Nicholas Financial said in its SEC 10-K filing June on 16 that it bought $169,244,000 in auto loan contracts in fiscal year 2014, which ended March 31, 2014. That’s up from the $151,740,000 in contracts the company bought last fiscal year. Meanwhile, direct loan originations increased to $9,786,000, up from the $8,336,000 the company originated last year. Nicholas also said the company will open a new branch location in fiscal 2015 in one of the 15 states it operates in. And, although Nicholas did not close any branches in fiscal 2014, it will continue to evaluate any branch locations that don’t meet profitability targets, and may elect to close one or more of those branches in the future. Two weeks ago, Nicholas Financial scrapped its acquisition deal with closed-end investment company Prospect Capital Corp., after Prospect ran into issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission.