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Kelli Motta

Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at KBW

Kelly Motta is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), specializing in coverage of SMID-cap banks across the United States. She covers 25 publicly traded companies such as Customers Bancorp (CUBI), PCB Bancorp (PCB), Heritage Financial, and regional banks in the West, Southeast, Northeast, and Southwest. Over the past year, Motta has issued 53 stock ratings with a 64% success rate and an average return of 10%, including a top-performing buy call on OPBK that returned over 70%. She began her career in quantitative research at KBW in 2011, joined the banks team in 2015, and holds an AB in Mathematical Economics from Colgate University. Motta maintains professional analyst credentials and is consistently ranked among the top analysts in sector performance.

Kelli Motta's questions to WAFD (WAFD) leadership

Question · Q4 2025

Kelli Motta asked about WaFd's ongoing technology investments and initiatives aimed at driving client growth and engagement to improve profitability, specifically what remains to be done. She also inquired if any end-of-period liquidity or dynamics might have skewed the higher end-of-period margin compared to the fiscal fourth-quarter average.

Answer

Brent Beardall, President and CEO, explained that technology efforts involve continuous improvement across all offerings, citing examples like direct deposit switchover and mobile wire transfers. He highlighted the agility of Pike Street Labs in developing client-requested features and emphasized that the primary driver for profitability improvement is focusing on business accounts while maintaining conservative underwriting. Kelli Holz, CFO, clarified that the higher end-of-period margin in the prior quarter was primarily due to the reversal of interest for a large non-accrual loan that went non-accrual during that period.

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