World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLD) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call May 5, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Chad Prashad - President & Chief Executive Officer

Johnny Calmes - CFO & Strategy Officer

Conference Call Participants

Vincent Caintic - Stephens

John Rowan - Janney

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the World Acceptance Corporation sponsored fourth quarter press release conference call. This call is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions]

Before we begin, the corporation has requested that I make the following announcement. These comments made during the conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the 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 and any variation of the foregoing 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 corporate most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, 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 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 2022 fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. Before we open up to questions, there are a few areas that I'd like to highlight. First, for the third consecutive quarter, we've experienced record growth in origination volumes. During the fourth quarter, gross originations grew by approximately $220 million more than the prior year fourth quarter. And at over $700 million surpassed our prior strongest fourth quarter originations by approximately 40%. We attribute this record growth to positive customer experiences, increased marketing intelligence, and larger loan offerings, all in the midst of tighter credit underwriting for new customers that we began in the third quarter.

Further, we experienced this broad expansion across all customer types and continue to see tremendous increases in new and returning customer loan volumes when compared to last year or even pre-pandemic levels. In particular, new customer originations in the fourth quarter increased from approximately $25 million to over $60 million as new loan applications increased significantly by 64% versus the fourth quarter of fiscal '21 and 41% versus the fourth quarter of fiscal '20.