Bancorp Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Bancorp, Inc. Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Please note today's call will be recorded and I will be standing by if you should need any assistance.

Operator

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Andres Bieraslav. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for The Bancorp's Q2 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. On the call with me today are Damian Kozlowski, Chief Executive Officer and Paul Frenkel, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning's call is being webcast on our website at www.thebancorp.com. There will be a replay of the call available via webcast on our website beginning at approximately 12 pm Eastern Time today.

Speaker 1

The dial in for the replay is 1-eight hundred 934-5153. Before I turn the call over to Damien, I would like to remind everyone that when used in this conference call, the words believes, anticipates, expects and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those anticipated or suggested by such statements. For further discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see The Bancorp's filings with the SEC. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

Speaker 1

The Bancorp undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to forward looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Now I'd like to turn the call over to The Bancorp's Chief Executive Officer, Damian Kozlowski. Damian?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Andres. Good morning, everyone. The Bancorp earned $1.05 a share or $1.07 adjusted for interest on a residual security from the securitization business exited in 2020, with revenue growth year over year of 7% and expense growth of 3%. ROE was 27%. NIM contracted to $4.97 from $5.15 quarter over quarter versus $4.83 year over year.

Speaker 2

This contraction was primarily due to the purchase of $900,000,000 of long term fixed rate securities in April at a 5.11 yield. These purchases have mostly been financed through ongoing FinTech program deposits with limited borrowings. Thus, the impact of NIM has been lower than anticipated. The FinTech Solutions Group continues to show significant growth momentum from the ramp up and expansion of new and existing programs broadly across the portfolio and especially in B2B payments. GDV increased 13% year over year and total fees from all FinTech activities increased 13%.

Speaker 2

This quarter is the first where we will begin to break out our credit sponsorship loan balances and fees in our financial reporting with balances reported as consumer fintech loans. As a key strategic initiative of the bank and objective of our Apex 2,030 strategy, we have spent the last few years building a platform that will enable existing and new partners to issue credit solutions to their customers. These loans will be generally short term and mostly secured by our partners or distribute to investors. Over the next 5 years, we intend to build a diversified group of regulator compliant credit sponsor programs that will mirror our best in class innovative capabilities in our FinTech payments ecosystem. On the lending side, we had year over year growth across the portfolio of 6% led by small business lending with growth of 16% year over year and 4% quarter over quarter.

Speaker 2

Most notably, our institutional book has continued to stabilize and showed incremental growth quarter over quarter of 1%. Concerning our commercial real estate portfolio of multifamily transitional loans, we continue to expect little or no losses due to the current portfolio and individual loan leverage and our underwriting standards for loans at their inception. We recently entered into agreement to sell our 1 OREO multifamily property expected to close in December 24 with a sales price to cover the current other real estate owned balance plus the forecasted cost of improvements in process. Lastly, with continued strong growth in our FinTech activities, including credit sponsorship and growth across our lending portfolio, we are lifting our guidance to $4.35 from $5.25 a share without the impact of $50,000,000 per quarter of share buybacks in 2024. We intend to issue preliminary 2025 guidance in our Q3 press release.

Speaker 2

I now turn over the call to Paul Frankel for more color on the Q1.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Damian. As a result of its variable rate loans and securities, Bancorp performance continues to benefit from the cumulative impact of Federal Reserve rate increases. Additionally, as Damien stated, the purchase of $900,000,000 of fixed rate U. S. Government sponsored agency securities in April 2024 has significantly reduced exposure to future Federal Reserve rate decreases.

Speaker 3

Overnight borrowings for the quarter averaged $92,000,000 as the majority of the purchases were funded by deposits. While deposits generally declined in the 2nd quarter with continuing reductions in tax refund related balances, this quarter deposits on average increased over $200,000,000 compared to the Q1 of 2024. At an estimated average 5.11 percent yield, the securities purchases had only a modest impact on current income, while significant prepayment protection is reflected in estimated 8 year weighted average lives. Additionally, the bank continues to emphasize fixed rate loans to continue to further reduce lower rate exposure to modest levels. In addition to the impact of the Federal Reserve rate increases, the company benefited from loan growth with year over year decreases in SBLOC and IBLOC significantly offset by increases in other higher yielding lending categories.

Speaker 3

In Q2 2024, SBLOC and iBLOC reversed trend from net quarterly decline since the Q4 of 2022 to net growth in Q2 2024 notwithstanding the persistence of higher rates. We believe that higher rates have resulted in payoffs from customer sensitivity. The impact of the aforementioned Federal Reserve rate increases on variable rate loans and securities and lesser increases in deposit rates with growth in higher yielding loan categories was reflected in an 8% increase in net interest income in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023. As a result, in Q2 2024, the yield on interest earning assets had increased to 7.3% from 7% in Q2 2023 or an increase of 0.3%. The cost of funds in those respective periods increased by only 0.1% to 2.5%.

Speaker 3

Those factors were reflected in the 4.97 percent NIM in Q2 2024. The provision for credit losses was $1,300,000 in Q2 2024 compared to $361,000 in Q2 2023. Provision for credit losses in Q2 2024 reflected the impact of $1,400,000 of leasing net charge offs, while the majority of such charge offs had been previously reserved. The largest single component of leasing charge offs was local trucking As described in our press release, the As described in our press release, the company entered into a purchase and sale agreement with a year end 2024 closing deadline with a $39,400,000 balance apartment loan, which was reported as non accrual last quarter and which now comprise the majority of other real estate owned. Non accrual loans, loans 90 days still accruing and other real estate owned totaled $77,100,000 at June 30, 2024 compared to $76,700,000 at March 31, 2024.

Speaker 3

While a $12,300,000 loan became delinquent during Q2 2024 after having been modified with a payment deferral, the as is and as stabilized LTVs for related collateral are 72% 56% based on a May 2024 appraisal. While the macroeconomic environment has challenged the multifamily bridge space, the stability of Bancorp's rehabilitation bridge loan portfolio is evidenced by the estimated value's underlying collateral. The $2,100,000,000 apartment bridge lending portfolio has a weighted average origination date as is LTV of 70% based on 3rd party appraisals. Further, the weighted average origination date as stabilized LTV, which measures the estimated value of the apartments after the rehabilitation is complete, may provide even greater protection. 1 of the accounting estimates is described in the notes to our financial statements is the allowance for credit losses, which is sensitive to a variety of inherent portfolio and external factors.

Speaker 3

REBL may be one of the more sensitive portfolios to such factors. In the Q2 of 2024, rebel loans classified as either special mention or substandard increased to 177,100,000 from $165,200,000 at March 31, 2024. Each classified loan was evaluated for potential increase in the allowance for credit losses on the basis of 3rd party appraisals of related apartment building collateral. On the basis of as is and as stabilized loan to values, increases in the allowance for specific loans were not required. The respected weighted average as is and as stable LTVs of those classified loans were 81% 69%.

Speaker 3

The current allowance for credit losses for Rebel is primarily based upon historical industry losses for multifamily loans in the absence of significant historical losses within the company's REVO portfolio. However, as a result of increasing amounts of loan classified as special mention and substandard, the company will evaluate potential related sensitivity of that factor for Rebel. This evaluation is inherently subjective as it requires material estimates that may be susceptible to change as more information becomes available. Non interest expense for Q2 2024 was $51,400,000 which was 3% higher than Q2 2023. The increase included a 2% increase in salaries and benefits, higher FDIC insurance expense reflecting higher levels of deposits and higher other real estate owned expense.

Speaker 3

Book value per share at quarter end increased 15% to $15.77 compared to $13.74 a year earlier, reflecting the impact of retained earnings. In summary, the Bancorp's balance sheet has a risk profile enhanced by the special nature of the collateral supporting its loan niches and related underwriting. Those loan niches have contributed to increased earnings levels even during periods in which markets have experienced various economic stresses. Real estate bridge lending is comprised of workforce housing, which we consider to be working class apartments at more affordable rental rates in selected states. We believe that underwriting requirements provide significant protection against loss as supported by LTV ratios based on 3rd party appraisals.

Speaker 3

SBLOC and IBLOC loans are respectively collateralized by marketable securities in the cash value of life insurance, while SBA loans are either 7 loans that come with significant government related guarantees or SBA 405 loans that are made at 50% to 60% LTVs. Additional details regarding our loan portfolios are included in the related tables in our press release as are the earnings contributions of our payments businesses, which further enhances our risk profile. The risk profile inherent in the company's loan portfolios, payments funding sources and our earnings levels may present opportunities to further increase shareholder value while still prudently maintaining capital levels. Such opportunities include the recently concluded share repurchases of $100,000,000 for Q2 of 2024 from the original 50,000,000 dollars I will now turn the call back to Damian.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Paul. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

The floor is now open for questions. Our first question will come from David Feaster with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning everybody.

Speaker 2

Good morning, David.

Speaker 5

I wanted to first touch on

Speaker 4

the Rebel book quick. I was hoping to get a bit more update on that Rebel OREO loan. It's great to see the buyer lined up. Still a decent amount of time for that close though. I guess, could you talk about the plans in the intermediate term with the construction and timeline for that?

Speaker 4

And then just with the non accrual migration you've seen more broadly, is there any commonality with where you're seeing that migration from a regional perspective or anything?

Speaker 2

So, first part is, it's on track. It's the property in Houston and we should be pretty much finished with the work going through the summer to the close. And so the buyer is involved and has done due diligence on the property and is involved in the plan, the executed plan. The trend in the book is really from that 2021, 2022 vintage. Once again, there's been stress because of the rise of interest rates and also the supply problems that were that happened during the pandemic.

Speaker 2

So you get a when you're not on plan and you're off that plan, it could be time or cost, it will be have a weakness and that weakness may drive that loan into substandard. So that's the credit migration that we've seen. So we're working very diligently with our sponsors in order to help them if they're off plan. Usually if there's any significant off plan, the sponsor will put in additional equity or we won't disperse our own funds. So most of them are we don't have a lot of non paying at this point, which is a very good sign.

Speaker 2

And there's clearly pools of capital and sponsors who have or who are in the market now looking for these opportunities. When you have these low leverage levels, there is capital available to recap these loans as we've demonstrated here with that Aubrey loan. So there could be more credit migration, but we're not seeing losses at this point.

Speaker 4

Okay. That's helpful. And then obviously the regulatory backdrop is challenging. We've seen some competitors under pressure. But I'm curious, how does this benefit you and your pipeline?

Speaker 4

I mean, look, understanding your pipeline is always full. We've talked about that in the past. But have you seen any shift? Are you seeing, maybe stronger or higher quality partners come to you? And is this giving you maybe more pricing power, just kind of given the strength of your platform?

Speaker 4

Curious what you're seeing.

Speaker 2

Yes. And there's no doubt that's happening. We can't facilitate there is broad dislocation across the entire banking as a service space and a lot of regulatory scrutiny. Things like 3rd party risk management, model risk management, fair lending, BSA AML, all these things are under scrutiny with the regulators. And we've invested over the last 7 years in building a portfolio and totally rebuilding our middle office and technology and compliance envelope to be compliant with regulatory expectations.

Speaker 2

So but we can't take smaller programs. There's been incoming is substantial and we're working with large partners who are potentially looking to move because of the regulatory scrutiny. And no doubt, it does have an effect, a positive effect on pricing. We've maintained basically our pricing over the last 5 years. It hasn't really moved very much.

Speaker 2

And but our costs have gone down because our platform is very scalable. So you don't see a big build in our cost structure and that's due to the fact that we're incredibly scalable. So incremental programs do have a big impact on profitability because of the scalability of the cost, but also the size of the programs we're putting on. Usually, they're much more profitable upfront too and they bear the cost of implementation and they're tiered. So, as they grow their volume substantially, the pricing will adjust, but it gets more profitable because of the scalability of the platform.

Speaker 6

Okay. Okay.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from Tim Switzer with KBW. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thank you guys for taking my questions. I have kind of a follow-up on the BaaS regulatory landscape here. So the Fed and some of the other regulators published a joint press release yesterday, kind of discussing the risk of what they call third party deposit arrangements and they requested additional information from participants. Can you provide your thoughts on how regulator expectations are changing for these BaaS partnerships?

Speaker 6

And if you think there are any significant rule changes coming, particularly given the developments over, I mean, you said the last year, but particularly with the Synapse situation, it's kind of gotten a lot of media headlines and might start to get some politician attention as well?

Speaker 2

The regulatory expectation is that if you're doing these banking and service arrangements that you have to validate the operations on a 3rd party basis. So, it's they really think of it as you running the business that it's not outside of you. So you have 3rd party risk management, BSA, AML, consumer compliance, Reg E, whatever it is, you have to overlook and assure that it's compliant. And I think that because the industry grew so quickly, there were a lot of small players, a lot of smaller players got into the market without building out sufficient infrastructure that the regulators are now going back and ensuring that that's true. And they've obviously gone back and there's been inadequacies in people's ability to demonstrate that validation.

Speaker 2

And so while we were under scrutiny, obviously years ago and under consent orders and we worked very closely with the FDIC and now with the OCC and the Novel Banking Group, I think we had a big head start on creating that compliant model and making sure that that validation can happen. And that lowers as far as the regulators view, you're more compliant in your far lower risk. And so now obviously, now that scrutiny has come to the industry, we're already at the finish line and people now have to catch up. The thing I would say is to be that compliant platform that can do that validation is incredibly expensive. So we have a fair amount of broad verticals, 15.

Speaker 2

We have great positions across many industries. So we have the volume and the ability to invest in that platform. So it's unlikely that everyone in the industry would be able to do that and some have exited. And so that dislocation will continue for some time.

Speaker 6

Okay, understood. That was a great summary. I guess just to be a little bit more specific to the Bancorp, do you think there's anything because the regulators have kind of had this expectation for a while that just really cracking down on it. Do you think there's anything new that would maybe I know you're continuing to invest quite a bit, but is there anything new the regulators might come out with or change your expectation a little bit that will change how you operate or require a little bit additional investment to stay ahead of it?

Speaker 2

So, we always invest in the front. So, it took us years to we didn't get into credit sponsorship in 3 months. We've been investing in that platform for years. We're going to do the same thing with embedded finance as we now are starting to build that platform. And we work very, very closely with the regulators to understand their expectations and we adjust it ongoing, right?

Speaker 2

So of course, as a leader in this space, increased scrutiny will be placed on all our competitors, large and small, but also will be increased on us. But we've got such a multiyear head start in time and investment that it's far easier for us to adjust. And this has been going on for years because when we were in trouble with the consent orders, there wasn't great agreement at the time, I believe, in the regulatory bodies of exactly how you regulate that validation process I was talking about, that compliant third party risk management. And I think there's a lot more contextual understanding by both the industry and the regulators now. So that's some of the problem that the smaller players are having and be able to make those type of investments with much more lower volume, much earlier stage programs.

Speaker 2

So they're going to have a greater dislocation between expectations and actuality. And so we don't expect to have a big dislocation. We're going to continue to improve our platform as regulators change their expectations. We will invest the necessary resources, whatever they are, in order to meet those expectations. However, if they change it too much, it's likely to affect everybody else more than us because we're closer we're by definition going to be closer to those expectations on an ongoing basis.

Speaker 6

Okay. Totally understood. Thank you. I'll jump back in the queue.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good morning. Good morning, Frank. Given the what I think is still limited supply for new credit in this rebel sector, is it safe to assume that that Bancorp would be financing the sale of this property in Houston?

Speaker 2

No, we'll be out of that property. There'll be new financing in place.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. And then Paul, I think you mentioned that you take a look at your criticized classifieds here even in lieu of any historic losses. You could would consider, I guess, and tell me if I'm power phasing correctly that you consider reserve builds here in that book. And I'm just wondering how we would think about that as we sit today. Is that potentially meaningful or just incremental?

Speaker 5

Potential risk to the $4.35 target? Just how we should think about the potential for any reserve builds over the next couple of quarters?

Speaker 3

So we looked at each of the special mention and substandard loans and none of them required an individual reserve. So as we've been saying, we don't expect any losses notwithstanding that our classified loans are up. But CECL requires you to look at sensitivity to various factors and clearly, if there are loans that have some type of issue, then you should take a special look at the trends in those loans and the possible impact on the allowance for credit losses. So that's what we're doing. And so yes, it is possible that we would recognize some additional provision.

Speaker 3

And yes, that would impact the guidance. But as I said before, we don't really expect any losses. So I think you have to make that differentiation. If CECL there's some way that CECL implies that there is additional allowance, then we would take that, but we don't expect any actual losses.

Speaker 6

Okay.

Speaker 5

And I guess that's a process ongoing now And well, just one last one before I re queue. Just in terms of the move in the share price here, the new guy, just want to make sure just in terms of the current buyback, the plan, obviously, you doubled it up in the Q2, but the buyback to $50,000,000 a quarter, is that still something you guys are very comfortable with through the back half of the year?

Speaker 2

Yes. There it will we're very comfortable with the $50,000,000 The $100,000,000 was a very unique opportunity. We bought the shares at $33,000,000 13,000,000 I believe. But we'll probably do the $100,000,000 unless the Board decides otherwise, but I think it will be the $100,000,000 And then when we give guidance, we'll also mirror the buyback next year off the net income. Right now, we have sufficient capital, even if extra $50,000,000 didn't really change our ratio that much in the Tier 1 leverage ratio and the other ratio.

Speaker 2

So it's extremely strong capital position. And we're we pretty much have around the amount of capital we'll ever need because of the Durbin amendment limitation on the $10,000,000,000 bank. So we're in an incredibly good earnings and capital position, And we will continue to buy back the shares when they're undervalued and we believe those shares are undervalued as of today.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will be a follow-up from David Feaster. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi. Thanks for taking the follow-up. You've got a lot of pretty exciting initiatives finance, which you're rolling out. We've also talked about monetizing your risk and compliance functions. I'm just curious if you could give us an update on those and any other initiatives you're working on and maybe how AI could play into that because that's a pretty big buzzword these days.

Speaker 4

Just hoping to get an update on some of the things you're working on and what you're excited about.

Speaker 2

Well, you're right about AI. So we have a whole group that's working on how we're going to use AI in the future and including a technology vision. So we really have to really think about that. We've invested a lot in totally redoing our tech stack and redundancy and everything and strengthening our cybersecurity walls. All that stuff has been ongoing, but we're really thinking about as we transform the bank into really a fintech centered platform, not just being a majority of our business, but really being focused on that.

Speaker 2

We're, of course, thinking through the tech and AI requirements. It's incredibly exciting.

Speaker 3

And the credit

Speaker 2

sponsorship side, all the hard work is paying off. We have multiple sponsorship side, all the hard work is paying off. We have multiple programs and multiple partners that want to implement at the Bancorp. We could easily see this first tier, we're in the 70s. It's growing now.

Speaker 2

We could see upwards towards $300,000,000 to $500,000,000 on the balance sheet at the end of this year and we could see $1,000,000,000 next year. So that's how fast growing that is. It's extremely accretive because with that business is a also the ecosystem for payments is also connected to that. So it's incredibly profitable business and very and many times the partners will have both the deposits at the bank already. So in essence, we're kind of using the liquidity of our partners to lend to their clients.

Speaker 2

That's very exciting. When we think about Apex 2,030 balance sheet 5 years from now, we hope to have 20 programs. It's going to mirror the banking as a service size, 20 programs. Most of it will be extremely balance sheet light. It will be distributed, but also secured by many of our partners and provide the deposits.

Speaker 2

So that's incredibly exciting itself. But the ongoing now building is an embedded finance, which is a program management element, which we don't do today, that companies, retail companies that control their apps, that need a financial services capability within their app and we would provide that, we would manage that part of it for them. That's a very, very that's predicted to be a highly growing capability that people will want across the economy. And so we already have, we think, the best banking and service ecosystem so that applying that to it will be a no brainer, we think, for the marketplace. And by the way, we've been asked for it a lot already.

Speaker 2

So people have asked us, hey, can you do that element? We say, well, no, we don't do that today. And we've actually partnered with other people in the space to talk about providing that in certain cases. So those two things alone are enormous fee opportunities and balance sheet opportunities in themselves. So when we say Apex, we're talking about a 3x, 4x on our current fees of $100,000,000 in 5 to 7 years.

Speaker 2

And that may be $100,000,000 to $200,000,000 of increase in the spread revenue. So, it's very exciting. I think, it's going to be played out for credit sponsorship in the near term. You'll see those balances grow very aggressively. And then for embedded finance, we're going to walk and be very deliberate and make sure that we provide the best in class in that capability to the partners.

Speaker 2

And so we're not rushing anything. And our base business is growing very aggressively. So and we've been asked by the largest players in the marketplace to think about them joining our ecosystem. So we're very excited.

Speaker 4

That's great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Frank Schiraldi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Just back to the increase in guide. Is the primary driver of that credit sponsorship? And just when you talk about balances moving higher in the near term, is something along the lines of $500,000,000 in balances, a reasonable place to land at the end of this year? And I assume that would be more than one program.

Speaker 2

Yes. Well, especially with credit sponsorship, yes. No doubt. If we're at $300,000,000 to $500,000,000 in that alone, you're going to see that increase in balances. The game changer here is one thing that maybe we didn't emphasize enough is the deposits.

Speaker 2

So with the activity across all the verticals, we're seeing an increase in deposits we haven't really seen this time of year before, taking away the stimulus checks and all that stuff that happened during the pandemic. Why that's so important is because we can facilitate a lower funding cost over time because we can take the higher cost deposits and higher cost borrowings off the balance sheet. And so with interest rates dropping, it's potential that we could drop our funding of the bank even more by having more demand, not interest bearing deposits on balance sheet. So that is very supportive of the increases in profitability. So and the FinTech, the incoming on the FinTech side is dramatic.

Speaker 2

So the addition of large programs additional large programs is expected over the next 12 months. So all that combined supports the guidance, but also supports continued significant profitability increases over the next 2 years.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. And then as we think about just near term trends, you talked about deposits being a bit higher than you would have thought based on previous seasonality, I guess, end of period. And, as I think about as we think about NII for the Q3, kind of a good run rate, is it better to use kind of end of period balances or average balances for the quarter? Any guardrails you guys can put around kind of NII expectations just because there's so many different things going on in terms of drivers?

Speaker 2

Well, I'd go end of period and our NIM is going to be around 5% regardless of the loan type. So it might even it's going to be around it could actually we had that $1,000,000 in there that we had to back out after tax because of that one securitization that was a long time ago. And we do have plenty of coverage on that security. So we're not expecting a loss on that either. But the so 5 ish, it might take a little bit higher depending on the class, but the and the issue with the loans that we're doing in certain cases on the FinTech side, some of that will be in fees because of the way these some of these loans work instead of the NIM.

Speaker 2

So you'll see some of the fees growing and some of that will actually be NIM related technically. So but the 5% is I think a good because we don't know exactly who's going to grow and in what cases, but in our modeling that's kind of where it is.

Speaker 5

Great. Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the call back to Damian Kozlowski for any additional or closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, everyone. We appreciate you attending our conference call. Operator, you may disconnect the lines.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude the Bancorp Inc. Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day.

Earnings Conference Call
Bancorp Q2 2024
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