World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLD) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 26, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Chad Prashad - President and CEO
Johnny Calmes - Chief Financial and Strategy Officer
Conference Call Participants
John Rowan - Janney Montgomery Scott
Vince Caintic - Stephens, Inc.
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the World Acceptance Corporation Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].
Before we begin, the Corporation 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 represents 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, planned, expect, believe, may, will and should or any variations 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 forward-looking statements it makes.
At this time, it's my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host to Mr. Chad Prashad, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Chad Prashad
Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal 2023 third quarter earnings call. Before we open up to questions, there are a few areas that I'd like to highlight. We are pleased with the trends that are emerging from recent policy changes. As we discussed during our most recent quarterly earnings call, we began adjusting our underwriting toward the end of our last fiscal year as the economic uncertainty was increasing. This was primarily due to three drivers, inflationary pressures on our customers' cash flow, delinquency normalization after a period of extraordinary portfolio growth and stimulus, and growing macroeconomic and recessionary concerns.
The first trend, delinquency is showing positive trending. Our early-stage delinquency continues to decline month after month, while later stage will continue to result in elevated charge-offs into next quarter. Earlier in fiscal year 2023 we quickly reduced our exposure to our highest risk customers and successfully avoided the temptation to lend into the economic uncertainty. Now we are fortunate to be in a position of credit performance improvement during the fiscal year, especially with our new customers.