$98.85

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Axos Financial Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instruction] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference our to your host, Mr. Johnny Lai, Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Johnny Lai

Management

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us for Axos Financial Inc's third quarter financial results conference call. With me today are the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Greg Garrabrants; and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Andy Micheletti. Greg and Andy will review and comment on our financial and operational results for the third quarter, and they will be available to answer questions after the prepare remarks. Before we 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 statements in response to your questions. Therefore, the Company claims the protection from the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements related to the business of Axos Financial Inc and its subsidiaries can be identified by common use forward-looking terminology and those statements involve unknown risks and uncertainties, including all business related risks that are more detailed in the Company's filings on form 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K with the SEC. This call is being webcast and there'll be an audio replay available for 30 days in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website located at www.axosfinancial.com. All the details of this call were provided on the conference call announcement and in the press release today. At the time, I'd like to turn the call over to Greg, who will provide opening remarks.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Thank you, Johnny. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to welcome everyone to Axos Financials conference call for the third quarter of fiscal 2020, ended March 31, 2020. I thank you for your interest in Axos Financial and Axos Bank. We had an excellent quarter, with annualized double digit loan growth, stable net interest margins, strong fee income, and very low credit losses. Rather than go through the typical rundown over the quarter, I will focus my discussion on three topics, credit, capital, and near-term business outlook. 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 1 basis point for single family and multifamily marketers. The vast majority of our credit losses incurred between 2008 and 2012, were for recreational vehicle loans that were discontinued in 2007. We are confident that we will be able to weather the current economic downturn for several reasons. The vast majority of our loan portfolio is collateralized by hard assets at conservative attachment points. Our single family mortgage, multifamily and commercial real estate mortgages have low loan-to-values, low loan-to-costs are located in markets with historically strong demand. The vast majority of our larger real estate exposures are structurally protected by relationships with large funds, that are stressfully subordinated to us. Our direct exposure to unsecured consumer loans represents approximately 50 basis points of our loan portfolio. We have no exposure to credit cards and approximately $3 million of home equity lines. Although, some of our assets backed-facilities and a real estate loan or two…

Andrew Micheletti

Management

Thanks, Greg. First, I wanted to note that in addition to our press release, our 10-Q was filed with the SEC today, and is available online through EDGAR or through our website at axosfinancial.com. Second, I'll provide brief comments on several topics. Please refer to our press release or 10-Q for additional details. Axos net income for the third quarter ended March 31, 2020 was $56.1 million up 44.4% year-over-year and up 35.7% compared to our last quarter ended December 31, 2019. The increase in net income this quarter compared to the last quarter ended December 31, 2019 is primarily due to growth in the loan portfolio of 2.3%, and additional income from seasonal income tax products, partially offset by our higher loan loss provisions and higher operating expenses. The growth in net income year-over-year is primarily due to loan portfolio growth of 14% and increased mortgage banking revenue and lower operating expenses. Operating expenses for Q3 of 2019 includes a onetime charge of $15.3 million for an uncollected receivable in our securities business. Increased quarterly net income was the result of operating expense efficiency, improvement both year-over-year and our linked quarter basis. The efficiency ratio was 39.85% for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and an improvement year-over-year of 292 basis points, when compared to the 42.77% efficiency ratio calculated without the $15.3 million onetime charge recognized in expense last year. For the quarter ended December 31, 2019 the efficiency ratio was 51.66% improving the 39.85% for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 primarily due to income from seasonal tax products. Mortgage banking income for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 was $3 million up from $0.4 million last year and up from $2.2 million for the last quarter ended December 31, 2019. The $3 million mortgage banking income…

Johnny Lai

Management

Thanks, Andy. Operator, we are ready to take questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Michael Perito with KBW. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Perito

Analyst

Hey, good afternoon guys. I'm glad to hear. It seems like everyone's doing well under the circumstances. Thanks for taking my questions. I want to start on just the kind of the COVID-19 response that you guys laid out in your prepared remarks. I was curious, I mean, it didn't seem like through the quarter end based on the numbers you laid out, Greg, that there was much deferral activity. And I know you guys said you're kind of working through it here. It sounds like in the near-term. But, I was just curious, you could maybe give us a little bit more kind of context around what the decision making process kind of looks like? And where you ultimately expect the deferral rate to kind of move to based on the application to request you've received thus far?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

So, as of the end of the quarter, there really wasn't much of anything at all. Subsequent to that, there have been requests coming in. I gave the numbers for the auto and unsecured lending book, and those are current numbers. With respect to the real estate loan portfolio on the CRESL [ph] side, with respect to the transactions we work with sponsors on, essentially there's been no requests that are simply a deferral oriented our requests. With respect to things, to the extent that someone wants to in the normal course extend a loan or that sort of thing, they may be paying something down or working with us to do that, but nothing really substantive there either. On the single and multifamily side, there’s requests in the agency book that we're following government guidelines on. And then for the remainders of the loans with respect to this we're not really doing some maybe very short-term deferrals, never going to go back and create a process to really look at each underlying asset and decide exactly what to do. So, I think in most cases these are very desirable properties, they're low loan-to-values. We expect people, in general, obviously, each one is going to have its own dynamic, but we expect them to be working hard to make their payments. It doesn't mean we're not going to defer or grant some modifications or deferrals. We just haven't really had a lot of time right now to assess the individual circumstances of the borrowers. And so that's what we intend to do. And the level that we actually do this assessment is going to be dependent upon the type of request that they have.

Michael Perito

Analyst

No, that's helpful. So, I mean, it sounds like there is some expectation from you guys that the deferral will increase, but it doesn't seem like the same thing really very significant at this point, I guess, to just put broad terms around it.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. Look, I think that it's certainly hard to tell because at times you get the first, -- well, we did at first was just say that we would grant somebody the ability to skip one payment. And a lot of the folks just said, well, I thought I was going to get six months for nothing, and we told them no and they just paid. So, it's a little bit difficult to tell because as you're kind of working through this it's really too early to tell, because you don't know how much of this is simply opportunistic behavior and how much of it is a legitimate disruption from a business that'll come back, right? I mean, obviously the intellectual framework for this is that deferring somebody who has no chance of coming back is probably not that useful. Deferring somebody who you want to maintain as a customer, who is simply suffering from some temporary impact probably makes more sense. So an assessment is required in order to understand how that works. And as I said, each individual asset class has its own dynamic and that dynamic might be influenced by the nature of government rules, with respect to actually execution of remedies with respect to lenders. So, for example, if you're a multifamily borrower and you've just decided to ask for a blanket set of long-term deferrals, there's a lot of people who want those properties, and a lot of people are willing to buy notes that have 18% default interest. So, that might not be the right approach. Maybe you'll go get a second lien on that property or something and we'll help facilitate that for you, so that you have someone that has an interest in that property and can help you through that. But those are the types of things that are just -- it's just too early right now. I mean, really this is very recent. As of March 31, there really wasn't much and then there has been there have been folks who've come in and there's been a decent number of requests, and we've been working on what we're going to do to evaluate them.

Michael Perito

Analyst

Got it. And then on the PPP, I think it was $85 million that you guys improved, and you can get another $30 million something in the pipeline. I think you mentioned your remarks that the fee rate can range from 1% to 5%, but it seems like a lot of your peers are kind of, oscillating around that 3% mark. Do you think that's a reasonable assumption for you guys to evolve at this point from what you've seen?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. 3% to 3.5% I think is probably reasonable.

Michael Perito

Analyst

Okay. A couple other questions. On H&R Block, I was just curious it seemed like they had a pretty productive quarter actually, your revenues were up. I mean, refund advances were up rather, as you guys mentioned. But I know there's still some uncertainty about kind of the duration and the status of that relationship. Is there any update there that you guys can provide?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Not at this time.

Michael Perito

Analyst

Okay. And then just lastly, can you remind us, to the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic rather has a material impact on small business. Can you just remind us a little bit about the epic bankruptcy business? And if there is an increase in bankruptcies in the United States, how that necessarily would benefit that business and as a result of Axos Financial?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes, certainly. So, that business has about 40% of the U.S. bankruptcy trustee market that runs through, and that's the Chapter 7 side only a 40% of U.S. bankruptcy trustees roughly give or take a couple of percent or use our software. Everyone who uses our software is required to hold their liquidity at Axos Bank right now. And so to the extent that Chapter 7 bankruptcies increase and those bankruptcies have significant assets, and those assets are subject to liquidations or other types of dispositions and then there's a timeframe often that is significant, in which those distributions need to occur as part of that entire bankruptcy process, those deposits will be held at our institution. That's the Chapter 7 part of the business. Now, the non- Chapter 7 part of the business, utilizes the software and all its services to deal with a variety of other issues and types of clients, SEC receivers, other types of receiverships, potentially other types of bankruptcies, that don't have the more formulaic process of Chapter 7 bankruptcies. And often those firms that deal with the Chapter 7 side have other businesses that they're also working through that are related to the types of things, the types of activity there would likely be expected to increase in the market. So, right now, it's obviously too early. I know that everybody feels like each day is as a week now. And we have to remember this is relatively short period of time into this. So obviously, we do expect bankruptcy filings to increase, but that's going to be something. And that will lead to enhanced business. It's just, we don't have a great visibility into that right now. It really is still early.

Michael Perito

Analyst

Yes. So, it is fair to think about that business as kind of a countercyclical banking business that in a period of economic stress could theoretically give you guys some more liquidity and revenue opportunities that would be kind of counter to what traditional banking businesses how they would perform?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes, that's correct. I mean, look, in 2010 the deposits were twice what they are now. I would expect that's -- I mean -- and look, sometimes it's interesting right, because sometimes you have a big bankruptcy and it's put on the wheel. Meaning who gets it, it could be massive. But it definitely is a countercyclical business. I would be shocked if it didn't get bigger and we're preparing for the throughput that we think will have. I think it's very difficult to see a situation where Chapter 7 bankruptcies don't increase as a result of all of these lockdowns and various mitigating measures that have been taken.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from line of Steve Moss with B. Riley FBR. Please proceed with your question.

Steve Moss

Analyst · B. Riley FBR. Please proceed with your question.

Good afternoon. I wanted to start with the disruption in the mortgage market and in particular, just on the non-QM and jumbo product that you guys offer. Just wondering, even with tightening standards, Greg, you mentioned that you're still seeing demand. What is that demand these days? And how you're thinking about that?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Sure. So, as you know, we previously had a robust growth business and jumbo mortgages. And over the last call it six quarters or almost two years that has had disappointing growth as a result of the market sort of running away from us and where we felt was in prudent manner. And that has completely and totally reversed. So all of those competitors are gone. And not just a little gone all the way gone. And so we had not compromised our credit standards in order to meet that competition. We lost a lot of business as a result of it. That business is now flowing back. But the reality of it is we've tightened our credit standards across all products, including liquidity standards holding 12 months of reserves. Six months, in this case holding six months of reserves and bunch of other things tightened LTV standards. So, we are getting obviously lots of calls. The pipeline is very large. I think the question is going to be, obviously we tried to screen that pipeline before it comes in, but I would also expect that pipeline to have a larger fallout than it otherwise would, as the market adjusts to the reality that these loans are going to be lower LTVs. There's going to be adjustments to the appraisals as a result of the market circumstance. There's going to be much more stringent liquidity requirements and standards. There's going to be escrows for taxes and insurance. And there's just going to be a bunch of things that are appropriate for the environment that we may be heading into recognizing that. We always plan for home values to go down by a lot. And we're still going to make sure that we're doing loans that are that are safe and secure.

Steve Moss

Analyst · B. Riley FBR. Please proceed with your question.

Okay, that's hopeful. And then in terms of the margin here, just want to get some color on funding costs, curious as to what you're seeing as of March 31, and where funding costs could go over the next six months?

Andrew Micheletti

Management

Yes. There's a couple of just general points I can give you. Particularly, when you look at our CD side, we have approximately $300 million more in CDs that have call callable options on them, which means I can retire them and reprice them at a significantly lower rates, typically at least a 100 basis points lower for the same duration than we had them on. So that's a key opportunity when you look at reducing it. And, in fact, also in the CD costs for this quarter, there was $1.1 million of early amortization of brokered CDs premiums. So when we call the CDs, obviously any unamortized commission has to be recognized. So, just by taking that $1 million out of this quarter, that should reduce the cost by at least 10 basis points that you see in the rate volume table in the 10-Q. So, I think we've got plenty of opportunities in the CDs to reprice. Obviously, on just traditional deposits we're growing both consumer and business. Our rates are attractive. The PPP program is also adding deposit accounts, because we are requiring deposit accounts. So, all of that is being added at lower rates. And we expect that to continue to drive our costs lower. In the end, I think Greg's guidance was we expect to continue to maintain our traditional non-block rate of between 4% and 3.8% on our NIM. And his guidance, we're a little bit closer to the lower end of that and we don't see why we can't continue to maintain that going forward.

Operator

Operator

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

Andrew Liesch

Analyst · Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.

Just one follow-up question from me. You covered rest of them. On expenses, I know there have been a lot of business development plans you guys have had through spending initiatives. What's the outlook for that in this environment? Are there any plans to slow them? And then just then at a high-level recognizing that there are some seasonal costs from tax business. Should we expect to see operating costs fall below say $69 million for the quarter?

Andrew Micheletti

Management

Sure. No, I mean, I think, our increase this quarter or a linked quarter basis, really came in a couple of ways. I think as you noted, there's $1.5 million in other general and administrative costs that you can take out for next quarter. Since that's exclusively related to the tax season. In our personnel costs, the majority, about half of the $2.3 million increase was simply due to FICA. This is a brand new quarter for FICA expense. For employees, that the employer pays. And that's about half the increase. So that will continue, but maybe $500,000 of it was more onetime associated with 401(k). So you can probably look at salaries costs being similar to slightly lower for next quarter. And everything else in there is fairly normalized. We at this point aren't looking at too many huge projects. So, I think -- but we're always planning and that could change down the road. But in the end, the $69 million you're using is pretty close.

Andrew Liesch

Analyst · Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.

Okay.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. One clarification, as I said. I said the lender finance those costs on book had around 70% before it's actually 63%. And then, with respect to your question, Andrew, I think, Andy had it exactly right. We basically have everyone that we need now to do all the things that we need to do pretty much, one or two other folks. So, the improvements in UDB are going well. We've got a lot of opportunities to improve our operating efficiency with respect to a lot of different tools that we have developed overtime. And those tools were really incredibly important in our ability to very seamlessly adapt to with the majority people work from home and all these other things. So they are everything from ticketing systems throughout the organization, robotic process automations, the ability to have a large team of developers who can develop portals to communicate with borrowers, to enhance our abilities to be able to respond quickly to our customers and all those things. And so, there’s a lot of really good technology that we have put in. And now, I think a lot of its really time to benefit from that and to try to start reaping some of the fruits of that hard labor that's happened and investments that's happened over the last couple of years.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Chiaverini with Wedbush. Please proceed with your question.

David Chiaverini

Analyst · Wedbush. Please proceed with your question.

I wanted to start with a crap question on credit. It seems most of your loan portfolio is very well secured. But I was curious, what loan exposures do you consider the most at risk? Or it the refund advance loans, hotel, other unsecured consumer? Just curious as to what you're considering the most at risk?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

So, with respect to their refund advance loans, they did pay at a slower level than they had in the past. Now when we compare that to the other large players who publicly disclose that, they were around. Was it 7%?

Andrew Micheletti

Management

Yes, it was 7%.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

7% out and we're 4% out. And they typically, I think do a little bit worse than we do on a credit side, but they're basically in line. So from a pacing perspective, we're better, but that doesn't mean that we're both not going to be worse. So I think we put a little loan loss into that. We're looking at that. When we look at it and we dissect the data, it appears to be that simply it's just slower payments, but that's unknown. So that's out there. After RC, there's a guarantee information in our block, so we never lose more than our fee. But obviously, we want to get paid for this. We didn't do this really on ancillary purposes. So, we can't lose more than what we earned on this. Well, at least, that's a level is that now. It's in our block, guarantees that after that amount up to a certain amount, which we will collect. So that's that piece. So, the fee could be at risk, although, we don't think so. This is something different. From an unsecured perspective, it's interesting. Right now, there's been a relatively low level of request for deferrals. We've gone through the book and we've looked at where people work. And we've looked at our exposure to individuals that work in restaurants and work in areas that we think could be negatively impacted or shut down, that would be sort of the first line effect of this. And it didn't look too bad. Now, the impact of this is interesting though, I know some people in the medical profession here, radiologists who've been laid off, because in San Diego there aren't really any COVID-19 patients. And so the hospitals are empty. And so our government has decided, they're like…

David Chiaverini

Analyst · Wedbush. Please proceed with your question.

That's very helpful. And then shifting gears. I wanted to ask about, I think the next milestone for the universal digital bank was to -- get it to allow a single integrated enrolment process. And I was curious with everything that's happening with COVID and work from home, has the timeline been impacted at all in terms of building out that next phase? Any disruption there?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

In general, not in any material way. Certainly, the work from home element has not impacted anything. In fact, I've been just being perfectly blunt, I've been very clear with everyone and I hold myself to the standard, this is the time that everyone works harder. This is not a time when everyone works less. So, everyone is working harder now than they have for the right reasons to take care of the borrowers to make sure that we're adapting, to make sure that we are living up to our vision of being a truly digital first bank that's a leader in technology. I don't think that that's changed. I think with respect to the question of your categorization of the goal the universal enrolment, I would say that there really are a variety of goals that that UDB had. I would say that that goal of universal enrolment is frankly one -- I understand what you mean by it, but what we've really been trying to focus most on is, I would say universal integration and servicing. Meaning that what we're trying to do is ensure that all of the elements that the reasons why someone would contact us and banking are going through our portal. So from a servicing perspective, if there's an insurance update or need, or an individual wants to tell us about their travel, the travel X plans, and maybe less so now. But they would like a temporary increase in there and managing their debit card in a more productive way. The goal is to take and create this self-service environment that allows individuals to have a better experience, not have to go through a call center, even though, it is available and to make that process more efficient. And so, that's very important.…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Mitch Hemmelgarn [h] with Shaker Investment. Please proceed with your question.

Edward Hemmelgarn

Analyst

That's Edward Hemmelgarn. But Andy, just one question for you is just with the CECL implementation at the next quarter in the year, will that the original provisional will that go through retained earnings or income?

Andrew Micheletti

Management

Yes. So the way it works and it's called generally day one and day two. You were on the day you adopted, you make a direct and assuming you're increasing your allowance, you would apply a tax rate to that increase. And then you charge it directly against stockholders' equity on a GAAP basis. So, it doesn't run through the income statement. It goes straight into equity. After that Day one entry, it becomes -- your provisions become normal i.e.; all your provisions run through the income statement as they do today. But the big difference is that for regulatory capital purposes the rules were changed recently such that day one charge 100% of it is actually added back to your regulatory capital for a period of two years, and then phased out for another three years. So you have five years of so called transition before it really impacts your regulatory capital ratios.

Edward Hemmelgarn

Analyst

Okay, great. And Greg, one more question. You've always been very opportunistic about when opportunities present themselves. In terms of lending, you mentioned that the competition is going in a way or the aggressive competition is going away in the first jumbo mortgage area. Any other areas that you think there might be some opportunities?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. I think that a lot of real estate lender finance had moved away to these gestation lines at very high advance rates, that some banks are stuck with now, that we never did. And those loans where sometimes they would do these 12 months gestation facilities with securitization exits. Those are all gone. It's amazing what people put on repo facilities without going into detail on it, it would surprise you. You wouldn't expect that you should put long-term, let's say, commercial real estate loans with incremental funding structures on a repo facility, yet it was done. So, I think, there is -- we have the same team, we have the playbook, we know how to do this. In that crisis, what we took advantage of -- all those loan structures are very well-developed here, they're very conservative. I think that there's a little bit of an equity gap in the market right now. Funds can fill that equity gap. But, if you had an advance rate -- our old advance rates were $0.45 on the dollar, let's say. And people are interested in that again, which is great. The problem is if you had gotten $0.85 for a while, you have a transition. And that transition is a difficult one and it's one that takes some time. So there are opportunities in the market, but we are not always able to solve those opportunities individually. But we do have partners that can assist more globally with that. But obviously, in certain cases there's need for equity. So, yes, I feel good about that. It's early, but there's been a lot of productive discussions. And I think they'll be coming out of this. It should be the case that some of the competition which essentially -- we had $1 billion loan books in certain categories that essentially went to zero. And there'll be opportunities in those loan categories again.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Good afternoon, everybody. I just wanted to start with securities business. Volatility like this often creates pretty significant disruption. And I was just curious whether you've been able to add new broker dealers or investment advisors given all the disruption?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. We have a pipeline. Candidly, I'd like that pipeline to be bigger. I think that it's coming. For example, that business is in Omaha, and TD is in Omaha. And so getting talent to Omaha has become a lot easier now that obviously you have this merger on the horizon. And that has really helped us. And we've been able to pick off opportunistic talent. There's lots of good discussions with RIAs from a custody perspective who are very worried. Often, they didn't want to be at Schwab or they left show on for TD [ph] and now they're being pulled back in. There's obviously folks who were part of some acquisitions at E-Trade. They're looking at and trying to figure out exactly how to be part of an organization, where they matter and where someone will return their calls other than through a call center. So, I think there is a lot of opportunity there. With respect to what we're doing on that business on the clearing side, we are trying to bring all the technology that we have into the operational environment to make sure that we can handle additional capacity. So the people they've worked very hard, they've done an amazing job managing through this liquidity without losses. Obviously, you've seen there's been interactive broker and other things have made that had some interesting disclosures that they've had to make a lot of companies had issues. Obviously, we had one which was a one off last year. So I'm not -- there's never any rest, but they did a great job this quarter. And so we're working a lot on the operational efficiency side there. They're making good progress. They're learning to adopt the culture of execution that is a lot sharper than they've had before.…

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Got it. And then just maybe what are you seeing in the specialty CRE segment? I mean, I know you deal with premiere developers that are very well-capitalized. But just curious your thoughts on this segment what you're hearing from your clients? And just your thoughts on that segment more broadly near-term.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. I think that the nature of that segment and its activity is going to be determined by junior capital. And so if you think about, let's say a funding structure for a project, and these obviously are just rough numbers. But if you have a situation where there is $100 million project equity was going to put in $20 million, the junior was going to put in $40 million and we were going to put in $40 million. And our $40 million is going to come after all of that $60 million. And it's going to come in only after all that is already there. And so that does a couple of things and obviously makes their hurdle rates with respect to the project higher because the junior capital is looking around saying, gee, I have a lot of interesting opportunities and there’s lot of current developments. So it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. I think there’ll be selected projects to get off the ground. I think Junior Capital is working through what they want to do. I think there’s lots of discussions and lots of asking for what term sheets would look like and not a lot of movement. I think the market is really trying to figure out exactly where things are. There clearly are good projects. There clearly are folks that have a lot invested and are going to deliver. I think that's good. It's going to be interesting though to see how that develops. And my inclination is that I think the Junior Capital is going to look for opportunities, some of which they may find more attractive in existing assets, and helping others through their problems rather than going after new things. But that's speculation. It's still too early.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, that makes sense. Last one from me. Just wanted to get your thoughts on your capital priorities near-term. I mean, dividend it sounds like it's on hold for now. But just thoughts on repurchases or any other opportunistic investments or even potential M&A maybe in the fintech side, given a disruption in being able to pick up a complimentary business that you've been eyeing for a while?

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Yes. I think with respect to the dividend side, I talked about that. The share repurchase side, look, I think that's something that we've been -- we haven't -- we did a little bit. We never -- we are very thoughtful about our capital. I'm not going to make any prophylactic rules on that, or make any statement of absolution in either way there. But, clearly, there's a lot of opportunities in the market. We also have uncertainty with respect to what happens in the future. And so you're weighing all those different elements. Clearly, we want to have capital for growth, that's prudent one there. We want to support our clients where we have good opportunities. I think there will be good yielding opportunities at very good credit profiles here. So, we want to make sure that we're there for that. And also make sure, obviously that we're thoughtful about our capital. So, with respect to the M&A side, that depends upon what you're getting with the platform. So I think, unfortunately, a lot of the fintechs with respect to the platform, they're either going to work through it with respect to their existing assets and their debt levels or things like that, or they kind of have to wind down for a while and see where they go. There may be one-off opportunities like there were with respect to the Robo advisory platform that we purchased, where it comes with an asset base that has no negative credit, potential credit consequences or not. But obviously, I think we've tried very hard to be thoughtful about what we put on the books and there were strong credit DCs for each one. So there'd have to be a very strong credit DCs that would have to accompany anything that would involve, taking on any credit risk and in M&A right now.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.

Greg Garrabrants

Management

Thank you.

Johnny Lai

Management

Alright, I guess that's it. So thank you very much. We'll talk to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.