“But modern technology capabilities are the engine that drives revenue growth and digital productivity gains, and the investments we're making today are the drivers of the efficiency improvements that we expect to continue to get over time.”

In context

“I'm asking the same questions everyone else is. Rich, you seem to think that the work for sort of inflationary pressure is transitory. Is that the only risk in terms of getting back to sort of that 42% operating efficiency ratio? So if that sort of passes at some point, you guys can get back there? Or is there something else too? Richard Fairbank: So we are still driving toward the same destination for operating efficiency improvement. But the timing, that needs to incorporate the imperatives of the current marketplace and particularly the one we flagged here more recently, the striking rise in the cost of modern tech talent. The investment imperatives of the marketplace and the rising cost of tech talent will pressure our operating efficiency ratio in the near term, as we have discussed. But modern technology capabilities are the engine that drives revenue growth and digital productivity gains, and the investments we're making today are the drivers of the efficiency improvements that we expect to continue to get over time. So we're not in a position to declare the timing of operating efficiency destinations. It's the same journey, the same engine powering it. There are some pressures we shared with you in the nearer term, but it's the same journey. And delivering positive operating leverage over time continues to be one of the important payoffs of our technology journey and a key element of delivering long-term shareholder value. Operator: And our next question will come from Don Fandetti with Wells Fargo. Donald Fandetti: I'll shift gears a little bit, but I do also agree it would be helpful to have some kind of sizing around the expenses just given the environment. You have a really good story to tell outside of that. I guess on auto lending, are you signaling that you might moderate a little bit of growt”