NASDAQ:LX LexinFintech Q2 2026 Earnings Report $1.07 -0.11 (-9.32%) As of 04:00 PM Eastern ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast LexinFintech EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.11Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/ALexinFintech Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$469.10 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/ALexinFintech Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2026Date8/14/2026TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateN/AConference Call TimeN/AUpcoming EarningsLexinFintech's Q3 2026 earnings is estimated for Monday, August 31, 2026, based on past reporting schedulesConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (6-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by LexinFintech Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 31, 2026ShareShareShare This ReportLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Negative Sentiment: Industry funding and credit risks worsened: Risk events involving peers triggered sector-wide funding tightening, sharply reducing Lexin’s loan originations. Management expects delinquency ratios and credit costs to rise further in the third quarter. Negative Sentiment: Third-quarter net loss expected: Lower loan volumes, higher provisioning, and one-time severance costs from organizational streamlining are expected to pressure results, with management forecasting a net loss in Q3 and providing no full-year guidance. Positive Sentiment: Cost reductions and AI adoption are accelerating: Q2 operating expenses fell 17.6% sequentially, while management expects management costs to decline by 30%–40% and anticipates additional savings from more than 100 AI agents deployed across operations. Positive Sentiment: Business diversification is progressing: Fintech empowerment loan volume grew 8% and, together with e-commerce, represented 45% of total volume. E-commerce net revenue rose to CNY 329 million, with gross margin improving to 14.1%, and management expects both businesses to support the transformation toward a capital-light model. Negative Sentiment: Dividend timing was reduced: Lexin shifted from semiannual to annual dividend distributions, with any 2026 dividend to be assessed alongside 2026 results in early 2027 as the company preserves liquidity for its transformation. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallLexinFintech Q2 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Lexin's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star followed by one one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Head of Capital Markets Mr. Will Tan. Thank you. Please go ahead. Will TanHead of Capital Markets at LexinFintech00:00:32Thank you operator. Hello everyone, welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Our results were released earlier today and are currently available on our IR website. Today, you will hear from our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jay Wenjie Xiao, who will provide an update on overall performance and the strategies of our business. Our CRO, Mr. Arvin Zhanwen Qiao, will then provide more details on our risk management initiatives and updates. Lastly, our CFO, Mr. James Zheng, will discuss our financial performance. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which will also apply to this call as we will be making forward-looking statements. Last, please note that all figures are presented in CNY terms, and all comparisons are made on a quarter-over-quarter basis unless otherwise stated. Please kindly note Jay and Arvin will give their whole remarks in Chinese first. Then the English version will be delivered by Jay's and Arvin's AI-based voices. With that, I'm now pleased to turn over the call to Mr. Jay Wenjie Xiao, Chairman and CEO of Lexin. Please. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:01:49[Non-English content] Translator00:06:17Hi everyone, let me start by sharing our business performance for the second quarter of 2026. Since the second quarter, the industry operating environment has faced ongoing headwinds. Most notably, in late June, risk events involving certain peers triggered a widespread tightening and even suspension of funding supply across the industry, severely impacting the industry landscape and shaking market confidence. As a result, our loan facilitation operations across both online consumer finance and offline inclusive finance were materially affected. We swiftly took the following decisive measures to mitigate the impacts on us. First, driving cost efficiency to enhance resilience through market cycles. We rapidly streamlined our organizational structure, optimized headcount, and accelerated AI adoption. These measures effectively reduced operating expenses and enhanced our long-term sustainability through industry cycles. Second, tightening risk controls to maintain stable asset quality. Translator00:07:22We proactively scaled back overall loan volume and adopted a prudent approach to new loan originations. This ensures the risk profile of new loans remains well controlled, safeguarding the long-term stability and resilience of our business. Third, strengthening financial discipline to enhance operational efficiency. We prioritize the recovery of receivables and security deposits, and drove a measured and steady scale down of facilitated loan balance, safeguarding our funding security and operational stability. Fourth, advancing our diversification strategy and accelerating business transformation. In our non-loan facilitation operations, we leveraged years of ecosystem advantages to accelerate our transition from a guarantee-backed model to a [Non-English content] model, laying a solid foundation for business recovery. We have always placed compliance at the forefront of our operations. Despite current industry headwinds, we continue to demonstrate strong operational resilience, maintain organic cash generation capability, and ensure long-term operational safety and reliability. Translator00:08:35Now, let me walk you through our second quarter business performance. In the second quarter, we achieved a loan volume of CNY 55.43 billion, generated revenue of CNY 3.19 billion and net profit of CNY 101 million. On the risk front, while day one delinquency ratio picked up due to broader industry headwinds, our 30-day collection rate showed an improvement. Despite current industry volatility, we remain confident in our long-term prospects. Let me explain why. First, our deep integration with consumption scenarios gives our e-commerce business unique advantages. Supported by favorable policies and growing consumer demand, we expect our e-commerce business to enjoy healthy growth going forward. We will continue to refine our supply chain system around essential consumer needs and enhance overall operational efficiency. Second, our fintech empowerment business serving corporate clients maintains rapid growth, continuously satisfying licensed institutions' demands for high quality assets. Translator00:09:44Backed by years of expertise in digital technology, we have established a clear market leading position. In the second quarter, our fintech empowerment business delivered solid growth and achieved profitability. As this business well aligns with future regulatory directions and has long-term commercial value, we will continue to increase our investments in this area. Third, AI adoption across our operations has delivered tangible cost savings. AI has been effectively deployed across the entire business processes. Over 100 AI agent roles are currently deployed across key operational scenarios such as intelligent strategy generation, compliance check, post loan management, and smart customer services, all contributing to our cost reduction targets. In the second quarter, our operating expenses decreased by 17.6% quarter-over-quarter. As AI adoption continues to gain traction, we expect further cost reductions in the third quarter. Translator00:10:47Looking ahead, the impact of the standalone event may persist and industry uncertainties remain significant. We will continue to adopt a prudent operational approach by adopting the following initiatives. First, we will continue to strengthen our operational management, improve our financial position, and advance the development of non-loan facilitation business like e-commerce to navigate this industry headwind with confidence. Second, we are adjusting our dividend policy to an annual distribution to provide sufficient capital reserves and a financial buffer for our business transformation. Third, we will accelerate AI investment, particularly in the tech-empowered service space, and work with our partners to expedite the recovery of funding supply. When industry certainty gradually emerges, we will actively explore various shareholder return initiatives in light of our own circumstances, enabling our investors to better share in the value created by the company. Translator00:11:51With that, I will now turn the call over to our CRO, Arvin. Thank you. Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:12:01[Non-English content] Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:12:16[Non-English content] Translator00:14:35In the second quarter, under the ongoing impact of the new regulations, funding supply across the industry remained tight, leading to a rebound in asset risk within our existing portfolio. Day 1 delinquency ratio across our total assets rose by roughly 9.5% quarter-over-quarter, while 90-day plus delinquency ratio rose from 3.5%-3.6%. In the third quarter, as funding supply tightened further and new loan originations dropped sharply, we expect risk indicators on our outstanding loan portfolio to continue trending upwards on a sequential basis. Compounded by a shrinking loan balance, the 90-day plus delinquency ratio is expected to rise further. Regarding the risk management of our existing portfolio, we continue to strengthen early-stage collections and implement differentiated SMS repayment reminders, among other measures, to control the magnitude of risk elevation. Meanwhile, we are stepping up provisioning and ensuring an orderly runoff of these existing assets. Translator00:15:41On the new loan front, we proactively raised our underwriting standards in response to the evolving risk landscape during the second quarter, limiting the quarter-over-quarter uptick in FPD30 to a minor level of around 4.6%. For the third quarter, we will maintain tight entry criteria, strengthen risk assessment for borrowers with cross-platform debt, and filter out high-risk applicants to maintain a stable risk profile for our new loans. On the technology front, our continued investments and explorations in AI-driven risk control are yielding meaningful results. In credit approval, our [Non-English content] agent has evolved from merely assisting human reviewers to making autonomous decisions. Notably, its risk detection capability is 3x that of manual review for autonomous rejection and 1.2x for review recommendations, and it continues to iterate rapidly. Translator00:16:41Beyond that, we are building an internal [Non-English content] agent expert platform by integrating underlying big data, domain expertise across risk management roles, and localized LLM capabilities into a seamless closed loop. We are enabling AI-driven expertise and standardization across the majority of our risk management tasks. This initiative has not only boosted the output efficiency of general risk models and routing strategies by over 5x, but also positioned us well for future[Non-English content] and risk solution offerings to the industry. Looking ahead, while risk may experience short-term fluctuations due to industry headwinds, we are confident that with stringent risk control in place, we can ensure an orderly runoff of existing assets and steady asset quality for new loans, laying a solid foundation for sustainable operations. Next, I will hand over to our CFO, James, to provide a review of the company's financial performance for the second quarter. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:17:46Thanks, Arvin. I will now provide a detailed overview of our second quarter financial results. Please note that all figures are presented in CNY terms, and all comparisons are made on a quarter-over-quarter basis unless otherwise stated. During the second quarter, we continued to advance our business transformation and the new regulatory framework that took effect in the fourth quarter last year, achieving progress that largely met our expectations. However, the landscape has shifted notably just before the second quarter ended. Before I dive into our second quarter financial details, I would like to briefly address recent developments that have created some uncertainty for the industry. Recently, risk events involving certain industry players have triggered heightened regulatory scrutiny. This raised caution among funding partners, leading to an ongoing sector-wide tightening of funding supply. This has impacted loan volumes across the industry, including Lexin. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:18:58That being said, I would like to emphasize two key points to our investors. First, compliance has always been our operational bottom line. We have never engaged in any similar non-compliant practices, and our business operations stand up to strict scrutiny. Second, we currently have a cash position of CNY 2.5 billion, which provides a financial buffer to help us navigate industry volatility and ensure the steady operations of our business. I will talk more about the impact of these recent developments and our countermeasures later in my remarks. With this context, let's now review our second quarter financial performance. During the second quarter, total loan origination volume was CNY 55 billion, representing a 4.3% decrease sequentially, due to the continuous decline in our consumer finance business, and partially offset by the steady growth of our [Non-English content] business and e-commerce business. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:20:13Total revenue came in at CNY 3.2 billion, and net income stood at CNY 101 million. Now, let me dive into the details and walk you through the key numbers. First, the net revenue of the credit business, which is derived by adding up credit facilitation service income and tech empowerment service income, net of credit costs, which consists of provisions, and the fair value changes and funding costs, was CNY 981 million, representing a 32.5% or CNY 473 million decrease quarter-over-quarter. This was due to the decline of both credit facilitation service income and the tech empowerment service income. Specifically, credit facilitation service income, representing our capital-heavy business, decreased by 43.6% to CNY 508 million, primarily driven by lower loan volumes in our online consumer finance business, rising funding costs, and our prudent decision to maintain adequate provisioning. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:21:30Meanwhile, our tech empowerment service income, representing our capital-light business, decreased by 14.4% to CNY 473 million. This was mainly attributable to the revenue decrease from value-added services and the scale-down of legacy ICP portfolios. Second, net revenue of the installment e-commerce business, defined as the installment e-commerce revenue, net of cost of inventory sold, increased by CNY 122 million-CNY 329 million. The total net revenue summing the credit business and the installment e-commerce business added up to CNY 1.3 billion, a 21.1% or CNY 351 million decrease quarter-over-quarter. On the expense side, operating expenses, including sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses, and processing and servicing costs, decreased by 17.6% or CNY 244 million to CNY 1.2 billion. Tax and others decreased by 9.3% or CNY 6 million-CNY 62 million. Consequently, total expenses added up to CNY 1.2 billion, a decrease of 17.2% or CNY 251 million. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:23:15By deducting the total expenses of CNY 1.2 billion from the total net revenue of CNY 1.3 billion, we arrive at a net income of CNY 101 million, a decrease of 49.7% or about CNY 100 million quarter-over-quarter. To sum up, the decrease in this quarter's net income was largely attributable to three combined factors, a revenue decrease resulting from the ongoing scale-down of our loan facilitation business due to regulatory impact, an increase in provisioning driven by our prudent risk approach, and despite our cost optimization efforts, expense reduction lacked top-line contraction, temporarily squeezing our near-term profitability. Now I would like to walk you through the three key highlights from this quarter. First, the growing diversification of our business mix. While our overall loan origination volume experienced a minor decline of 4.3% in the second quarter, our Fintech-empowerment service successfully bucked the trend with continued growth of 8%. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:24:36As a result, the loan volume contribution from our fintech empowerment and the e-commerce business has now reached 45%. As we discussed last quarter, the steady expansion of our fintech empowerment business continues to lay the groundwork for highly visible long-term revenue pipeline and higher asset quality. Complementing this pivotal shift, our installment e-commerce business maintained a steady momentum, continuing to serve as reliable stabilizer for our broader portfolio. Second, the solid growth and expanding profitability of our installment e-commerce business. Consistent with our strategy from the previous quarter, we maintained a disciplined approach, prioritizing asset quality and risk control over sheer volume expansion amidst the current macro environment. As a result, our e-commerce loan volume maintained stable at CNY 2.3 billion. More importantly, our ongoing focus on operational refinement yielded solid profitability improvement. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:25:52Gross profit for this segment reached CNY 329 million, representing a 58.7% increase, while gross profit margin expanded from 9.4% last quarter to 14.1%. By seamlessly integrating consumption scenario into our broader ecosystem, this segment continues to serve as a valuable revenue driver, adding another layer of resilience to our diversified revenue streams. Third, our prudent provisioning strategy. The industry dynamics unfolding in late June, including a tightened funding supply and as anticipated, upward tick in sector-wide risk resulting from peer-level risk events, which I noted earlier, have introduced a new market complexity. Incorporating these cautious forward-looking industry expectations into our risk assessment models, we adopted a more conservative provisioning approach for our second quarter portfolio. As a result of this strict and prudent stance, our overall credit cost increased 9.6% sequentially to CNY 1.4 billion during the quarter. To better understand of our provisioning, let's look at our gross provision metrics. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:27:21By stripping out the net accounting impact of fair value changes, our gross provision ratio for new capital-heavy loans was at 7.8%, higher than the last quarter. Furthermore, our provision coverage ratio remained robust at 230%. Now let's move on to our operating expense items. On the cost and expense side, our total operating expenses decreased by 17.6%, or CNY 244 million-CNY 1.1 billion, mainly due to the decrease of the sales marketing expenses of CNY 165 million and partially offset by a one-time decrease in G&A expenses, driven by costs associated with our organizational optimization. For balance sheet items, as of June 30th, our cash position, which includes cash equivalents, and restricted cash, was approximately CNY 2.5 billion. Shareholders' equity remains solid at about CNY 12 billion. Now turning to our business outlook. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:28:35As I mentioned earlier, the recent risk events involving certain players have created sector-wide impacts, and Lexin has not been immune to these headwinds. Specifically, we are facing two main challenges. First, a contraction in new loan volumes. Second, the liquidity squeeze resulting from funding supply has constrained some borrowers' cash flows and could potentially impair their repayment capacity, leading to increased risk volatility in the coming quarters. Against this backdrop, we are taking proactive and decisive measures to navigate this environment. First, we are maintaining dialogue with our funding partners to reinforce mutual trust. This ensures that we are well-positioned to resume normal funding supply as soon as the market conditions permit. Second, amidst the industry-wide funding squeeze, we are prioritizing cash flow management while optimization and operational efficiency, including staff reduction, to safeguard our core business fundamentals. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:29:47Third, like Jay mentioned earlier, we are proactively exploring new business models centering on technology empowerment services for To-B and consumer. These initiatives will safeguard our long-term sustainable growth and lay a solid foundation for our future business trajectory. Looking ahead, given the regulators heightened their scrutiny to resolve the risks associated with certain industry players, along with the potential introduction of new industry regulations, we have limited visibility on when funding partners will resume normal operations, and the exact timeline for our loan volumes to normalize remains uncertain. Compounded by the industry-wide liquidity squeeze, we expect our revenue to further decrease and the credit risks and the costs to trend upward in the third quarter, for which we will make adequate provisions. Additionally, we have initiated a series of organizational optimization to navigate industry uncertainties with the resulting one-time expenses primarily recognized in the third quarter. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:31:03Consequently, we expect the company to record a net loss in the third quarter. As for the remainder of the year, due to the limited visibility at this time, we will provide further guidance as the year progresses. In light of ongoing industry uncertainties, the board has made a decision to adjust our dividend distribution policy from a semiannual to annual payment. Therefore, any potential dividend declarations for 2026 will be assessed when we announce our fourth quarter results in early 2027. This proactive step allows us to optimize liquidity, fortify our core operations, and maintain strategic flexibility needed to navigate near-term market volatility. I want to emphasize that delivering shareholder value remains our top priority, and we view this as a prudent adjustment that may be temporary as the market visibility improves. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:32:09The board will actively reassess our capital allocation strategy and explore renewed initiatives to drive shareholder returns. In conclusion, while navigating this industry-wide transition, we are taking decisive and proactive measures to safeguard our liquidity, protect the long-term shareholder value, and pivot ourselves for sustainable growth once the market normalizes. Operator, we are now ready to open the lines for questions. Operator00:32:40Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one and one on your telephone. For the benefit of all participants, if you wish to ask your questions to management in Chinese, please translate them to English. One moment for the first question. Our first question comes from the line of Judy Zhang of Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Judy ZhangAnalyst at Citi00:33:06[Non-English content] Let me translate. I have two questions. The first question is, what is your take on the recent risk events in the industry? How has it affected the industry and your business, and what steps are you taking in response? The second question is, how do you expect the risk trend to evolve in the third quarter? Thank you. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:35:01[Non-English content] Translator00:35:01This is the translation for Jay's remarks. The recent risk events involving certain peers have triggered a crisis of confidence among funding providers, causing a broad-based tightening and even suspension of funding supply across the industry. That said, these are isolated cases, though they do involve potential criminal conduct, and we would not be surprised to see more regulatory measures follow. We expect funding supply in the loan facilitation sector to remain tight for a while, and the adjusting period will likely last longer than initially expected. As for us, we have always operated strictly in compliance with regulations, and we do not have any of the issues seen at these institutions. But we are not immune to the broader industry trend. With funding supply tightening, our loan facilitation business took a meaningful hit in July. Translator00:36:08As a result, new loan originations have contracted notably and asset quality is facing further volatility in line with the broader markets. That said, we are in a solid position. We have ample capital reserves and organic cash generation capability to meet the needs of ongoing operations. We remain on the white list of major funding partners, which should allow us to resume loan origination as soon as conditions allow. Translator00:36:38We have sufficient provision in place to manage an orderly wind down of existing portfolios. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:36:45[Non-English content] Translator00:37:45In response to the new environment, we are accelerating our transition focusing on a few key areas. First, we are doubling down on our diversification strategy and accelerating on our tech empowerment transition. As economic growth continue to provide underlying support for credit demand, we see a clear industry trend for financial institutions to develop their own lending business compliantly. We are well positioned to ride this trend with our tech-empowerment model. Leveraging our capabilities in traffic, risk management, AI and operations to help financial institutions grow their lending business in a low risk and sustainable way. We've been building our ecosystem for years and we are advancing the transition from guarantee-backed loan facilitation model to a light tech-enabling model, and that positions us well for long term sustainable growth ahead. Meanwhile, it's worth stressing that our e-commerce business will keep growing steadily and continue to contribute profit. These diverse businesses are our differentiated advantages compared with our peers. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:38:57 [Non-English content] Translator00:40:18Second, we are driving cost efficiency to strengthen our ability to navigate industry cycle. We've rolled out a series of organizational streamlining and efficiency measures, and we expect management costs to come down by 30%-40%. As a result, we are seeing faster decision making, significantly higher productivity per employee and a stronger foundation for long term operational sustainability and resilience to market cycle, all of which create a runway we need to execute our transformation. Third, we are deepening our AI integration across the board in key operations, risk management and customer services. By embedded AI more deeply into our processes, we are simplifying workflows, improving efficiency, and further reducing operating costs so that we stay lean and agile even in a volatile environment. Looking ahead, we don't expect the regulatory and funding environment to ease anytime soon. Recovery will take time. In the near term, we will stay disciplined, continue to adopt prudent operational approach, and ensure an orderly wind down of risk assets. Over the medium to long term, we will accelerate the transition to a [Non-English content] model by empowering financial institutions with our technology solutions and driving our operational efficiency through AI so that we are well adapted to the new regulatory landscape and positioned for long term sustainable growth. Thanks. Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:41:56 [Non-English content] Translator00:43:30This is the translation for Arvin's remarks. Following the industry risk event in late June, we did see some volatilities in a few risk indicators recently, driven by a sector-wide liquidity shock. Looking ahead to Q3, with funding supply tightening further and our active risk management measures in place, new loan originations will decline materially. As a result, we expect existing portfolio risk to remain upward pressure sequentially. Compounded by a further contracting loan balance, the 90+ delinquency ratio is expected to rise further. On the collection side, due to the industry-wide regulatory campaign and higher compliance requirements for loan collection practices, our collection rate will also see a decline. That said, with our prudent risk approach and adequate provisioning, we have the capability to manage an orderly wind down of existing risk assets. Our goal is to keep any risk fluctuation within our risk appetite. Operator00:44:54Thank you for the question. Please hold for our next question. The next question will come from the line of Alex Ye of UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Alex YeAnalyst at UBS00:45:05 [Non-English content]My question is, given the impact of recent industry risk event, how should we think about the financial performance for the second half of the year? Thank you. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:45:31This is James, I am going to take this question. Looking ahead to the second half, the overall market visibility still remains limited, given the ongoing uncertainties around the funding supply recovery and the regulatory trends. As a result, we are not providing any specific financial guidance at this point. However, against the backdrop of sector-wide liquidity tightening, we expect our third quarter performance to be under pressure, mainly due to the following factors. On the revenue side, obviously the sector-wide funding tightening had a material impact on our new loan originations in supply in July and August, the last two months. If this situation continues, our Q3 loan origination volume will come down a lot, which will directly weigh on our top line. On the cost and expense side, there are two structural factors at play. One is the credit cost. Liquidity tightening across the sector has led to an uptick in default risks within our existing portfolio. In line with our prudent risk management approach, we will set aside sufficient provisions for the associated potential risks, which obviously will drive up the credit cost for the quarter. Second, the operating expenses. In Q3, we proactively streamlined our organizational structure, optimized headcount, and enhanced efficiency. This generated a one-off severance related cost, which will temporarily drive up our G&A expenses for the quarter. Over the long run, however, the benefits of these cost savings and efficiency initiatives will gradually flow through to our financials. If I factor in all of this, we expect the company to record a net loss in the third quarter. For Q4, we will update our business and financial guidance as we get more clarity on the regulatory front. While the short-term performance is under pressure, we are steadily resolving existing portfolio risks, advancing our technology-empowered transformation, and driving organizational efficiency. This will for sure solidify our capitalized operation foundations and position ourselves well for steady, resilient growth under the new regulatory cycle. Operator00:48:18Thank you for the question. Our next questions will come from the line of Yujie Jing of CICC. Please go ahead. Yujie JingAnalyst at CICC00:48:28[Non-English content] Let me quickly translate my question. Following the change to your dividend policy, how should we view your long term plans to return value to shareholders? Thanks. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:48:51[Non-English content] Translator00:49:43In response to the recent industry volatility triggered by recent events at certain peers, the board, after careful consideration, has decided to change our dividend distribution from a semi-annual to an annual schedule. The board believes that maintaining ample liquidity and financial flexibility and preserving sufficient capital resources and financial buffers for our business transformation will help us navigate the industry adjustment more smoothly, and that, in turn, will better protect long-term shareholder interest. I would like to stress that our commitment to creating and returning value to shareholders has not wavered. As the industry gradually recovers and the business performance improves over time, the board will actively evaluate a range of shareholder return options, including share buybacks based on our specific circumstances at that time. Thank you. Operator00:50:45Thank you for the questions. At this time, there are no further questions from the line. I would like to hand the call back to management for closing. Will TanHead of Capital Markets at LexinFintech00:50:55Thank you. This conference is now concluded. Thank you for joining today's call. If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thanks again. Operator00:51:05That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesWill TanHead of Capital MarketsJay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEOArvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk OfficerJames ZhengCFOAnalystsTranslatorJudy ZhangAnalyst at CitiAlex YeAnalyst at UBSYujie JingAnalyst at CICCPowered by Earnings DocumentsPress Release(6-K) LexinFintech Earnings HeadlinesLexinFintech stock tumbles after warning of Q3 loss, changing dividend to annual distribution4 hours ago | msn.comLexinFintech Holdings Ltd. (LX) Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 31 at 12:00 PM | seekingalpha.comA letter from Shannon StansberryPorter Stansberry nearly canceled the entire project. When he first saw the claimed returns - only one down year in nearly two decades and total gains of almost 2,000% - his immediate reaction was disbelief. It took a trusted friend's personal vouching for Emmet Savage and a face-to-face trip to Ireland to change his mind. The full documentary, Investigating Project Prophet, is now live.August 31 at 1:00 AM | Porter & Company (Ad)LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. Reports Second Quarter 2026 Unaudited Financial ResultsAugust 31 at 1:00 AM | globenewswire.comLexinFintech Q2 Earnings Preview: Low Valuation Meets Unclear Inflection PointsAugust 19, 2026 | seekingalpha.comLexinFintech Holdings Ltd. to Report Second Quarter 2026 Unaudited Financial Results on August 31, 2026 (Beijing time)August 17, 2026 | 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) Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: LX) is a China-based consumer finance and digital banking platform primarily serving young, underbanked consumers. The company’s core offering is point-of-sale installment financing, enabling eligible customers to split purchases into fixed monthly payments with transparent fees. Leveraging proprietary data analytics and credit scoring models, LexinFintech underwrites consumer loans for online purchases and provides credit lines that support a variety of retail and e-commerce transactions. In addition to its flagship installment loan service, LexinFintech has developed wealth management and fintech-as-a-service products. The company’s wealth management arm offers curated investment portfolios and fixed-income products designed for retail investors seeking competitive yields. Its FCO Cloud platform delivers end-to-end digital banking and lending solutions to financial institutions and corporate partners, encompassing risk management tools, online origination systems and post-loan servicing capabilities. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Shanghai, LexinFintech completed its initial public offering on the NASDAQ in January 2018. Since then, it has expanded operations across major Chinese markets, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu, serving millions of registered users. The company’s technology-driven approach to credit assessment and its partnerships with leading e-commerce platforms have helped it carve out a niche in China’s rapidly evolving consumer finance sector. LexinFintech is led by a management team with deep expertise in finance, technology and retail lending. The company continues to invest in advanced analytics and cloud infrastructure to enhance its underwriting accuracy and platform scalability, positioning itself to address the evolving financing needs of China’s younger demographics.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 Latest Articles Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same ReasonThe SaaSpocalypse Trade Is Cracking, and These 5 Stocks Are Leading HigherMarketBeat Week in Review – 08/24 - 08/28From SaaS-pocalypse to Perfect Storm: Workday’s AI Growth Story Strengthens3 Retail Stocks to Watch After a Big Consumer Earnings WeekRubrik’s AI Security Bet Could Power the Next Leg HigherPalo Alto’s Rally Has One Big Problem Ahead of Earnings Upcoming Earnings Medtronic (9/1/2026)Dell Technologies (9/1/2026)Palo Alto Networks (9/1/2026)Broadcom (9/2/2026)Hewlett Packard Enterprise (9/2/2026)Snowflake (9/2/2026)Ciena (9/3/2026)Oracle (9/8/2026)Adobe (9/10/2026)FedEx (9/17/2026) Unlock superior investment research and tools. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Lexin's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star followed by one one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Head of Capital Markets Mr. Will Tan. Thank you. Please go ahead. Will TanHead of Capital Markets at LexinFintech00:00:32Thank you operator. Hello everyone, welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Our results were released earlier today and are currently available on our IR website. Today, you will hear from our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jay Wenjie Xiao, who will provide an update on overall performance and the strategies of our business. Our CRO, Mr. Arvin Zhanwen Qiao, will then provide more details on our risk management initiatives and updates. Lastly, our CFO, Mr. James Zheng, will discuss our financial performance. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which will also apply to this call as we will be making forward-looking statements. Last, please note that all figures are presented in CNY terms, and all comparisons are made on a quarter-over-quarter basis unless otherwise stated. Please kindly note Jay and Arvin will give their whole remarks in Chinese first. Then the English version will be delivered by Jay's and Arvin's AI-based voices. With that, I'm now pleased to turn over the call to Mr. Jay Wenjie Xiao, Chairman and CEO of Lexin. Please. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:01:49[Non-English content] Translator00:06:17Hi everyone, let me start by sharing our business performance for the second quarter of 2026. Since the second quarter, the industry operating environment has faced ongoing headwinds. Most notably, in late June, risk events involving certain peers triggered a widespread tightening and even suspension of funding supply across the industry, severely impacting the industry landscape and shaking market confidence. As a result, our loan facilitation operations across both online consumer finance and offline inclusive finance were materially affected. We swiftly took the following decisive measures to mitigate the impacts on us. First, driving cost efficiency to enhance resilience through market cycles. We rapidly streamlined our organizational structure, optimized headcount, and accelerated AI adoption. These measures effectively reduced operating expenses and enhanced our long-term sustainability through industry cycles. Second, tightening risk controls to maintain stable asset quality. Translator00:07:22We proactively scaled back overall loan volume and adopted a prudent approach to new loan originations. This ensures the risk profile of new loans remains well controlled, safeguarding the long-term stability and resilience of our business. Third, strengthening financial discipline to enhance operational efficiency. We prioritize the recovery of receivables and security deposits, and drove a measured and steady scale down of facilitated loan balance, safeguarding our funding security and operational stability. Fourth, advancing our diversification strategy and accelerating business transformation. In our non-loan facilitation operations, we leveraged years of ecosystem advantages to accelerate our transition from a guarantee-backed model to a [Non-English content] model, laying a solid foundation for business recovery. We have always placed compliance at the forefront of our operations. Despite current industry headwinds, we continue to demonstrate strong operational resilience, maintain organic cash generation capability, and ensure long-term operational safety and reliability. Translator00:08:35Now, let me walk you through our second quarter business performance. In the second quarter, we achieved a loan volume of CNY 55.43 billion, generated revenue of CNY 3.19 billion and net profit of CNY 101 million. On the risk front, while day one delinquency ratio picked up due to broader industry headwinds, our 30-day collection rate showed an improvement. Despite current industry volatility, we remain confident in our long-term prospects. Let me explain why. First, our deep integration with consumption scenarios gives our e-commerce business unique advantages. Supported by favorable policies and growing consumer demand, we expect our e-commerce business to enjoy healthy growth going forward. We will continue to refine our supply chain system around essential consumer needs and enhance overall operational efficiency. Second, our fintech empowerment business serving corporate clients maintains rapid growth, continuously satisfying licensed institutions' demands for high quality assets. Translator00:09:44Backed by years of expertise in digital technology, we have established a clear market leading position. In the second quarter, our fintech empowerment business delivered solid growth and achieved profitability. As this business well aligns with future regulatory directions and has long-term commercial value, we will continue to increase our investments in this area. Third, AI adoption across our operations has delivered tangible cost savings. AI has been effectively deployed across the entire business processes. Over 100 AI agent roles are currently deployed across key operational scenarios such as intelligent strategy generation, compliance check, post loan management, and smart customer services, all contributing to our cost reduction targets. In the second quarter, our operating expenses decreased by 17.6% quarter-over-quarter. As AI adoption continues to gain traction, we expect further cost reductions in the third quarter. Translator00:10:47Looking ahead, the impact of the standalone event may persist and industry uncertainties remain significant. We will continue to adopt a prudent operational approach by adopting the following initiatives. First, we will continue to strengthen our operational management, improve our financial position, and advance the development of non-loan facilitation business like e-commerce to navigate this industry headwind with confidence. Second, we are adjusting our dividend policy to an annual distribution to provide sufficient capital reserves and a financial buffer for our business transformation. Third, we will accelerate AI investment, particularly in the tech-empowered service space, and work with our partners to expedite the recovery of funding supply. When industry certainty gradually emerges, we will actively explore various shareholder return initiatives in light of our own circumstances, enabling our investors to better share in the value created by the company. Translator00:11:51With that, I will now turn the call over to our CRO, Arvin. Thank you. Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:12:01[Non-English content] Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:12:16[Non-English content] Translator00:14:35In the second quarter, under the ongoing impact of the new regulations, funding supply across the industry remained tight, leading to a rebound in asset risk within our existing portfolio. Day 1 delinquency ratio across our total assets rose by roughly 9.5% quarter-over-quarter, while 90-day plus delinquency ratio rose from 3.5%-3.6%. In the third quarter, as funding supply tightened further and new loan originations dropped sharply, we expect risk indicators on our outstanding loan portfolio to continue trending upwards on a sequential basis. Compounded by a shrinking loan balance, the 90-day plus delinquency ratio is expected to rise further. Regarding the risk management of our existing portfolio, we continue to strengthen early-stage collections and implement differentiated SMS repayment reminders, among other measures, to control the magnitude of risk elevation. Meanwhile, we are stepping up provisioning and ensuring an orderly runoff of these existing assets. Translator00:15:41On the new loan front, we proactively raised our underwriting standards in response to the evolving risk landscape during the second quarter, limiting the quarter-over-quarter uptick in FPD30 to a minor level of around 4.6%. For the third quarter, we will maintain tight entry criteria, strengthen risk assessment for borrowers with cross-platform debt, and filter out high-risk applicants to maintain a stable risk profile for our new loans. On the technology front, our continued investments and explorations in AI-driven risk control are yielding meaningful results. In credit approval, our [Non-English content] agent has evolved from merely assisting human reviewers to making autonomous decisions. Notably, its risk detection capability is 3x that of manual review for autonomous rejection and 1.2x for review recommendations, and it continues to iterate rapidly. Translator00:16:41Beyond that, we are building an internal [Non-English content] agent expert platform by integrating underlying big data, domain expertise across risk management roles, and localized LLM capabilities into a seamless closed loop. We are enabling AI-driven expertise and standardization across the majority of our risk management tasks. This initiative has not only boosted the output efficiency of general risk models and routing strategies by over 5x, but also positioned us well for future[Non-English content] and risk solution offerings to the industry. Looking ahead, while risk may experience short-term fluctuations due to industry headwinds, we are confident that with stringent risk control in place, we can ensure an orderly runoff of existing assets and steady asset quality for new loans, laying a solid foundation for sustainable operations. Next, I will hand over to our CFO, James, to provide a review of the company's financial performance for the second quarter. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:17:46Thanks, Arvin. I will now provide a detailed overview of our second quarter financial results. Please note that all figures are presented in CNY terms, and all comparisons are made on a quarter-over-quarter basis unless otherwise stated. During the second quarter, we continued to advance our business transformation and the new regulatory framework that took effect in the fourth quarter last year, achieving progress that largely met our expectations. However, the landscape has shifted notably just before the second quarter ended. Before I dive into our second quarter financial details, I would like to briefly address recent developments that have created some uncertainty for the industry. Recently, risk events involving certain industry players have triggered heightened regulatory scrutiny. This raised caution among funding partners, leading to an ongoing sector-wide tightening of funding supply. This has impacted loan volumes across the industry, including Lexin. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:18:58That being said, I would like to emphasize two key points to our investors. First, compliance has always been our operational bottom line. We have never engaged in any similar non-compliant practices, and our business operations stand up to strict scrutiny. Second, we currently have a cash position of CNY 2.5 billion, which provides a financial buffer to help us navigate industry volatility and ensure the steady operations of our business. I will talk more about the impact of these recent developments and our countermeasures later in my remarks. With this context, let's now review our second quarter financial performance. During the second quarter, total loan origination volume was CNY 55 billion, representing a 4.3% decrease sequentially, due to the continuous decline in our consumer finance business, and partially offset by the steady growth of our [Non-English content] business and e-commerce business. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:20:13Total revenue came in at CNY 3.2 billion, and net income stood at CNY 101 million. Now, let me dive into the details and walk you through the key numbers. First, the net revenue of the credit business, which is derived by adding up credit facilitation service income and tech empowerment service income, net of credit costs, which consists of provisions, and the fair value changes and funding costs, was CNY 981 million, representing a 32.5% or CNY 473 million decrease quarter-over-quarter. This was due to the decline of both credit facilitation service income and the tech empowerment service income. Specifically, credit facilitation service income, representing our capital-heavy business, decreased by 43.6% to CNY 508 million, primarily driven by lower loan volumes in our online consumer finance business, rising funding costs, and our prudent decision to maintain adequate provisioning. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:21:30Meanwhile, our tech empowerment service income, representing our capital-light business, decreased by 14.4% to CNY 473 million. This was mainly attributable to the revenue decrease from value-added services and the scale-down of legacy ICP portfolios. Second, net revenue of the installment e-commerce business, defined as the installment e-commerce revenue, net of cost of inventory sold, increased by CNY 122 million-CNY 329 million. The total net revenue summing the credit business and the installment e-commerce business added up to CNY 1.3 billion, a 21.1% or CNY 351 million decrease quarter-over-quarter. On the expense side, operating expenses, including sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses, and processing and servicing costs, decreased by 17.6% or CNY 244 million to CNY 1.2 billion. Tax and others decreased by 9.3% or CNY 6 million-CNY 62 million. Consequently, total expenses added up to CNY 1.2 billion, a decrease of 17.2% or CNY 251 million. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:23:15By deducting the total expenses of CNY 1.2 billion from the total net revenue of CNY 1.3 billion, we arrive at a net income of CNY 101 million, a decrease of 49.7% or about CNY 100 million quarter-over-quarter. To sum up, the decrease in this quarter's net income was largely attributable to three combined factors, a revenue decrease resulting from the ongoing scale-down of our loan facilitation business due to regulatory impact, an increase in provisioning driven by our prudent risk approach, and despite our cost optimization efforts, expense reduction lacked top-line contraction, temporarily squeezing our near-term profitability. Now I would like to walk you through the three key highlights from this quarter. First, the growing diversification of our business mix. While our overall loan origination volume experienced a minor decline of 4.3% in the second quarter, our Fintech-empowerment service successfully bucked the trend with continued growth of 8%. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:24:36As a result, the loan volume contribution from our fintech empowerment and the e-commerce business has now reached 45%. As we discussed last quarter, the steady expansion of our fintech empowerment business continues to lay the groundwork for highly visible long-term revenue pipeline and higher asset quality. Complementing this pivotal shift, our installment e-commerce business maintained a steady momentum, continuing to serve as reliable stabilizer for our broader portfolio. Second, the solid growth and expanding profitability of our installment e-commerce business. Consistent with our strategy from the previous quarter, we maintained a disciplined approach, prioritizing asset quality and risk control over sheer volume expansion amidst the current macro environment. As a result, our e-commerce loan volume maintained stable at CNY 2.3 billion. More importantly, our ongoing focus on operational refinement yielded solid profitability improvement. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:25:52Gross profit for this segment reached CNY 329 million, representing a 58.7% increase, while gross profit margin expanded from 9.4% last quarter to 14.1%. By seamlessly integrating consumption scenario into our broader ecosystem, this segment continues to serve as a valuable revenue driver, adding another layer of resilience to our diversified revenue streams. Third, our prudent provisioning strategy. The industry dynamics unfolding in late June, including a tightened funding supply and as anticipated, upward tick in sector-wide risk resulting from peer-level risk events, which I noted earlier, have introduced a new market complexity. Incorporating these cautious forward-looking industry expectations into our risk assessment models, we adopted a more conservative provisioning approach for our second quarter portfolio. As a result of this strict and prudent stance, our overall credit cost increased 9.6% sequentially to CNY 1.4 billion during the quarter. To better understand of our provisioning, let's look at our gross provision metrics. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:27:21By stripping out the net accounting impact of fair value changes, our gross provision ratio for new capital-heavy loans was at 7.8%, higher than the last quarter. Furthermore, our provision coverage ratio remained robust at 230%. Now let's move on to our operating expense items. On the cost and expense side, our total operating expenses decreased by 17.6%, or CNY 244 million-CNY 1.1 billion, mainly due to the decrease of the sales marketing expenses of CNY 165 million and partially offset by a one-time decrease in G&A expenses, driven by costs associated with our organizational optimization. For balance sheet items, as of June 30th, our cash position, which includes cash equivalents, and restricted cash, was approximately CNY 2.5 billion. Shareholders' equity remains solid at about CNY 12 billion. Now turning to our business outlook. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:28:35As I mentioned earlier, the recent risk events involving certain players have created sector-wide impacts, and Lexin has not been immune to these headwinds. Specifically, we are facing two main challenges. First, a contraction in new loan volumes. Second, the liquidity squeeze resulting from funding supply has constrained some borrowers' cash flows and could potentially impair their repayment capacity, leading to increased risk volatility in the coming quarters. Against this backdrop, we are taking proactive and decisive measures to navigate this environment. First, we are maintaining dialogue with our funding partners to reinforce mutual trust. This ensures that we are well-positioned to resume normal funding supply as soon as the market conditions permit. Second, amidst the industry-wide funding squeeze, we are prioritizing cash flow management while optimization and operational efficiency, including staff reduction, to safeguard our core business fundamentals. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:29:47Third, like Jay mentioned earlier, we are proactively exploring new business models centering on technology empowerment services for To-B and consumer. These initiatives will safeguard our long-term sustainable growth and lay a solid foundation for our future business trajectory. Looking ahead, given the regulators heightened their scrutiny to resolve the risks associated with certain industry players, along with the potential introduction of new industry regulations, we have limited visibility on when funding partners will resume normal operations, and the exact timeline for our loan volumes to normalize remains uncertain. Compounded by the industry-wide liquidity squeeze, we expect our revenue to further decrease and the credit risks and the costs to trend upward in the third quarter, for which we will make adequate provisions. Additionally, we have initiated a series of organizational optimization to navigate industry uncertainties with the resulting one-time expenses primarily recognized in the third quarter. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:31:03Consequently, we expect the company to record a net loss in the third quarter. As for the remainder of the year, due to the limited visibility at this time, we will provide further guidance as the year progresses. In light of ongoing industry uncertainties, the board has made a decision to adjust our dividend distribution policy from a semiannual to annual payment. Therefore, any potential dividend declarations for 2026 will be assessed when we announce our fourth quarter results in early 2027. This proactive step allows us to optimize liquidity, fortify our core operations, and maintain strategic flexibility needed to navigate near-term market volatility. I want to emphasize that delivering shareholder value remains our top priority, and we view this as a prudent adjustment that may be temporary as the market visibility improves. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:32:09The board will actively reassess our capital allocation strategy and explore renewed initiatives to drive shareholder returns. In conclusion, while navigating this industry-wide transition, we are taking decisive and proactive measures to safeguard our liquidity, protect the long-term shareholder value, and pivot ourselves for sustainable growth once the market normalizes. Operator, we are now ready to open the lines for questions. Operator00:32:40Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one and one on your telephone. For the benefit of all participants, if you wish to ask your questions to management in Chinese, please translate them to English. One moment for the first question. Our first question comes from the line of Judy Zhang of Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Judy ZhangAnalyst at Citi00:33:06[Non-English content] Let me translate. I have two questions. The first question is, what is your take on the recent risk events in the industry? How has it affected the industry and your business, and what steps are you taking in response? The second question is, how do you expect the risk trend to evolve in the third quarter? Thank you. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:35:01[Non-English content] Translator00:35:01This is the translation for Jay's remarks. The recent risk events involving certain peers have triggered a crisis of confidence among funding providers, causing a broad-based tightening and even suspension of funding supply across the industry. That said, these are isolated cases, though they do involve potential criminal conduct, and we would not be surprised to see more regulatory measures follow. We expect funding supply in the loan facilitation sector to remain tight for a while, and the adjusting period will likely last longer than initially expected. As for us, we have always operated strictly in compliance with regulations, and we do not have any of the issues seen at these institutions. But we are not immune to the broader industry trend. With funding supply tightening, our loan facilitation business took a meaningful hit in July. Translator00:36:08As a result, new loan originations have contracted notably and asset quality is facing further volatility in line with the broader markets. That said, we are in a solid position. We have ample capital reserves and organic cash generation capability to meet the needs of ongoing operations. We remain on the white list of major funding partners, which should allow us to resume loan origination as soon as conditions allow. Translator00:36:38We have sufficient provision in place to manage an orderly wind down of existing portfolios. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:36:45[Non-English content] Translator00:37:45In response to the new environment, we are accelerating our transition focusing on a few key areas. First, we are doubling down on our diversification strategy and accelerating on our tech empowerment transition. As economic growth continue to provide underlying support for credit demand, we see a clear industry trend for financial institutions to develop their own lending business compliantly. We are well positioned to ride this trend with our tech-empowerment model. Leveraging our capabilities in traffic, risk management, AI and operations to help financial institutions grow their lending business in a low risk and sustainable way. We've been building our ecosystem for years and we are advancing the transition from guarantee-backed loan facilitation model to a light tech-enabling model, and that positions us well for long term sustainable growth ahead. Meanwhile, it's worth stressing that our e-commerce business will keep growing steadily and continue to contribute profit. These diverse businesses are our differentiated advantages compared with our peers. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:38:57 [Non-English content] Translator00:40:18Second, we are driving cost efficiency to strengthen our ability to navigate industry cycle. We've rolled out a series of organizational streamlining and efficiency measures, and we expect management costs to come down by 30%-40%. As a result, we are seeing faster decision making, significantly higher productivity per employee and a stronger foundation for long term operational sustainability and resilience to market cycle, all of which create a runway we need to execute our transformation. Third, we are deepening our AI integration across the board in key operations, risk management and customer services. By embedded AI more deeply into our processes, we are simplifying workflows, improving efficiency, and further reducing operating costs so that we stay lean and agile even in a volatile environment. Looking ahead, we don't expect the regulatory and funding environment to ease anytime soon. Recovery will take time. In the near term, we will stay disciplined, continue to adopt prudent operational approach, and ensure an orderly wind down of risk assets. Over the medium to long term, we will accelerate the transition to a [Non-English content] model by empowering financial institutions with our technology solutions and driving our operational efficiency through AI so that we are well adapted to the new regulatory landscape and positioned for long term sustainable growth. Thanks. Arvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk Officer at LexinFintech00:41:56 [Non-English content] Translator00:43:30This is the translation for Arvin's remarks. Following the industry risk event in late June, we did see some volatilities in a few risk indicators recently, driven by a sector-wide liquidity shock. Looking ahead to Q3, with funding supply tightening further and our active risk management measures in place, new loan originations will decline materially. As a result, we expect existing portfolio risk to remain upward pressure sequentially. Compounded by a further contracting loan balance, the 90+ delinquency ratio is expected to rise further. On the collection side, due to the industry-wide regulatory campaign and higher compliance requirements for loan collection practices, our collection rate will also see a decline. That said, with our prudent risk approach and adequate provisioning, we have the capability to manage an orderly wind down of existing risk assets. Our goal is to keep any risk fluctuation within our risk appetite. Operator00:44:54Thank you for the question. Please hold for our next question. The next question will come from the line of Alex Ye of UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Alex YeAnalyst at UBS00:45:05 [Non-English content]My question is, given the impact of recent industry risk event, how should we think about the financial performance for the second half of the year? Thank you. James ZhengCFO at LexinFintech00:45:31This is James, I am going to take this question. Looking ahead to the second half, the overall market visibility still remains limited, given the ongoing uncertainties around the funding supply recovery and the regulatory trends. As a result, we are not providing any specific financial guidance at this point. However, against the backdrop of sector-wide liquidity tightening, we expect our third quarter performance to be under pressure, mainly due to the following factors. On the revenue side, obviously the sector-wide funding tightening had a material impact on our new loan originations in supply in July and August, the last two months. If this situation continues, our Q3 loan origination volume will come down a lot, which will directly weigh on our top line. On the cost and expense side, there are two structural factors at play. One is the credit cost. Liquidity tightening across the sector has led to an uptick in default risks within our existing portfolio. In line with our prudent risk management approach, we will set aside sufficient provisions for the associated potential risks, which obviously will drive up the credit cost for the quarter. Second, the operating expenses. In Q3, we proactively streamlined our organizational structure, optimized headcount, and enhanced efficiency. This generated a one-off severance related cost, which will temporarily drive up our G&A expenses for the quarter. Over the long run, however, the benefits of these cost savings and efficiency initiatives will gradually flow through to our financials. If I factor in all of this, we expect the company to record a net loss in the third quarter. For Q4, we will update our business and financial guidance as we get more clarity on the regulatory front. While the short-term performance is under pressure, we are steadily resolving existing portfolio risks, advancing our technology-empowered transformation, and driving organizational efficiency. This will for sure solidify our capitalized operation foundations and position ourselves well for steady, resilient growth under the new regulatory cycle. Operator00:48:18Thank you for the question. Our next questions will come from the line of Yujie Jing of CICC. Please go ahead. Yujie JingAnalyst at CICC00:48:28[Non-English content] Let me quickly translate my question. Following the change to your dividend policy, how should we view your long term plans to return value to shareholders? Thanks. Jay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEO at LexinFintech00:48:51[Non-English content] Translator00:49:43In response to the recent industry volatility triggered by recent events at certain peers, the board, after careful consideration, has decided to change our dividend distribution from a semi-annual to an annual schedule. The board believes that maintaining ample liquidity and financial flexibility and preserving sufficient capital resources and financial buffers for our business transformation will help us navigate the industry adjustment more smoothly, and that, in turn, will better protect long-term shareholder interest. I would like to stress that our commitment to creating and returning value to shareholders has not wavered. As the industry gradually recovers and the business performance improves over time, the board will actively evaluate a range of shareholder return options, including share buybacks based on our specific circumstances at that time. Thank you. Operator00:50:45Thank you for the questions. At this time, there are no further questions from the line. I would like to hand the call back to management for closing. Will TanHead of Capital Markets at LexinFintech00:50:55Thank you. This conference is now concluded. Thank you for joining today's call. If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thanks again. Operator00:51:05That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesWill TanHead of Capital MarketsJay Wenjie XiaoChairman and CEOArvin Zhanwen QiaoChief Risk OfficerJames ZhengCFOAnalystsTranslatorJudy ZhangAnalyst at CitiAlex YeAnalyst at UBSYujie JingAnalyst at CICCPowered by