VersaBank Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
June 4, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Record credit assets and a 23 basis point net interest margin expansion drove record revenue alongside improved banking efficiency and return on common equity.
  • US receivable purchase program drawdowns surpassed USD 70 million by quarter end, with expectations to reach at least USD 290 million by year-end in an underserved point-of-sale financing market.
  • VersaBank initiated a structural realignment to a US-based holding company, incurring CAD 8 million of upfront costs but targeting CAD 2–3 million of annual savings, simplified regulatory oversight, and new index eligibility.
  • Insolvency deposit balances rose 22% year-over-year, supporting low-cost funding and projected to reach CAD 1 billion by the end of the calendar year.
  • Provision for credit losses increased to 0.08% of average credit assets from near zero last year, reflecting heightened forward-looking economic uncertainty.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
VersaBank Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

Skip to Participants
Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to VersaBank's Second-Quarter Fiscal 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. This morning, VersaBank issued a news release reporting its financial results for the second quarter ended April 30, 2025. That news release, along with the bank's financial statements, MD&A, and supplemental financial information, are available on the bank's website in the Investor Relations section, as well as on SEDAR Plus and EDGAR. Please note that, in addition to the telephone dial-in, VersaBank is webcasting this morning's conference call. The webcast is listen-only. If you're listening to the webcast but wish to ask a question in the Q&A session following Mr. Taylor's presentation, please dial into the conference line, the details of which are included in this morning's news release and on the bank's website. For those participating in today's call by telephone, the accompanying slide presentation is available on the bank's website.

Operator

Also, today's call will be archived for replay both by telephone and via the internet beginning approximately one hour following completion of the call. Details on how to access the replays are available in this morning's news release. I would like to remind our listeners that the statements about future events made on this call are forward-looking in nature and are based on certain assumptions and analysis made by VersaBank management. Actual results could differ materially from our expectations due to various material risks and uncertainties associated with VersaBank's businesses. Please refer to VersaBank's forward-looking statement advisory in today's presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to David Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer of VersaBank. Please go ahead, Mr. Taylor.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. With me is our Chief Financial Officer, John Asma. The second quarter of fiscal 2025 unfolded as planned, with a number of positive highlights that will continue to drive momentum in our business. We saw the first drawdowns of our US RPP portfolio, which by the end of the quarter had surpassed $70 million. We saw growth in our Canadian residential construction loan portfolio. We saw meaningful expansion of our net interest margin due to several factors that are trending positively. John will go into these in more detail, and we do expect these trends to continue to support NIM around these levels for the remainder of the year. This drove record assets, record credit assets, record revenue, alongside sequential improvements in banking efficiency and return on common equity based on our core earnings.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Subsequent to quarter end, we initiated a structural realignment of our business to that of the standard US bank framework, which, if approved by regulatory authorities and shareholders, we expect will realize additional shareholder value, reduce costs, and further mitigate risk. Looking at the financial highlights in more detail, as I noted, record credit assets and very healthy expansion of our net interest margin drove record revenue. Credit assets on both sides of the border are expanding more or less in line with expectations this year. Net interest margin also expanded as we saw several favorable trends continue, driving a 23 basis point increase in NIM on credit assets sequentially. I will note here there were two items that did slightly dampen our income. The first is some preliminary costs associated with our proposed structural realignment.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

The second is the impact of foreign exchange translation of U.S. subsidiary assets, which was a typically large unrealized non-cash loss due to a precipitous drop of the U.S. versus Canadian dollar in Q2. Including these items, earnings per share was $0.28, or excuse me, excluding these items. I will take the opportunity to remind you that this is early point in our U.S. receivable purchase program. Although profitable, the results of our U.S. operations continue to reflect the cost structure that will support our ramp to vastly larger revenues. As I noted last quarter, we tend to look at our Canadian banking operations as a proxy for where we think the efficiency and return on common equity of our U.S. banking operations can go. We are pleased to see both improve sequentially, excluding the two aforementioned items, to 44% and 12.53%, respectively.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

I will remind you that our Canadian banking operations bear the vast majority of our corporate overhead costs, including our public company costs. As an indicator of true potential efficiency and return on equity of our U.S. business, it is actually significantly understated. Finally, as I did last quarter, I will remind you that our EPS for the quarter reflects a significant higher number of shares outstanding in Q2 as a result of our December capital raise, most of which we are still putting to work. We deploy this capital at around 12 times or more and around 2.5% spread. It is very accretive. Now I'd like to turn the call over to John to review the financial results in detail. John?

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Thanks, David. Before I begin, I will remind you that our financial statements and MD&A for the second quarter are available on our website under the Investor section, as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR. All of the following numbers are reported in CAD as per our financial statements, unless otherwise noted. Starting with the balance sheet, total assets at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2025 grew 15% year-over-year and 2% sequentially to a new high of over CAD 5 billion. Cash and securities were CAD 445 million, or 9% of total assets, down from 11% at the end of Q1 as we steadily deploy the capital we raised in December of last year. Book value per share increased to a record CAD 16.25, our CET1 ratio increased to 14.28%, and our leverage ratio was 9.61%, both remaining above our internal targets.

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Total consolidated revenue was a record of $30.1 million, up 6% year over year and 8% sequentially. The increase was driven primarily by our continued growth in credit assets, with the sequential growth being additionally driven by solid expansion of our net interest margin. Consolidated net interest expense was $17.5 million compared to $12.2 million in Q2 of last year and $15.7 million for Q1 of this year. As David discussed, Q2 NIEs included $900,000 related to the preliminary costs associated with the bank's proposed structural realignment, as well as an atypically high unrealized foreign exchange translation loss. Excluding these costs, NIEs were in line with our expectations. Otherwise, the year-over-year increase in net interest expenses was primarily due to the addition of VersaBank U.S.A. As a reminder, DRT Cyber expenses were included in our consolidated net interest expenses and totaled $2.7 million for the quarter.

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Reported net income was $8.5 million, and consolidated earnings were $0.26 per share. Excluding the preliminary costs associated with the proposed structural realignment and the impact of the foreign exchange translations, consolidated net income was $9.2 million, and consolidated earnings per share was $0.28. Looking at the income statement on a segmented basis, the vast majority of revenue continues to be driven by our Canadian digital operations, pardon me, our Canadian digital banking operations. Within that, Canadian banking operations, as well as our US RPP program, ramped up with continued incremental growth. Revenue for the Canadian banking operations was $25.6 million, up 8% sequentially from Q1. As the corporate expenses flow through the Canadian digital banking segment, net income and net earnings per share were negatively impacted by costs associated with the structural realignment and the impact of foreign exchange translation.

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Excluding these impacts, net income for the Canadian banking operations was CAD 9.9 million, which comes to CAD 0.30 per share. Revenue from the US banking operations was $2.5 million, a 22% sequential increase. Net income for US banking operations was $133,000, a 29% increase sequentially. Within DRT Cyber, the cybersecurity component generated revenue of CAD 1.8 million, down from CAD 2.3 million in Q2 of last year. Net loss was CAD 652,000, impacted by higher operating expenses. Within DRT Cyber, digital media revenue was CAD 569,000, with net loss of CAD 152,000. Our credit assets grew to a record CAD 4.52 billion at the end of Q2, driven once again by our receivable purchase program, which increased 14% year over year and 4% sequentially to CAD 3.5 billion. Our RPP portfolio represented 79% of our total asset portfolio at the end of Q2, consistent with the end of Q1.

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Our multifamily residential loans and other portfolio grew 8% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to CAD 958 million, as we steadily drew down on CMHC-insured loan commitments. As a reminder, our multifamily residential loans and other portfolio is primarily business-to-business mortgages and construction loans for residential properties. We have very little exposure to commercial-use properties. Turning to the income statement of digital banking operations, net interest margin on credit assets, that is, excluding cash and securities, was 2.59%. That was seven basis points or 3% higher on a year-over-year basis and 16 basis points or 10% higher sequentially. As David discussed, our net interest margin on credit assets is benefiting from several positive trends. The yield curve is no longer inverted.

John Asma
John Asma
CFO at VersaBank

Further replacement of maturing higher interest rate term deposits with lower interest rate term deposits, continued expansion of our low-cost insolvency professional deposits, and higher margin generated by our US RPP. Net interest margin overall, including the impact on cash, securities, and other assets, was 2.29%, an increase of 21 basis points sequentially, which still remained among the highest of the publicly traded financial licensed banks in Canada. Our provision for credit losses, or PCL, in Q2 increased slightly this quarter to 0.08% of average credit assets compared to 0% last year and is higher than our 12-quarter average of 0.02%. The increase this quarter was due to changes in forward-looking information used in our credit risk models, mainly due to increased uncertainty and more challenging outlook for the economy. I'd now like to turn the call back to David for some closing remarks. David?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Thanks, John. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we expect positive trends of Q2 to continue into the third and fourth quarters, which we expect will drive steady sequential growth in core earnings, meaning excluding the investment in the structural realignment. Credit assets should continue to steadily grow, driven by momentum in our US receivable purchase program, which we continue to expect to reach at least $290 million by the end of the year. The US has a vastly underserved market for big-ticket point-of-sale financing, and we have a unique solution that offers a number of clear advantages over existing alternatives.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

We see some potential for incremental growth in Canada amidst what remains a challenging environment for consumer spending, and we expect to see an increasing contribution from our growing CMHC-insured multifamily residential loan business and this opportunistic part of our Canadian business, and remain on target to achieve CAD 1 billion in commitments by the end of the year. We will increasingly benefit from the operating leverage in our business model as those assets scale, especially as we deploy the capital from our equity offering last December, contributing to further improvements in efficiency and return on common equity on core earnings. We expect to see the continuation of this favorable trend in support of our net interest margins, that are in line with our expanding Q2 levels.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Further replacement of maturing higher-cost term deposit receipts with those at the current rates, the normalized yield curve, which benefits from our RPP spreads, the higher spread we generate on RPP assets in the US, and the higher deposits in our low-cost insolvency deposit business. Q2's insolvency balances were up another 5% sequentially and 22% year over year, and we continue to expect those deposits to grow to about $1 billion. Finally, as discussed in our last call, we are aggressively pursuing the renewed opportunity for our proprietary digital deposit receipts. As we expected with the U.S. administration's significantly more favorable view towards digital assets, including digital currencies and stablecoins, we are starting to see the industry itself ramping up their plans. Most notably, Wall Street Journal-reported J.P.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Morgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, and others are all exploring the use of this technology to modernize payments. Our digital deposit receipts are a market-ready solution created by a bank or banks that seamlessly integrate with existing bank software systems while addressing the major concerns of regulators. They take the concept of stablecoin to an entirely new level. In fact, next week, I'll be speaking at the Florida Bankers Association annual meeting. The title of my presentation is "Introducing the Ultimate Stablecoin," the only USD digital deposit receipt. I will discuss why we believe our first-of-a-kind stablecoin, minted by a national bank, SOC 2 approved, based on the highest military-grade security, can, and we believe will, play a role in changing the banking industry. Before we open the call to questions, a few words on the proposed structural realignment we announced last week.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

The details are a little convoluted and well laid out in our news release, so I won't get into those here. The purpose of this initiative is to realign our corporate structure to that of the most international banks, under which there is a corporate parent entity that holds the various operating subsidiaries. This is the structure with which US and international investors are most familiar. Under the proposed plan, the new parent would be domiciled in the United States and fall under the purview of the US regulators, as would our US operations. Our Canadian operations would remain domiciled in Canada and remain under the purview of the Canadian regulators. The benefits of this proposed realignment are clear. We would simplify our regulatory oversight. We would further mitigate risks, something we continuously seek to do. We would generate meaningful cost savings.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Our stock should become eligible for certain indices, including the Russell 2000. Looking longer term, it would provide a structure that would be favorable to further international expansion. We would expect all this to generate additional shareholder value over and above the value we expect to drive through growth of the business itself. The realignment is subject to a number of approvals: the OCC, the Fed in the U.S., the Minister of Finance in Canada, the Nasdaq, the Toronto Stock Exchange, of course, and our shareholders. There is a significant cost to this undertaking, which we very much view as an investment with a substantial expected return. We estimate that to be around CAD 8 million, to be roughly divided between third and fourth quarters this year, with a small amount incurred in Q2, as noted earlier.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

That expected CAD 8 million investment equates to about 1.5% of our current market cap. We are confident that the combined benefits will drive incremental shareholder value far in excess of this investment. With that, I'd like to open up the call to questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star followed by the number two. With that, our first question comes from the line of Joe Yanchunis with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Good morning.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Good morning, Joe.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

In your prepared remarks, I believe you said that you expect insolvency deposits will reach $1 billion. What is the timing for that target? In conjunction with this tailwind and the several others that you listed, do you have a sense for the magnitude of NIM expansion in the out quarters?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Joe, can you repeat the second half? I broke up a little bit.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Yeah. It was the timing for the billion and then kind of an outlook, a near-term outlook for the NIM expansion?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

With the billion, I'm thinking by the end of the calendar year, we should get there. As you can see, we're growing at 22% year over year. Unfortunately for Canada, we're almost at a record low for consumer sentiment and insolvency. While it's a tough time for most Canadians, it's a good time for the insolvency business. It supplies us with some economically priced deposits. I'm thinking about it around if the balances continue to grow at the present rate, by the end of the calendar year, we should hit about a billion. With respect to NIM expansion, very pleased to see the 29 basis points sequentially in the credit assets.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

There's a little bit of a dampening effect right now happening in Canada, even though we have about CAD 700 million in GICs maturing in the next few months at about 1% less than the replacement GICs, about 1% less. That's all very favorable for us. The yield curve is still pretty flat and might have a little tiny inversion in the short end. That puts a bit of a damper on it. It hasn't quite swung back up as it normally is. The margin over Government of Canada bonds that our GICs have over in the last while are high too. It's about 80-odd basis points, usually around 50. Right now, I'm thinking NIM will stay where it is and probably start edging up again when some of this noise gets out of the system.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Got it. I appreciate that. Kind of moving over to expenses, excluding the realignment costs, how should we think about non-interest expenses kind of trending from here? What are the expected annual savings from re-domiciling in the US?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Excluding those one-time expenditures with respect to reorganizing, there's probably a little bit more in NIE in the U.S. We have maybe one more hire to do. As of that, it should stabilize. Maybe a slight increase in the U.S. banks' expenses going forward and then stable. With respect to the savings, you could probably pencil in around $2 million to $3 million a year once we have the reorganization done.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Excellent. I appreciate that. Just last one from me with respect to capital, and perhaps I missed this in the materials, but it did not look like you utilized your recent share repurchase authorization. How should we think about your appetite for repurchases in the out quarters?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

We're keen to buy our stock back at less than book value, and it looks like it's less than book value, maybe $10, has been the last. We are keen to buy it back at that price. Personally, I don't expect it to stay down there that long. If it is, we've got loads of capital, and probably the best place to deploy our capital is buying back our stock at less than book.

Joe Yanchunis
Joe Yanchunis
Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Excellent. Thank you for taking my questions.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Thank you, Joe. Look forward to seeing you in Florida.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tim Switzer with KBW. Please go ahead.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Good morning, Tim.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Morning. Can you update us on the expectations you have on the sale of DRT Cyber and the timeline there?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

We're in the sort of the final stages of engaging a firm to look after that sale. I would expect by the end of this fiscal year, we'll have a deal done. It's, I think, a very popular business, unfortunately, but a terrible comment on humanity that cybersecurity attacks just seem to be relentless. DRT Cyber seems to be a world leader, particularly in their penetration testing. We're actively in the sale process now. As I say, we expect fairly soon to engage a firm to look after that for us.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Okay, great. That is good to hear. Can you provide an update on how conversations with new partners in the US are going? Maybe how many new programs you expect to be fully launched by the end of the year?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

The conversation's going quite well. Of course, it's a very attractive product. The onboarding process is a little longer than I would like. We've got three signed up now. By the end of the year, say we have another three signed up. I'm hoping for a lot more than that. It is taking a while to onboard. The legal work is different in the States versus what we have in Canada. Not that much different, but there are nuances to it. Three now, maybe another three. If the guys pleasantly surprise me, maybe another three on top of that.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Okay. That sounds good. The last question I have is, can you just provide some commentary on the credit trends you are seeing in the CRE book, where we have seen some reserve release over the last few quarters, but have also had some charge-offs? Just would love to hear what you guys are seeing there.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

The charge-offs actually are sort of an academic charge-off in that they're part of the U.S. portfolio that we purchased when we purchased that U.S. bank. They are not in the Canadian real estate area. We have no charge-offs, no real charge-offs at all in our book. We purchased a portfolio to buy the bank, and along with it, we purchased their expected loss provision that's being charged against it. The Canadian real estate market is in a bit of a turmoil. It is really a heads-up game, lending in that area. We've been at it for, I guess, in my case, 48 years. This is one of those periods of time where you have to be really careful. Hence our focus on the government-insured CMHC mortgages, and we intend to keep that focus.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

We tend to lend to our clients that we've lent to for decades around the London, Ontario area. Yeah, even our real estate developer clients are, for the most part, sitting on a lot of cash, sort of waiting until things smooth out a bit in the economy.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Great. Appreciate you answering all the questions, David.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

No problem, Tim. Maybe I'll see you in New York. I'm heading in there next week sometime.

Tim Switzer
Tim Switzer
VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW

Okay. Yeah. We'll be in touch.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Scott with Bernhard Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Andrew Scott
Associate at Berngard Capital Partners

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one here is a little bit of a two-parter. You guys had nice growth in the RPP portfolio. Kind of breaking it out by geography, with the softness in the Canadian economy, can you just talk about what verticals you did see strengthen? Maybe within the active U.S. portfolio, is there anything you've learned that surprised you thus far?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Actually, Andrew, it surprised me that the Canadian portfolio grew in that all the stats in Canada are pretty negative. Consumer sentiment at an all-time low, insolvencies at an all-time high. I was surprised to see any growth in Canada. I think in the last quarter, I said that. The vertical really is home improvement. I suppose that maybe that is to be expected. Canadians are buying new furnaces and energy-efficient furnaces and hot water heaters and that sort of thing. They are saving them ultimately in the monthly expenses. That is where we see the growth in Canada, still, strangely enough. It is probably going to continue right through the end of the year. You may very well see about a 10% increase year-over-year in the RPP in Canada.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Of course, on the other side of that, we're seeing 22% growth year over year in the insolvency deposits, which are helping drive the expansion of our margin. In the U.S., I suppose the lesson is that the alternate source of financing is securitization. The credit spreads in that area have been pretty narrow. Even though virtually everybody we talk to in the States wants to sign up for our program as sort of a continuous, steady, reliable source of capital to fund their loans, the market is giving money pretty cheap right now. It means that we're maybe not the top priority that it would be otherwise if credit spreads were really wide. The American point-of-sale customers tend to be a lot larger than the Canadian ones.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

The Canadian ones do not have, because of their size, do not really have access to the securitization programs. The American ones do because they are so much larger. Their appetite for our program is sort of modified by the credit spreads.

Andrew Scott
Associate at Berngard Capital Partners

Really appreciate the detail there. Second one for me, if I may, you guys added an additional deposit broker in the quarter. Noted this could potentially be a tailwind to NIM. Can you kind of talk us through how that could be a benefit to you guys and if you're interested to further expand your network?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Absolutely right. We were fortunate that Bank of Montreal put us on their board. In my early career, I started off with Bank of Montreal. It was justice that they should add us on their board. Bank of Montreal is a huge channel for distributing our deposits. That is a tailwind on NIM. That would be contributing to our net interest margin expansion and the diversity of our deposit base. We are thankful that Bank of Montreal added us. I think maybe one large bank left in Canada to put us on their board. Again, that helps with the diversity and the NIM expansion.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Just to spell it out, the more channels we have that distribute our deposits, the less we have to pay for our deposits in that we do not overwhelm one particular channel because we are so well distributed all across the entire country of Canada. That is helpful. Like I said, there may be one more bank that in the very early days of when I was just conceiving this model was actually a supplier. The market changed a bit. The industry changed. We should really sign them up too. Then we have the entire country.

Andrew Scott
Associate at Berngard Capital Partners

Great. I really appreciate the color. Thanks for taking my questions.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Thank you, Andrew. See you in New York soon.

Andrew Scott
Associate at Berngard Capital Partners

Yeah, that'd be great.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Wagman with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Hey, good morning, David and John.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Good morning. It's been a while.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Are you in St. Petersburg?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Are you in the baking hot St. Petersburg right now?

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

No, no. I'm in, actually, getting warmer Toronto.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Oh, oh, no kidding. Sorry. Sorry, Jesus.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Yeah.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

I thought you were down in the headquarters.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

No, no. Hope to be in London sometime through the summer. Anyway, just a general question. Given the political climate and the expansion and, wisely, I think, the concentration of business to the United States, are you experiencing or hearing of any possible pushback, given the political environment regarding foreigners in the U.S.?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

No, not yet. We have heard sort of statements earlier on about Canadian banks in general. It has not affected us negatively. In fact, on the balance, the current U.S. administration's propensity for digital commerce has helped us a lot. As you know, we have the world's first digital deposit receipt. We pioneered it in Canada under the Canadian regulatory environment. Now it seems that it is absolutely perfect for what the U.S. administration is talking about. Other than a little bit of rhetoric about Canadian banks, the overwhelming positive thing is the endorsement of digital commerce. Our digital deposit receipt, of course, is at least two years ahead of the game. We not only pioneered it in the regulatory environment, but we also obtained a SOC 2 audit, which you can only get by having it actually be functional.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Everybody else that's dreaming of doing this, they've got a few years to go. We've got the thing ready to roll in the United States. Anything on the balance, it's positive to be in the United States.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

All right. I'll propose they're talking about tax increases on foreigners investing in the States and the increase in withholding taxes on dividends and that sort of thing. I don't know about business operations yet. I haven't heard anything about that.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah. A good portion of our shareholders are U.S. Other than our major holding company, it's 80% U.S. shareholders.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

It will not impact your business as an operational thing, will it?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

No.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Or could it?

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

I don't see it. Part of this restructuring will give us insights into how we can efficiently structure ourselves to minimize our tax burdens and foreign exchange translations that we saw us get hit with this quarter. That's all underway. Also, obviously, with us adopting the same holding company structure that the other international U.S. banks have, that minimizes the risk that there might be some sort of aversion to Canadian banks in the United States. We'll have a holding company structure identical to that of, say, J.P. Morgan. That minimizes all that stuff.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Okay. I'll give you a shout. Hopefully, when you guys are in London, I'll make a plan to come down and see you.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah. I'm in London right now. I'm right at VersaBank's Innovations Center of Excellence here. Last time, without an airplane, I can't fly in the island and visit with you. I got a set of.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

No, I'm in Toronto. It's Jeff.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah, I know. Island Airport, of course.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Oh, the Island Airport. I forgot about that.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah. That's a 35-minute flight for me out of London Airport here where we're located. I have a new set of Garmin instruments going in. It seems to take forever. Like a lot of things in life nowadays, everything seems to take a lot longer than you hoped for.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

I'm tied up this month. We've got our kids in from overseas. So it'll be July or August. Hopefully, July. It'll be sometime in July. I'll message you and John and see if we can get that.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Yeah.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Yeah.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

I'm in LA regularly once I got my wings back. Yeah, I'm sure. All right. Thanks again. Thanks very much.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Okay. Thank you. Bye.

Jeff Wagman
Jeff Wagman
Portfolio Manager at Raymond James

Bye.

Operator

We have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to David Taylor for closing remarks.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

I would like to thank everyone for joining us today. I look forward to speaking to you at the time of our third-quarter results.

David Taylor
David Taylor
President and CEO at VersaBank

Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you, presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining me now. This conference.

Executives
    • David Taylor
      David Taylor
      President and CEO
    • John Asma
      John Asma
      CFO
Analysts
    • Jeff Wagman
      Portfolio Manager at Raymond James
    • Tim Switzer
      VP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at KBW
    • Joe Yanchunis
      Senior Equity Research Associate at Raymond James
    • Andrew Scott
      Associate at Berngard Capital Partners
Powered by Quartr