CASH 2017 Annual Report

TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS As another year closes, I can’t help but take a look back on what we have accomplished in fiscal 2017. We saw continued strong growth from all of our businesses plus two acquisitions, as well as many new and expanded relationships with business partners, all of which resulted in delivering yet another record-breaking year. This included the successful integration of the two acquisitions, EPS Financial (EPS) and Specialty Consumer Services (SCS), which we completed in our first quarter and seamlessly executed during tax season. These transactions helped solidify Meta as a leader in the tax payments space. Our many multi-year strategic partnerships with industry leading companies propelled our business this year and provide a bright future, too. Company Highlights Net income was $44.9 million, by far the highest earnings in Meta history and a significant 35% increase over the previous high. Contributing to this achievement was not only our successful acquisitions and solid tax season results but strong growth in our other business lines. We grew our loan portfolio by 43% during 2017 while also increasing non-interest income as a percent of total revenue from 57% in 2016 to 65% in 2017. Payment Highlights Our payments division provides a successful platform to achieve our vision of financial inclusion for everyone ™. We saw continued growth in our existing prepaid business and experienced the synergies of the tax payments business in our second fiscal quarter. Card fee income grew 34% in 2017 and average deposits increased 12% in the divisionyear-over-year. In 2017, we expanded our presence in the tax services space through acquisitions and partnerships with leading franchises and independent tax preparers. We provided underwriting for and originated approximately $1.3 billion of interest-free refund advance loans for the 2017 tax season up from under $100 million in 2016. We were also pleased to be able to announce that we are a party to multi-year agreements with all existing refund advance loan partners, which we expect will provide a growing annuity stream in future years. Banking Highlights Our banking segment, comprised of the Retail Bank and Specialty Finance portfolios, continued to experience strong growth in 2017. Retail Bank loans increased 26% from September 30, 2016 to September 30, 2017, while premium finance loans grew by 46% over the same time period. We continue to grow our loan portfolios as our low-cost deposit base allows us to provide competitive terms without sacrificing credit quality. Our asset quality is sound and our approach to loan structuring with borrowers remains strong. In December 2016, we purchased a $134.0 million seasoned, floating rate, private student loan portfolio. We also announced in our fourth quarter earnings release that in October 2017, we purchased an insured $73.0 million seasoned, floating rate, private portfolio that is structured similar to our prior purchase. These student loan portfolios are generating attractive returns while risk has been reduced through portfolio insurance. We will continue to remain opportunistic and disciplined when evaluating loan pool deal flow and additional lending opportunities. Disciplined Growth In 2017, we experienced what I like to call disciplined growth. We grew non-interest income at a faster rate than deposits which provides us with additional capital capacity. Our outlook for 2018 will focus on expanding our emphasis on non-interest income growth, loan and earning asset generation, delivering another exceptional tax season and building innovative credit products. This gives us the flexibility to look at opportunities that will continue to grow the business and create shareholder value without raising additional capital.