Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
And our first question comes from the line Dennis Telzrow with Stephens Inc. Please proceed with your question.
Dennis Telzrow - Stephens Inc
Good afternoon, Dan and Tom obliviously great work on the loss rate.
Daniel Feehan
Thank you.
Dennis Telzrow - Stephens Inc
A couple of small items here I am sure would be probably explained relatively easy. In the payday storefront numbers in the Q4, it looked like the operating expenses were up on reserve. Is that allocation changes versus last year?
Tom Bessant
Well, one of the factors I mentioned in the call, Dennis, is we added some stores in the fourth quarter, which pushed those numbers up. They did have a variety of costs here and there, nothing overly significant that burnt that business yield daily and overall it was only mainly those new 11 stores, [noticeable together].
Dennis Telzrow - Stephens Inc
Yeah. And you mentioned on your comment on the cash advance, you saw late surge and demand in December is that -- it sounds like that's a little unusual or is that normal or??
Tom Bessant
Well, we like to see strong balances coming off of the year. We did see a lot of incremental loans written the last week of the year, particularly out in the Midwest and when that happens we immediately reserve against that on our balance sheet, we only recognize that revenue ratably over the period of the loan. So it has a tendency to be dilutive if you will relative to loss provision. Not necessarily unusual when you see a big surge, as we talked about our volumes have been moderating throughout quarter, it was a bit of turnaround for us.
Dennis Telzrow - Stephens Inc
Yeah.
Daniel Feehan
And Dennis we were -- only just to add to that -- we were a bit surprised that the strength of the loan demand in both cash advance and pawn segments in December. So quite frankly, I find it encouraging to some degree, particularly given the underwriting changes that we had made coming into the fourth quarter.
Dennis Telzrow - Stephens Inc
And Dan you did mention it per se any perspective on the UK and I know you've going slow, is that still sort of the status of that?
Daniel Feehan
Yeah, I mean we are -- it is not significant up to this point to warrant mention in our prepared comment status, but we are making good progress in the UK, I am very pleased with the work that our team in Chicago has done to get up and operating there. We are still in an operating loss position in the UK, through both the third quarter and the fourth quarters.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
