NASDAQ:LX LexinFintech Q3 2023 Earnings Report $7.35 +0.01 (+0.14%) As of 06/12/2025 04:00 PM Eastern ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast LexinFintech EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.30Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/ALexinFintech Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$480.94 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/ALexinFintech Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/22/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateWednesday, November 22, 2023Conference Call Time9:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsLexinFintech's Q2 2025 earnings is scheduled for Monday, August 25, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by LexinFintech Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 22, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Lisingfintech's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:39It is now my pleasure to hand you over to the IR Director, Ms. Mandy Dong. Please go ahead, ma'am. Speaker 100:00:48Thank you, Amber. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Lexin's Q3 2023 earnings conference call. All results were issued earlier today and can be found on our IR website. Joining me today are our CEO, Jay Xiao President, Jared Wu and CFO, James Zheng. Speaker 100:01:12Before we get started, I'd like to remind you of our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call. During the call, we may refer to business outlook and forward looking statements, which are based on our current plans, estimates and projections. The actual results may differ materially and we undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements. Thus, unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB. Jay will first provide an update on our overall performance. Speaker 100:01:52James will cover the financial results in more details. And lastly, Jared will then discuss risk management. I will now turn the call over to Jay. His remarks will be in Chinese and the English translation will follow. Hello, everyone. Speaker 100:02:17It's our pleasure to share with you our performance for the Q3 of 2023. In the face of the current industry wide and macroeconomic challenges, we adopted our prudent and steady strategy in the Q3. Despite a slight volatility in asset quality, we reasonably tightened our risk strategy to balance growth and quality. In the Q3, we adhered to the dual wheel drive of risk and data, pushed forward the refinement of operations and continued to strengthen our fundamental capabilities, recording another solid growth performance. Transaction volume was RMB63.3 billion, up 13% year over year. Speaker 100:03:55Loan balance under management was RMB120.7 billion, up 28% year over year. Revenue was RMB3.5 billion, up 30.4% year over year. Net profit was RMB371 1,000,000, up 34.4% year over year. In the 3rd quarter, the effectiveness of both new customer acquisition and existing customer operation was further improved. The synergies between e commerce and the consumer credit business were further enhanced and the tech empowerment business continued to grow. Speaker 100:04:56With its commercialization capability being validated and we are accelerating its expansion. There were 3 main highlights of the 3rd quarter results. Firstly, refined operations have led to improved efficiency in both acquiring new customers and managing existing ones. In terms of new customers, we made a major upgrade on our new customer acquisition model and strategy in the 3rd quarter, resulting in notable achievements. The efficiency of attracting customer through feed channel increased by 38.5% compared to the Q1. Speaker 100:06:18The approval rate, number of drawdown borrowers and the facilitated loan volume for new customers all showed improvement of over 20% compared to the control group. Additionally, early stage delinquency indicator decreased by nearly 20%. We expect both the scale and quality of new customers to continue to benefit in the 4th quarter. In the Q3, we further enhanced our offline customer acquisition capabilities. This included upgrading the organizational structure of the offline inclusive finance in Chinese, Hu Hui team, improving the sales management system, strengthening the cultivation of standardized talent and enhancing the ability to accurately identify offline customers. Speaker 100:07:50These efforts solidified the advantages of our offline direct customer acquisition model, resulting in a decrease in overall customer acquisition cost. Sales expenses in the 3rd quarter declined by 9.5% compared to the 2nd quarter. We see more potential and opportunities for offline growth in the future and will continue to deepen our presence in this unique business Speaker 200:08:29model. Speaker 100:08:48In terms of existing users, we maintained a steady operation and strengthened the underlying capability building for model application, further enhanced our service capabilities. During the quarter, we introduced more data sources and built an identification system centered around the credit system of PBOC. We improved the model framework for the entire customer acquisition, risk management and operational life cycle. The sequencing and the stability of the model were improved by 10% to 20% over the previous version. In the Q3, we utilized the enterprise WeChat for user operations, which has accumulated 700,000 borrowers and improved service efficiency and satisfaction. Speaker 100:10:07Through refined operations, target high quality customer groups via enterprise WeChat compared to the traditional method, we achieved a nearly 65% increase in customer order rates and 100 and 7% increase in transaction volume. In the Q3, our product grew a game card priced below 18%, 1 8% and targeted towards high quality customer segments delivered satisfying progress. After using Lejing Heart, users' willingness to place order and the transaction volume has been significantly improved. The order rate, average transaction volume per person and the total transaction volume all experienced around an 80% increase. This effectively enhanced the engagement of high quality active borrowers and the facilitated the return of more high quality settled users, expanding the scope and the opportunities for managing our premium user base. Speaker 100:12:18The second highlight was the continued growth of Leuxing Ecosystem and the further enhancement of synergies. Firstly, the tech empowerment business. After achieving quarterly profit in the Q4 of last year, the scale of this business line grew further with a 59% sequential increase in the Q3. After nearly 2 years of exploration, we have completed upgrades in solutions, diversified our product portfolio and validated the standardized capabilities in systems and deliverables, which was well recognized by multiple urban and rural commercial banks. The 59% growth rate further validated the commercialization capability of our tech empowerment business, although it currently accounts for a small proportion Luexin's overall business. Speaker 100:14:00In the context of increasingly refined industry regulations and the downward trend in consumer credit market interest rate and tech empowerment business can help banks quickly undergo retail credit digitalization transformation with tremendous market potential. It can also bring better synergy for funding cooperation and drive deeper and broader collaboration between Lexin and the financial institutions. Currently, the tech empowerment business team is accelerating its expansion and will cover more city and the rural commercial banks to further expand the scale. Secondly, our e commerce business brought out more value in terms of customer new acquisition and activating existing ones, further enhancing the synergies with our core consumer credit business. In the Q3, our e commerce division continued to solidify its highest level authorization for Apple T1 and Huawei L1, maintaining advantages in skills and initial supply. Speaker 100:15:50This further boosted consumer spending on our e commerce platform. Taking Huawei as an example, sales of the new Mate 60 series and X5 reached a record high for the year in the 3rd quarter with an approximately 60 percent increase in revenue compared to last year's Mate 50 products. In addition to our strength in the consumer electronics 3C category, we introduced more high quality new brands and the merchants onto our platform in the Q3, covering categories that are favored by young generation such as luxury goods, sports and past goods. The number of new merchants reached 241, representing a sequential growth of 51% in brand coverage. With the addition of more merchants and expansion of product categories, a large number of existing users have been activated leading to a stimulation between e commerce and consumer credit business. Speaker 100:17:44During the Double 11 Shopping Festival, the period from November 1 to 11, the growth in the e commerce consumer base resulted in a notable increase in transaction volume from high quality active customer double R1 to R3 with a sequential increase of approximately 12.4%. At the same time, these active consumer credit users further drove e commerce spending, creating a reinforcing cycle within our business ecosystem. 3rd highlight is the data driven approach to improve quality and efficiency, further enhancing our profitability. In the 3rd quarter, we implemented a series of data driven measures to improve our operational efficiency. These measures included applying data tools such as user life cycle models to strengthen precision operations, enhancing the efficiency of funds and asset matching through decision simulation system and improving the customer retention rate for settled users. Speaker 100:19:50The drop in funding cost has further improved profitability. In the Q3, the company achieved significant optimization of our funding structure and entered into strategic partnership with multiple major banks, including national wide joint stock banks. Funding costs reached a new record low, a 21 bps drop on a Q on Q basis. The rapid development of our business also relies on continuous investments in technology and research and development. In the Q3, our company invested RMB127 1,000,000 in research and development, maintaining our industry leading position. Speaker 100:21:23During the quarter, we accelerated the development of the use case of AI large language models in our business through exclusive data pre training and fine tuning of business data. In terms of business application, we have already fully implemented the AI model in key business process such as telemarketing, customer service and loan collection. In terms of working tools, the AI model is widely applied in scenarios such as coding assistant tools, generating design ideas and data analysis, enhancing the overall operational efficiency of the company. In terms of risk management, we are closely watching the industry trends and actively exploring the use case of AI large language models. These initiatives have significantly improved the overall operational efficiency and the customer With solid technology advantages, in the Q3, Lutin has been selected for the 4th time as one of the top 500 Chinese service companies, making us the only FinTech company on the list for 4 times. Speaker 100:23:22In terms of corporate social responsibility, in the 3rd quarter, we made major upgrades to our consumer rights protection measures upon the foundation of our 5S Guardian system. We have carried out 4 major initiatives. 1, strengthening our data security management system 2, enhancing anti fraud protection capabilities 3, expanding intelligent customer service application and 4, intensifying efforts to combat illegal anti collection groups. These measures collectively established a comprehensive safety firewall for consumers. From January to August this year, Lexin intercepted 160,000,000 instances of data security attacks, maintaining a record of 0 data leaks since the launch of the data protection and governance system. Speaker 100:25:10The anti fraud system has prevented potential user losses for over RMB270 1,000,000 and customer satisfaction has reached 99.6%. Looking ahead to the 4th quarter, in the face of a complex and uncertain external environment, we will adhere to the principle of prudent operation and prioritize risk management. We will continue to enhance risk management capabilities and improve asset quality, while striking a fine balance between transaction volume and asset quality. We maintain the guidance on full year loan origination we gave earlier this year ranging from RMB245 1,000,000,000 to RMB255 1,000,000,000, representing a 20% to 25% year over year growth. Next, I will pass to our CFO for financial updates. Speaker 200:26:20Thank you, Jay. I will now provide more details on our financial results. Please note that all numbers are in RMB unless otherwise stated. In the face of a sluggish macroeconomic environment and a subdued consumer confidence, we have sustained our growth for the 6th straight quarter, signaling a robust V shaped recovery since the Q1 of 2022. Our focus on improving risk management capabilities, customer upgrading, operational refinement, cost savings initiatives and optimizing our funding, particularly by lowering the early repayment rate, has prepared us forward this quarter. Speaker 200:27:06Amidst the ongoing economic uncertainties, our strategy has been prudent. We have moderated new loan originations to prioritize asset quality and conservatively made ample provisions in our financials, which, while impacting us in the near term, supports us our long term financial health. To provide some context, first, let's take a look at the year over year number comparisons. Total loan origination increased by 12.7% year over year to RMB63.3 billion. Revenue climbed to RMB3.5 billion, up 30.4% year over year, largely due to reduced early repayments and larger outstanding loan balance, now at RMB121 1,000,000,000. Speaker 200:27:58Notably, we significantly cut the early repayment ratio in Q3 to a level at about 90% of Q2's level and aim to keep it optimal in Q4. The average weighted APR remained under 24%, with loans below this threshold comprising 86% of total loans, up over 5% from last year. Our funding cost hit a record low of 6.4%, down from 7.0% last year, attributable in part to successful partnerships with the national banks, which we anticipate will further reduce costs. Loan tenders decreased as we fine tuned our portfolio structure in response to the market uncertainty, averaging 13.1 months compared to 13.8 in Q3 of 2022. Cost efficiencies continued with operating expenses, including processing and services, sales and marketing, R and D and G and A falling to 0.91 percent of the average loan balance, a 35 basis point saving from the previous year. Speaker 200:29:23Consequently, net income rose to RMB371,000,000, a 30 4 point 4% increase year over year, improving our net margin to 10.6%. Despite the heightened provisions, the increase underscores our resilient profitability and the business momentum. Apart from the above year over year analysis, I would also like to share some perspectives from quarter over quarter comparisons. Total GMV remained relatively stable as we balanced maintaining asset quality with business growth. A slight take rate improvement reflects effective early repayment control and reduced funding costs, although offset by pricing reductions, shorter loan durations and additional provisioning. Speaker 200:30:21Risk management remains a cornerstone strategy, yet factors like the slow economic recovery and challenges within the loan collection industry have slightly affected the asset quality as reflected in metrics such as day 1 delinquency rate, M1 collection rate and 90 days delinquency rate. For instance, our 90 days delinquency rate in Q3 was 2.67%, which is slightly higher in comparison with 2.59% in Q2. Nonetheless, we have adjusted our bad debt provisions, reaching a coverage ratio of approximately 3 50%, which is defined as the total provision amount divided by the principal amount of 90 days delinquent loans. The current fluctuation in asset quality across industry seems to continue to cloud Q4. We are vigilant and have taken all measures to safeguard our asset quality level. Speaker 200:31:32Operating expenses fell by 7.2% from the last quarter, primarily from reduced sales and marketing and general administrative spending. With increased provisions from Q2, we still achieved a 4.2% sequential growth in net income and maintained a 10.6% net margin. From both year over year and quarter over quarter perspectives, we have made significant improvements during Q3. Although macro headwinds persist, we have maintained the rebounding pace of our business and anticipate the business growth momentum to continue. Let's review some specific financial items. Speaker 200:32:20Total operating revenue hit RMB3.5 billion for Q3, with an increase of 14.8 percent quarter over quarter and 30.4% year over year, driven mainly by the credit facilitation business, which saw a significant increase both quarterly and annually. Tech empowerment services also grew, while installment e commerce platform service revenue declined due to the high Q2 numbers driven by the 618 promotion and an accounting reclassification. Despite of all this, the e commerce GMV grew by 12.8% year over year. Expense ratio demonstrates our continued progress in cost optimization, notably in marketing, where we have achieved greater efficiency and lower customer acquisition costs. The sales and marketing expenses decreased by 9.4% quarter over quarter and decreased by 3.3% year over year, which was mainly due to the improved efficiency of upgraded RTA customer acquisition models. Speaker 200:33:37In Q3, new users with approved credit lines increased 15.1% and new active users increased 8.2% on a quarter over quarter basis, indicating a lower customer acquisition cost in Q3. Net profit for the quarter was approximately RMB371 1,000,000 marking steady increase with a 4.2% growth quarter over quarter and a 34.4% growth year over year. Our cash position is strong, ending the quarter with around RMB5 1,000,000,000 in hand and a solid equity position of RMB9.8 billion. In Q3, we have declared a recurring cash dividend plan and paid out a cash dividend for the first half of twenty twenty three, amounting around US19 $1,000,000 equivalent to roughly 20% of the total net profit for the first half of twenty twenty three. Looking forward, we will continue to look for ways to return more value to shareholders. Speaker 200:34:49Looking ahead to the rest of 2023, given the current macros and the pressure on asset quality throughout the industry, we remain conservative in loan origination pacing. We maintain the earlier guidance of annual GMV amount of RMB245,000,000,000 to RMB255,000,000,000 growth, which represents a 20% to 25% year over year. These estimates reflect our current expectations, which is subject to change. To sum up, Q3 marks our 6th consecutive growth quarter. Our key strategies, risk management, customer enhancement, operational refinement and the cost efficiency are all paying off. Speaker 200:35:38As we navigate ongoing macro and the industry challenges, we will maintain our focus on asset control, measured business expansion and operational optimization, poised to seize opportunities as they arise. Now I will hand over to Jerry Wu, our President, to discuss our approach on risk management in detail. Jerry, please take it from here. Speaker 100:36:50Thank you, Jing. In the 3rd quarter, we continued to step up our efforts in honing our holistic risk management system and optimizing our customer base on the grounds of our corporate strategy, risk management upgrading and customer base upgrading, which yield consistent results. Although we continued to improve our risk management capabilities, our loan collection rate experienced some fluctuations due to the slow recovery of macro provisions and the rise of illegal anti collection activities recently. We anticipate these impacts from these factors may last into Q4. Therefore, we are guilt into a more prudent risk management approach going forward. Speaker 100:37:42Meanwhile, we rolled out a series of countermeasures to mitigate these impacts on loan collection. For instance, in the collection process, we have set up our internal collection workforce and leverage the advantages of internal collection manpower. And we also increased the proportion of menu case handling to uphold the collection rate. During the Q3, through continuous optimization of our RTA model and the risk models for new customer credit line approval, we achieved a 50 percent improvement in customer acquisition efficiency and a 20% reduction in new customer risk levels. In Q4, we will gradually amplify our experimental flow and continue to rapidly advance strategies iteration, striving to accumulate a sufficient number of high quality customers this year and laid a solid foundation for next year's growth. Speaker 100:39:30In the Q3, we accelerated the recruitment of top notch industry talents in risk management space, further enhanced our core competitiveness. We anticipate their professional skills and extensive experience in risk management space will assist us to achieve more breakthroughs, Adhering to the risk management driven principle, we will continue to build up our industry leading risk management team. Looking ahead, in the face of the current macroeconomic situation, In Q4, we will continue to adhere to the principle of risk management first, adopt a prudent strategy and at the same time continue to enhance our underlying risk management capabilities and persistently iterate the overall level of our risk management. Operator, let's close all our prepared management remarks. I think we are now good to open the floor for questions. Operator00:40:49Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Alex Yeh from UBS. Please ask your question, Alex. Speaker 300:42:07I have two questions. The first one is regarding the management remarks about the successful control in early repayment ratio in Q3, which helped you increase the revenue pay rate. Could you share with some more color in terms of the specific measures taken and provide us with some color into the your expectation for the Q4? And second question is about your new customer acquisition. We have noticed good progress in Q3 in terms of both lower customer acquisition costs and number of new customers acquired. Speaker 300:42:40So could you also give more color on this? Thank you. Speaker 400:44:44Thank you, Alex. So in the Q3, we set up a special task that was directed by the company's management level and then spanning multiple departments such as operations to determine based on the customers' outstanding balance or as well as the credit line to decide the best coupon strategies based on their own performances to better determine whether they are like me to do the repayment early repayment process or not to better avoid our strategic error to cause that. We as well as we issued the suitable and the 5th coupons in order to deter them from doing so, which effectively helped us to reduce the early recruitment rate. And also our task team held weekly meetings to review, adjust and re optimize and achieve a very good result in the Q3. In the Q3, our earlier payment rate was only about 90% of which in the Q2, which significantly improved the take rate level of the revenue. Speaker 400:45:48And then we expect to maintain the strategy as well as the optimized level in the earlier repayment rate to go on in the 4th quarter. Okay. So in Q3, we continued to iterate our ability to acquire new customers and achieve a sustained reduction in the new customer risk. In comparison with the previous quarter, we did a significant new customer risk model upgrade, including incorporating more of the PBOC model usage as well as promoting the RDA model upgrade with our main media channel. Specifically, our customer acquisition efficiency will increase by 50% and reduce new customers' risk by 20%. Speaker 400:47:58And from the pure earnings point of view, sales and marketing expenses decreased by 4% quarter over quarter, but newly registered users increased 9.0% quarter over quarter and new users with approved credit line has increased by 15.1 percent and new active users will increase by 8.2% on a quarter over quarter basis, indicating a much lower customer acquisition cost in the 3rd quarter. Coming in the Q4, we will increase the volume of our comparison as well as the experimental group mentioned before and to continue to push forward strategy of iteration at a more faster pace to better reserve a significant number of high quality customers as well as including pushing the new model, which has been showing prominent results to better lay a foundation for the next year's growth. Hope that answers your questions, Alex. Operator00:48:54Thank you, Alex. Our next question comes from the line of Yada Lee from CICC. Speaker 100:49:03Please ask your question, Yada. Speaker 500:49:23I will do the translation. Thanks management for taking my questions. And I was wondering if you could elaborate more about how the current loan demand looks like in October November and compared with the previous quarter. Currently, how is the recent trend of the asset quality? And that's all. Speaker 500:49:40Thank you. Speaker 400:51:54At the operational level, the demand growth seen so far in October November was down slightly compared to the Q3 and no significant recovery seen. So specifically, the demand level were slightly weaker in October compared to the 3rd quarter, probably ranging in the mid single digits. And from the point of view that the average daily demand in November up to now benefiting from the boost of Double 11 e commerce festival compared with the level 3rd quarter is basically flattish. However, considering the year end seasonality factors, including the bank's year end spike tightening and the recent trend of overall capital growth shifting to government and real estate assets, We maintained a cautious and conservative stance on the 4th quarter volumes. And in terms of the asset quality, as Jared mentioned earlier, in the Q4, the factors affecting our asset quality persisted, mainly because of the macro economy still in a period of steady recovery as well as the growth. Speaker 400:52:59And the impact of the anti collection industry has been expected the rate of our collection rate to a certain extent. And it seems that we are currently under pressure on the quality of assets and the various risk indicators have been fluctuating. However, we have actively taken various countermeasures to deal with the fluctuations caused by external factors such as increasing the proportion of our own inbound pauses and continuously iterating our risk management model And the volatility of risk will put some pressure on the growth for the Q1, that's for sure, but we are doing measures to combat that. Hope that answers your question, So just to add one last point, in terms of the results that we're getting and the progress we're getting for new customer acquisitions, in the future, we're hoping with the promising size and evolving that comes out of new customers as well as the cost being lowered for new customer acquisitions, as well as the risk level looking very promising and good right now. It should be a very good factor for us in the future. Speaker 400:54:45It should be helping whether it's on our asset quality side or the operational side in the future. So I hope that answers your question, Yara. Operator00:54:55Thank you, Yara. Our next question comes from the line of Betty Li from CLSA. Speaker 100:55:03Please go ahead, Betty. Speaker 600:55:36I will translate by myself. The first one, given the current loan guidance, I think the company is in good track in maintaining in the full year loan origination. So I just wonder if you have any outlook for the 2024 loan demand? The second one is, I just wonder if the company has any further share buyback plans? Thank you. Speaker 200:56:07Okay. I will take the question. Basically, first question is related to the outlook. Second question is about the buyback, right? Basically, for the macro perspective, we still believe there is a considerable amount of uncertainty in the Q4. Speaker 200:56:26The overall recovery of the consumption still remain relatively slow. At the same time, because of the typical kind of seasonal factor of funding supply in the Q4 is a little bit tight, So we expect that the overall lending volume in Q4 to be broadly in line with Q3, okay? This is 1. 2, obviously, we have other factors affecting the seasonal asset quality. These factors continue to exist, as mentioned earlier, right? Speaker 200:56:551 is the macro kind of still the growth is a little bit slow. And also, the within the loan industry, the impact of the combating illicit financial activities related to the debt collection, this is still kind of affecting the rate of entry into the collection and also the assets from the collection, okay? So based on this, the overall kind of asset quality is still under slight pressure at this point. The short term risk indicators have still shown some fluctuations. So based on all of this, we have basically continued to maintain a prudent approach for Q4, really adhering to the principles of prioritization risks and prudent management. Speaker 200:57:40And up to now, as a reminder, actually, we have maintained a pretty good rate of growth. We have completed about RMB188 1,000,000,000 so far for the 1st 3 quarters of this year. Really, this is about 26 0.7% year over year growth, okay? So we're going to continue we're confident we'll continue to achieve the 245,000,000,000 to 155,000,000,000 yen GAV growth. This will be 20% to 25%. Speaker 200:58:12And in terms of 2024, we're probably going to wait until after we close this year to give more guidance. By that time, hopefully, we have more certainty about the overall macros next year. Okay? That's the first question. The second question in terms of any buyback plans. Speaker 200:58:31As a matter of fact, the Board has approved 2 buyback plans last year. We completed about 50,000,000 buyback earlier part of this year, and then the Board authorized RMB20 1,000,000 buyback in November last year. For that, we haven't done anything yet. But in last quarter, we have declared a dividend plan. Basically, we declared we're going to pay out from 15% to 30% of our net income as a dividend payout range. Speaker 200:59:05So the first half of this year, we paid out 20% of our net income, and we have completed paying out the dividend in the last month or so. So we'll continue to look for ways to return value to our shareholders. Basically, when we close the end of this year, we're going to come back to look at our dividend planning again, see whether we should continue to pay out for the second half of the dividend for this year, okay? So basically, upholding the shareholder value is the number one priority for us. Thank you. Speaker 200:59:40Hopefully, that answers your question. Operator00:59:43Thank you, Betty. We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'll now turn the conference back to the company for any additional closing comments. Speaker 100:59:55Well, I think that closed our conference call today. Thank you again, everyone, for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact us via our IR contact information on the IR website. Thank you all. Have a good day and a good night. Speaker 201:00:11Thank you. Okay. Bye bye. Operator01:00:14Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Key Takeaways Lexin reported a 30.4% year-over-year revenue increase to RMB3.5 billion, with transaction volume up 13% to RMB63.3 billion and net profit rising 34.4% to RMB371 million in Q3. Through refined operations, Lexin boosted new-customer acquisition efficiency by 38.5%, cut early‐stage delinquency by nearly 20%, and lowered offline sales expenses by 9.5% quarter-over-quarter. The tech empowerment business grew 59% sequentially and has been validated by multiple banks, while e-commerce synergies drove a 12.8% year-over-year GMV gain and 51% growth in new merchants. Strategic bank partnerships helped Lexin achieve a record low funding cost of 6.4% (down 21 bps QoQ), contributing to a 10.6% net margin and improved profitability. Maintaining a prudent risk management stance, the company upheld full-year loan origination guidance of RMB245–255 billion (20–25% YoY growth) while provisioning at a 350% coverage for 90-day delinquencies. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallLexinFintech Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K) LexinFintech Earnings HeadlinesLexinFintech: Macroeconomic Tailwinds Boosts ProfitsJune 13 at 4:01 AM | seekingalpha.comLexinFintech Holdings First Quarter 2025 Earnings: EPS: CN¥2.55 (vs CN¥1.22 in 1Q 2024)May 23, 2025 | uk.finance.yahoo.comMarket Panic: Trump Just Dropped a Bomb on Your Stockstock Market Panic: Trump Just Dropped a Bomb on Your Stocks The market is in freefall—and Trump's new tariffs just lit the fuse. Millions of investors are blindsided as stocks plunge… but this is only Phase 1. If you're still holding the wrong assets, you could lose 30% or more in the coming weeks.June 13, 2025 | American Alternative (Ad)LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:LX) Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 23, 2025 | msn.comLexinFintech Holdings Ltd. (LX) Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 22, 2025 | seekingalpha.comLexin Delivers Strong Q1 2025 Results with Profit at a Three-Year High, Highlighting the Growing Strength of Its Multi-Business EcosystemMay 22, 2025 | globenewswire.comSee More LexinFintech Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like LexinFintech? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on LexinFintech and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About LexinFintechLexinFintech (NASDAQ:LX), through its subsidiaries, provides online consumer finance services in the People's Republic of China. The company operates Fenqile.com, an online consumption and consumer finance platform that offers installment purchase and personal installment loans, as well as online direct sales with installment payment terms; and Le Hua Card, a scenario-based lending. It also provides technology-driven platform services for financial institution customers and partners to increase revenues, manage financial risks, enhance operating efficiency and service quality, enhance collections, and reduce overall costs; Maiya application, a location-based services shopping experience with buy-now and pay-later options; and Juzi Licai, an online investment platform. In addition, the company offers technical support and consulting, software development, financing guarantee, and financial technology services. The company was formerly known as Staging Finance Holding Ltd. and changed its name to LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. in March 2017. LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.View LexinFintech ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Broadcom Slides on Solid Earnings, AI Outlook Still StrongFive Below Pops on Strong Earnings, But Rally May StallRed Robin's Comeback: Q1 Earnings Spark Investor HopesOllie’s Q1 Earnings: The Good, the Bad, and What’s NextBroadcom Earnings Preview: AVGO Stock Near Record HighsUlta’s Beautiful Q1 Earnings Report Points to More Gains Aheade.l.f. 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Lisingfintech's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:39It is now my pleasure to hand you over to the IR Director, Ms. Mandy Dong. Please go ahead, ma'am. Speaker 100:00:48Thank you, Amber. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Lexin's Q3 2023 earnings conference call. All results were issued earlier today and can be found on our IR website. Joining me today are our CEO, Jay Xiao President, Jared Wu and CFO, James Zheng. Speaker 100:01:12Before we get started, I'd like to remind you of our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call. During the call, we may refer to business outlook and forward looking statements, which are based on our current plans, estimates and projections. The actual results may differ materially and we undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements. Thus, unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB. Jay will first provide an update on our overall performance. Speaker 100:01:52James will cover the financial results in more details. And lastly, Jared will then discuss risk management. I will now turn the call over to Jay. His remarks will be in Chinese and the English translation will follow. Hello, everyone. Speaker 100:02:17It's our pleasure to share with you our performance for the Q3 of 2023. In the face of the current industry wide and macroeconomic challenges, we adopted our prudent and steady strategy in the Q3. Despite a slight volatility in asset quality, we reasonably tightened our risk strategy to balance growth and quality. In the Q3, we adhered to the dual wheel drive of risk and data, pushed forward the refinement of operations and continued to strengthen our fundamental capabilities, recording another solid growth performance. Transaction volume was RMB63.3 billion, up 13% year over year. Speaker 100:03:55Loan balance under management was RMB120.7 billion, up 28% year over year. Revenue was RMB3.5 billion, up 30.4% year over year. Net profit was RMB371 1,000,000, up 34.4% year over year. In the 3rd quarter, the effectiveness of both new customer acquisition and existing customer operation was further improved. The synergies between e commerce and the consumer credit business were further enhanced and the tech empowerment business continued to grow. Speaker 100:04:56With its commercialization capability being validated and we are accelerating its expansion. There were 3 main highlights of the 3rd quarter results. Firstly, refined operations have led to improved efficiency in both acquiring new customers and managing existing ones. In terms of new customers, we made a major upgrade on our new customer acquisition model and strategy in the 3rd quarter, resulting in notable achievements. The efficiency of attracting customer through feed channel increased by 38.5% compared to the Q1. Speaker 100:06:18The approval rate, number of drawdown borrowers and the facilitated loan volume for new customers all showed improvement of over 20% compared to the control group. Additionally, early stage delinquency indicator decreased by nearly 20%. We expect both the scale and quality of new customers to continue to benefit in the 4th quarter. In the Q3, we further enhanced our offline customer acquisition capabilities. This included upgrading the organizational structure of the offline inclusive finance in Chinese, Hu Hui team, improving the sales management system, strengthening the cultivation of standardized talent and enhancing the ability to accurately identify offline customers. Speaker 100:07:50These efforts solidified the advantages of our offline direct customer acquisition model, resulting in a decrease in overall customer acquisition cost. Sales expenses in the 3rd quarter declined by 9.5% compared to the 2nd quarter. We see more potential and opportunities for offline growth in the future and will continue to deepen our presence in this unique business Speaker 200:08:29model. Speaker 100:08:48In terms of existing users, we maintained a steady operation and strengthened the underlying capability building for model application, further enhanced our service capabilities. During the quarter, we introduced more data sources and built an identification system centered around the credit system of PBOC. We improved the model framework for the entire customer acquisition, risk management and operational life cycle. The sequencing and the stability of the model were improved by 10% to 20% over the previous version. In the Q3, we utilized the enterprise WeChat for user operations, which has accumulated 700,000 borrowers and improved service efficiency and satisfaction. Speaker 100:10:07Through refined operations, target high quality customer groups via enterprise WeChat compared to the traditional method, we achieved a nearly 65% increase in customer order rates and 100 and 7% increase in transaction volume. In the Q3, our product grew a game card priced below 18%, 1 8% and targeted towards high quality customer segments delivered satisfying progress. After using Lejing Heart, users' willingness to place order and the transaction volume has been significantly improved. The order rate, average transaction volume per person and the total transaction volume all experienced around an 80% increase. This effectively enhanced the engagement of high quality active borrowers and the facilitated the return of more high quality settled users, expanding the scope and the opportunities for managing our premium user base. Speaker 100:12:18The second highlight was the continued growth of Leuxing Ecosystem and the further enhancement of synergies. Firstly, the tech empowerment business. After achieving quarterly profit in the Q4 of last year, the scale of this business line grew further with a 59% sequential increase in the Q3. After nearly 2 years of exploration, we have completed upgrades in solutions, diversified our product portfolio and validated the standardized capabilities in systems and deliverables, which was well recognized by multiple urban and rural commercial banks. The 59% growth rate further validated the commercialization capability of our tech empowerment business, although it currently accounts for a small proportion Luexin's overall business. Speaker 100:14:00In the context of increasingly refined industry regulations and the downward trend in consumer credit market interest rate and tech empowerment business can help banks quickly undergo retail credit digitalization transformation with tremendous market potential. It can also bring better synergy for funding cooperation and drive deeper and broader collaboration between Lexin and the financial institutions. Currently, the tech empowerment business team is accelerating its expansion and will cover more city and the rural commercial banks to further expand the scale. Secondly, our e commerce business brought out more value in terms of customer new acquisition and activating existing ones, further enhancing the synergies with our core consumer credit business. In the Q3, our e commerce division continued to solidify its highest level authorization for Apple T1 and Huawei L1, maintaining advantages in skills and initial supply. Speaker 100:15:50This further boosted consumer spending on our e commerce platform. Taking Huawei as an example, sales of the new Mate 60 series and X5 reached a record high for the year in the 3rd quarter with an approximately 60 percent increase in revenue compared to last year's Mate 50 products. In addition to our strength in the consumer electronics 3C category, we introduced more high quality new brands and the merchants onto our platform in the Q3, covering categories that are favored by young generation such as luxury goods, sports and past goods. The number of new merchants reached 241, representing a sequential growth of 51% in brand coverage. With the addition of more merchants and expansion of product categories, a large number of existing users have been activated leading to a stimulation between e commerce and consumer credit business. Speaker 100:17:44During the Double 11 Shopping Festival, the period from November 1 to 11, the growth in the e commerce consumer base resulted in a notable increase in transaction volume from high quality active customer double R1 to R3 with a sequential increase of approximately 12.4%. At the same time, these active consumer credit users further drove e commerce spending, creating a reinforcing cycle within our business ecosystem. 3rd highlight is the data driven approach to improve quality and efficiency, further enhancing our profitability. In the 3rd quarter, we implemented a series of data driven measures to improve our operational efficiency. These measures included applying data tools such as user life cycle models to strengthen precision operations, enhancing the efficiency of funds and asset matching through decision simulation system and improving the customer retention rate for settled users. Speaker 100:19:50The drop in funding cost has further improved profitability. In the Q3, the company achieved significant optimization of our funding structure and entered into strategic partnership with multiple major banks, including national wide joint stock banks. Funding costs reached a new record low, a 21 bps drop on a Q on Q basis. The rapid development of our business also relies on continuous investments in technology and research and development. In the Q3, our company invested RMB127 1,000,000 in research and development, maintaining our industry leading position. Speaker 100:21:23During the quarter, we accelerated the development of the use case of AI large language models in our business through exclusive data pre training and fine tuning of business data. In terms of business application, we have already fully implemented the AI model in key business process such as telemarketing, customer service and loan collection. In terms of working tools, the AI model is widely applied in scenarios such as coding assistant tools, generating design ideas and data analysis, enhancing the overall operational efficiency of the company. In terms of risk management, we are closely watching the industry trends and actively exploring the use case of AI large language models. These initiatives have significantly improved the overall operational efficiency and the customer With solid technology advantages, in the Q3, Lutin has been selected for the 4th time as one of the top 500 Chinese service companies, making us the only FinTech company on the list for 4 times. Speaker 100:23:22In terms of corporate social responsibility, in the 3rd quarter, we made major upgrades to our consumer rights protection measures upon the foundation of our 5S Guardian system. We have carried out 4 major initiatives. 1, strengthening our data security management system 2, enhancing anti fraud protection capabilities 3, expanding intelligent customer service application and 4, intensifying efforts to combat illegal anti collection groups. These measures collectively established a comprehensive safety firewall for consumers. From January to August this year, Lexin intercepted 160,000,000 instances of data security attacks, maintaining a record of 0 data leaks since the launch of the data protection and governance system. Speaker 100:25:10The anti fraud system has prevented potential user losses for over RMB270 1,000,000 and customer satisfaction has reached 99.6%. Looking ahead to the 4th quarter, in the face of a complex and uncertain external environment, we will adhere to the principle of prudent operation and prioritize risk management. We will continue to enhance risk management capabilities and improve asset quality, while striking a fine balance between transaction volume and asset quality. We maintain the guidance on full year loan origination we gave earlier this year ranging from RMB245 1,000,000,000 to RMB255 1,000,000,000, representing a 20% to 25% year over year growth. Next, I will pass to our CFO for financial updates. Speaker 200:26:20Thank you, Jay. I will now provide more details on our financial results. Please note that all numbers are in RMB unless otherwise stated. In the face of a sluggish macroeconomic environment and a subdued consumer confidence, we have sustained our growth for the 6th straight quarter, signaling a robust V shaped recovery since the Q1 of 2022. Our focus on improving risk management capabilities, customer upgrading, operational refinement, cost savings initiatives and optimizing our funding, particularly by lowering the early repayment rate, has prepared us forward this quarter. Speaker 200:27:06Amidst the ongoing economic uncertainties, our strategy has been prudent. We have moderated new loan originations to prioritize asset quality and conservatively made ample provisions in our financials, which, while impacting us in the near term, supports us our long term financial health. To provide some context, first, let's take a look at the year over year number comparisons. Total loan origination increased by 12.7% year over year to RMB63.3 billion. Revenue climbed to RMB3.5 billion, up 30.4% year over year, largely due to reduced early repayments and larger outstanding loan balance, now at RMB121 1,000,000,000. Speaker 200:27:58Notably, we significantly cut the early repayment ratio in Q3 to a level at about 90% of Q2's level and aim to keep it optimal in Q4. The average weighted APR remained under 24%, with loans below this threshold comprising 86% of total loans, up over 5% from last year. Our funding cost hit a record low of 6.4%, down from 7.0% last year, attributable in part to successful partnerships with the national banks, which we anticipate will further reduce costs. Loan tenders decreased as we fine tuned our portfolio structure in response to the market uncertainty, averaging 13.1 months compared to 13.8 in Q3 of 2022. Cost efficiencies continued with operating expenses, including processing and services, sales and marketing, R and D and G and A falling to 0.91 percent of the average loan balance, a 35 basis point saving from the previous year. Speaker 200:29:23Consequently, net income rose to RMB371,000,000, a 30 4 point 4% increase year over year, improving our net margin to 10.6%. Despite the heightened provisions, the increase underscores our resilient profitability and the business momentum. Apart from the above year over year analysis, I would also like to share some perspectives from quarter over quarter comparisons. Total GMV remained relatively stable as we balanced maintaining asset quality with business growth. A slight take rate improvement reflects effective early repayment control and reduced funding costs, although offset by pricing reductions, shorter loan durations and additional provisioning. Speaker 200:30:21Risk management remains a cornerstone strategy, yet factors like the slow economic recovery and challenges within the loan collection industry have slightly affected the asset quality as reflected in metrics such as day 1 delinquency rate, M1 collection rate and 90 days delinquency rate. For instance, our 90 days delinquency rate in Q3 was 2.67%, which is slightly higher in comparison with 2.59% in Q2. Nonetheless, we have adjusted our bad debt provisions, reaching a coverage ratio of approximately 3 50%, which is defined as the total provision amount divided by the principal amount of 90 days delinquent loans. The current fluctuation in asset quality across industry seems to continue to cloud Q4. We are vigilant and have taken all measures to safeguard our asset quality level. Speaker 200:31:32Operating expenses fell by 7.2% from the last quarter, primarily from reduced sales and marketing and general administrative spending. With increased provisions from Q2, we still achieved a 4.2% sequential growth in net income and maintained a 10.6% net margin. From both year over year and quarter over quarter perspectives, we have made significant improvements during Q3. Although macro headwinds persist, we have maintained the rebounding pace of our business and anticipate the business growth momentum to continue. Let's review some specific financial items. Speaker 200:32:20Total operating revenue hit RMB3.5 billion for Q3, with an increase of 14.8 percent quarter over quarter and 30.4% year over year, driven mainly by the credit facilitation business, which saw a significant increase both quarterly and annually. Tech empowerment services also grew, while installment e commerce platform service revenue declined due to the high Q2 numbers driven by the 618 promotion and an accounting reclassification. Despite of all this, the e commerce GMV grew by 12.8% year over year. Expense ratio demonstrates our continued progress in cost optimization, notably in marketing, where we have achieved greater efficiency and lower customer acquisition costs. The sales and marketing expenses decreased by 9.4% quarter over quarter and decreased by 3.3% year over year, which was mainly due to the improved efficiency of upgraded RTA customer acquisition models. Speaker 200:33:37In Q3, new users with approved credit lines increased 15.1% and new active users increased 8.2% on a quarter over quarter basis, indicating a lower customer acquisition cost in Q3. Net profit for the quarter was approximately RMB371 1,000,000 marking steady increase with a 4.2% growth quarter over quarter and a 34.4% growth year over year. Our cash position is strong, ending the quarter with around RMB5 1,000,000,000 in hand and a solid equity position of RMB9.8 billion. In Q3, we have declared a recurring cash dividend plan and paid out a cash dividend for the first half of twenty twenty three, amounting around US19 $1,000,000 equivalent to roughly 20% of the total net profit for the first half of twenty twenty three. Looking forward, we will continue to look for ways to return more value to shareholders. Speaker 200:34:49Looking ahead to the rest of 2023, given the current macros and the pressure on asset quality throughout the industry, we remain conservative in loan origination pacing. We maintain the earlier guidance of annual GMV amount of RMB245,000,000,000 to RMB255,000,000,000 growth, which represents a 20% to 25% year over year. These estimates reflect our current expectations, which is subject to change. To sum up, Q3 marks our 6th consecutive growth quarter. Our key strategies, risk management, customer enhancement, operational refinement and the cost efficiency are all paying off. Speaker 200:35:38As we navigate ongoing macro and the industry challenges, we will maintain our focus on asset control, measured business expansion and operational optimization, poised to seize opportunities as they arise. Now I will hand over to Jerry Wu, our President, to discuss our approach on risk management in detail. Jerry, please take it from here. Speaker 100:36:50Thank you, Jing. In the 3rd quarter, we continued to step up our efforts in honing our holistic risk management system and optimizing our customer base on the grounds of our corporate strategy, risk management upgrading and customer base upgrading, which yield consistent results. Although we continued to improve our risk management capabilities, our loan collection rate experienced some fluctuations due to the slow recovery of macro provisions and the rise of illegal anti collection activities recently. We anticipate these impacts from these factors may last into Q4. Therefore, we are guilt into a more prudent risk management approach going forward. Speaker 100:37:42Meanwhile, we rolled out a series of countermeasures to mitigate these impacts on loan collection. For instance, in the collection process, we have set up our internal collection workforce and leverage the advantages of internal collection manpower. And we also increased the proportion of menu case handling to uphold the collection rate. During the Q3, through continuous optimization of our RTA model and the risk models for new customer credit line approval, we achieved a 50 percent improvement in customer acquisition efficiency and a 20% reduction in new customer risk levels. In Q4, we will gradually amplify our experimental flow and continue to rapidly advance strategies iteration, striving to accumulate a sufficient number of high quality customers this year and laid a solid foundation for next year's growth. Speaker 100:39:30In the Q3, we accelerated the recruitment of top notch industry talents in risk management space, further enhanced our core competitiveness. We anticipate their professional skills and extensive experience in risk management space will assist us to achieve more breakthroughs, Adhering to the risk management driven principle, we will continue to build up our industry leading risk management team. Looking ahead, in the face of the current macroeconomic situation, In Q4, we will continue to adhere to the principle of risk management first, adopt a prudent strategy and at the same time continue to enhance our underlying risk management capabilities and persistently iterate the overall level of our risk management. Operator, let's close all our prepared management remarks. I think we are now good to open the floor for questions. Operator00:40:49Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Alex Yeh from UBS. Please ask your question, Alex. Speaker 300:42:07I have two questions. The first one is regarding the management remarks about the successful control in early repayment ratio in Q3, which helped you increase the revenue pay rate. Could you share with some more color in terms of the specific measures taken and provide us with some color into the your expectation for the Q4? And second question is about your new customer acquisition. We have noticed good progress in Q3 in terms of both lower customer acquisition costs and number of new customers acquired. Speaker 300:42:40So could you also give more color on this? Thank you. Speaker 400:44:44Thank you, Alex. So in the Q3, we set up a special task that was directed by the company's management level and then spanning multiple departments such as operations to determine based on the customers' outstanding balance or as well as the credit line to decide the best coupon strategies based on their own performances to better determine whether they are like me to do the repayment early repayment process or not to better avoid our strategic error to cause that. We as well as we issued the suitable and the 5th coupons in order to deter them from doing so, which effectively helped us to reduce the early recruitment rate. And also our task team held weekly meetings to review, adjust and re optimize and achieve a very good result in the Q3. In the Q3, our earlier payment rate was only about 90% of which in the Q2, which significantly improved the take rate level of the revenue. Speaker 400:45:48And then we expect to maintain the strategy as well as the optimized level in the earlier repayment rate to go on in the 4th quarter. Okay. So in Q3, we continued to iterate our ability to acquire new customers and achieve a sustained reduction in the new customer risk. In comparison with the previous quarter, we did a significant new customer risk model upgrade, including incorporating more of the PBOC model usage as well as promoting the RDA model upgrade with our main media channel. Specifically, our customer acquisition efficiency will increase by 50% and reduce new customers' risk by 20%. Speaker 400:47:58And from the pure earnings point of view, sales and marketing expenses decreased by 4% quarter over quarter, but newly registered users increased 9.0% quarter over quarter and new users with approved credit line has increased by 15.1 percent and new active users will increase by 8.2% on a quarter over quarter basis, indicating a much lower customer acquisition cost in the 3rd quarter. Coming in the Q4, we will increase the volume of our comparison as well as the experimental group mentioned before and to continue to push forward strategy of iteration at a more faster pace to better reserve a significant number of high quality customers as well as including pushing the new model, which has been showing prominent results to better lay a foundation for the next year's growth. Hope that answers your questions, Alex. Operator00:48:54Thank you, Alex. Our next question comes from the line of Yada Lee from CICC. Speaker 100:49:03Please ask your question, Yada. Speaker 500:49:23I will do the translation. Thanks management for taking my questions. And I was wondering if you could elaborate more about how the current loan demand looks like in October November and compared with the previous quarter. Currently, how is the recent trend of the asset quality? And that's all. Speaker 500:49:40Thank you. Speaker 400:51:54At the operational level, the demand growth seen so far in October November was down slightly compared to the Q3 and no significant recovery seen. So specifically, the demand level were slightly weaker in October compared to the 3rd quarter, probably ranging in the mid single digits. And from the point of view that the average daily demand in November up to now benefiting from the boost of Double 11 e commerce festival compared with the level 3rd quarter is basically flattish. However, considering the year end seasonality factors, including the bank's year end spike tightening and the recent trend of overall capital growth shifting to government and real estate assets, We maintained a cautious and conservative stance on the 4th quarter volumes. And in terms of the asset quality, as Jared mentioned earlier, in the Q4, the factors affecting our asset quality persisted, mainly because of the macro economy still in a period of steady recovery as well as the growth. Speaker 400:52:59And the impact of the anti collection industry has been expected the rate of our collection rate to a certain extent. And it seems that we are currently under pressure on the quality of assets and the various risk indicators have been fluctuating. However, we have actively taken various countermeasures to deal with the fluctuations caused by external factors such as increasing the proportion of our own inbound pauses and continuously iterating our risk management model And the volatility of risk will put some pressure on the growth for the Q1, that's for sure, but we are doing measures to combat that. Hope that answers your question, So just to add one last point, in terms of the results that we're getting and the progress we're getting for new customer acquisitions, in the future, we're hoping with the promising size and evolving that comes out of new customers as well as the cost being lowered for new customer acquisitions, as well as the risk level looking very promising and good right now. It should be a very good factor for us in the future. Speaker 400:54:45It should be helping whether it's on our asset quality side or the operational side in the future. So I hope that answers your question, Yara. Operator00:54:55Thank you, Yara. Our next question comes from the line of Betty Li from CLSA. Speaker 100:55:03Please go ahead, Betty. Speaker 600:55:36I will translate by myself. The first one, given the current loan guidance, I think the company is in good track in maintaining in the full year loan origination. So I just wonder if you have any outlook for the 2024 loan demand? The second one is, I just wonder if the company has any further share buyback plans? Thank you. Speaker 200:56:07Okay. I will take the question. Basically, first question is related to the outlook. Second question is about the buyback, right? Basically, for the macro perspective, we still believe there is a considerable amount of uncertainty in the Q4. Speaker 200:56:26The overall recovery of the consumption still remain relatively slow. At the same time, because of the typical kind of seasonal factor of funding supply in the Q4 is a little bit tight, So we expect that the overall lending volume in Q4 to be broadly in line with Q3, okay? This is 1. 2, obviously, we have other factors affecting the seasonal asset quality. These factors continue to exist, as mentioned earlier, right? Speaker 200:56:551 is the macro kind of still the growth is a little bit slow. And also, the within the loan industry, the impact of the combating illicit financial activities related to the debt collection, this is still kind of affecting the rate of entry into the collection and also the assets from the collection, okay? So based on this, the overall kind of asset quality is still under slight pressure at this point. The short term risk indicators have still shown some fluctuations. So based on all of this, we have basically continued to maintain a prudent approach for Q4, really adhering to the principles of prioritization risks and prudent management. Speaker 200:57:40And up to now, as a reminder, actually, we have maintained a pretty good rate of growth. We have completed about RMB188 1,000,000,000 so far for the 1st 3 quarters of this year. Really, this is about 26 0.7% year over year growth, okay? So we're going to continue we're confident we'll continue to achieve the 245,000,000,000 to 155,000,000,000 yen GAV growth. This will be 20% to 25%. Speaker 200:58:12And in terms of 2024, we're probably going to wait until after we close this year to give more guidance. By that time, hopefully, we have more certainty about the overall macros next year. Okay? That's the first question. The second question in terms of any buyback plans. Speaker 200:58:31As a matter of fact, the Board has approved 2 buyback plans last year. We completed about 50,000,000 buyback earlier part of this year, and then the Board authorized RMB20 1,000,000 buyback in November last year. For that, we haven't done anything yet. But in last quarter, we have declared a dividend plan. Basically, we declared we're going to pay out from 15% to 30% of our net income as a dividend payout range. Speaker 200:59:05So the first half of this year, we paid out 20% of our net income, and we have completed paying out the dividend in the last month or so. So we'll continue to look for ways to return value to our shareholders. Basically, when we close the end of this year, we're going to come back to look at our dividend planning again, see whether we should continue to pay out for the second half of the dividend for this year, okay? So basically, upholding the shareholder value is the number one priority for us. Thank you. Speaker 200:59:40Hopefully, that answers your question. Operator00:59:43Thank you, Betty. We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'll now turn the conference back to the company for any additional closing comments. Speaker 100:59:55Well, I think that closed our conference call today. Thank you again, everyone, for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact us via our IR contact information on the IR website. Thank you all. Have a good day and a good night. Speaker 201:00:11Thank you. Okay. Bye bye. Operator01:00:14Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by