VersaBank adds Thrive Financial as RPP partner

Mr. David Taylor reports VERSABANK ANNOUNCES THRIVE FINANCIAL AS NEW US RECEIVABLE PURCHASE PROGRAM PARTNER VersaBank's wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, VersaBank USA, has entered into an agreement with Thrive Financial Inc., a Virginia-based technology platform for point-of-sale financing of home improvement projects, connecting homeowners, merchants and lenders nationally, under which Thrive will utilize the bank's receivable purchase program (RPP) in the United States. The bank immediately completed an initial financing. "We are thrilled to add Thrive as our latest RPP partner; we continue to scale our unique and highly attractive RPP solution in the U.S.," said David Taylor, founder and president of VersaBank. "Home improvement financing continues to be a major growth driver of our RPP business on both sides of the border, in part due to its economic resiliency. We are confident this collaboration will drive significant value for both organizations and further supports our confidence in achieving our U.S. RPP portfolio target of $290-million (U.S.)." Mr. Taylor added: "We are seeing strong momentum in the growth of our receivable purchase program portfolio. In addition to our anticipation of continuing to add new partners for our core RPP offering, we are seeing strong interest in our recently added securitized financing option within our RPP, having already completed several fundings, including two new partners who recognize the value of our one-stop-shop solution for attractive, readily available point-of-sale financing." "We are excited to partner with VersaBank to integrate their innovative and economically attractive solution as we focus on growing our business nationwide," said Jasjeev Sawhney, chief executive officer of Thrive Financial. "This partnership reflects our commitment to deliver great value to our merchants and homeowners, enhancing our ability to offer competitive loan products through our partner banks and scale our platform efficiently." About VersaBank VersaBank is a North American bank with a difference. Federally chartered in both Canada and the United States, VersaBank has a branchless, digital, business-to-business model based on its proprietary state-of-the-art technology that enables it to profitably address underserved segments of the banking industry in a significantly risk-mitigated manner. Because VersaBank obtains substantially all of its deposits and undertakes the majority of its financing electronically through financial intermediary partners, it benefits from significant operating leverage that drives efficiency and return on common equity. In August, 2024, VersaBank broadly launched its unique receivable purchase program financing solution for point-of-sale finance companies, which has been highly successful in Canada for nearly 15 years, to the underserved multitrillion-dollar U.S. market. VersaBank also owns Minneapolis-based DRT Cyber Inc., a North America leader in the provision of cybersecurity services to address the rapidly growing volume of cyber threats challenging financial institutions, multinational corporations and government entities. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Digital Meteor Inc., VersaBank owns proprietary intellectual property and technology to enable the next generation of digital assets for the banking and financial community, including the bank's revolutionary tokenized deposits. VersaBank's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol VBNK. We seek Safe Harbor.