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GBank Financial OTCMKTS: GBFH executives used the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call to walk investors through a record quarter, operational changes in its gaming-focused credit card program, and early progress for its BoltBetz “pooled player account” (PPA) product aimed at cashless casino play. Chairman and CEO Ed Nigro and CFO Jeff Wicker also highlighted process changes in the SBA business intended to lift gain-on-sale margins, and discussed balance sheet actions taken during the quarter and shortly after year-end.
Record quarter and full-year profitability metrics
Wicker said the company posted record quarterly earnings of $7.4 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, up $3.1 million from the prior quarter’s $4.3 million. Results included record net revenue and $247,000 in net one-time expenses. Wicker said the one-time items included the “tail end” of a third-quarter credit card marketing campaign, which has now been satisfied and closed out.
Excluding unusual and one-time items, Wicker said the bank would have produced diluted earnings per share of $1.66 for the year, up from $1.37 in the prior year. He also cited a 4.33% net interest margin for 2025, comparing it to an industry average of “approximately 3.7%.”
Gaming credit card: pausing growth to fix onboarding, fraud, and ACH payments
Nigro spent much of his prepared remarks describing why credit card transaction volumes swung over recent quarters. He said the company temporarily stopped its application process after two problems hit at once: an automated application product that “wasn’t working well” and caused applicants to drop off, and a “massive” direct-mail campaign sent to 700,000 recipients that generated large volumes of applications not aligned with the bank’s primary gaming user base. Nigro said the bank became “underwater” and shut the application process down to redesign and re-engineer it, a process that lasted until “almost the end of October” before the bank gradually reopened applications.
Nigro said credit card transaction volume had accelerated to around $130 million per quarter before the shutdown, then “settled in around $99 million” in the fourth quarter, which he said was expected given the pause and tightening steps. He emphasized that the bank relaunched with enhanced “KYC and fraud prevention metrics,” citing Plaid as well as NeuroID and Precise ID, and added that bots have become an active source of fraudulent applications. He gave an example from the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in which the bank received about 10,000 applications, approved six, and labeled the rest as fraud. Nigro said no fraud had penetrated the application process in the last 60 days.
Another key operational focus has been how customers pay down balances. Nigro said many high-volume users pay off their cards by ACH, which can take up to three business days to clear and can be disputed for as long as 60 days. The bank originally relied on an ACH process delivered through i2c, but Nigro said the bank determined it needed to bring ACH processing “inside GBank” and become the ODFI for its consumer credit card ACH payments. He said the bank is “very close” to launching its own ACH processing for credit card customers.
During the fourth quarter, Nigro said the bank temporarily reduced transactions and adjusted how quickly it granted credit for ACH payments in order to observe clearance patterns and confirm that fraud had not penetrated the customer base. He said the bank has since relaunched and is preparing to restart marketing activity. Nigro also noted the bank has moved customer calls away from a processor and back in-house, deploying an AI system to help answer calls and building a “host-style loyalty” program for higher-usage customers.
Wicker added that despite the recent challenges around credit and fraud, the credit card program has been “positively contributing to the bottom line” consistently, which he said is unusual for a program at its stage. He also noted provision expense declined in the quarter.
Regulatory shifts at major sportsbooks and how management framed demand
Nigro addressed changes by large sportsbook operators, noting DraftKings stopped accepting credit cards and FanDuel announced it will stop direct credit card loads in March. He said roughly seven states do not allow credit cards to directly load sports betting apps, and referenced fines reported for DraftKings in Massachusetts and FanDuel in Iowa. Nigro argued that credit card users tend to shift to other platforms that continue to accept credit cards, and said GBank’s customers currently use 20 out of about 28 legal sports betting apps nationwide.
BoltBetz PPA: licensing milestones and the “cashless slots” pitch
Nigro also outlined progress in what he called an important part of GBank’s Gaming FinTech strategy: BoltBetz and the pooled player account structure. He said BoltBetz was licensed on November 21, 2025, receiving approvals for both BoltBetz and for Distill Taverns to use BoltBetz. He described the BoltBetz license as an “Associated Equipment Provider” approval for a software solution that lets players “create and fund a wagering account via a mobile app.”
He highlighted language in the Distill approval stating that GBank will be holding all the funds rather than Distill, and that a reserve account is not necessary. Nigro said player funds are held at the bank using a sub-ledger approach and are reconciled, settled, and distributed by GBank. He portrayed the product as a potential shift for brick-and-mortar casinos because it reduces the need for operators to manage cash in slot environments, with the bank distributing funds weekly to the operator while allowing players to move funds instantly.
Nigro said Distill had launched and intends to roll out across its locations, but each venue requires training. He also said the app includes a feature to tip bartenders. He noted that Terrible’s had held meetings and “believes that they’ll be launching in the second quarter,” with its Gaming Control Board application underway.
In response to an analyst question about earlier estimates that 100 slot machines could generate about $2.5 million in deposits, Nigro cautioned that figure assumes a mature ramp and roughly 50% penetration of a property’s customer base, and said the speed of onboarding is still an “unknown.” He reiterated the Nevada market includes about 150,000 slot machines and said there are about 800,000 additional licensed slot machines across the country.
SBA gain-on-sale changes, government shutdown impacts, and balance sheet actions
On core banking, Nigro said non-interest income has benefited from credit card interchange and that interchange fees increased by about $7 million over the last year due to card activity. He also detailed changes in the SBA business aimed at improving gain-on-sale economics. Nigro said the bank changed incentives for business development officers to focus on spread, targeting at least a 1.25% spread to prime and avoiding lower-spread deals that had pushed GAAP gain on sale below 3% at times. Wicker said GAAP gain on sale increased from 3.24% to 3.98% in the fourth quarter and management expects it to trend above 4% in 2026. Nigro also shared January activity, saying the bank sold 12 loans totaling about $32 million, with eight at 1.25% spread or higher.
Management also discussed how the government shutdown affected SBA volumes. Nigro said fourth-quarter originations fell from over $200 million in the third quarter to $118 million in the fourth quarter as borrowers and brokers hesitated amid uncertainty. He said sales execution skewed due to timing, with approvals and originations pushed ahead of the shutdown.
Wicker said the bank resolved one nonperforming asset in early 2026, reducing the total balance by $3.6 million, and noted recent Federal Reserve rate reductions have provided relief to variable-rate borrowers, improving credit quality overall. He also explained the quarter’s negative provision was influenced by changes to SBA reserve “Q factors,” saying historical analysis no longer supported holding additional concentration reserves on that portfolio.
On the balance sheet, Wicker said the bank sold about $52 million of investment securities, including available-for-sale and held-to-maturity positions, to reposition into securities that better protect the organization in a “rates-down environment.” He said the sale included all held-to-maturity investments, leaving no remaining on-balance-sheet AOCI adjustments; AOCI was $17,000 as of Dec. 31.
After year-end, Wicker said the bank redeemed $6.5 million of subordinated notes that would have repriced from fixed to variable in January, which would have increased the rate by 350 basis points to a cost “over 8%.” He said the bank also issued $11 million of additional subordinated debt with a 10-year life and a fixed rate for the first five years of 7.25%, providing additional potential capital while reducing costs.
About GBank Financial OTCMKTS: GBFH
GBank Financial Holdings Inc operates as a bank holding company for GBank that provides banking services to commercial and consumer customers in Nevada. The company offers business and personal checking and savings accounts. It also provides small business administration loans; commercial real estate, equipment, business term, and medical/professional loans; business lines of credit; accounts receivable/inventory financing services; and credit cards. In addition, the company offers account and cash management services.
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