Priority Technology (PRTH) 10-K2023 FY Annual report

UNITED STATES

 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 

In addition, statements that "we believe" and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements. 

You should read this Annual Report on Form 10-K with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance and achievements may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements. 

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context otherwise requires, references to the terms "Company," "Priority," "we," "us" and "our" refer to Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

Priority delivers value to its partners by leveraging its payments and embedded finance technology to deliver solutions that power modern commerce for SMBs and enterprise software and business partners. We handle the complexities of payments and embedded finance to free our partners to focus on their core business objectives. Priority's solutions are offered via API or proprietary applications with nationwide money transmission licenses, providing end-to-end operational support including automated risk management and underwriting, full compliance and industry leading customer service.

Our growth has been underpinned by three key strengths: 1) market leading proprietary product platforms in SMB, B2B and Enterprise Payments verticals; 2) focused distribution engines dedicated to helping our partners monetize their merchant payment networks; and 3) a cost-efficient, agile payment and business processing infrastructure, purpose-built to support our partners in operating in these distinct market verticals.

Priority's solutions are delivered via internally developed payment applications and services to customers in the following business segments:

The MX product suite provides technology-enabled payment acceptance and business management capabilities to merchants, enterprises and our distribution partners. The MX product suite includes MX Connect and MX Merchant products, which together provide resellers and merchant clients a flexible and customizable set of business applications that help better manage critical business work functions and revenue performance using core payment processing as our leverage point. MX Connect provides our SMB payments reselling partners with automated tools that support low friction merchant on-boarding, underwriting and risk management, client service, and commission processing through a single mobile-enabled, web-based interface. The result is a smooth merchant activation onto our flagship consumer payments offering, MX Merchant, which provides core processing and business solutions to SMB clients. In addition to payment processing, the MX Merchant product suite encompasses a variety of proprietary and third-party product applications that merchants can adopt such as MX Insights, MX Storefront, MX Retail, MX Invoice, MX B2B and ACH.com, among others. This comprehensive suite of solutions enables merchants to 1) identify key consumer trends in their businesses; 2) quickly implement e-commerce or retail POS solutions; and 3) handle ACH payments. By empowering resellers to adopt a consultative selling approach and embedding our technology into the critical day-to-day workflows and operations of both merchants and resellers, we believe that we have established and maintained "sticky" relationships. We believe that our strong retention, coupled with consistent merchant onboarding, have resulted in strong processing volume and revenue growth.

Our Enterprise Payments segment provides embedded finance and BaaS solutions to customers that modernize legacy platforms and accelerate modern software partners looking to monetize payment components. We provide solutions for ISVs, third-party integrators, and merchants that allow for the leveraging of our core payments engine, our automated payables platform or our account ledgering capabilities all via API resources.

We generate revenue primarily from payment processing transactions, and to a lesser extent, from monthly subscription services and other solutions provided to customers and interest income from the permissible investments of the deposits we hold. Payment processing fees are generated from the ongoing sales of our merchants and are governed by multi-year merchant contracts. As a result, payment processing fees are highly recurring in nature.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we generated revenue of $755.6 million, net loss attributable to common stockholders of $49.1 million and operating income of $81.5 million, compared to revenue of $663.6 million, net loss attributable to common stockholders of $39.0 million and operating income of $56.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The payment processing industry provides merchants with credit, debit, gift, loyalty card and other payment processing services, along with related value-added solutions and information services. The industry continues to grow, driven by wider merchant acceptance, increased use of Electronic Payments, advances in payment technology and the disruption in banking by fintech providers. The proliferation of bankcards and the use of other payment technologies has made the acceptance of Electronic Payments through multiple channels a virtual necessity for many businesses to remain competitive. The increased use and acceptance of bankcards and the availability of more sophisticated products and services has resulted in a highly competitive, specialized industry.

Services to the SMB merchant market have been historically characterized by basic payment processing without ready access to more sophisticated technology, value-added solutions, or customer service that are typically offered to large merchants. To keep up with the changing demands of how consumers wish to pay for goods and services, we believe SMB merchants and enterprise customers increasingly recognize the need for value-added services wrapped around omni-channel payment solutions that are tailored to their specific business needs.

The following are key trends we believe are impacting the merchant acquiring/payment processing industry:

B2B payments is the largest payment market in the U.S. by volume and presents a significant opportunity for payment providers to capitalize on the conversion of check and paper-based payments to Electronic Payments, including card-based acceptance. As businesses have increasingly looked to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the electronification of B2B payments has gained momentum.

We possess certain attributes that we believe differentiate us as a leading provider of merchant acquiring, commercial payment and embedded finance solutions in the U.S. Our key competitive strengths include:

We intend to continue to execute a multi-pronged growth strategy, with diverse organic initiatives supplemented by acquisitions. Growth strategies include:

We expect to grow through our existing reseller network and merchant base by capitalizing on the organic growth of existing merchant volume and reseller merchant portfolios. By providing resellers with agile tools to manage their sales businesses and grow their merchant portfolio, we have established a solid base from which to generate new merchant adoption and retain existing merchants. By engaging in a consultative partnership approach, we maintain strong relationships with our reseller partners and continue to exhibit strong merchant adoption and volume growth trends. Through our resellers, we provide merchants with full-service acquiring solutions, as well as value-added services and tools to streamline their business processes and enable them to focus on driving same store sales growth.

We have established and maintained a strong position within the reseller community with approximately 1,200 partners. We intend to continue to expand our distribution network to reach new partners, particularly with ISVs and VARs to expand technology and integrated partnerships. We believe that our technology offering enables us to attract and retain high-quality resellers focused on growth.

We intend to continue to enhance and deploy our technology-enabled payment solutions and our capabilities to collect, store and send money into industry-specific verticals. We continue to identify and evaluate new, attractive industries where we can deliver differentiated technology-enabled payment solutions that meet merchants' industry-specific needs.

We have a growing presence in the commercial payments market where we provide curated managed services and AP automation solutions to businesses, FIs and card networks such as Citibank, Mastercard and Visa. The commercial payments market is the largest and one of the fastest growing payments markets in the U.S. by volume. We are well positioned to capitalize on the shift from check to Electronic Payments, which currently lags the consumer payments market, by eliminating the friction between buyers and suppliers through our industry leading offerings of CPX and Plastiq. We believe this will drive strong growth and profitability.

With a consistent, long-term goal of maximizing stockholder value, we intend to selectively pursue strategic and tactical acquisitions that meet our established criteria. We actively seek potential acquisition candidates that exhibit certain attractive attributes including predictable and recurring revenue, a scalable operating model, low capital intensity, complementary

technology offerings and a strong cultural fit. Our operating infrastructure is purpose-built to rapidly and seamlessly consolidate complementary businesses into our ecosystem all while optimizing revenue and cost synergies.

We reach our SMB segment through three primary sales channels: 1) ISOs (Retail and Wholesale) and Agents; 2) FIs; and 3) ISVs and VARs. Our cloud-based solution, MX Connect, allows our partners and resellers to engage merchants for processing services and a host of value-added features designed to enhance their customer relationships. Our merchants utilize our cloud-based MX Merchant product suite to manage their businesses and process transactions. This separate solution increases our ability to retain the merchant if the ISO were to leave the Company.

Our B2B segment obtains its partner clients through: 1) direct sales initiatives; 2) ISVs and business partnerships; 3) the card networks (Mastercard and Visa); 4) large U.S. banking institutions and 5) other card issuer referral partners. We support a direct vendor sales model that provides turn-key merchant development, product sales and supplier enablement programs. By establishing a seamless bridge for buyer-to-supplier (payor-to-provider) payments that is integrated directly to a buyer's payment instruction file to facilitate payments to vendors via all payment types (virtual card, purchase card, ACH +, dynamic discounting), we have established ourselves as a top solutions provider in commercial payments. Our Plastiq offerings consist of all payment types including wires and checks to the vendors of our customers.

Our market strategy has resulted in a merchant base that we believe is diversified across both industries and geographies resulting in, what we believe, is more stable average profitability per merchant. Only one reseller relationship contributes more than 10% of total bankcard processing volume, and such relationship represents approximately 14% of our total bankcard processing volume for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023.

As a result of routine business operations, we store information relating to our merchants and their transactions. Because this information is considered sensitive in nature, we maintain a high level of security to protect it. Our computational systems are continually updated and audited to the latest security standards as defined by 1) payment card industry and data security standards; and 2) the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. As such, we have a dedicated team responsible for responding to security incidents. This team develops, maintains, tests and verifies our incident response plan. The primary function of this team is to react and respond to intrusions, denial of service, data leakage, malware, vandalism and other events that could potentially jeopardize data availability, integrity and confidentiality. In addition to handling security incidents, the incident response team continually educates themselves and us on information security matters.

High-availability and disaster recovery are provided through a combination of redundant hardware and software running at two geographically distinct data centers. Each data center deployment is an exact mirror of the other and each can handle all technical, payment and business operations for all product lines independently. If one data center becomes impaired, the traffic is automatically redirected to the other. Business continuity planning drills are run each quarter to test fail-over and recovery as well as staff operations and readiness.

We partner with various vendors in the payments value chain, most notably processors and sponsor banks which sit between us (the merchant acquirer) and the card networks, to assist us in providing payment processing services to merchant clients. Processing is a scale-driven business in which many acquirers outsource the processing function to a small number of large processors. In these partnerships, we serve as a merchant acquirer and enter into processing agreements with payment processors, such as Fiserv or Global Payments, to assist us in providing front-end and back-end transaction processing services

for our merchants. These third parties are compensated for their services. These processors in turn have agreements with card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, through which the transaction information is routed in exchange for network fees.

To provide processing services, merchant acquirers like Priority must be registered with the card networks (e.g., Visa and Mastercard). To register with a card network in the U.S., acquirers must maintain relationships with banks willing to sponsor the merchant acquirer's adherence to the rules and standards of the card networks, or a sponsor bank. We maintain sponsor bank relationships with Wells Fargo, Synovus Bank, Pueblo Bank and Axiom Bank. We maintain a card issuing relationship with Sutton Bank. For ACH payments, the Company's ACH network (ACH.com) is sponsored by South State Bank. Sponsor bank relationships enable us to route transactions under the sponsor bank's control and identification number (referred to as a BIN for Visa and ICA for Mastercard) across the card networks (or ACH network) to authorize and clear transactions.

Our thoughtful merchant and reseller underwriting policies combined with our forward-looking transaction monitoring capabilities have enabled us to maintain low credit loss performance. Our risk management strategies are informed by a team with experience managing merchant acquiring risk operations that are augmented by our rules-based modern systems designed to manage risk at the transaction level.

On May 23, 2023, Plastiq, Powered by Priority, LLC, a subsidiary of PRTH, entered into an equity and asset purchase agreement with Plastiq, Inc., to acquire substantially all of the assets of Plastiq Inc., including the equity interest in Plastiq Canada, Inc ("Plastiq"). Plastiq is a buyer funded B2B payments platform offering bill pay and instant access to working capital to its customers and will complement the Company's existing supplier-funded B2B payments business. On May 24, 2023, Plastiq Inc. filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The purchase was completed on July 31, 2023, for a total purchase consideration of approximately $37.0 million. The total purchase consideration included $28.5 million in cash and the remaining consideration is in the nature of deferred or contingent consideration and certain equity interest in the acquiring entity. The cash consideration for the purchase was funded by borrowings from the Company's revolving credit facility.

The concentration at the top of the industry is partly a result of consolidation. We believe that consolidation has also resulted in many large processors maintaining multiple, inflexible legacy IT systems that are not well-equipped to adjust to changing market requirements. We believe that the large merchant acquirers whose innovation has been hindered by these redundant legacy systems risk losing market share to acquirers with more agile and dynamic IT systems.

Pricing has historically been the key factor influencing the selection of a merchant acquirer. Providers with more advanced tech-enabled services (primarily online and integrated offerings), have an advantage over providers who are operating legacy technology and offering undifferentiated services that have come under pricing pressure from higher levels of competition. High quality customer service further differentiates providers as this helps to reduce attrition. Other competitive factors that set acquirers apart include: 1) price; 2) breadth of product offerings; 3) partnerships with FIs; 4) servicing capability; 5) data security; and 6) functionality. Leading acquirers are expected to continue to add additional services to expand cross-selling opportunities, primarily in omni-channel payment solutions, POS software, payments security, customer loyalty and other payments-related offerings.

The largest opportunity for acquirers to expand is within the SMB merchant market. As small businesses increasingly demand integrated solutions tailored to specific business functions or industries, merchant processors are adopting payment-enabled software offerings that combine embedded finance products with core business operating software. By subsisting within SMB's critical business software, processors are able to improve economic results through better merchant retention and higher processing margins. Through our MX Merchant platform, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the trend towards integrated solutions, new technology adoption and value added-service utilization in the SMB market.

Providing BaaS products is highly competitive. We face competition from other BaaS providers and banks directly. We differentiate ourselves to merchants and enterprise customers through our ability to innovate and develop new products and services that offer new payment experiences for customers on our platform. Our agility, risk management and suite of products within a single platform differentiates us from competitors.

We operate in an increasingly complex legal and regulatory environment. We are subject to a variety of federal, state and local laws and regulations and the rules and standards of the payment networks that are utilized to provide our electronic payment services, as more fully described below.

The Dodd-Frank Act resulted in significant structural and other changes to the regulation of the financial services industry. The Dodd-Frank Act directed the Federal Reserve Board to regulate the debit interchange transaction fees that a card issuer or payment card network receives or charges for an electronic debit transaction. Pursuant to the so-called "Durbin Amendment" to the Dodd-Frank Act, these fees must be "reasonable and proportional" to the cost incurred by the card issuer in authorizing, clearing and settling the transaction. Pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Federal Reserve Board, debit interchange rates for card issuers with assets of $10.0 billion or more are capped at $0.21 per transaction and an ad valorem component of five basis points to reflect a portion of the issuer's fraud losses plus, for qualifying issuers, an additional $0.01 per transaction in debit interchange for fraud prevention costs. The cap on interchange fees has not had a material direct effect on our results of operations.

In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act limits the ability of payment card networks to impose certain restrictions because it allows merchants to: 1) set minimum dollar amounts (not to exceed $10.00) for the acceptance of a credit card (and allows federal governmental entities and institutions of higher education to set maximum amounts for the acceptance of credit cards); and 2) provide discounts or incentives to encourage consumers to pay with cash, checks, debit cards or credit cards.

The rules also contain prohibitions on network exclusivity and merchant routing restrictions. These rules require a card issuer to: 1) enable at least two unaffiliated networks on each debit card; 2) prohibit card networks from entering into exclusivity arrangements; and 3) restrict the ability of issuers or networks to mandate transaction routing requirements. The prohibition on network exclusivity has not significantly affected our ability to pass on network fees and other costs to our customers, nor do we expect it to in the future.

The Dodd-Frank Act created the CFPB, which has assumed responsibility for enforcing federal consumer protection laws, and the FSOC, which was established to, among other things, identify risks to the stability of the U.S. financial system. The FSOC has the authority to require supervision and regulation of nonbank financial companies that the FSOC determines pose a systemic risk to the U.S. financial system. Accordingly, we may be subject to additional systemic risk-related oversight.

As a merchant acquirer, we are subject to the rules of Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and other payment networks. In order to provide services, several of our subsidiaries are either registered as service providers for member institutions with Mastercard, Visa and other networks or are direct members of Mastercard, Visa and other networks. Accordingly, we are subject to card association and network rules that could subject us to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by the card networks for certain acts or omissions.

The FFIEC is an interagency body comprised of federal bank and credit union regulators such as the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the CFPB. The FFIEC examines large data processors to identify and mitigate risks associated with systemically significant service providers, including specifically the risks they may pose to the banking industry.

We are considered by the FFIEC to be a TSP based on the services we provide to FIs. As a TSP, we are subject to audits by an interagency group consisting of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Through our subsidiary, Finxera, Inc., we also hold money transmission licenses in 46 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories. Accordingly, we are subject to the applicable laws and regulations and are subject to examinations by state banking regulators.

We provide services that may be subject to various state, federal and foreign privacy laws and regulations. These laws and regulations include: 1) the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which applies to a broad range of FIs and to companies

that provide services to FIs in the U.S.; 2) certain health care technology laws, including HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Act; and 3) the CCPA, which establishes a new privacy framework for covered businesses by: i) creating an expanded definition of personal information; ii) establishing new data privacy rights for consumers in the State of California; iii) imposing special rules on the collection of consumer data from minors; and iv) creating a new and potentially severe statutory damages framework for violations of the CCPA and for businesses that fail to implement reasonable security procedures and practices to prevent data breaches. We are also subject to a variety of foreign data protection and privacy laws, including, without limitation, Directive 95/46/EC, as implemented in each member state of the European Union and its successor, the General Data Protection Regulation. Among other things, these foreign and domestic laws, and their implementing regulations, in certain cases: 1) restrict the collection, processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal information; 2) require notice to individuals of privacy practices, and provide individuals with certain rights to prevent use; and 3) disclosure of protected information. These laws also impose requirements for safeguarding and removal or elimination of personal information.

The U.S. federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including the BSA, and the BSA implementing regulations administered by FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, require, among other things, each financial institution to: 1) develop and implement a risk-based anti-money laundering program; 2) file reports on large currency transactions; 3) file suspicious activity reports if the financial institution believes a customer may be violating U.S. laws and regulations; and 4) maintain transaction records. Given that a number of our clients are FIs that are directly subject to U.S. federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations, we have developed an anti-money laundering compliance program to best assist our clients in meeting such legal and regulatory requirements.

We are subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by OFAC of the U.S. Department of Treasury, which place prohibitions and restrictions on all U.S. citizens and entities with respect to transactions by U.S. persons with specified countries and individuals and entities identified on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals list (for example, individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, countries subject to certain economic and trade sanctions, as well as terrorists, terrorist organizations and narcotics traffickers identified by OFAC under programs that are not country specific). Similar anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and proceeds of crime laws apply to movements of currency and payments through electronic transactions and to dealings with persons specified on lists maintained by organizations similar to OFAC in several other countries and which may impose specific data retention obligations or prohibitions on intermediaries in the payment process. We have developed and continue to enhance compliance programs and policies to monitor and address such legal and regulatory requirements and developments. We continue to enhance such programs and policies to ensure that our customers do not engage in prohibited transactions with designated countries, individuals or entities.

We are subject to the Federal TCPA and various state laws to the extent we place telephone calls and SMS messages to clients and consumers. The TCPA regulates certain telephone calls and SMS messages placed using automatic telephone dialing systems or artificial or prerecorded voices and can alter the way we do business. Additionally, as a provider of dedicated accounts in the debt resolution industry, we are also subject to certain requirements of the Telemarketing Sales Rule which requires independence of account administrators and certain prohibitions against advance payment of fees.

We are subject to U.S. federal and state unclaimed or abandoned property laws that require us to transfer to certain government authorities the unclaimed property of other that we hold when that property has been unclaimed for a certain period of time. Moreover, we are subject to audit by state and foreign regulatory authorities with regard to our escheatment practices.

The Tax Act of 2008 requires certain merchant acquiring entities and third-party settlement organizations to provide information returns for each calendar year with respect to payments made in settlement of electronic payment transactions and

third-party payment network transactions occurring in that calendar year. Reportable transactions are also subject to backup withholding requirements.

The foregoing is not an exhaustive list of the laws, rules and regulations which we are subject to and the regulatory framework governing our business is changing continuously.

We have developed a payments platform that includes many instances of proprietary software, code sets, workflows and algorithms. It is our practice to enter confidentiality, non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and to enter into confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with other third parties to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our confidential information and proprietary technology. In addition to these contractual measures, we also rely on a combination of trademarks, copyrights, registered domain names, and patent rights to help protect the Priority brand and our other intellectual property.

As of December 31, 2023, we employed 983 employees, of which 974 were employed full-time. We have employees residing throughout the U.S., Canada and India. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Our strategy to develop and retain the best talent includes an emphasis on employee training and development. We promote our core values of ownership, innovation, camaraderie, service, authenticity and trust as an organization and offer awards to colleagues who exemplify these qualities. We require a mandatory online training curriculum for our employees that includes annual anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training.

Our inclusion and diversity program focuses on our employees, workplace and community. We believe that our business is strengthened by a diverse workforce that reflects the communities in which we operate. We believe all of our employees should be treated with respect and equality, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious beliefs or other characteristics. Inclusion and diversity remain a common thread in all of our human resource practices so that we can attract, develop and retain the best talent for our workforce.

Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, are made available free of charge on our internet website at www.prioritycommerce.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after we have electronically filed the material with, or furnished it to the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains our reports, proxy and information statements and our other SEC filings. The address of that website is www.sec.gov. The contents of our websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.                    

Our services include the processing, transmission and storing of sensitive business and personal information about our merchants, merchants' customers, vendors, partners and other third parties. This information may include credit and debit card numbers, bank account numbers, personal identification numbers, names and addresses or other sensitive business information. This information may also be stored by third parties to whom we outsource certain functions or other agents ("associated third parties"). We may have responsibility to the card networks, FIs, and in some instances, our merchants, and/or ISOs, for our failure or the failure of our associated third parties to protect this information.

Information security risks for us and our competitors have substantially increased in recent years in part due to the proliferation of new technologies and the increased sophistication, resources and activities of hackers, terrorists, activists, organized crime, and other external parties, including hostile nation-state actors. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, sabotage systems or utilize payment systems in an effort to perpetrate financial fraud change frequently and are often difficult to detect and all of which we are vulnerable to. We have been the target of brute force attempts to obtain unauthorized access to our systems. Threats may derive from human error, fraud or malice on the part of employees or third parties, or may result from accidental technological failure. Computer viruses can be distributed and spread rapidly over the internet and could infiltrate our systems or those of our associated third parties. Additionally, denial of service or other attacks could be launched against us for a variety of purposes, including interfering with our services or to create a diversion for other malicious activities. Our defensive measures may not prevent down-time, unauthorized access or use of sensitive data. While we maintain insurance coverage that will cover certain aspects of cyber risks, such insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all losses. Furthermore, we do not control the actions of our third-party partners and customers in their systems. These third parties may experience security breaches and any future problems experienced by these third parties, including those resulting from cyber attacks or other breakdowns or disruptions in services, could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business or expose us to liability. Further, our agreements with our bank sponsors and our third-party payment processors (as well as payment network requirements) require us to take certain protective measures to ensure the confidentiality of merchant and consumer data. Any such actions, attacks or failure to adequately comply with these protective measures could hurt our reputation, force us to incur significant expenses in remediating the resulting impacts, expose us to uninsured liability, result in the loss of our bank sponsors or our ability to participate in the payment networks, or subject us to fees, penalties, sanctions, litigation or termination of our bank sponsor agreements or our third-party payment processor agreements.

As a result of information security risks, we must continuously develop and enhance our controls, processes and practices designed to protect our computer systems, software, data and networks from attack, damage or unauthorized access. This continuous development and enhancement will require us to expend additional resources, including to investigate and remediate significant information security vulnerabilities detected. Despite our investments in security measures, we are unable to assure that any security measures will not be subject to system or human error.

We depend on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our computer systems, software, data centers and telecommunications networks, as well as the systems and services of third parties. A system outage or data loss could have a

material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Not only could we suffer damage to our reputation in the event of a system outage or data loss, but we may also be liable to third parties. Many of our contractual agreements with FIs and certain other customers require the payment of penalties if we do not meet certain operating standards. Our systems and operations or those of our third-party providers could be exposed to damage or interruption from, among other things, fire, natural disaster, power loss or telecommunications failure.

The payment processing industry is highly competitive. We primarily compete in the SMB merchant industry. We compete with FIs and their affiliates, independent payment processing companies and ISOs. We also compete with many of these same entities for production through distribution partners. Many of our distribution partners are not exclusive to us but also have relationships with our competitors, such that we have to continually expend resources to maintain those relationships. Our growth will depend on the continued growth of Electronic Payments, particularly Electronic Payments to SMB merchants, and our ability to increase our market share through successful competitive efforts to gain new merchants and distribution partners.

Additionally, many FIs and their subsidiaries or well-established payment-enabled technology providers with which we compete, have substantially greater capital, technological, management and marketing resources than we have. These factors may allow our competitors to offer better pricing terms to merchants and more attractive compensation to distribution partners, which could result in a loss of our potential or current merchants and distribution partners. Our current and future competitors may also develop or offer services that have price or other advantages over the services we provide.

We also face new, well capitalized, competition from emerging technology and non-traditional payment processing companies as well as traditional companies offering alternative Electronic Payments services and payment-enabled software solutions. If these new entrants gain a greater share of total Electronic Payments transactions, they could impact our ability to retain and grow our relationships with merchants and distribution partners. Acquirers may be susceptible to the adoption by the broader merchant community of payment-enabled software versus terminal based payments.

We experience attrition in merchant credit and debit card processing volume resulting from several factors, including business closures, transfers of merchant accounts to our competitors, unsuccessful contract renewal negotiations and account closures that we initiate for various reasons such as heightened credit risks or contract breaches by merchants. Our referral partners are a significant source of new business. If a referral partner or an ISO switches to another processor, terminates our services, internalizes payment processing that we perform, merges with or is acquired by one of our competitors, or shuts down or becomes insolvent, we may no longer receive new merchant referrals from such referral partner, and we risk losing existing merchants that were originally enrolled by the referral partner or ISO. We cannot predict the level of attrition in the future and it could increase. Higher than expected attrition could negatively affect our results, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. 

From time to time, card associations and debit networks increase the organization and/or processing fees (known as interchange fees) that they charge. It is possible that competitive pressures will result in us absorbing a portion of such increases in the future, which would increase our operating costs, reduce our profit margin, and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition. In addition, the various card associations and networks prescribe certain capital requirements. Any increase in the capital level required would further limit our use of capital for other purposes.

Payment network rules are established and changed from time to time by each payment network as they may determine in their sole discretion and with or without advance notice to their participants. The timelines imposed by the payment networks or

sponsor banks for expected compliance with new rules have historically been, and may continue to be, highly compressed, requiring us to quickly implement changes to our systems which increases the risk of non-compliance with new standards or the reduction of certain types of merchant activity. In addition, the payment networks could make changes to interchange or other elements of the pricing structure of the merchant acquiring industry that would have a negative impact on our results of operations.

The Electronic Payments industry in which we compete is subject to rapid technological changes and is characterized by new technology, product and service introductions, evolving industry standards, changing merchant needs and the entrance of non-traditional competitors. We are subject to the risk that our existing products and services become obsolete, and that we are unable to develop new products and services in response to industry demands. Our future success will depend in part on our ability to develop or adapt to technological changes and the evolving needs of our resellers, merchants and the industry at large. In addition, new products and offerings may not perform as intended or generate the business or revenue growth expected. Defects in our software and errors or delays in our processing of electronic transactions could result in additional development costs, diversion of technical and other resources from our other development efforts, loss of credibility with current or potential distribution partners and merchants, harm to our reputation, fines imposed by card networks, or exposure to liability claims. Any delay in the delivery of new products or services or the failure to differentiate our products and services could render them less desirable, or possibly even obsolete, to our merchants. Additionally, the market for alternative payment processing products and services is evolving, and we may develop too rapidly or not rapidly enough for us to recover the costs we have incurred in developing new products and services.

We have actively acquired businesses and expect to continue to make acquisitions of businesses and assets in the future. The acquisition and integration of businesses and assets involve a number of risks. These risks include valuation (negotiating a fair price for the business and assets), integration (managing the process of integrating the acquired business' people, products, technology, and other assets to realize the projected value and synergies), regulatory (obtaining any applicable regulatory or other government approvals), and due diligence (identifying risks to the prospects of the business, including undisclosed or unknown liabilities or restrictions). There can be no assurances that we will be able to complete suitable acquisitions for a variety of reasons, including the identification of and competition for acquisition targets, the need for regulatory approvals, the inability of the parties to agree to the structure or purchase price of the transaction and our inability to finance the transaction on commercially acceptable terms. In addition, any potential acquisition can subject us to a variety of other risks:

The Electronic Payments industry depends heavily on the overall level of consumer, commercial and government spending. We are exposed to general economic conditions that affect consumer confidence, consumer spending, consumer discretionary income and changes in consumer purchasing habits. A sustained deterioration in general economic conditions or increases in interest rates could adversely affect our financial performance by reducing the number or aggregate dollar volume of transactions made using Electronic Payments. If our merchants make fewer sales of their products and services using Electronic Payments, or consumers spend less money through Electronic Payments, we will have fewer transactions to process at lower dollar amounts, resulting in lower revenue. In addition, a weakening in the economy could force merchants to close at higher than historical rates, resulting in exposure to potential losses and a decline in the number of transactions that we process. We also have material fixed and semi-fixed costs, including rent, debt service, contractual minimums and salaries, which could limit our ability to quickly adjust costs and respond to changes in our business and the economy. 

Any new legislation that may be adopted in the U.S. could significantly affect the regulation of U.S. financial markets. Areas subject to potential change, amendment or repeal include the Dodd-Frank Act and the authority of the Federal Reserve Board and the FSOC. The U.S. may also potentially withdraw from or renegotiate various trade agreements and take other actions that would change current trade policies of the U.S. We cannot predict which, if any, of these actions will be taken or, if taken, their effect on the financial stability of the U.S. Such actions could have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, particularly in view of the regulatory oversight we presently face. We cannot predict the effects of these or similar events in the future on the U.S. economy in general, or specifically on our business model or growth strategy, which typically involves the use of debt financing. To the extent a downturn in the U.S. economy impacts our merchant accounts, regulatory changes increase the burden we face in operating our business, or disruptions in the credit markets prevent us from using debt to finance future acquisitions, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely impacted. 

We rely on various FIs to provide clearing services in connection with our settlement activities. If such FIs should stop providing clearing services, we must find other FIs to provide those services. Additionally, we rely on FIs to facilitate our B2B and money transmission services offerings. If we are unable to find a replacement financial institution, we may no longer be able to provide these services to certain customers, which could negatively affect our revenues, earnings and cash flows.

We also rely on third parties to provide or supplement bankcard processing services and for infrastructure hosting services. We also rely on third parties for specific software and hardware used in providing our products and services. The termination by our service or technology providers of their arrangements with us or their failure to perform their services efficiently and effectively may adversely affect our relationships with our merchants and, if we cannot find alternate providers quickly, may cause those merchants to terminate their relationship with us. 

We also rely in part on third parties for the development and access to new technologies, or updates to existing products and services for which third parties provide ongoing support, which increases the cost associated with new and existing product and service offerings. Failure by these third-party providers to devote an appropriate level of attention to our products and services could result in delays in introducing new products or services, or delays in resolving any issues with existing products or services for which third-party providers provide ongoing support. 

We have potential liability for fraudulent electronic payment transactions or credits initiated by merchants or others. Examples of merchant fraud include when a merchant or other party knowingly uses a stolen or counterfeit credit or debit card, card number, or other credentials to record a false sales or credit transaction, processes an invalid card, or intentionally fails to deliver the merchandise or services sold in an otherwise valid transaction. Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities such as counterfeiting and fraud. Failure to effectively manage risk and prevent fraud could increase in the future. Increases in chargebacks or other liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We have potential liability for chargebacks associated with the transactions we process. If a billing dispute between a merchant and a cardholder is not ultimately resolved in favor of the merchant, the disputed transaction is "charged back" to the merchant's bank and credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with those merchants that promise future delivery of goods and services rather than delivering goods or rendering services at the time of payment. If we or our bank sponsors are unable to collect the chargeback from the merchant's account or reserve account (if applicable), or if the merchant refuses or is financially unable (due to bankruptcy or other reasons) to reimburse the merchant's bank for the chargeback, we may bear the loss for the amount of the refund paid to the cardholder. Any increase in chargebacks not paid by our merchants could increase our costs and decrease our revenues. We have policies to manage merchant-related credit risk and often mitigate such risk by requiring collateral and monitoring transaction activity. Notwithstanding our programs and policies for managing credit risk, it is possible that a default on such obligations by one or more of our merchants could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We are subject to card association and network rules that could subject us to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by the card networks for certain acts or omissions. The rules of the card networks are set by the card networks themselves and may be influenced by card issuers, some of which are our competitors with respect to processing services. Many banks directly or indirectly sell processing services to merchants in direct competition with us. These banks could attempt, by virtue of their influence on the networks, to alter the networks' rules or policies to the detriment of non-members, including us. The termination of our registrations or our membership status as a service provider or merchant processor, or any changes in a card association or other network rules or standards, including interpretation and implementation of the rules or standards, that increase the cost of doing business or limit our ability to provide transaction processing services to our customers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. If a merchant or an ISO fails to comply with the applicable requirements of the card associations and networks, we or the merchant or ISO could be subject to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by the card associations or networks. If we cannot collect or pursue collection of such amounts from the applicable merchant or ISO, we may have to bear the cost of such fines or penalties, resulting in lower earnings for us. The termination of our registration, or any changes in the Visa or Mastercard rules that would impair our registration, could require us to stop providing Visa and Mastercard payment processing services, which would make it impossible for us to conduct our business on its current scale.

Our success depends upon the continued services of our senior management and other key personnel who have substantial experience in the Electronic Payments industry and the markets in which we offer our services. In addition, our success depends in large part upon the reputation within the industry of our senior managers who have developed relationships with our distribution partners, payment networks and other payment processing and service providers. Further, in order for us to continue to successfully compete and grow, we must attract, recruit, develop and retain personnel who will provide us with expertise across the entire spectrum of our intellectual capital needs. Our success is also dependent on the skill and experience of our sales force, which we must continuously work to maintain. While we have many key personnel who have substantial experience with our operations, we must also develop our personnel to provide succession plans capable of maintaining the continuity of our operations. The market for qualified personnel is competitive, and we may not succeed in recruiting additional personnel or may fail to effectively replace current personnel who depart with qualified or effective successors.

We use third parties to provide services to us including IT related services and sales related functions. Should a cybersecurity related event or other act of negligence occur as a result of a third-party service provider, we may be liable for those actions.

In the ordinary course of business, we may become involved in various litigation matters, including but not limited to commercial disputes and employee claims, and from time to time may be involved in governmental or regulatory investigations or similar matters arising out of our current or future business. Any claims asserted against us, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, could harm our reputation and have an adverse impact on our relationship with our merchants, distribution partners and other third parties and could lead to additional related claims. Certain claims may seek injunctive relief, which could disrupt the ordinary conduct of our business and operations or increase our cost of doing business. Our insurance or indemnities may not cover all claims that may be asserted against us, and any claims asserted against it, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, may harm our reputation and cause us to expend resources in our defense. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that we will be successful in defending ourselves in future litigation. Should the ultimate judgments or settlements in any pending litigation or future litigation or investigation significantly exceed our insurance coverage, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

system. Any such designation would result in increased regulatory burdens on our business, which increases our risk profile and may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We and many of our merchants may be subject to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices. That statement and other laws, rules and or regulations, including the Telemarketing Sales Act, may directly impact the activities of certain of our merchants and, in some cases, may subject us, as the merchant's electronic processor or provider of certain services, to investigations, fees, fines and disgorgement of funds if we were deemed to have improperly aided and abetted or otherwise provided the means and instrumentalities to facilitate the illegal or improper activities of the merchant through our services. Various federal and state regulatory enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, have authority to take action against non-banks that engage in unfair or deceptive practices or violate other laws, rules and regulations and to the extent we are processing payments or providing services for a merchant that may be in violation of laws, rules and regulations, we may be subject to enforcement actions and as a result may incur losses and liabilities that may impact our business.

Our business may also be subject to the FCRA, which regulates the use and reporting of consumer credit information and also imposes disclosure requirements on entities that take adverse action based on information obtained from credit reporting agencies. We could be liable if our practices under the FCRA are not in compliance with the FCRA or regulations under it.

Separately, the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 included an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code that requires the filing of yearly information returns by payment processing entities and third-party settlement organizations with respect to payments made in settlement of electronic payment transactions and third-party payment network transactions occurring in that calendar year. Transactions that are reportable pursuant to these rules are subject to backup withholding requirements. We could be liable for penalties if our information returns do not comply with these regulations.

These and other laws and regulations, even if not directed at us, may require us to make significant efforts to change our products and services and may require that we incur additional compliance costs and change how we price our services to merchants. Implementing new compliance efforts may be difficult because of the complexity of new regulatory requirements and may cause us to devote significant resources to ensure compliance. Furthermore, regulatory actions may cause changes in business practices by us and other industry participants which could affect how we market, price and distribute our products and services, which could limit our ability to grow, reduce our revenues or increase our costs. In addition, even an inadvertent failure to comply with laws and regulations, as well as rapidly evolving social expectations of corporate fairness, could damage our business or our reputation. 

We rely on a combination of contractual rights and copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret laws to establish and protect our proprietary technology. Third parties may challenge, circumvent, infringe or misappropriate our intellectual property, or such intellectual property may not be sufficient to permit us to take advantage of current market trends or otherwise to provide competitive advantages, which could result in costly redesign efforts, discontinuance of service offerings or other competitive harm. Others, including our competitors, may independently develop similar technology, duplicate our services or design around our intellectual property and, in such cases, we could not assert our intellectual property rights against such parties. Further, our contractual arrangements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of our confidential information. We may have to litigate to enforce or determine the scope and enforceability of our intellectual property rights and know-how, which is expensive, could cause a diversion of resources and may not prove successful. Also, because of the rapid pace of technological change in our industry, aspects of our business and our services rely on technologies developed or licensed by third parties, and we may not be able to obtain or continue to obtain licenses and technologies from these third parties on reasonable terms or at all. The loss of intellectual property protection or the inability to license or otherwise use third-party intellectual property could harm our business and ability to compete.

We may also be subject to costly litigation if our services and technology are alleged to infringe upon or otherwise violate a third party's proprietary rights. Third parties may have, or may eventually be issued, patents that could be infringed by our products, services or technology. Any of these third parties could make a claim of infringement against us with respect to our products, services or technology. We may also be subject to claims by third parties for patent, copyright or trademark

infringement, breach of license or violation of other third-party intellectual property rights. Any claim from third parties may result in a limitation on our ability to use the intellectual property subject to these claims. Additionally, in recent years, individuals and groups have been purchasing intellectual property assets for the sole purpose of making claims of infringement or other violations and attempting to extract settlements from companies like ours. Even if we believe that intellectual property related claims are without merit, defending against such claims is time consuming and expensive and could result in the diversion of the time and attention of our management and employees. Claims of intellectual property infringement or violation also might require us to redesign affected products or services, enter into costly settlement or license agreements, pay costly damage awards or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from marketing or selling certain of our products or services. Even if we have an agreement for indemnification against such costs, the indemnifying party, if any in such circumstances, may be unable to uphold our contractual obligations. If we cannot or do not license the infringed technology on reasonable terms or substitute similar technology from another source, our revenue and earnings could be adversely impacted. 

Changes in tax laws in our significant tax jurisdictions could materially increase the amount of taxes we owe, thereby negatively impacting our results of operations as well as our cash flows from operations. For example, restrictions on the deductibility of interest expense in a U.S. jurisdiction without a corresponding reduction in statutory tax rates could negatively impact our effective tax rate, financial position, results of operations and cash flows in the period that such a change occurs and future periods. 

We operate in a rapidly changing industry. Accordingly, our risk management policies and procedures may not be fully effective to identify, monitor, manage and remediate our risks. Some of our risk evaluation methods depend upon information provided by others and public information regarding markets, merchants or other matters that are otherwise inaccessible by us. In some cases, that information may not be accurate, complete or up-to-date. Additionally, our risk detection system is subject to a high degree of "false positive" risks being detected, which makes it difficult for us to identify real risks in a timely manner. If our policies and procedures are not fully effective or we are not always successful in capturing all risks to which we are or may be exposed, we may suffer harm to our reputation or be subject to litigation or regulatory actions that materially increase our costs and subject us to reputational damage that could limit our ability to grow and cause us to lose existing merchant clients. 

We may face risks related to cybersecurity, such as unauthorized access, cybersecurity attacks and other security incidents, which could adversely affect our business and operations. The Company relies upon operational and information systems, some of which are managed by third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information and to manage or support a variety of our business processes, activities and products. Additionally, we collect and store sensitive data, including the personally identifiable information of our customers and employees, in data centers and on information systems (including systems that may be controlled or maintained by third parties). The Company’s business, and in particular, the debit card and cash management solutions business and global payments business, is dependent on its ability to process and monitor, on a daily basis, a large number of transactions, many of which are highly complex, across numerous and diverse markets. These transactions, as well as the information technology services provided to clients, often must adhere to client-specific guidelines, as well as legal and regulatory standards. Due to the breadth and geographical reach of the Company’s client base, developing and maintaining its operational and information systems and infrastructure is challenging, particularly as a result of rapidly evolving legal and regulatory requirements and technological shifts.

We have a substantial amount of indebtedness and may incur other debt in the future. Our level of debt and the covenants to which we agreed could have negative consequences on us, including, among other things, (i) requiring us to dedicate a large portion of our cash flow from operations to servicing and repayment of the debt; (ii) limiting funds available for strategic initiatives and opportunities, working capital and other general corporate needs and (iii) limiting our ability to incur certain kinds or amounts of additional indebtedness, which could restrict our ability to react to changes in our business, our industry and economic conditions.

Substantially all of our indebtedness is variable rate debt, primarily based on SOFR, which replaced LIBOR effective June 30, 2023. As a result of this variable rate debt, an increase in interest rates generally, such as those we have recently experienced, would adversely affect our profitability. We may enter into pay-fixed interest rate swaps or other derivative transactions to limit our exposure to changes in floating interest rates. Such instruments may result in economic losses should interest rates decline to a point lower than our fixed rate commitments. We would be exposed to credit-related losses, which could impact the results of operations in the event of fluctuations in the fair value of the interest rate swaps due to a change in the credit worthiness or non-performance by the counterparties to the interest rate swaps.

The credit agreements governing our existing credit facilities contain operating covenants and financial covenants that may limit management's discretion with respect to certain business matters. In addition, any debt instruments we may issue in the future will likely contain similar operating and financial covenants restricting our business. Among other things, these covenants will restrict our ability to:

In addition, the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility contains a total net leverage ratio financial covenant that is applicable when 35% or more of the revolving credit facility is drawn at quarter end. A breach of any of these covenants (or any other covenant in the documents governing our Credit and Guaranty Agreement) could result in a default or event of default under our Credit and Guaranty Agreement. If an event of default occurred, the applicable lenders or agents could elect to terminate borrowing commitments and declare all borrowings and loans outstanding thereunder, together with accrued and unpaid interest and any fees and other obligations, to be immediately due and payable. In addition, or in the alternative, the applicable lenders or agents could exercise their rights under the security documents entered into in connection with our Credit and Guaranty Agreement. Any acceleration of amounts due under the Credit and Guaranty Agreement would likely have a material adverse effect on us.

We intend to retain future earnings, if any, for future operations, expansion, and debt repayment and have no current plans to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. The declaration, amount, and payment of any future dividends on shares of Common Stock will be at the sole discretion of our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors may take into account general and economic conditions, our financial condition, and results of operations, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax, and regulatory restrictions, implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, and such other factors as our Board of Directors may deem relevant. In addition, our ability to pay dividends is limited by covenants of our existing and outstanding indebtedness and may be limited by covenants of any future indebtedness we or our subsidiaries incur. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our Common Stock unless you sell our Common Stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it. 

Thomas Priore and his affiliates have the ability to elect all of the members of our Board of Directors and thereby control our policies and operations, including the appointment of management, future issuances of our Common Stock or other securities, the payment of dividends, if any, on our Common Stock, the incurrence or modification of debt by us, amendments to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws, and the entering into of extraordinary transactions, and their interests may not in all cases be aligned with your interests. In addition, Thomas Priore may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures, and other transactions that, in his judgment, could enhance his investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to you. For example, he could cause us to make acquisitions that increase our indebtedness or cause us to sell revenue-generating assets. Additionally, in certain circumstances, acquisitions of debt at a discount by purchasers that are related to a debtor can give rise to cancellation of indebtedness income to such debtor for U.S. federal income tax purposes. 

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that neither he nor any of his affiliates, or any director who is not employed by us (including any non-employee director who serves as one of our officers in both his director and officer capacities) will have any duty to refrain from engaging, directly or indirectly, in the same business activities or similar business activities or lines of business in which we operate. So long as Thomas Priore continues to own a significant amount of our combined voting power, even if such amount is less than 50%, he will continue to be able to strongly influence or effectively control our decisions. Furthermore, so long as Thomas Priore and his respective affiliates collectively own at least 50% of all outstanding shares of our Common Stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, they will be able to appoint individuals to our Board of Directors. In addition, given his level of control, Thomas Priore will be able to determine the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval and will be able to cause or prevent a change of control of the Company or a change in the composition of our Board of Directors and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of the Company. The concentration of ownership could deprive you of an opportunity to receive a premium for your shares of Common Stock as part of a sale of the Company and ultimately might affect the market price of our Common Stock. 

N/A

We have not experienced any material cybersecurity incidents in the past calendar years and the expenses we have incurred from cybersecurity incidents during that time were immaterial. We have not identified risks from known cybersecurity threats that have materially affected us, including our operations, business strategy, results of operations or financial condition.

We operate from several offices throughout the U.S. and one office in India, all of which we lease.

Our key office locations include:

We lease several small facilities for sales and operations. Our current facilities meet the needs of our employee base and can accommodate our currently contemplated growth.

The Company is involved in certain legal proceedings and claims, which arise in the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of the Company, based on consultations with inside and outside counsel, the results of any of these ordinary course matters, individually and in the aggregate, are not expected to have a material effect on our results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows. As more information becomes available and we determine that an unfavorable outcome is probable on a claim and that the amount of probable loss that we will incur on that claim is reasonably estimable, we will record an accrued expense for the claim in question. If and when we record such an accrual, it could be material and could adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

N/A

On July 25, 2018, our Common Stock began trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "PRTH". As of March 7, 2024, we had 69 holders of record of our Common Stock. This figure does not include the number of persons whose securities are held in nominee or "street" name accounts through brokers. We have never declared or paid, and do not anticipate declaring or paying in the foreseeable future, any cash dividends on our Common Stock.

Equity Compensation Plan Information

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

None.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following table presents information with respect to purchases made by the Company of its Common Stock during the three months ended December 31, 2023 (shares are in whole units):

Certain amounts in this section may not add mathematically due to rounding.

This section includes certain components of our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2023 (or "2023"), December 31, 2022 (or "2022"). We have derived this data, except key indicators including merchant bankcard processing dollar values and transaction volumes (SMB Payments), issuing dollar volume and transaction count (B2B Payments), and average billed clients and new enrollments (Enterprise Payments), from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, our consolidated revenue of $755.6 million increased by $92.0 million, or 13.9%, from $663.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. This overall increase was driven by increases in merchant card fee rates and equipment revenue, offset by a decrease in certain fee-based revenue, a true up of an invoice from one of the partner banks for certain services provided in Q1 2022 and a decline in processed merchant bankcard dollar value due to diversification of merchant portfolio by one of the referral partners in our SMB Payments segment, an increase in new enrollments and higher interest income in our Enterprise Payments segment and an increase in revenue from the Plastiq business acquired during the year offset by a decrease in revenue in B2B Payments segment due to the wind down of certain managed services programs in Q4 2022.

Revenues by type for 2023 and 2022 were as follows:

For the year ended December 31, 2023, our merchant card fees revenue of $595.2 million increased by $42.2 million, or 7.6%, from $553.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. This increase was primarily driven by revenue from the Plastiq business that was acquired during the year and merchant card fee rate increases. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in certain fee-based revenue, a true up of an invoice from one of the partner banks for certain services provided in Q1 2022 and a decline in processed merchant bankcard dollar value due to the diversification of processor services by one of the referral partners.

Money transmission services revenue of $98.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $26.6 million or 37.2%, from $71.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 and is primarily driven by an increase in customer enrollments.

Outsourced services and other services revenue of $49.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $20.0 million, or 67.4%, from $29.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. This increase was primarily due to growth in interest income due to higher interest rates and deposit balances, and additional revenues generated by our Passport platform, offset by decreased managed services revenue due to wind down of certain programs in Q4 2022.

Equipment revenue of $12.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, increased by $3.3 million, or 34.2%, from $9.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase was primarily due to increased sales of point-of-sale equipment.

Operating expenses for 2023 and 2022 were as follows:

Costs of services (excludes depreciation and amortization) of $480.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $43.6 million, or 10.0%, from $436.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily due to the corresponding increase in revenues. For the year ended December 31, 2023, costs of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) as a percentage of total revenues decreased to 63.6% as compared to 65.8% for the year ended December 31, 2022. This decrease was primarily due to the increase in interest and money transmission revenues which do not have significant cost of services.

Salary and employee benefits expense of $80.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $14.9 million, or 22.9%, from $65.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily due to higher wages, an increase in stock-based compensation and increased headcount from acquisitions and to support overall growth of the Company. The Company's employee headcount increased to 983 in 2023 from 870 in 2022.

Depreciation and amortization expense of $68.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 decreased by $2.3 million, or 3.2%, from $70.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily due to full amortization of certain intangible assets partially offset by the depreciation of new assets placed in service.

Interest expense of $76.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $22.5 million, or 42.1%, from $53.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, due to increased interest rates and higher debt balances to fund the acquisition of Plastiq in the third fiscal quarter of 2023. Other income, net of $1.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 increased by $1.1 million, or 194.7%, from $0.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, due to increased interest income from the Company's operating accounts.

The decrease in the effective tax rate from 2022 to 2023 is primarily due to a reduction in the amount of additional valuation allowance recorded against certain business interest carryover deferred tax assets.

Our consolidated effective income tax rates differ from the statutory rate due to timing and permanent differences between amounts calculated under GAAP and the U.S. tax code. The consolidated effective income tax rate for 2023 may not be indicative of our effective tax rate for future periods.

On August 16, 2022, the U.S. government enacted the IRA into law. The IRA, among other provisions, implements a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax based on global adjusted financial statement income and a 1% excise tax on share repurchases, which took effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022. The IRA did not have a material effect on our reported results, cash flows, or financial position during 2023. If applicable in future periods, we expect to reflect the excise tax within equity as part of the repurchase price of Common Stock.

Revenue from our SMB Payments segment was $582.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $562.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase of $20.6 million, or 3.7%, was primarily driven by merchant card fee rate increases, equipment revenue, and accrual of certain incentives, offset by a decrease in certain fee-based revenue, a true up of an invoice from one of the partner banks for certain services provided in Q1 2022 and a decline in processed merchant bankcard volume due to the diversification of processor services by one of its referral partners. The Company's merchant card fee revenue from the SMB Payments segment ($563.9 million for 2023 and $549.6 million for 2022) as a percentage of merchant bankcard processing dollar value during 2023 increased to 0.95% from 0.92% during 2022. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in incentive revenue and changes in the merchant mix.

Operating income from our SMB Payments segment was $46.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $54.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease of $8.4 million, or 15.3%, is due to a higher mix of volume growth from larger reseller partners with higher commissions of $3.2 million and an increase in other operating expenses. Increase in other operating expenses include a $5.7 million increase in salary and employee benefits due to higher headcount and stock-based compensation and a $2.3 million increase in selling, general and administrative expenses driven by higher travel and other operating costs which was offset by a decrease of $2.8 million in depreciation and amortization for assets fully depreciated and amortized in the prior year.

Depreciation and amortization expense of our SMB Payments segment was $41.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $43.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease of $2.9 million or 6.6% is due to full amortization of certain intangible assets.

Revenue from our B2B Payments segment was $40.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $18.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase of $21.8 million, or 115.6%, was primarily driven by an increase of $27.4 million in the Plastiq business and an increase of $1.7 million in the CPX business due to increased volumes. This increase was offset by a decrease of $7.3 million driven by the wind down of certain customer programs in the managed services business during Q4 2022.

Operating loss from our B2B Payments segment was $2.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to operating income of $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. This is primarily due to certain provisions for doubtful accounts in the CPX business, transaction bonuses in the Plastiq business, and loss of operating income from the managed services business.

Depreciation and amortization from our B2B Payments segment was $2.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $0.7 million depreciation and amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in depreciation and amortization expense is primarily due to assets acquired from the acquisition of the Plastiq business in the 3rd quarter of 2023.

Revenue from our Enterprise Payments segment was $132.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $82.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase of $49.5 million, or 60.0%, was primarily driven by an increase in customer enrollments, additional revenues generated by our Passport BaaS platform, and growth in interest income due to higher deposit balances and higher returns on the permissible investments related to our money transmission licenses.

Operating income from our Enterprise Payments segment was $74.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $30.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase of $43.1 million, or 139.1%, was primarily driven by the increase in revenue.

Depreciation and amortization expense from our Enterprise Payments segment was $23.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $24.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease of $1.1 million, or 4.6%, was primarily driven by full amortization of certain intangible assets in the prior year offset by depreciation expense on assets placed in service during the year.

Liquidity and capital resource management is a process focused on providing the funding we need to meet our short-term and long-term cash and working capital needs. We have used our funding sources to build our merchant portfolio, for technology solutions and to make acquisitions with the expectation that such investments will generate cash flows sufficient to cover our working capital needs and other anticipated needs, including for our acquisition strategy. We anticipate that cash on hand, funds generated from operations and available borrowings under our revolving credit agreement are sufficient to meet our working capital requirements for at least the next twelve months. This is based upon management's estimates and assumptions regarding effects of micro and macro factors impacting the economic environment in which the Company operates on our financial results. Actual future results could differ materially, as the magnitude, duration and effects of changes in economic, political and market conditions are difficult to predict, and ultimately could negatively impact our liquidity and capital resources. Our principal uses of cash are to fund business operations (including capital expenditures and strategic investments) and administrative costs, and to service our debt. 

Our working capital, defined as current assets less current liabilities, was $29.2 million at December 31, 2023 and $22.5 million at December 31, 2022. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash and cash equivalents with a balance of $39.6 million compared to $18.5 million at December 31, 2022. These cash and cash equivalent balances do not include restricted cash of $11.9 million and $10.6 million at December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, which reflects cash accounts holding customer

At December 31, 2023, we had availability of approximately $65.0 million under our revolving credit arrangement. 

The following tables and narrative reflect our changes in cash flows for the comparative annual periods.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $81.3 million and $70.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively. The $10.8 million, or 15.2% increase in 2023 was driven by changes in the operating assets and liabilities.

Net cash used in investing activities was $55.7 million compared to cash used investing activities of $36.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Net cash used to acquire businesses in 2023 was $28.2 million compared to net cash used of $5.0 million in 2022. Additions to property, equipment and software was $21.3 million for 2023 compared to $18.9 million in 2022 and acquisitions of intangible assets was $6.6 million compared to $8.0 million in 2022. Net payments received of $0.4 million on loans to ISOs for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $4.7 million related to the funding of new loans to ISOs in 2022.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $210.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $8.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The net cash provided by for 2023 included changes in the net obligations for funds held on the behalf of customers of $211.1 million, $49.8 million related to proceeds from the increase of the Term Facility and $44.0 million related to additional borrowings under the revolving credit facility. This was offset by $56.5 million of cash used for the repayment of borrowings under the revolving credit facility, $6.3 million of cash used for the repayment of the Term Facility, $24.7 million of cash dividends paid to redeemable senior preferred stockholders, $1.3 million of cash used for shares withheld for taxes, $4.7 million of payments of contingent consideration for business combinations and $1.2 million for debt issuance and modification costs paid related to the modification of the Term Facility and the revolving credit facility. The net cash provided by financing activities for 2022 included borrowings from the revolving credit facility of $29.5 million and changes in the net obligations for funds held on the behalf of customers of $43.1 million. These cash inflows were offset by cash used for the repayment of debt of $38.2 million, cash used for the repurchase of Common Stock of $7.5 million, dividends paid to redeemable senior preferred stockholders of $11.5 million and $7.0 million of payments of contingent consideration for business combinations.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we had outstanding debt obligations, including the current portion and net of unamortized debt discount of $638.7 million, compared to $605.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, resulting in an increase of $33.6 million. The debt balance for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of funds outstanding under the term facility, offset by $15.7 million of unamortized debt discounts and issuance costs. There were no funds outstanding under the revolving credit facility as of December 31, 2023. Minimum amortization of the term facility are equal quarterly

installments in aggregate annual amounts equal to 1.0% of the original principal, with the balance paid upon maturity. The term facility matures in April 2027 and the revolving credit facility expires in April 2026.

On June 30, 2023, the Credit Agreement of the Company was amended to incorporate the following:

On October 2, 2023, the Company modified its existing Term Facility Credit agreement with Truist. The agreement increased the principal balance by $50.0 million and increased the quarterly principal amortization payment from $1.6 million to $1.7 million. There were no other significant modifications to the Credit Agreement.

The Credit Agreement contains representations and warranties, financial and collateral requirements, mandatory payment events, events of default and affirmative and negative covenants, including without limitation, covenants that restrict among other things, the ability to create liens, pay dividends or distribute assets from the loan parties to the Company, merge or consolidate, dispose of assets, incur additional indebtedness, make certain investments or acquisitions, enter into certain transactions (including with affiliates) and to enter into certain leases.

If the aggregate principal amount of outstanding revolving loans and letters of credit under the Credit Agreement exceeds 35% of the total revolving facility thereunder, the loan parties are required to comply with certain restrictions on its Total Net Leverage Ratio, which is defined in the Credit Agreement as the ratio of consolidated total debt less unrestricted cash to consolidated adjusted EBITDA (as defined in the Credit Agreement). If applicable, the maximum permitted Total Net Leverage Ratio is: 1) 6.50:1.00 at each fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2021 through June 30, 2022; 2) 6.00:1.00 at each fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2022 through June 30, 2023; and 3) 5.50:1.00 at each fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2023 each fiscal quarter thereafter. As of December 31, 2023, the Company was in compliance with the covenants in the Credit Agreement.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions about future events that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ significantly from those estimates. We believe that the following discussion addresses our most critical accounting estimates, which are those that are most important to the portrayal of our financial condition and results of operations and require management's most difficult, subjective, and complex judgments.

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on differences between financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities and are measured using enacted tax rates and laws that are expected to be in effect when the differences are expected to be recovered or settled. Realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon future taxable income. A valuation allowance is recognized if it is more likely than not that some portion or all of a deferred tax asset will not be realized based on the weight of available evidence, including expected future earnings. 

We recognize an uncertain tax position in our financial statements when we conclude that a tax position is more likely than not to be sustained upon examination based solely on its technical merits. Only after a tax position passes the first step of recognition will measurement be required. Under the measurement step, the tax benefit is measured as the largest amount of

benefit that is more likely than not to be realized upon effective settlement. This is determined on a cumulative probability basis. The full impact of any change in recognition or measurement is reflected in the period in which such change occurs. Interest and penalties related to income taxes are recognized in the provision for income taxes. 

We test goodwill for impairment for each of our reporting units on an annual basis on October 1 or when events occur, or circumstances indicate the fair value of a reporting unit may be below its carrying value. We perform the annual assessment using the qualitative method. Where deemed appropriate, we may perform a quantitative assessment that uses market data and discounted cash flow analysis, which involve estimates of future revenues and operating cash flows. Changes in these estimates and assumptions or a significant decrease in earnings could materially affect the fair value of goodwill and could result in a goodwill impairment charge.

The annual impairment assessment for goodwill does not change our requirements to assess goodwill on an interim date between scheduled annual testing dates if triggering events are present.

We review our long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. For long-lived assets, except goodwill, an impairment loss is indicated when the undiscounted future cash flows estimated to be generated by the asset group are not sufficient to recover the unamortized balance of the asset group.

We amortize the cost of our acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives using either a straight-line or an accelerated method that most accurately reflects the estimated pattern in which the economic benefit of the respective asset is consumed.

We allocate the purchase price of an acquired business to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. For acquisitions that include contingent consideration, we estimate the fair value of contingent consideration at the acquisition date. The estimated fair value of contingent consideration is updated in future periods based on information available at that time. Management uses all available information when estimating the fair values of the assets acquired, liabilities assumed and contingent consideration, and must apply judgement and make certain assumptions when making these estimates. The assumptions management uses when determining fair values include estimated future cash flows or income, market rate assumptions, actuarial assumptions and discount rate assumptions. We typically engage third-party valuation advisors to assist in estimating the fair values of acquired assets and assumed liabilities. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable, but that are inherently uncertain, and therefore, may not be realized. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the estimates, assumptions and values reflected in the valuations will be realized, and actual results could differ materially.

Our debt facilities under our Credit Agreement bear interest at either a base rate or a SOFR rate plus an applicable margin per year, subject to a SOFR rate floor of 1.00% per year. As of December 31, 2023, we had $654.4 million in outstanding borrowings under our Credit Agreement. Ignoring the 1.00% SOFR floor, a hypothetical 1.00% increase or decrease in the applicable SOFR rate on our outstanding indebtedness under the Credit Agreement would increase or decrease cash interest expense on our indebtedness by approximately $6.7 million per year. We do not currently hedge against interest rate risk.

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Priority Technology Holdings, Inc.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020.

Atlanta, Georgia

March 12, 2024