Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator's Instructions) And we'll go first to John Hecht with JMP Securities.
John Hecht - JMP Securities
Good afternoon, thanks for taking my questions. First, a little bit of homework. Chris, you looked at your tax rate, it was a little higher this quarter. What's a proper tax rate, you think, about you guys on a recurring basis?
Chris A. Choate
Recurring wise, John, 37%-38% would be an appropriate tax rate. This quarter and last quarter, frankly because of relatively modest pretax earnings, sort of normal recurring mostly state-level tax accruals that we have to make no matter what, have caused the tax rate to look a little out of whack.
John Hecht - JMP Securities
Okay. And just to clarify or make sure I get this right, you expect the loan-loss reserve as a percentage of the portfolio to peak. Is that in the calendar fourth quarter of 2009 or was that mid-2010 fiscal year? I guess that would be the same thing.
Chris A. Choate
They're pretty much — I think you've kind of answered it. We didn't give a specific time period, but certainly you're in the right zip code.
John Hecht - JMP Securities
And then you expect to bring originations up to $300 million in that same timeframe and then growing at some rate thereafter?
Chris A. Choate
Correct.
John Hecht - JMP Securities
Okay. And then I guess the question I have is it sounds like you're looking at the last transaction, the TALF-assisted I guess you'd call it, transaction, and the fact that your marginal profitability on that appears to be pretty strong. I guess why would it — and you're getting a tax refund in the next couple of quarters, should we expect that to be the timeframe, or maybe you would revisit the AVS markets and clearout the warehouse again where you do it more opportunistically based on pricing in both the origination markets and the credit markets? Or how should we think about when you really try to ramp up to capture some of these improved economics?
Chris A. Choate
Well really as we said in our remarks we don't anticipate re-accessing the securitization markets in calendar 2009, and that's really largely a function of collateral availability. We kind of cleared out our master warehouse facility with the July transaction. We have a medium-term note facility that at this point we certainly anticipate we would fill up to its maximum extent prior to it going into amortization in October, and thus it wouldn't appear based on our origination objectives that we would have collateral in a sufficient amount to access the securitization markets again until early 2010, sort of counter 2010, sort of independent of tax refund or what's going on with the TALF subscription periods generally.
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