VersaBank ($VBNK)

Okay. Good morning. Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of VersaBank. I'm Frank Newbould, Chair of the Board since last year. And in accordance with the bylaws, I will act as Chair of today's meeting, and I appoint Stacey Stokley as -- Corporate Secretary of VersaBank as Secretary of the meeting. And with the consent of the meeting, I appoint Arlene Agnew and Heather Conran around the corner from Odyssey Trust, who are joining us today as scrutineers for the meeting. The Secretary has confirmed that notice of this meeting was duly given in accordance with the Bank Act and the scrutineers have reported that the requisite quorum of shareholders as described in the bank's bylaws are present in person or represented by proxy. So I therefore declare this meeting to be properly constituted for the transaction of business and call the meeting to order. I further direct a copy of the notice of this meeting, together with proof of mailing be kept by the secretary with the records of the meeting and that the scrutineers' report be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. If all this sounds scripted, legalistic, formalistic, it is. We're told we've got to mind our Ps and Qs and cross the dots -- cross the Ts and dot the Is. And so there's a whole lot of formal stuff in here. We're fortunate to have in person, except one, all the members of the VersaBank's Board, Rick Jankura, unfortunately came down with a bit of flu yesterday, so he's participating by remotely. And what I would like to do is get my script here. I'd like to ask each member of the Board to stand and you can all hold your violent applause until the end. And so I am already standing, and I'll ask Sue McGovern, Vice Chair, Interim CEO; Gabrielle Bochynek, Director; Robbert-Jan Brabander; David Bratton [indiscernible]; Peter Irwin; and Rick Jankura, you can wave to Rick, but he's not here; Art Linton; and Paul Oliver; and David Taylor, he's our President. We also have senior management here. It's a large slide, and I'm not going to ask the members of senior management to stand up, but there are several are here recognized. Our auditors for fiscal 2025, Ernst & Young, are also joining us today. Thank you, and we thank you for your service. And now we'll move into the formal part of today's agenda. Today, we'll consider the matters of business set out in our management proxy circular dated March 9, 2026. The notice calling this meeting, the circular, the form of proxy were sent to registered and nonregistered shareholders as of February 24, 2026, on around March 18, 2026. I, for one, didn't get it because it was sent to my Toronto address. I was in Florida, but there are enough people who have got it and voted, so there is a quorum. Unless there's an objection, I'll dispense with reading of the notice of the meeting. There's no objection. And to best utilize our time, specific individuals have been asked to move and second the resolutions, which are set out [indiscernible] meeting. Now before moving on to the business, I would like to comment on voting procedure. With respect of our auditors and administrative bylaw amendment resolution, which is a special resolution. Each of holders of common shares are entitled to one vote per common share. Only registered shareholders appearing on the bank's registered shareholders as provided by the transfer agent and those persons who are authorized proxy holders are eligible to vote at today's meeting. I propose to conduct the vote on the appointment of auditors in the special resolution by show of hands. Please note that any registered shareholder or proxy holder present in person is entitled to demand that a ballot be conducted either before or after the vote or show of hands. And if a ballot required, we will then go through that. And the proxy holders will also be entitled to vote. The financial statements -- the first item of business is the reception of the bank's financial statements for fiscal 2025 as indicated in the circular, copies of the auditor's report and that the financial statements have been mailed to shareholders. We're not asking shareholders to approve the financial statements, but we'd be pleased to answer any questions pertaining to those financial statements during the general question period after the formal meeting. I'm going to move to the appointment of auditors. I'm going to ask Conrad Nicholas to move the resolution [indiscernible] appointing auditors for the current year and Nick Kristo to second it. Conrad?

[Audio Gap] Ernst & Young LLP be appointed auditors of the bank to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly appointed and that the directors of the bank be authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors for the current year in such as [indiscernible] they may in their discretion determined.

Thank you. May I have a motion to second it, Nick?

I second the motion.

Thank you. The motion is now open for discussion. As there's no discussion, I now put the resolution to the meeting. [Audio Gap] For this resolution to be carried, it must be approved by an affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the votes cast by shareholders present in person or by proxy. All those in favor of the resolution, please signify by raising your hand. [Voting]

Contrary minded. [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. The election of directors. We'll now proceed with that item of business. And I'm going to read something. And afterwards, I think I'm going to ask Mr. Bratton to repeat it because I know he's going to follow every word. The voting for the election of directors is to proceed by way of cumulative voting. As required under the Bank Act where directors are to be elected by cumulative voting, each shareholder of the bank has the right to cast the number of votes equal to the number of votes attached to the shares held by the shareholder, multiplied by the number of directors to be elected. Shareholders may cast all such votes in favor of one candidate or distribute them among the candidates in any manner. If a shareholder has voted for more than one candidate without specifying the distribution of the votes among the candidates, the shareholder's deemed to have distributed the votes equally among the candidates for whom the shareholder voted. If the number of candidates nominated for director exceeds the candidates who received the least number of votes will be eliminated until the number of candidates remaining equals the number of positions to be filled. Did you get that, Mr. Bratton? Well, to save time, I'm not going to ask you to do that. In order to comply with the provisions of the Bank Act, the election of directors is to be conducted by ballot [indiscernible] the appointed proxy holders will vote by ballot all proxies submitted to them as required. Now first, before we elect the new directors. I want to acknowledge Paul Oliver, who has been a director for many, many years. I first got to know Paul when I was previously on the Board of the bank. I've been impressed by him from the beginning how knowledgeable he is, how careful he is, what a great person he has been as a director. And Paul has himself decided it's time to step down as a director. We were all sorry -- we are all sorry to see Paul leave the Board, but I want to thank you Paul for all your services. And I'm going to ask everybody to join me to thank Paul. We're now open for the nomination of directors. This year, the number of directors of the bank is fixed at 10. And the individuals listed in the circular proposed for the directors are me, Mr. Taylor, David Taylor, Gabrielle Bochynek, Robbert-Jan Brabander, David Bratton, Peter Irwin, Richard Jankura, Arthur Linton, Sue McGovern and Scott Verity. And I'm going to ask Scott to stand up because Scott will become a new director. We're very fortunate to have Scott join the Board. He used to be involved in the audit of the bank when he was at KPMG, so he knows the bank well. And the information on all proposed directors is in the circular. I'm now going to ask Mike Dixon to nominate each of the individuals listed in the circular that are proposed for election and John Asma to second it.

I'm pleased to nominate each of the 10 persons named in the circular for election as a director of the bank to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successor is duly elected or appointed.

Okay. Thanks, Mike. May have a seconder?

I second each of the nominations.

Thank you. Are there any further nominations from the floor? Seeing none, I declare the nominations closed. Mike Dixon will now move the confirmation resolution.

I move that it is resolved that each of the 10 persons named in the circular be elected as a Director of the bank to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successor is duly elected or appointed.

May I have a seconder?

[indiscernible]

Thank you John. The scrutineers have distributed the ballots to any registered shareholder here today who had not voted prior to the meeting and authorized proxy holders present. And each shareholder then should record their vote, which has been put to in accordance with all the lengthy instructions I provided before. And I assume that the -- those people voting will not have affected the outcome. I ask the scrutineers to confirm that the -- what the effect of the voting here today, if any, is. Thank you. And so the scrutineers report the resolution with respect to election of directors has been duly carried by a majority of the votes cast, both in advance of and at this meeting, and I declare the resolution carried. Following the meeting, any registered shareholder who wants detailed information about the voting can obtain that by contacting the Secretary of the meeting, Stacey Stokley. Next order of business is the confirmation of the amendment to By-law No. 1, which allows the roles and responsibilities of the Chief Executive Officer and President to be held by different individuals. And I think that's been explained elsewhere as what the requirement is and why the need for that. It was approved by the bank's Board on May 27, 2025, and now requires confirmation of the shareholders. It's a special resolution and it was attached to the [indiscernible]. I now ask for a motion to approve the special resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the special resolution attached to Schedule A to the circular be hereby passed in its entirety as a resolution of the bank.

Thank you, Brent. Seconder?

I second the motion.

Thank you, Mike. The motion is now open for discussion. as there is no further discussion, I now put the resolution to the meeting. it must be approved by affirmative vote of not less than 2/3 of the votes cast by persons here or by proxy. All those in favor of the special resolution, please signify by raising your hand. [Voting]

Contrary, if any? [Voting]

Thank you. I declare the special resolution carried. Is there any further business that is part of the formal part of the meeting anyone wants to raise. As there is no further business to be brought before the meeting, this concludes the formal business of the meeting. I'm [indiscernible] going to ask Brent to move the final resolution.

Thank you, Chair. I move that the formal business of the meeting be terminated.

All right. That motion is accepted, and I declare the formal business of the meeting terminated. And now I turn it over to the person you're really waiting to hear our President David Taylor.

It's certainly great to be here again and see the familiar faces. In fact, some of you, I think, have been 4 decades of familiar faces. Now did I mention I'm a pilot that I started flying at 1957 and came -- sorry, sorry, enough about me. I tell you about my airplane. Well, I'll be a banker now. So the Londoners here should be very, very proud and those that have been shareholders for a very, very long time in that VersaBank has been recognized throughout the world as one of the leaders in banking innovation. And in fact, I've been invited to Westminster Abbey fairly soon for his part of June to address the lords and ladies of the land. And I'll be really, really careful that when I say that the central banking innovation is London that they don't make a mistake and think the other London that's trying hard to get there. So I've got a small slide show here to lead you through. Feel free to ask me questions if you like [indiscernible] throughout as we go along here. It's just a little bit of the highlights. Last year was a great year for us. As you know, we initiated the operations in the United States of America, and that's worked out extremely well. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I'm talking to the U.S. regulators that they are regulators, having grown the bank in Canada and facing all kinds of opposition to innovation. The U.S. regulator -- well, case in point, Jonathan Gould would have asked me, could you come to Washington and tell me how this new innovative cloud-based bank works? Of course, Jonathan, I'll be there for you, buddy or the FDIC wondering if we could propose a regulatory framework for our tokenized deposits. Yes, for sure. We'll propose the regulatory framework for you, make the bar a little high for the others that are to follow. Anyway, so it's been a very good year. And we've got a few slides we're going to pop through. Lauren [indiscernible] on the projector here. So I was saying we've got on that slide there validated our hypotheses that our secured receivable purchase program would work well in the United States. And of course, it's working extremely well. I'll reminisce a tiny bit with a really good Canadian regulator guy by the name of Nick Lapan. And back in the good old days when he had promoted us getting the first Canadian bank license in 18 years, I was sitting having the annual inspection with Nick. And Bill Mitchell, I remember [Audio Gap]. But Bill Mitchell was with me, Nick Lapan and the annual inspection consists of sitting at a table with Nick [indiscernible] really nice wine. And he [indiscernible] first because he's regulator say, that can keep you awake at night, Dave. And of course, I would say not flying. I fly experimental airplanes, what could keep me awake, right? Then he said, yes, have you got anything on the go, anything new? And I said, "Well, I've got this automated receivable purchase program idea, Nick." And Nick said, "Wow, that will take off like a grass fire." And it didn't -- the grass took a little while to get going because he left, another terrible regulator showed up and slowed us down a little bit. But nevertheless, that program has now evolved into what we call the securitized receivable program. And of course, it's the mainstay of our business in Canada and now United States. So flipping along -- sorry, I have to look down here with my reading glasses. So thankfully, there's a lot of green dots there. So we've been very successful in executing our plan in the United States, getting customers on board and executing and providing them with the financing that they're looking for. Somebody asked me once. So have you got a marketing team? Have you got guys that are out in the street hustling, I said no. Let me just lift up the phone and say, sure, we'll talk to you about that. It's that easy, isn't it, Mike? No, it's the usual thing. When you design something that is attractive, then you don't have to do a lot of marketing because it just sells itself. Right, Mike? [indiscernible] So I can maybe see it a bit better. Already flipping along there. Well, it was a record year. Total assets, virtually every category heading upward. We -- for those that follow us closely will know that we've engaged in a massive reorganization to sort of make our bank's structure look like that of the other U.S. banks. So we have in mind a U.S. bank holding company called Bancorp. And I think a good 50% of them are called Bancorp. So we're going with the flow. Unfortunately, that required a fair amount of spending on our friends in the legal profession and in the accounting profession, I'm sure they're represented here. We're happy to help feed their families. But hopefully, you see the end of these large, onetime expenses at the end of this -- mostly at the end of this quarter that we're in April 30. Other than that, all the stats, as you can see are well in the green. Those are enormous growth numbers for a bank, particularly a bank that's in Canada where we are looking at perhaps one of the worst economic environments in Canadian history. But thankfully, our program is designed to work well, both in recessionary times. And of course, we're looking at a U.S. market that is in the trillions versus Canada, $100 billion or so. Moving along. So this slide, it just gives you some rough math for those that like to do some analysis. As our assets grow, so does our revenue. You know how banks work. We make a net interest margin on our assets. And in Canada, we've been one of the banks with the highest net interest margin. I'm not sure if there's been one in the last 10 years that's approached our margin. So we have one of the highest margin margins of banks in the country. And the other claim to fame that our bank has is not providing much for expected loss provisions because the way our model is set up, we have to give a very little back to look after the inevitable bad loans that others have to suffer with. So the other thing about our bank is we are probably one of the most efficient banks in the world. And my objective is to make us by far the most efficient bank in the world. And that's a matter of growth. So as the assets grow, the net interest income grows. And I hope the fixed costs don't grow in step with that. That's why our IT guys are here to make sure we're using the latest in technology so that, that efficiency ratio can get less and less. The U.S. bank is a little more efficient than the Canadian bank. And we're projecting by the end of the year, it might get down to about $0.25 [ to ] $1 of revenue. That would be about half what a really good bank can have. So that sort of behooves us with this model to be the most efficient because what we're really doing is we've got a big vacuum cleaner, somebody call it hoover back in the British days, hoovering up FDIC insured or CDIC-insured deposits and then putting them back out to our point-of-sale partners so they can earn a decent margin and there's enough left on the table for us to earn margins. So really, our bank is all about getting that money out of the risk-averse depositors' pockets back out to the guy who wants to drive a motorbike or an airplane and get financing with the least amount of slippage or friction in the way. That's what this model shows. Flipping along. Well, this is kind of exciting. This is sort of stuff that I've been alluding to. This is something we created a good many years before other banks even thought of it. In fact, when -- I mentioned this idea to Jeremy Rudin, the superintendent at the time who said, wow, that's like banknotes that people issued in paper. I said, yes, yes, it is and we're using blockchain, highly encrypted or crypto. I always say highly encrypted when you're a banker. If you say crypto, people run for the doors, but -- as they should probably. So anyways, we're revolutionizing the banking industry with the first publicly available retail available tokenized deposit. So this means a deposit that you're used to seeing in your CIBC account or RBC or someone's account, it is in a digital format, but you'll be able to see it through our VersaView looking into the blockchains, Algorand, Stellar and Ethereum digital representation. And you might say, well, who cares? Well, because it's on these blockchains, it will be able to be used for a payment vehicle, not unlike the old-fashioned check that you write. Only now you don't have to mail the check, you can use our VersaView and hit a button and it will go to pay Amazon or somebody for a payment. So I think it's the way the world is going, and I'm happy that we're upfront. If you want something to look for, a milestone event will be when see the U.S. government confirm that our tokenized deposits are indeed FDIC insured. Hopefully, they do soon, [indiscernible] given concern, we just sent them in the blueprint for the regulatory framework. And in Canada, we hope CDIC does the same thing soon, too. I think [Audio Gap] we've sent them a Canadianized version or we're about to send them a Canadianized version so they can have a look at it. And so that's a breakthrough in the banking because at that point, these tokenized deposits will be available in Canada and the United States and theoretically anywhere in the world, too. Anybody in the world that wants USD and wants FDIC insurance, will be able to put it into their e-wallet. So keep stay tuned. That's a revolution in the banking industry. So I was just telling John a little earlier the precursor to tokenized deposits is stablecoins. And we're bankers. So we don't -- when we go to horse track, we don't want to be skunked betting on one horse. We bet on 2 or 3 horses. So the precursor is the stablecoin. And so you probably noticed in the news that we have been asked to be the custodian for stablecoins in Canada, the very first one being the QCAD. And yesterday, somebody else was looking for us to be a custodian. Of course, we'll be a custodian. We'll take your money. That's -- yes, we will. And for our big bank friends, where are we going to put that money back in their treasury account with our big bank friends. It's kind of a nice cycle, but it's a wonderful new business for us in that there's some fees to earn by looking after this. When I was talking about pinching myself in the United States, the regulator, her name is Sally Merrill, the Deputy Controller. She said -- we were having a coffee and she said, "Hey, did you know that as a national bank in the United States, you can be a custodian of these crypto assets and things." I said, "Oh, yes, thank you, Sally." She said, "to make it clear, we're going to write a clarification note for you so that you know that you can be the custodian." Wow, wow. [indiscernible] Your regulator telling you that you've got a brand-new business in the United States to be the custodian. And now Canada wasn't too bad. Tiff Macklem kind of bought into the program. The Bank of Canada is the regulator of the stablecoins. So -- and he asked me to address a little private meeting like this. It was -- Tiff said it would be like a wedding, I'd be at the head table. And then I go on the stage and have a fireside chat with none other than the heads of the central banks for the G7. And my message to them was get the regulatory rails in place before you let anything like this happen in your country because as we know, there's a fair number of charlatans that perhaps use these methods of payment for nefarious purposes. So you'd be sure what we built into the guardrails were things that criminals just wouldn't like. We built the ability to be able to trace the token anywhere it goes in the world. It could go to Botswana. well possibly will. But that's one thing to be able to trace it if law enforcement came to us and said, can you tell us where that money went to [indiscernible] right there. So that was okay. But then while we're raising the bar, we thought, well, maybe we should be able to lock it up so that nefarious person can't actually use the money for any nefarious reason, purpose. So that's good. So then finally, some law enforcement people thought well, that's good. And this one is just going to scare the hell out of the criminals of the world and that ours can be evaporated. In other words, we can burn it sitting in their wallet no matter where it may be, which is music to the ears of a bank regulator. What they're worried about is these new form of checks will end up being currency for criminals. And if it goes to some other jurisdiction in the world, it'd be hard to put the [indiscernible] law on their shoulder or somewhere else. That's what we built into the latest version so that the regulatory authorities on both sides of the border can sort of take some comfort in knowing that VersaBank will not be a place that the criminal element will want to deal. So last slide here. Of course, this is a pretty important period of time for us. I think some of you know, I invented this type of bank in 1993. So here we are, what is it, 33 years later. But finally, it looks like the industry or humans reception to this type of modern -- super modern banking is finally here. So stay tuned. You'll see us grow the stablecoin business. Hopefully, sooner or later, you're going to see FDIC saying, yes, indeed, these tokenized deposits are insured. And hopefully, on the north side of the border, the CDIC says the same thing. So that means that our tokenized deposits can become a reality and they can trade and they can provide currency transactions and all those things. You're, of course, the business that feeds the family is the secured receivable purchase program, and you should be seeing that growing very, very rapidly in the United States. I'm not so sure about Canada. There's some tough times out there. You've probably seen the stats for the GTA or I think far as back as I can remember, there's more delinquencies in homeowner loans. So it's not a good time. So I don't expect a whole lot of growth in Canada, although there are some innovative new additions that we have to that product that probably make it more attractive. I think Dave Tom [indiscernible] that's what I'm talking about to help with the Canadian growth. So sizzly hot stuff that we've got on the [ stove radio ] to go and that's kind of the mundane old funding that banks do and earn a spread income looks like a very good year that we're heading into. Any questions at all before I hand it back over.

Yes, John?

A couple of questions. When the tokenized deposits get approved, what sort of yield do you get on those deposits to the bank?

Well, we are able to pay yield unlike a stablecoin, which is still in the works, they're arguing about a reward point. So we're able to pay yield as we see it fit. But concern the market is almost 0, I have in mind like, say, 50 basis points and putting them back in U.S. treasuries, I can get 450. So I get a 400 basis point spread with 0 risk. It's a matter from heaven. Thank you.

I like your style. The other question I have is what about the margins in the point-of-sale business in the United States. Number one, in terms of net interest income on those transactions? And secondly, are you able to maintain the same safety levels in terms of money left on deposit with the bank to support the recourse aspects to those loans?

Well, those are really good questions, John. Originally, we were thinking the margins in the United States might be a bit wider than the ones in Canada and that our cost of funds in the United States vis-a-vis the risk-free rate is quite a bit less. In Canada, we run 50, 60 basis points over government Canada bonds. In the States, we're running about 10, 15 over U.S. treasuries. So we got a wider margin. It's pretty competitive in the states, but we've been targeting around 3% versus, say, 200, 250 basis points in Canada all in. So it should be a little better in the states. With respect to quantifying the amount of credit risk we take on this, I'm working on sort of a new technique using some mathematical techniques to arrive at a confidence limit of how confident we are that we have enough cash held back. And I think in the early days in Canada, we probably had a bit too much held back.

There's never too much, David.

Well, that's from a banker's perspective. But from our customers, they might -- we got any customers here that use that [indiscernible] but because for example, during the COVID time 2020, when the accountants did calculate the intrinsic risk of our receivable portfolio, they came up with a certain figure and maybe it was $100 million that the ECL should have been expected loss provision. And we were holding on to about $200 million at the time. So twice as much cash as you reasonably could expect to take [indiscernible] in the portfolio. I think that's getting a little steep, tell you the truth for the customers that -- so I have some -- actually plan to hire a guy from University of Western, of course, hire our Western students summer. We have to look at being a little more precise with respect to the stats that are involved in that. I'll Probably dial it down a little bit, leave a bit more on table for the customers to facilitate growth.

Thank you, David. And one final question. What about the scalability? Do you see a strong competitive environment in the United States or you're at $6 billion now, how do you see the trajectory of that growth?

Well, we publicly said we expect about $1 billion more in new receivables going on this year. I was hoping it's triple, quadruple of that. And there's a famous Canadian, he is famous to me anyways because I'm a banker. The guys got a big head of hair he calls Steve Hudson Hair Club for Men guy. And he just simply said it to me this way. Well, it's rinse and repeat, Dave, let's get going.

David, great job, by the way.

Thank you. Anybody else want to know about aviation or anything like that? Well, there's one at the back there, Doug.

Can you give us an update on the sale of the cybersecurity business, number one? And number two, can you talk a little bit about licensing software?

Well, those are actually interconnected, Doug. You must be clairvoyant. Well, we've got some fair number of parties interested in the -- strictly in the cybersecurity business. But there are some other parties that are interested in us, we, the bank, providing comprehensive technology partnership that would include cybersecurity. So originally, we were thinking we just carve out just a penetration testing aspect of it and that's okay. But there are some potential purchasers who could use the whole suite of things that VersaBank does, including cybersecurity. Now I'm thinking in the United States, for example, they have 4,400 little banks, 4,000 more, fantastic to be part of that group. Here in Canada, we've got these huge elephants wondering around. You have to be careful we don't get stepped on. But in the States, there's 4,400 of them, and they all have cybersecurity challenges, right? The hackers are trying to get in all the time. And here, we have a beautiful suite designed for banks and we look [indiscernible] at this penetration testing, app testing for some of the large Canadian banks. I think some of you know the largest retailer in Canada, the big Warren Buffett's energy companies, all that stuff. So it looks to me now that it might be just a component of a full comprehensive service for those 4,000-odd little community banks that maybe need tokenized deposits, for example, maybe need their stablecoins looked after. The whole thing, we don't want to be greedy here up in Canada. Here we're going to be share for a little peak. That's a good question, Doug. Well, if that's it. I guess what we should do is...

David, we do have one from the Internet. People are out there listening.

Yes.

And the question is, when do you think we're going to be able to vote, we meaning the shareholders on the restructuring. There was some belief or hope that it would be today, which obviously wasn't the case. But what's the timing look like for that?

Well, for those that know how this thing, the process goes the next thing we have to do is have our S-4 -- our most recent S-4 sent to the SEC to be accepted. And I think -- Brent, the end of this week for that S-4 or is it next week? Next week for the S-4. So the S-4 goes in to the SEC. Hopefully, they say -- I love this, it's fantastic and say it's accepted, I'd say give them another week. And then when we've got the accepted S-4, then we're going to send that to both the regulators on both sides of the border. And they know what's coming, by the way, the Federal Reserve Bank in the -- on the South side and OSFI, I almost said OCC. [indiscernible] American, OSFI on the Canadian side. And they -- both sides have promised us to process this as quickly as possible. So we will be looking -- once we get sort of the green light from these 2 regulators, we'll be setting the date for the special shareholders' meeting because the date -- the approval will be shareholders are in favor of doing it. And then the regulators will say, okay, our approval was subject to that. And so now it's fait accompli. So we're looking maybe a month all in something like, no Brent is going to -- I'd like to go a month. I know that François-Philippe Champagne's department did say they'll do it as quickly as they could. And the Federal Reserve has given us similar assurances that they'll process it quickly. In reality, it's kind of a nice thing for regulators, what we have in mind. The typical bank holding company owns the individual banks. But each regulator gets to look at its own jurisdiction and see how its own rules to apply it. They're not mingled in together. So it's a neat, tidy thing to do. So hopefully, I suppose, Brent, you're wincing when I said a month. Let's go 1.5 months. We just don't know. That's what my lawyer friend sitting here. Well, we'll do whatever we can to speed it up, if it means me sitting in someone's desk, someone's office for a while like I did when I got the first Canadian bank license in 18 years. I think that was [indiscernible]. Sometimes you just got to be there. And the first OCC national license in about 30-odd years too. You get these things by being persistent. Any more questions from the crowd? Cyberspace? No. Okay. Well, Paul, we have a nice presentation for you here.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you to VersaBank. It's been a great ride, and it's going to be even a greater ride going forward. Thank you very much.

Well, thanks is all ours. Paul has been with us almost 3 decades. Wow, fantastic. Yes, we owe it all to Paul. Thank you, Paul. We'll see you, Paul.

That concludes the presentation. I want to thank you all for coming, and the meeting has concluded. Stay for lunch, stay for coffee, stay as long as you like. Thank you.