Meta reports earnings increase, new partnership with Walgreens
April 28, 2021
Sioux Falls-based Meta Financial Group Inc. has reported a 13 percent increase in its most recently quarterly earnings.
Net income was $59.1 million, or $1.84 per share, for the three months ended March 31, compared with net income of $52.3 million, or $1.45 per share, for the previous year.
“Our tax services and payments businesses and the increased interest income from our commercial finance business combined to produce solid second quarter revenue results,” said president and CEO Brad Hanson.
“We continued to develop our Banking as a Service franchise, including the launch of a new partnership with Walgreens. During the quarter, we distributed cards for the second and third rounds of Economic Impact Payments and further developed our environmental, social and governance efforts, all of which helped advance our mission of financial inclusion for all.”
During the quarter, Meta was selected as the issuing bank for Walgreens’ new bank account product with InComm Payments and MasterCard, adding to MetaBank’s suite of Banking as a Service relationships.
Total revenue for the second quarter was $187.3 million, a slight decrease compared to $188.3 million for the same quarter in fiscal 2020, which benefited from a one-time $19.3 million gain from the sale of Meta’s former community bank division.
“We are pleased with our team’s ability to grow core revenues, improve efficiency and manage credit,” said executive vice president and CFO Glen Herrick. “Excluding last year’s gain on sale from the divestiture of our community bank, we have seen promising fee income growth driven by both new and existing partner relationships in our payments and tax businesses. Our loan and lease portfolios also continued to perform well, reflecting the strength of our lending and collateral management programs.”
For the current tax season, MetaBank originated $1.79 billion in refund advance loans, compared to $1.33 billion during the prior year’s tax season.
During the second quarter of the fiscal 2021, total tax services product revenue was $67 million, an increase of 17 percent compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
