Louis Hoch
Analyst · Ladenburg. Please go ahead
Thank you, Joe, and welcome, everyone. I'm pleased to report all time record quarterly revenues for the third quarter of 2020. With these results, we resumed the growth trajectory for the company before it was temporarily impacted by the coronavirus in the second quarter. The results also clearly demonstrate the strength of our diverse payments, channel strategy, offering ACH prepaid, card processing services to the growing electronic payments market. Both card and prepaid business lines experienced all time record volumes and associated revenues. After defining the economic downturn and growing nicely in the second quarter, the strong growth continued their momentum with well above industry growth rates in the third quarter, once again illustrated the success we are achieving penetrating these markets with innovative technology that makes payments simple and secure. We also saw a sequential recovery in our ACH business despite the ongoing headwinds of a weak consumer lending market. And while we continue to invest in our growth initiatives, like staffing up to handle the increasing call centre volume associated with the growth on prepaid we are doing so while keeping overhead expenses in check. SG&A this quarter was essentially unchanged from a year ago and up only marginally on a sequential basis. The net result is that the third quarter profitability both adjusted EBITDA and net loss improved from both the year ago quarter, as well as the second quarter of this year. Fiscal 2020 probability continues to run ahead of last year, as we work not only to grow the business but to leverage that growth sort of bottom line. In the first quarter, we began providing segment reporting in an effort to improve transparency and our revenue disclosure. So let me offer some high level comments by segment. Credit card processing - credit card transactions processed in the third quarter were up at 81%. And the dollars processed were up 15% from a year ago, setting new quarterly records. Both PayFac and legacy card processing were strong, PayFac continues to layer on new accounts and the legacy business has rebounded with the reopening of dental and veterinarian losses. And as the segment scales, the bottom line is improving. In particular, most of the growth is coming from our PayFac business, where we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of new accounts being boarded and beginning to process on our platform. Shortly, Greg is going to talk more about the exciting progress in card processing, especially PayFac where the new implementation team is enjoying tremendous success. In ACH, we continue to feel the weakness in consumer lending. Some of the forbearances lenders had provided - have expired so we have seen an increase in the number of debits for loan repayments. And that is accounted for the relative strength of the third quarter compared to the second quarter. Return checks were up 21% and transactions were up 7% respectively from the second quarter, which was clearly at the bottom. We expect to see sequential improvement to continue into the fourth quarter. We also had record results for PINless debit and RCC remote check creation, where we're having a great success in selling these alternative products into our existing base. Again, all of the decrease in ACH volume is strictly attributable to less usage, as we continue not only to retain existing clients but to add new ones as well. Our expectation is that as consumer lending recovers, we will get back to or above the strong levels we achieved in the first quarter this year. Prepaid had another impressive quarter. Revenue in the third quarter basically doubled sequentially from the second quarter. Compared to a year ago third quarter load volume more than tripled, while transaction volume nearly doubled. We've had great success with prepaid programs that support government and charitable organizations in their effort to provide assistance and relief. Five of the 10 largest cities in the United States are now clients as our prestigious national organizations such as the United Way and many others. These organizations use our program to provide monetary assistance to those who are experiencing financial hardship and that money is being dispersed using a Usio prepaid card. The Usio prepaid program is winning in this market because our prepaid cards streamline the disbursement of funds for these organizations and ease record keeping it and provide the recipients with a simple and convenient means to access their funds. In addition, we offer several key features useful for any community organization looking to provide financial relief. For instance, the cards provide cash access, the cards can be reloaded, the cards can be programmed to prohibit or use for purchases or prohibited items such as alcohol. And the cards can be sent virtually by text or email. But most importantly, were winning because of our ability to build strong relationships with these organizations. The pandemic was one of the catalysts for prepaids recent growth. However, many of these client organizations have a need for money disbursement solutions for a number of other programs not related to the pandemic. So we expect prepaid to continue its outstanding performance in the fourth quarter and in the 2021. Before wrapping up my comments and turning the call over to Houston, on behalf of the entire Usio team, I would - we would like to express our condolences to the Chapa family for the passing of Miguel. He served so admirably on the board for many years. To me was invaluable source of wisdom, knowledge and inspiration. And he will be greatly missed. At the same time, I want to welcome Ernesto Beyer to the Board of Directors. Ernesto will serve as a member of the company's audit, compensation, nominations and corporate governance committees. Ernesto has over 25 years of international trade experience and holds an MBA in international business from the University of Texas in San Antonio. On behalf of the Board, we welcome him and look forward to working with Ernesto. Finally, I want to note that at the end of September, we closed an equity offering, raising $8 million from a group of 16 very strong institutional investors. Along with the 30 million that we raised earlier this year, we now have a very strong balance sheet and an outstanding group of institutional investors supporting the company. Our strategy always encompass non-organic growth and with these offerings, we now have the resources not only support our working capital and general corporate needs, but to invest in our growth businesses and undertake the creative acquisitions. Let me conclude with a few remarks about the coronavirus pandemic. After acting quickly to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers, we have managed to avoid any material impacts from the coronavirus in any of our operations. Many of the industries we serve that suspended operations in the second quarter were back in operation on the third quarter. And while COVID is having a peripheral impact on card and prepaid, such as slowing some of PayFac implementations, consumer lending remains as the only area that is not completely bounced back. Nevertheless, we remain optimistic that the record growth we have seen since building in the middle of 2019 has risen. Again, thanks to our channel diversification strategy we had a tremendous growth. Fiscal 2020 is shaping up to be a very strong year for Usio with outstanding growth and extremely solid financial position we feel that we are building a strong foundation for future growth. With that, I'd like to conclude my opening remarks and turn the call over to Houston Frost, our Senior Vice President of Prepaid Services.