Cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh Quý 3/2026 của GBFH: NIM cải thiện khi mảng thanh toán gaming tiến triển

GBank Financial Holdings (NASDAQ: GBFH) đã nhấn mạnh biên lãi thuần mạnh mẽ hơn, hoạt động phát hành khoản vay tăng trưởng tốt và tiến độ bước đầu trong mảng thanh toán trò chơi có thưởng trong cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 3/2026. Ban lãnh đạo cũng cho biết thu nhập từ phí trao đổi thấp hơn, chi phí tín dụng tăng cao và thời điểm bán các khoản vay SBA đã ảnh hưởng tiêu cực đến kết quả báo cáo.

Những điểm chính

• Biên lãi thuần tăng 17 điểm cơ bản so với quý trước lên 3,95%. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết kết quả quý này vẫn chưa phản ánh việc tái ấn định lãi suất vào tháng tiếp theo của các khoản vay SBA sau các đợt thay đổi lãi suất cơ bản.
• Tổng giá trị phát hành khoản vay thương mại và SBA đạt 171,7 triệu USD. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay hàng năm ở mức chuẩn hóa có thể duy trì trong khoảng 10%–15%.
• Biên lợi nhuận từ bán khoản vay tăng từ 5,04% lên 5,57%. Tuy nhiên, quy trình vận hành sửa đổi của SBA dự kiến sẽ hoãn việc ghi nhận lợi nhuận từ các khoản vay phát hành trong tháng 12 sang tháng 1/2027.
• GBank đóng vai trò là ngân hàng tài trợ cho 19 khách hàng thuộc lĩnh vực trò chơi có thưởng và fintech, tạo ra tiền gửi bình quân hàng ngày đạt 31,2 triệu USD trong quý 3.
• Tài sản nợ xấu giảm 5 triệu USD, trong khi nợ quá hạn giai đoạn đầu giảm hơn 10 triệu USD xuống còn khoảng 2 triệu USD.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến chi phí tín dụng sẽ tiến tới mức chuẩn hóa hơn vào năm 2027, trong khi các chương trình trò chơi có thưởng đang phát triển dự kiến sẽ chưa đóng góp đáng kể trong ngắn hạn.

Dữ liệu tài chính cốt lõi

Các thành phần chi phí dự phòng được thảo luận trong cuộc họp bao gồm 333.000 USD liên quan đến tăng trưởng, 687.000 USD cho chương trình thẻ tín dụng bán lẻ cũ, 981.000 USD dự phòng cụ thể và khoản điều chỉnh CECL trị giá 600.000 USD. GBank đang từng bước thu hẹp và chấm dứt chương trình thẻ tín dụng bán lẻ cũ.

Chi phí tiền lương, tiền công và phúc lợi bao gồm 520.000 USD chi trả trợ cấp thôi việc. Ban lãnh đạo cũng đề cập đến chi phí hoa hồng cao hơn gắn liền với sản lượng phát hành khoản vay, 100.000 USD chi phí bên thứ ba và 600.000 USD liên quan đến tranh chấp hợp đồng.

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

GBank đã xác định ba động lực tăng trưởng chính: ngân hàng thương mại tại Las Vegas, nền tảng cho vay SBA toàn quốc và mảng kinh doanh thanh toán trò chơi có thưởng. Công ty có kế hoạch thắt chặt mối quan hệ trong các lĩnh vực dịch vụ pháp lý, y tế, xây dựng và bất động sản, dịch vụ chuyên môn, sản xuất và phân phối.

Mảng kinh doanh SBA tiếp tục đóng vai trò trung tâm đối với thu nhập lãi thuần, lợi nhuận từ bán khoản vay và phí quản lý thường xuyên. GBank cũng đang tìm kiếm thêm các chuyên viên phát triển kinh doanh SBA để đa dạng hóa danh mục đầu tư.

Mảng thanh toán trò chơi có thưởng đã chuyển từ giai đoạn phát triển sang khởi chạy trong quý. BoltBetz đã được triển khai tại tất cả 9 địa điểm Distill vào tháng 9. Sau hai tháng, ban lãnh đạo báo cáo tỷ lệ áp dụng đạt 5% trong số các thành viên câu lạc bộ trò chơi có thưởng và 10% trong số 10% thành viên hàng đầu.

Terribles, đơn vị vận hành 3.000 máy trò chơi có thưởng tại 300 địa điểm được cấp phép ở Nevada, dự kiến sẽ ra mắt BoltBetz vào đầu tháng 11/2026. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết đơn vị vận hành này xử lý giá trị giao dịch tương đương hàng năm khoảng 1 tỷ USD thông qua các máy đó.

Việc tích hợp kỹ thuật với hệ thống quản lý sòng bạc AXIS dự kiến sẽ hoàn thành vào tháng 12/2026, tạo tiền đề để công ty triển khai với một hoặc hai đơn vị vận hành trò chơi AXIS vào năm 2027. Thẻ trả trước Lucky Loads đã gặp sự chậm trễ về kỹ thuật và dự kiến sẽ ra mắt vào quý 2/2027.

Định hướng của ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo chỉ ra rằng tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay hàng năm ở mức 10%–15% là một phạm vi chuẩn hóa hợp lý dựa trên hiệu quả hoạt động trong quá khứ của công ty.

Về hiệu quả kinh tế từ bán khoản vay SBA, ban lãnh đạo đánh giá biên lợi nhuận từ bán khoản vay trong khoảng 5,0%–5,56% là hợp lý. Quy mô khoản vay chờ xử lý vẫn duy trì mạnh mẽ, mặc dù thời điểm bán khoản vay có thể tạo ra sự biến động theo quý.

GBank tự đánh giá là ngân hàng nhạy cảm với tài sản, với khoảng 800 triệu USD tài sản và 300 triệu USD tiền gửi được tái ấn định lãi suất hoặc thả nổi. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết ngân hàng nhìn chung hưởng lợi từ môi trường lãi suất tăng, trong khi các khoản vay SBA thường điều chỉnh vào tháng tiếp theo sau khi lãi suất cơ bản thay đổi.

Công ty dự kiến chi phí tín dụng trên các danh mục thương mại, SBA và thẻ tín dụng sẽ tiến tới mức chuẩn hóa hơn vào năm 2027. Công ty không cung cấp mục tiêu bằng USD cho tiền gửi hoặc sản lượng giao dịch mảng trò chơi có thưởng, nhưng cho biết dự kiến sẽ có tiến triển và đà tăng trưởng trong suốt năm 2027.

Rủi ro và các khu vực cần theo dõi

Thu nhập ngoài lãi vẫn ở mức thấp hơn mức mong muốn của ban lãnh đạo. Thu nhập từ phí trao đổi giảm sau khi một số đơn vị vận hành cá cược thể thao trực tuyến ngừng chấp nhận thẻ tín dụng làm phương thức thanh toán, một sự thay đổi mà ban lãnh đạo mô tả là nằm ngoài tầm kiểm soát của ngân hàng.

Chi phí tín dụng vẫn ở mức cao và tài sản nợ xấu vẫn vượt mức mong muốn của ban lãnh đạo. Khoảng 10 triệu USD bất động sản gán nợ thu hồi khác cũng vẫn còn trên bảng cân đối kế toán.

Quy trình vận hành sửa đổi của SBA ngăn cản các ngân hàng bán khoản vay trong cùng tháng phát hành. Do đó, lợi nhuận liên quan đến các khoản vay phát hành trong tháng 12/2026 sẽ chuyển sang tháng 1/2027, tạo ra lực cản cho thu nhập từ bán khoản vay trong quý 4. Thu nhập lãi bổ sung trong thời gian nắm giữ dự kiến không thể bù đắp hoàn toàn cho khoản lợi nhuận bị hoãn lại.

Các sáng kiến về trò chơi có thưởng và fintech vẫn phụ thuộc vào việc tích hợp kỹ thuật, phê duyệt từ cơ quan quản lý, rà soát tuân thủ, kiểm toán đơn vị vận hành, đào tạo và mức độ tiếp nhận của khách hàng. Ban lãnh đạo nhấn mạnh rằng các chương trình này nên được xem là các mảng kinh doanh nhiều giai đoạn hơn là yếu tố đóng góp thu nhập trong ngắn hạn.

Điểm nhấn phần Hỏi & Đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

Các chuyên gia phân tích tập trung vào các chỉ số mảng trò chơi có thưởng năm 2027, độ nhạy của biên lãi thuần, sự chuẩn hóa tín dụng, thời điểm bán khoản vay SBA và xu hướng chi phí.

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tiến độ của mảng trò chơi có thưởng ban đầu sẽ được đo lường thông qua lượng tiền gửi và các cột mốc hoạt động thay vì mục tiêu doanh thu. Báo cáo hàng quý sẽ tiếp tục bao gồm tiền gửi, giao dịch thẻ tín dụng và thu nhập phí trao đổi thuần, đồng thời các chỉ số doanh thu bổ sung sẽ được thêm vào khi các chương trình đạt đến mức độ có ý nghĩa về mặt tài chính.

Về tín dụng, ban lãnh đạo nhấn mạnh việc nhận diện sớm hơn các khoản vay có vấn đề và sự phối hợp chặt chẽ hơn giữa các bộ phận quản trị tín dụng, xử lý khoản vay và thu hồi nợ. Việc giảm nợ quá hạn giai đoạn đầu và tài sản nợ xấu được đưa ra làm bằng chứng cho tiến triển ban đầu.

Liên quan đến bộ máy lãnh đạo, Giám đốc điều hành Jeffrey Newgard cho biết quá trình tìm kiếm Giám đốc tài chính đã thu hẹp xuống còn ba ứng viên. Các ưu tiên tuyển dụng bổ sung bao gồm các chuyên viên quản lý quan hệ khách hàng giàu kinh nghiệm tại Las Vegas, chuyên gia thanh toán và chuyên viên phát triển kinh doanh SBA.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the GBank Financial Holdings, Inc. Q3 2026 Earnings Call.

[Operator Instructions]

Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

Joining us this afternoon are Jeff Newgard, President and CEO of GBank Financial Holdings and G Bank; and Edward Nigro, Todd Nigro, both Directors of GBank Financial Holdings.

The related Q3 earnings press release was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today and is available on the News and Media section of our website, gbankfinancialholdings.com.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that any forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated future results.

Please see our safe harbor statements in our earnings press release. All comments expressed or implied made during today's call are subject to those safe harbor statements.

Any forward-looking statements made during this call are made only as of today's date, and we do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Additionally, during today's call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures can also be found in our earnings release.

I'd now like to pass it over to Ed Nigro.

Edward Nigro

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Ed Nigro.

The engagement of Jeff Newgard in May of 2026 as President and CEO of GBank was the first phase of the GBank Financial Holdings succession plan.

Recognizing Jeff's banking experience, we accelerated Phase 2, appointing Jeff as GBank Financial Holdings President and CEO as well as Chairman of the Board of GBank.

Now, with Phase 2 completed, I decided that I would be more productive in my role as CEO of BankCard Services. So, Jeff, I pass on to you the leadership of the bank I founded 20 years ago, but I really look forward to working with you to grow the bank's gaming fintech business.

Now to Jeff.

Jeffrey Newgard

Thank you, Ed. Ed founded GBank and played a central role in building it into the company it is today, including the development of its national SBA lending franchise and its gaming and payment strategy.

On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Ed for his vision, his years of service, and the drive he brought to building this company. We look forward to his continued service as a director and a partner as CEO of BankCard Services.

I'm honored that the Board has asked me to lead GBank Financial Holdings as well as the bank. I've spent more than 20 years growing banks.

I led Bank of Idaho's growth from $250 million to $1.3 billion in assets before its sale to Glacier Bancorp. I'm excited to bring that experience to GBank and build on the strong foundation already in place.

Today, I'll start with our third quarter results, then share some observations from my first 5 months with the company and the priorities that will guide our efforts going forward.

Rather than rehash all the ups and downs in the quarter, I want to highlight what I think is important for shareholders and the analyst community.

First, the earnings power of the bank can be clearly seen in the adjusted numbers, which are supported by higher net interest income, improving net NIM, and the beginnings of solid expense management.

While noninterest income is clearly lower than we would all like, the sequential reduction in gain on sale income is simply a timing issue. The 5.57% gain on sale margin is a taste of what's coming as the held-for-sale loans are monetized.

The decline in interchange income, though disappointing, was outside of our control, resulting from the decision by several online sports betting operators to disallow credit cards as a payment source. That change had a significant effect on third-quarter results.

Credit costs have also weighed on earnings this year across our commercial, SBA, and credit card portfolios. We are confident those costs will move back toward more normalized levels as we move into 2027.

While the reported numbers are much lower than expectations, I want to emphasize that our results show that several areas of the bank are, in fact, performing well.

Further, after a detailed review of our loan portfolio and operations, I can assure you that I am comfortable with our processes and approach to underwriting, monitoring, and problem credit resolution.

While the last several quarters have been difficult for the bank and shareholders, I believe that GBank is now headed in the right direction. I'm building my team, and many of the challenges negatively impacting the bank should be fully addressed by year-end.

With that, I'd really like to spend some time discussing my vision for the bank and how our gaming fintech payments initiatives play a crucial role in that vision.

Since joining GBank in June, I've spent a lot of time getting to know our team, our customers, and reviewing our operations and loan portfolio.

What I found is a franchise with 3 distinct growth engines: an established commercial bank in Las Vegas, a national SBA lending platform, and a payments business serving the gaming industry.

As the largest independent bank headquartered in Las Vegas, we're part of a growing and increasingly diverse commercial market that we know well.

Our national SBA business takes that reach well beyond our local markets. We are one of the largest SBA lenders in the country and the #1 SBA lender in hospitality.

Across our SBA and commercial banking businesses, we originated $171.7 million in loans this quarter. We also serviced $1.2 billion of loans we've sold, allowing us to maintain customer relationships and generate recurring servicing income long after the loans are sold.

Our payment business is still in its early stages and will take time to develop, but it gives us a third avenue for growth alongside commercial banking and SBA lending.

Together, these businesses provide multiple sources of revenue, specialized expertise, and attractive opportunities for growth. With that foundation in place, I have identified 4 priorities that will guide how we'll build the company going forward.

First and most important is growing the core bank.

That means deepening our presence in the markets we already serve, adding experienced bankers where it makes sense, and continuing to build relationships in customer segments where we see attractive opportunities, including legal, health care, construction and real estate, professional services, manufacturing and distribution.

It also means doing more for the customers we already have through lending, treasury management and deposit services. Our SBA franchise will remain an important part of that growth through net interest income, gain on loan sales and recurring servicing fees.

We will protect our established hotel lending strength while expanding selectively into additional industries and using our broader banking capabilities to deepen customer relationships.

We'll do all of this with discipline and a focus on relationships. In markets where we know how to manage the risk, the goal is a broader, more durable franchise and a deeper customer relationship and more diverse mix of customers and industries.

Second is credit. Nonperforming assets remain higher than we want them to be, and resolving them is a priority.

Since I joined GBank, we've increased the resources dedicated to credit administration and special assets, strengthened coordination across our credit, servicing, and workout teams, and become more proactive in identifying and addressing problem credits.

Those efforts enabled us to bring down early-stage delinquencies by more than $10 million from the end of the second quarter. While there's still work to do, I believe these efforts position us to improve portfolio performance and maximize recoveries over time.

Third is growing our payments business. We're excited about that opportunity, and GBank is committed to building it for the long term.

We are currently using BankCard Services LLC's patented payment technology to function as the sponsor bank for 19 gaming and fintech clients. Average daily deposits for these relationships in Q3 were $31.2 million.

GBank's role is to provide the regulated banking foundation for secure, compliant, and efficient funds flow across the gaming ecosystem.

As a sponsor bank, GBank supplies the banking infrastructure, account framework, payment rail connectivity, and regulatory oversight, while technology and gaming partners deliver the patron-facing experience and operator integrations.

In an industry where funding settlement and cashless wagering often remain fragmented, GBank's infrastructure helps us streamline the movement of funds, supporting a better experience for patrons, greater efficiency for gaming operators, and a scalable source of deposits.

New fintech programs should be viewed as multistage bank-enabled businesses rather than near-term financial contributors. After a client signs, each program progresses through a deliberate launch process.

Technical integration, applicable regulatory approvals, GBank compliance review and onboarding, a gaming operator prelaunch audit, accounting setup, marketing and promotional planning, staff training, and ultimately, go-live.

The process is not always linear, but each completed milestone reduces execution risk and brings the program closer to meaningful adoption, deposit growth, and payment volumes for the bank.

That opportunity is beginning to take shape through specific customer and partner milestones to sell a group of neighborhood taverns with gaming machines, formally launching the BoltBetz application at all 9 of its Las Vegas locations in September, following a limited launch in Q1, and early returns have been positive.

Terribles, a Nevada-based gaming operator with 3,000 gaming machines statewide, will go live with the BoltBetz application in early November.

The integration of the AXI casino management system and the banker payments infrastructure is also underway.

Once the technical integration is complete and the first AXIS gaming operator is signed, the launch process described above will begin for that operator.

Each subsequent AXIS operator will be signed, integrated, and launched separately, and we'll provide updates and material milestones as they are achieved.

Not every part of the business is progressing at the same pace. The Lucky Loads prepaid card is taking longer than anticipated and is expected to launch in the second quarter of next year.

I cannot express how important gaming and payments are to our long-term strategy.

While we do not expect the developing programs to contribute materially to our results in the near term, GBank already supports a broader portfolio of gaming and Fintech clients through its relationship with BankCard Services, providing an established base of deposits and payment activity as the developing programs move towards scale.

We'll continue to report deposits, credit card transactions, and net interchange fee income each quarter.

In addition, we'll focus on concrete milestones such as regulatory approvals, completed integrations, customer launches, and adoption.

Once those programs are large enough to have a meaningful effect on GBank's results, we'll add revenue measures and metrics that provide insight into the success of each.

We remain confident that this business can be a meaningful source of low-cost deposits and fee income over time.

Fourth is running the company well. As GBank continues to grow, our processes and operating discipline must keep pace.

Our independent IT and cybersecurity audits were completed last quarter with a satisfactory rating, the highest possible rating, and 0 high or moderate risk findings.

We are implementing the remaining law and best practice recommendations, none of which require additional spending. We have also established an enterprise-wide AI governance framework with policies and guardrails governing the use of AI.

AI is already being deployed and integrated into GBank business processes, and we're accelerating and expanding its use as we identify additional applications, strengthening our leadership team as part of this.

We continue to make progress on our search for a Chief Financial Officer and look forward to providing an update when appropriate.

We will also continue to build out our broader team with an emphasis on talent that can deepen relationships in existing markets and selectively expand our reach where we see attractive opportunities.

I want to assure all shareholders that we will operate this company as efficiently as possible. And based on my relatively short time here, I'm confident there is ground to gain on the expense front.

Turning to capital. Organic growth remains our top priority. We have a strong capital position, and the priority is putting it to work in the core bank and the businesses we've talked about today to enhance shareholder value. That's the plan.

Now it's on us to deliver it, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of our analysts and shareholders better over the coming months. I'll be clear about priorities, candid about our progress, and we'll hold ourselves accountable for delivering consistent results over time.

With that, we'll open the call up to your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question will come from Joe Yanchunis with Raymond James.

Phần hỏi đáp

Joseph Yanchunis

And I apologize if I missed this, as I have a couple going on right now. But you said you expect '27 to be a fresh start and that we should start seeing the gaming initiatives take hold during that year.

Can you put some numbers around that for us? Like what would we consider successful in 2027 in terms of gaming deposits, live machines, or transaction activity in your view?

Jeffrey Newgard

Okay. Excellent. We're just getting some disturbance on our end. Okay. So yes, as I described the process, we are going to look at the milestones that each one goes through, each one of these businesses that we bring on.

So there's been a full launch at Distill, and that started in September.

And then we have Terribles starting in November, and then AXIS is going to be in next year. Integration starts at the end of this year. So, how we're going to measure results is growth in deposits.

And we're going to bring that to you every quarter. And we're going to show you the milestones that each one is going through. So, as far as the dollar amounts, I don't have projected dollar amounts for you, but we will see progress and traction through '27.

Joseph Yanchunis

And again, I apologize if this was covered in the prepared remarks in detail. So the NIM improved, what, 17 bps this quarter, which is pretty encouraging. How much of that improvement is structural versus mix?

And then I guess, again, as we look into '27, what are some of the biggest levers that could move that NIM higher from the 3.95% absent the gaming deposit growth?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes. Thank you. Yes, I was very encouraged with the NIM results. And you know what that doesn't include, because of the way the SBA reprices, is that we are very asset-sensitive, first of all. And all those SBA loans, they adjust the next month after an adjustment in prime.

So, the prime rate increase is not seen in that NIM. So, it will affect next quarter's NIM. And being very asset-sensitive, we do better in a rising rate environment. So we feel good about NIM.

The other thing is, for 2027, some of the levers are here locally in Las Vegas. We have a real opportunity to penetrate this market.

We have existing relationships, and we are going to bring on experienced bankers to help us penetrate that market and bring in those relationships with loans and deposits.

And I've done this before at Bank of Idaho; we entered many new markets. The benefit here is that we're already here. We're established. We're the largest independent bank in Las Vegas. And it's our home turf.

So we have a lot of advantage, and it's the most exciting opportunity except for our gaming fintech side. I'm pretty jazzed about that, too.

Joseph Yanchunis

And then you mentioned asset sensitivity. What is your asset sensitivity to a 100 basis point increase?

Jeffrey Newgard

We have $800 million in assets and that float. So, adjustable basically monthly after the adjustment in the prime, and then $300 million in deposits that float. Does that help you? 500,000 delta?

Joseph Yanchunis

Yes. Yes, that's helpful. And then just a couple for me here. So, your allowance ex guaranteed loans is now 1.54%, but specific reserves increased again this quarter. How much additional reserve build should we be contemplating?

And what would need to happen for you to feel comfortable that the credit cleanup is largely behind you?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes. So the good news: I want to take the opportunity to say that we went from 2.8% to 2.6%, which at least is moving in the right direction.

As part of the allowance, $333,000 was for growth. That legacy retail credit card, $687,000. That number we are winding down. We are winding down that program and see that number diminishing. The specific reserves of $981,000, as you mentioned.

And then the other part is there was a CECL adjustment of $600,000. So, that was a big part of that. NPAs are down $5 million, which, as I mentioned, last quarter, we hired a very seasoned special assets manager, and he came in and really made a lot of headway.

And that's where you see the reduction in NPAs. And then early-stage delinquencies are down by over $10 million. And that's indication to me that we're moving that in the right direction.

Joseph Yanchunis

And then last one for me. Jeff, as you continue to put your team in place, can you give us an update on the search for a permanent CFO? And you touched on this a little bit in your prepared remarks.

What other key hires or areas of expertise do you think you still need to add to the organization?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes. So definitely on the CFO front, I have 3 candidates that I'm with right now, and you'll get an update very soon. Believe me, I need a CFO as my partner.

Then on the payment side, I think there's opportunity there. And then on the local market side, what I look for is a very seasoned, established banker that has relationships.

And then in addition, filling out additional SBA business development officers in order to further diversify that portfolio. So, those are the positions that make sense.

Operator

Our next question will come from Matthew Erdner with JonesTrading.

Matthew Erdner

Ed and Jeff, congratulations to you both; exciting times. But yes, I wanted to follow up a little bit on a previous question.

You mentioned the early-stage delinquencies are down $10 million there. How much do you feel like you can really work through in the next quarter?

And then I guess following up on that, is there anything within that between guaranteed versus non-guaranteed?

And Jeff, you mentioned in your prepared remarks a big focus on credit. Is there anything, I guess, under the hood that you guys are really changing or taking control of in terms of different processes or procedures as you go through this stuff?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes, absolutely. My belief on credit is quicker is better. Early recognition is the whole key for credit quality, getting on these credits early, before they go past 60 or 90 days and hit downgrades.

I'm very comfortable with how we're managing it now, but that's just the beginning. We are going to continue to look at past-due and manage those. We're down to about $2 million right now in the early-stage delinquencies, and we're going to continue to hit those.

And then the way special assets work, it's kind of a life cycle to itself. It starts with the past-due and then downgrades.

And then finally, at the end, you have OREO, other real estate owned. And we have about $10 million sitting in OREO that is going to come off. So we're really focusing hard on getting those off our books.

Matthew Erdner

And then I guess just looking into my model and the gain on sales, I was a little high there.

Are there any dynamics that were impacted during the quarter? How should we think about the timing of sales going forward?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes. I'm glad you asked that question because there's a dramatic change in the SBA SOP, the operating procedure.

And it's a change for all banks, all banks involved in SBA is that the month that you originate the loan, you cannot sell it and get that gain on sale in the same month.

You have to wait until the next month in order to sell it. So that is going to impact gain on sale in December. Because those originations that are done in December are then going to get pushed to January.

And then it will even out after that, but it will have an impact on the fourth quarter. Now, the positive side of that is that we will get interest income during those days that those are on our books.

But I mean, it's not going to offset the gain on sale. And we don't have a good feel for -- we have a good pipeline and feel really confident about our pipeline. But until we get closer, not sure how much that will impact December. The other really cool thing is to look at our gain on sale margin.

I was very pleased with that, from 504 to 557. That's a 10% increase. So I'm very pleased with that.

Matthew Erdner

And then, one more follow-up for me, and then I'll step out of the queue. That gain on sale margin, one: how sustainable is that over the course of 2027?

And I know that's looking into a crystal ball, but where do you think those settle out on a normalized basis?

And then from a noninterest expense modeling thing, salaries, wages, and employee benefits increased a little bit quarter-over-quarter. Should we look at the second quarter or the third quarter as more of a run rate going forward?

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes. So, I'll answer your second question first because it's freshest in my mind. Is the increase in salary and benefits.

We had $520,000 in severance payments. And then the rest of that is because we had such robust originations of $171.7 million and increased commissions. So we have to pay for that production. So that's the increase there.

And then, if you look on the last page of the press release, you'll notice that the severance is in there in the adjusted numbers, as well as third-party, unrelated to the credit card, by the way, of $100,000.

And then, we have off to the side $600,000 in contract disputes. And so, however you want to look at that, that's where expenses are going.

And then the first part of the question was gain on sale. So what we have is a really well-oiled machine, very consistent if you look over the last 3 quarters. And we see the pipeline still being robust. We have a process that is very tuned as far as selling those guaranteed portions.

And I would say, if anything, we're going to spend more energy around getting those sold and making sure those get sold quicker.

Operator

Our next question will come from Tim Coffey with Green Capital.

Timothy Coffey

Jeff, I appreciate you framing the conversation the way you did and lining up the different verticals and what's going on there.

One of the things you're inheriting is a really good growth engine. And so I wonder what do you think is a normalized level of loan growth on an annualized basis for this company?

Jeffrey Newgard

I think you're going to see it be pretty consistent with what we've done in the past. It's working well. What was the percentage you threw out there?

Timothy Coffey

I think annualized was 15% in the quarter.

Jeffrey Newgard

Yes, 10% to 15%.

Timothy Coffey

If we just look at the community bank in Las Vegas, where are the areas where you think the bank can grow loans?

Where is the low-hanging fruit in your mind?

Jeffrey Newgard

I think the business community is very robust here. And what's nice is that people around this bank already have relationships.

We just haven't fully tapped them. And as I get out in the community, I'm going to make those relationships.

And the Board, frankly, has already done a lot of work on bringing deposits to the bank. But I want them to make introductions so that we can increase those relationships and deposits; the medical service area and contractors as well are low-hanging fruit.

Timothy Coffey

The company is incredibly well connected in the community. And then, the SBA division is really, really strong. Is there a normalized level of gain on sale on a quarterly basis that you think is reasonable?

Jeffrey Newgard

Well, we're $557 this quarter. I would say that 5 to 5.56 range is reasonable.

Operator

This completes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff Newgard, President and CEO of GBank Financial Holdings and GBank, for any closing remarks.

Jeffrey Newgard

Thank you. I'd like to take this time to have Todd Nigro give a little update on our Fintech area.

Todd Nigro

Thanks, Jeff. We got a few things to report on. So, bear with me. It's been an exciting time. I think that Q3 and Q4 really represent going from development mode with our capabilities in Fintech to launch mode.

Albeit initially at a smaller scale, we're still launching in September. We got all 9 locations, as you mentioned, up and running. And that's quite a process to do that.

As you alluded to in your opening remarks, it starts with signing up a gaming operator and goes all the way through regulatory audit, accounting, and go-live training and approvals.

And in just the short 2 months that we've been doing it, I'm going to share just a little bit of data on Distill. We've already achieved 5% adoption among patrons who are using the app as their primary loading mechanism.

And when I say 5% adoption, I'm speaking with regard to the gaming club. We've also had a 10% adoption among the top 10% of our gaming club members.

So the high end of the market, which is a larger transaction volume customer, seems to be willing to use the app on a more regular basis.

And I just want to frame that up within the casino industry, especially bricks and mortar, if you sat in front of any gaming executive that operates in a casino and said we're going to get to 15% to 20% cashless adoption with a system like ours, they would think that, that would be an absolute home run.

So the industry has, to our benefit, quite low expectations about cashless, but we're already seeing some numbers that are really encouraging.

And I just feel like I want to share that when I share information about the distill operation, I'm the gaming operator; I'm the owner of that organization.

I don't want to imply that as we roll out to gaming operations that are not owned by a Nigro or even Tim Herbst, who sits on our board for Terribles. We're likely not to be able to share confidential information on gaming club numbers and adoption rates and things like that.

Hopefully, we'll get to deliver some, but that's really up to the gaming operator to share that information. But I have the benefit of being involved in the ones that I'm reporting on, so we can share some additional stuff.

Terribles is really on a whole other level as far as complexity. They've also gone through the entire process, Jeff explained, and have all of the regulatory and internal approvals to launch the product. And it's important to grasp the scope of the Terribles organization.

There are 3,000 gaming machines. They have 300 individually licensed gaming locations across Nevada. That's all the way from Northern to Southern Nevada.

And they do approximately $1 billion in transaction equivalent value a year going through those machines.

So this is a very large, very complex organization, and launching them after the small distill operation is an endeavor that's going to give us a lot of really good data and experience in the industry because launching an organization like Terribles in the cashless world is unprecedented.

I do not believe that anybody else in our industry is even tackling an organization like this. So we're super excited about it. And we are going to see material data coming out of the Terribles organization, some of which we will likely be able to share next year.

AXIS is in an earlier stage. We signed them in July, and now we're doing our technical integration with their casino management system. We expect the technical integration to complete in 2027.

Our technical integration is going to be complete in December of this year. That sets us up for AXIS signing on a gaming operator, which we expect to happen, and us launching one of those in 2027 because the technical integration phase is one of the longer lead-time items in the process.

So we're still very excited about that product and that launch coming next year with a gaming operator or 2.

And I also wanted to state that what we're doing right now at GBank, BCS, BoltBetz, Bankroll, is multiple integrations with other casino management systems and cashless and cash access payment providers in the gaming industry.

And we're having active and ongoing discussions with both online and brick-and-mortar gaming operators. So there's a lot of activity going on in the organization right now.

And one of the things that we've been doing, which I think we're going to start to see results from, is that we've been building the infrastructure, both in the bank at BCS and at Bankroll at BolBetz, in order to start delivering on deposit growth for the organization going forward.

The Lucky Lowes prepaid card has hit some technical delays. It seems like technical delays are commonplace in the gaming Fintech world that we live in.

However, we still remain very enthusiastic about the product. It's going to do really well out there in the marketplace because it's being built on all of the systems that we're currently using at BolBetz and Bankroll. So that's going to happen in 2027.

And I also think that, that's going to generate some material data for us on how Fintech can deliver for the bank. So unless I miss anything, Jeff, I Excellent. That's it in a nutshell. Thank you.

Jeffrey Newgard

Thank you. We're very excited about it. Well, before we conclude, I'd like to thank our Board, our employees, and our shareholders for their continued support.

We remain focused on executing against the priorities I've outlined today, and we look forward to updating you on our progress. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you for joining the GBank Financial Holdings, Inc. Q3 2026 Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.