World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLD) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Chad Prashad - President & Chief Executive Officer
Johnny Calmes - Chief Financial & Strategy Officer
Conference Call Participants
Vincent Caintic - Stephens
John Rowan - Janney
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to World Acceptance Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. And at this time, all participants have been placed on listen-only mode.
Before we begin, the company has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that represent the corporation's expectations and beliefs concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are about matters that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties.
Statements other than those of historical fact as well as those identified by the words anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, expect, believe, may, will, and should or any variation of the foregoing and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ from the expectations expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements are included in the paragraph discussing forward-looking statements in today's earnings press release and in the Risk Factors section of the corporation's most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 and subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. The corporation does not undertake any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chad Prashad, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Chad Prashad
Good morning and thank you for joining our fiscal 2023 year-end and fourth quarter earnings call.
Before we open up to questions, there are a few areas that I'd like to highlight. We made several changes in early fiscal 2023 that we believe would have a significant impact on our business and we've been very pleased with the results. As we discussed during prior earnings calls, we tightened underwriting about 18 months ago as economic uncertainty was increasing. At the time, inflationary pressure concerns about delinquency normalization after a period of extraordinary portfolio growth and growing recessionary concerns were key drivers for the strategic changes.
Rather than lend into the economic uncertainty, we dramatically reduced our exposure to our highest risk customers. While new customer loan volume increased in the first quarter by 5% year-over-year, it declined significantly by between 35% and 45% during our fiscal second, third and fourth quarters of this year as we work to improve credit quality.