World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLD) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Chad Prashad – President and Chief Executive Officer

John Calmes – Chief Financial and Strategy Officer

Conference Call Participants

John Rowan – Janney

Vincent Caintic – Stephens

Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial

Guy Riegel – Ingalls & Snyder

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the World Acceptance Corporation's sponsored First Quarter Press Release Conference Call. Today, this call is being recorded. At this time all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. Following managements' remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. The comments made during the conference call today 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 31st, 2022, and subjects are – and subsequent reports filed 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 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 first quarter earnings call. Before we open up to questions, there are a few areas that I'd like to highlight. For the fourth consecutive quarter, we've experienced record growth in origination volumes. During the first quarter, gross originations increased by approximately $175 million more than the prior year first quarter, and over $930 million surpassed our prior strongest first quarter originations of $762 million back in fiscal year 2020.

We continue to see elevated demand across all customer types. In addition to internal improvements in marketing, customer service, loan products and customer access channels, demand for credit has increased across the entire industry as inflationary and cost pressures are top of mind for many customers. As a result of tightening credit and underwriting several times since the third quarter of last year, this first quarter, our book-to-look declined by 28% to 31% for new customers when compared to the first quarter periods prior to the pandemic, and continued to decline further throughout the current month, July, of our fiscal second quarter period.