WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Russell Gunther: Okay. I appreciate that, Art. And then, if you could just as a follow up, remind us the amount of indexed deposits you have?

Art Bacci: The amount of indexed deposits is that what you said, Russell?

Russell Gunther: If you have it.

Art Bacci: Yeah, we may have to get back to you.

Russell Gunther: No problem.

Art Bacci: Primarily in the money market account. Let us get back to you, Russell, on that.

Russell Gunther: I appreciate that. No problem. And then just last one for me, guys. The ’24 outlook, again, with the stable rates, any risk to the fee guide if you were to sensitize to three cuts? I mean, it sounds like the Cash Connect is really a market share gain opportunity, but just thinking through that double-digit target in the three cut scenario as well, how do you see that playing out?

Art Bacci: I think potentially through rate cuts certainly would increase the value of fixed-income AUM and potentially have an upside in the market, which would increase our AUM. And we’re building in like a 3% market-based AUM growth. So that could potentially increase if the markets were to go up. As I mentioned previously, some rate decreases could enhance the securitization market and lead to further corporate debt refinancing, which would benefit our Institutional Trust business.

Russell Gunther: Okay. That’s very helpful. Thank you guys for taking my question.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Frank Schiraldi: Hey, guys.

Rodger Levenson: Hi, Frank.

Frank Schiraldi: Just on Cash Connect business, trying to get a sense given the pickup in business here in the fourth quarter and potentially into the current year, is it — obviously, the double-digit growth year-over-year has got a pretty good starting jumping-off point. But when I think about just growth off of 4Q levels, I mean, is there enough low-hanging fruit where you could see double-digit growth off of 4Q levels in 2024? How are you thinking about growth from here, I guess, for Cash Connect?

Art Bacci: I think given the volume that’s in the pipeline from the providers of ATM services that are moving from that other competitor, there’s potential for some low double-digit growth from the fourth quarter.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay.

Rodger Levenson: I think, Frank the other thing is — Frank, with the Cash Connect, it’s Rodger, with some of this consolidation, also comes some pricing power for us, which could be a tailwind as we pick up some business as well.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask about returns in that business. The ROA looked like got a pretty good boost. I don’t know if that’s sustainable, and if you even could see further ROA pick up in 2024, where that business could again be accretive to the bottom-line, ROA?

Rodger Levenson: Yeah. As you know, we’ve — and you hit on it. Historically, over time, Cash Connect has been accretive to the overall ROA, and we’re getting back to those levels. We went through a period of significant investment in some product and some technology and kind of the maturation of that combined with this opportunity in the traditional bailment business. We’re getting some scale and some pricing power, and we think there’s every opportunity for us to have it continue to be accretive to overall corporate ROA in the near term.

Art Bacci: Yeah. Frank, we pretty much saw a bottoming of the ROA in the first quarter this year. And between the first and fourth quarter, the ROA has increased 250%. So, with additional volume being added in the first half of next year, we would expect that ROA to continue to move up.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. Great. And then, Art, just on the AUM linked quarter, the growth noted, obviously, a lot of that was market-driven. But just wondering if you have net flows you’ve seen in AUM from a customer standpoint over the last couple of quarters?

Art Bacci: Yeah. We saw a little bit more outflow in the fourth quarter. So, we were pretty much break even through the first three quarters, which was a big improvement from prior years because we were still integrating Bryn Mawr Trust and there was a lot of client change and some advisor departures. So, we saw fourth quarter a little bit more departure and some of that just tied to spend where we’re seeing customers using up more assets in order to just maintain lifestyle given the higher inflation rate and — higher rates, whereby they’re buying houses and instead of financing and paying all cash.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. And then just lastly, sorry if I missed it, but the uptick in NPA is obviously off a pretty low base, but what was — what drove that primarily?

Steve Clark: Hey, Frank, this is Steve Clark speaking. That was really two specific loans, one in the multifamily sector. This particular multifamily was master leased to a co-living operator, who declared bankruptcy. So that sponsor is working to reposition that property into more of a traditional multifamily. The other was in our legacy healthcare book, the elder care. Frank, the facility just did not recover from COVID. So, they were the two specific loans, one in multifamily, one in legacy elder care.

Frank Schiraldi: Okay. And then, are either of those additions still current or these are 90 days past due in NPAs?

Steve Clark: No, they’re both NPAs.