Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Carter Malloy from Stevens, Inc.
Carter Malloy – Stevens, Inc.
You noted that the volumes were up in December, but can you comment on the overall volumes itself throughout the quarter?
Anand Nallathambi
This is in the lender services segment?
Carter Malloy – Stevens, Inc.
Yes.
Anand Nallathambi
Yes, we did see the uptick in the fourth quarter. If we have to actually compare from end of December to January, the increase was significant. It was about 58%, so it was a significant increase, and January over December was about 18% increase. February, we’re seeing a slight drop-off in it, but not too much, so we remain enthused about it if the government’s housing bailout programs and the rates stay low, we could see some sort of continuous transaction levels.
Carter Malloy – Stevens, Inc.
Last quarter, you had also commented that your competitors were getting pretty desperate on the pricing and driving down industry pricing as a whole. Can you tell us if you’re still seeing that activity, and also maybe if you’ve seen a rise in the bankruptcy of those guys and, if so, the effect on your market share?
Anand Nallathambi
In general, because of the economic climate, we’re seeing a lot of our competitors going through a lot of pressures. There has been some irrational pricing out there, but in general, the client community is looking for high quality providers, so I think that you’ve got to balance that out. While we see people just about to go out of business putting out really ridiculous pricing out there, we’re seeing a little bit more reticence of lenders and other providers taking advantage of that, so I would say the pressure is still on, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.
Carter Malloy – Stevens, Inc.
Any bad debt issues in the quarter?
John Lamson
No, really nothing significant. Our bad debt expense was up a little bit in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. We were at about $2.9 million in the fourth quarter compared to $2.4 million, but it has fluctuated around that number all year, so I wouldn’t say we’ve seen any dramatic increases in credit, and the lender services fees, most of that behind us. It is more concentrated probably on the employer services segment versus lender now, but overall it’s pretty consistent. It wasn’t a big impact on the quarter.
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