Exhibit 99.1
RISK FACTORS
Our revenues from the sale of services to merchants that accept VISA cards and MasterCard cards are dependent upon our continued VISA and MasterCard certification and financial institution sponsorship.
In order to provide our transaction processing services, we must be designated a certified processor by, and be a member service provider of, MasterCard and an independent sales organization of VISA. These designations are dependent upon our being sponsored by member clearing banks of both organizations and our continuing adherence to the standards of the VISA and MasterCard associations. The member financial institutions of VISA and MasterCard, some of which are our competitors, set the standards with which we must comply. If we fail to comply with these standards, our designation as a certified processor, a member service provider or as an independent sales organization could be suspended or terminated. The termination of our member service provider status or our status as a certified processor, or any changes in the VISA and MasterCard rules that prevent our registration or otherwise limit our ability to provide transaction processing and marketing services for the VISA or MasterCard organizations would most likely result in the loss of merchant customers and lead to a reduction in our revenues.
Loss of key Independent Sales Organizations or ISOs could reduce our revenue growth.
Our ISO sales channel, which purchases and resells our end-to-end services to its own portfolio of merchant customers, is a strong contributor to our revenue growth. If an ISO switches to another transaction processor, we will no longer receive new merchant referrals from the ISO. In addition, we risk losing existing merchants that were originally enrolled by the ISO. Consequently, if a key ISO switches to another transaction processor, our revenues and earnings could be negatively affected.
With significant operations in Canada and our recent entry into the consumer electronic money transfer market from the U.S. to the Latin American corridor, we are exposed to foreign currency risks. We are also subject to risks from our variable rate credit facility with CIBC that could reduce our earnings and significantly increase our cost of capital.
As a result of acquiring the assets of CIBCs merchant acquiring business and National Banks merchant acquiring business, we have significant operations in Canada which are denominated in Canadian dollars. The repatriation of our earnings from Canada will subject us to the risk that currency exchange rates between Canada and the United States will fluctuate, potentially resulting in a loss of some of our earnings when such earnings are exchanged into U.S. dollars.
In addition, our consumer money transfer operations subject us to foreign currency exchange risks as our customers deposit U.S. dollars at our branch and agent locations in the United States and we typically deliver funds denominated in the home country currencies to beneficiaries in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Additionally, our credit facility with CIBC carries an interest rate based on the CIBC offered rate plus 40 basis points. The CIBC offered rate is a rate determined at the sole discretion of CIBC that they are able to obtain short-term deposits of Canadian dollars in the New York interbank eurocurrency market. This rate will fluctuate with market rates, and if it increases, our cost of capital will also increase, which will potentially reduce our earnings from operations if we are not able to pass along these higher costs to our customers. The credit facility was originally scheduled to expire on December 9, 2003, but its expiration date was subsequently extended until October 31, 2004. The credit facility is renewable only at the consent of CIBC. Should CIBC choose not to renew the credit facility, we will have to find alternative financing or fund the Canadian merchants ourselves. Alternative financing may carry a higher interest rate which would likely reduce our earnings from operations. We may not have the cash flow necessary to fund the Canadian merchants ourselves, and we may lose those customers as a result.
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Some of our competitors are larger and have greater financial and operational resources than we do, which may give them an advantage in our market in terms of the price offered to our customers or our ability to develop new technologies.
We operate in the electronic payments and money transfer industries. Our primary competitors in these industries include other independent processors and electronic money transmitters, as well as certain major national and regional banks, financial institutions and independent sales organizations. According to industry reports such as The Nilson Report, First Data Corporation and its affiliates is our largest competitor in both the electronic payments and money transfer industries. First Data and others who are larger than we are have greater financial and operational resources than we have. This may allow them to offer better pricing terms to customers in the industry, which could result in a loss of our potential or current customers or could force us to lower our prices as well. Either of these actions could have a significant effect on our revenues. In addition, our competitors may have the ability to devote more financial and operational resources than we can to the development of new technologies, including Internet payment processing services that provide improved operating functionality and features to their product and service offerings. If successful, their development efforts could render our product and services offerings less desirable to customers, again resulting in the loss of customers or a reduction in the price we could demand for our offerings.
We are subject to the business cycles and credit risk of our merchant customers.
A recessionary economic environment could affect our merchants through a higher rate of bankruptcy filings, resulting in lower revenues and profits for us. Our merchants have the liability for any charges properly reversed by the cardholder. In the event, however, that we are not able to collect such amounts from the merchants, due to merchant fraud, insolvency, bankruptcy or another reason, we may be liable for any such charges. Any risks associated with an unexpected recessionary economy that we could not mitigate may result in lower revenues and earnings for us.
In order to remain competitive and to continue to increase our revenues, we must continually update our products and services, a process which could result in increased research and development costs in excess of historical levels and the loss of revenues and customers if the new products and services do not perform as intended or are not accepted in the marketplace.
The electronic payments and consumer money transfer markets in which we compete include a wide range of products and services including electronic transaction payment processing, consumer money transfer, reporting on transactions and other customer support services. These markets are characterized by technological change, new product introductions, evolving industry standards and changing customer needs. In order to remain competitive, we are continually involved in a number of research and development projects. These projects carry the risks associated with any research and development effort, including cost overruns, delays in delivery and performance problems, but in the electronic payments and consumer money transfer markets these risks are even more acute. Our markets are constantly experiencing rapid technological change. Any delay in the delivery of new products or services could render them less desirable by our customers, or possibly even obsolete. In addition, the products and services we deliver to the electronic payments and consumer money transfer markets are designed to process very complex transactions and deliver reports and other information on those transactions, all at very high volumes and processing speeds. Any performance issue that arises with a new product or service could result in significant processing or reporting errors. As a result of these factors, our research and development efforts could result in increased costs that could reduce our operating profit, a loss of revenue if promised new products are not timely delivered to our customers, or a loss of revenue or possible claims for damages if new products and services do not perform as anticipated.
Security breaches or system failures could harm our reputation and adversely affect future profits.
We collect personal consumer data, such as names, credit and debit account numbers, checking account numbers, and payment history records. We process that data, and deliver our products and services, by utilizing computer systems and telecommunications networks operated both by us and by third party service providers. Although plans and procedures are in place to protect our sensitive data and to prevent failure of, and to provide
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backup for, our systems, we cannot be certain that our measures will be successful. A security breach or other misuse of our data, or failures of key operating systems and their back-ups, could harm our reputation and deter customers from using our products and services, increase our operating expenses in order to correct the breaches or failures, or expose us to unbudgeted or uninsured liability.
Reduced levels of consumer spending can adversely affect our revenues.
A significant portion of our revenue is derived from fees from processing consumer credit card and debit card transactions. While consumer spending in the U.S. may be recovering, continued sluggishness of the U.S. economy or recession in the international economies where we do business could negatively impact consumer spending and adversely affect our revenues and earnings.
Changes in state, federal and foreign laws and regulations affecting the consumer electronic money transfer industry might make it more difficult for our customers to initiate money transfers, which would adversely affect our revenues.
If state, federal or foreign authorities adopt new legislation or impose new regulations that make it more difficult for our customers to initiate, or their beneficiaries to receive, electronic money transfers, then our revenues may be negatively affected.
Changes in immigration patterns can adversely affect our revenues from consumer electronic money transfers.
Our consumer electronic money transfer business primarily focuses on customers who immigrate to the United States from Latin American countries in order to find higher paying jobs and then send a portion of their earnings to family members in Latin America. Any changes in federal policies toward immigration may negatively affect the number of immigrants in the United States, which may reduce our customer base and the corresponding revenues related thereto.
In order for us to continue to grow and increase our profitability, we must continue to expand our share of the existing electronic payments market and also expand into new markets.
Our future growth and profitability depend upon our continued expansion within the electronic payments markets in which we currently operate, the further expansion of these markets, the emergence of other markets for electronic transaction payment processing, including Internet payment systems, and our ability to penetrate these markets. As part of our strategy to achieve this expansion, we are continually looking for acquisition opportunities, investments and alliance relationships with other businesses that will allow us to increase our market penetration, technological capabilities, product offerings and distribution capabilities. We may not be able to successfully identify suitable acquisition, investment and alliance candidates in the future, and if we do, they may not provide us with the benefits we anticipated. Once completed, investments and alliances may not realize the value that we expect.
Our expansion into new markets is also dependent upon our ability to apply our existing technology or to develop new applications to meet the particular service needs of each new payment services market. We may not have adequate financial and technological resources to develop products and distribution channels that will satisfy the demands of these new markets. If we fail to expand into new and existing electronic payments markets, we may not be able to continue to grow our revenues and earnings.
As a result of the ownership by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC, of approximately 16% of our common stock, certain banking regulations limit the types of business in which we can engage.
As a result of CIBCs ownership of approximately 16% of our common stock and in order not to jeopardize CIBCs investment in us, we are subject to the same restrictions on our business activities as are applicable to CIBC. As a general matter, we are able to operate our merchant services and funds transfer businesses as we have
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historically, but our ability to expand into unrelated businesses may be limited unless they are activities permitted under the Bank Holding Company Act or permitted by the Federal Reserve Board (the primary U.S. federal regulator for CIBC and its U.S.-based subsidiaries). Under U.S. banking law, CIBC may hold more than 5% of the outstanding voting shares of a company only if the company engages in activities that are permissible for CIBC. These restrictions are contained in the Bank Holding Company Act, as recently amended by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The restrictions on our business activities would also apply to any investments or alliances that we might consider.
The Bank Holding Company Act limits CIBC, its subsidiaries, and the companies in which CIBC holds more than 5% of the outstanding voting shares to activities that are closely related to the business of banking. Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley amendments, certain well-managed and well-capitalized companies may elect to be treated as financial holding companies, and may thus also engage in certain financial activities such as insurance and securities underwriting. CIBC has elected to be a financial holding company. If CIBC ever fails to maintain its status as a financial holding company, they and we would lose the benefit of the expanded activities provided by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley amendments and may have to divest certain businesses or investments.
If CIBC were to own 25% or more of our common shares, were to control the election of a majority of our directors, were deemed by the Federal Reserve Board to exercise a controlling influence over us, or were able to condition certain transfers of more than 25% or our common stock, we would be treated as a subsidiary of CIBC. In that event, we would be subject to the same activities limitations and would directly be subject to examinations by and regulatory requirements of the Federal Reserve Board.
Additionally, CIBC is subject to Canadian banking regulations, specifically the Bank Act (Canada), which among other things limits the types of business which CIBC may conduct, directly or indirectly, and the types of investments which CIBC may make. CIBCs shareholding in our Company is currently permitted under the Bank Act.
We have agreed with CIBC, in effect, that we will not undertake any business inconsistent with the applicable provisions of the Bank Act. As a result, our ability to expand into other lines of business will be governed by our contractual obligations to CIBC and the applicable provisions of Canadian banking legislation at the relevant time.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Canada), or OSFI, has recently ruled that it considers the provision of our consumer electronic money transfer business, albeit conducted outside of Canada, to be a business that is to a significant extent the business of banking and that we are therefore a foreign bank as defined in the Bank Act. Following receipt of this OSFI ruling, we applied for and received an exemption order which exempts us from most of the foreign bank provisions of the Bank Act. As a result of receiving this exemption order, we do not believe that OSFIs determination that we are a foreign bank under the Bank Act will affect, in any material way, our ability to carry on the merchant services and funds transfer businesses in Canada or to expand into other non-banking businesses. However, there is no assurance that subsequent amendments to the Bank Act would not adversely affect our ability to carry on our business in Canada. For a more complete discussion of the banking regulations we are subject to please see BusinessBanking Regulations.
We are dependent on NDCHealth Corporation, or NDCHealth, for the provision of critical telecommunications services, network systems and other related services for the operation of our business, and the failure of NDCHealth to provide those services in a satisfactory manner could affect our relationships with customers and our financial performance.
Under the terms of the inter-company systems/network services agreement between NDCHealth and us, NDCHealth provides us with a continuation of the telecommunication services from the carriers who have and will continue to provide telecommunication services to NDCHealth, including engineering and procurement. In addition, NDCHealth supplies us with the necessary network systems services, including operations and
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administrative services and computing hardware and software facilities, technical support for transaction processing, cash management and file transfer and communications hardware and software system services. These services, especially telecommunications services, are an essential communications link between us and our customers and an essential component of the services that we provide. If NDCHealth should not continue to perform these services efficiently and effectively, our relationships with our customers may be adversely affected and customers may terminate their use of our services. If we are not able to successfully develop the capacity to provide these services prior to the expiration of our agreement with NDCHealth or if NDCHealth does not provide such services in an efficient and effective manner during the term of that agreement, we are not certain whether we could locate alternative sources of such services, particularly telecommunications services, or that, if available, such services would be available to us on favorable terms.
Increases in credit card association fees may result in the loss of customers or a reduction in our profit margin.
From time to time, VISA and MasterCard increase the fees (interchange fees) that they charge processors such as us. We could attempt to pass these increases along to our merchant customers, but this might result in the loss of those customers to our competitors who do not pass along the increases. If competitive practices prevent our passing along all such increased fees to our merchant customers in the future, we would have to absorb a portion of such increases thereby increasing our operating costs and reducing our profit margin.
Utility and system interruptions or processing errors could adversely affect our operations.
In order to process transactions promptly, our computer equipment and network servers must be functional on a 24-hour basis, which requires access to telecommunications facilities and the availability of electricity. Furthermore, with respect to certain processing services, we are dependent on the systems and services of third party vendors. Telecommunications services and the electricity supply are susceptible to disruption. Computer system interruptions and other processing errors, whether involving our own systems or our third party vendors system, may result from such disruption or from human error or other unrelated causes. Any extensive or long-term disruptions in our processing services could cause us to incur substantial additional expense, which could have an adverse effect on our operations and financial condition.
Continued consolidation in the banking and retail industries could adversely affect our growth.
As banks continue to consolidate, our ability to successfully offer our services through indirect channels will depend in part on whether the institutions that survive are willing to outsource their credit and debit processing to third-party vendors and whether those institutions have pre-existing relationships with any of our competitors. Larger banks and larger merchants with greater transaction volumes may demand lower fees which could result in lower operating margins for us.
Loss of strategic industries could reduce revenues and earnings.
Although our merchant-acquiring portfolio is well diversified and neither one economic sector nor any customer concentration represents a significant portion of our business, a decrease in strategic industries could cause us to lose significant revenues and earnings. Unexpected and significant declines in particular industries may impact our business and result in decreases in revenues and profits.
If we lose key personnel or are unable to attract additional qualified personnel as we grow, our business could be adversely affected.
We are dependent upon the ability and experience of a number of our key personnel who have substantial experience with our operation, the rapidly changing transaction processing and money transfer industries, and the selected markets in which we offer our services. It is possible that the loss of the services of one or a combination of our key personnel would have an adverse effect on our operation. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, manage, and retain additional qualified management and technical personnel as we grow. We cannot assure you that we will continue to attract or retain such personnel.
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We may become subject to additional U.S., state or foreign taxes that cannot be passed through to our merchant customers, in which case our profitability could be adversely affected.
Transaction processing companies like us may be subject to taxation by various jurisdictions on our net income or certain portions of our fees charged to customers for our services. Application of these taxes is an emerging issue in our industry and the jurisdictions have not yet all adopted uniform regulations on this topic. If we are required to pay such taxes and are not able to pass the tax expense through to our merchant customers, our costs will increase, reducing our net income.
Anti-takeover provisions of our articles of incorporation and by-laws, our rights agreement and provisions of Georgia law could delay or prevent a change of control that you may favor.
Provisions of our articles of incorporation and by-laws, our rights agreement and provisions of applicable Georgia law may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or other change of control that shareholders may consider favorable. The provisions of our articles and by-laws, among other things,
| divide our board of directors into three classes, with members of each class to be elected in staggered three-year terms; |
| limit the right of shareholders to remove directors; |
| regulate how shareholders may present proposals or nominate directors for election at annual meetings of shareholders; and |
| authorize our board of directors to issue preferred shares in one or more series, without shareholder approval. |
We may not be able or we may decide not to pay dividends at a level anticipated by shareholders on our common stock, which could reduce your return on shares you hold.
The payment of dividends is at the discretion of our board of directors and will be subject to our financial results, our working capital requirements, the availability of surplus funds to pay dividends and restrictions under our credit facility. No assurance can be given that we will be able to or will choose to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future.
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