UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

 

 

FORM 20-F

 

 

(Mark One)

☐	REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(B) OR 12(G) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

 

☐	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended                     

OR

 

☐	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

 

☒	SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of event requiring this shell company report: March 30, 2021

Commission File Number: 001-40302

 

 

PAYSAFE LIMITED

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Not applicable		Bermuda
(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)		(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

Paysafe Limited

Victoria Place

31 Victoria Street

Hamilton H10, Bermuda

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

Elliott Wiseman

25 Canada Square, 27th Floor, London, United Kingdom E14 5LQ

+44 (0) 207 608 8460

(Name, Telephone, Email and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

 

 

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class		Trading Symbol(s)		Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Shares		PSFE		New York Stock Exchange
Warrants		PSFE.WS		New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: None

 

 

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the shell company report: 723,712,382 common shares and 53,901,025 warrants.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer		☐		Accelerated filer		☐
Non-accelerated filer		☒		Emerging growth company		☐

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

 

†	The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting over Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☐

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

 

US GAAP  ☒		International Financial Reporting Standards as issued						Other  ☐
		by the International Accounting Standards Board		☐

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow.    Item 17  ☐    Item 18  ☐

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☐

 

 

 

PAYSAFE LIMITED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Explanatory Note			ii
Financial Statement Presentation			ii
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements			iii
Industry and Market Data			iii
Defined Terms			v
PART I			1
Item 1. Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisers			1
Item 2. Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable			1
Item 3. Key Information			1
Item 4. Information on the Company			48
Item 4A. Unresolved Staff Comments			86
Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects			86
Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees			115
Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions			123
Item 8. Financial Information			125
Item 9. The Offer and Listing			136
Item 10. Additional Information			136
Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk			138
Item 12. Description of Securities Other than Equity Securities			138
PART II			138
PART III			138
Item 17. Financial Statements			138
Item 18. Financial Statements			138
Item 19. Exhibits			138
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS			F-1

EXPLANATORY NOTE

On December 7, 2020, Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II, a Delaware corporation (“FTAC”), Paysafe Limited, an exempted limited company incorporated under the laws of Bermuda (“Paysafe Limited”), Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Paysafe Limited (“Merger Sub”), Paysafe Bermuda Holding LLC, a Bermuda exempted limited liability company (the “LLC”), Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited, a private limited company incorporated under the laws of Jersey, Channel Islands (the “Accounting Predecessor”), and Paysafe Group Holdings Limited, a private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales (“PGHL”), entered into the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, among other things, (i) Merger Sub would merge with and into FTAC, with FTAC being the surviving corporation in the merger and an indirect subsidiary of Paysafe Limited (“Merger”) and each outstanding publicly traded share of FTAC Class A Common Stock and FTAC Class B Common Stock (other than certain excluded shares) would convert into the right to receive one common share, par value $0.001 per share, of Paysafe Limited (“Company Common Shares”), (ii) PGHL would transfer and contribute the Accounting Predecessor to the Company in exchange for Company Common Shares and cash and (iii) each of FTAC’s publicly traded warrants that are outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger would, pursuant to and in accordance with the warrant agreement covering such warrants, automatically and irrevocably be modified to provide that such warrant will no longer entitle the holder thereof to purchase the amount of share(s) of FTAC common stock set forth therein and in substitution thereof such warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire the same number of Company Common Shares per warrant on the same terms. The Business Combination was consummated on March 30, 2021, and on March 31, 2021 Paysafe Limited’s common shares and warrants began trading on the NYSE under the symbols “PSFE” and “PSFE.WS,” respectively.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

Paysafe Limited

Paysafe Limited was incorporated by PGHL under the laws of Bermuda on November 23, 2020 for the purpose of effectuating the Business Combination described herein. Prior to the Business Combination, Paysafe Limited had no material assets and did not operate any businesses. The Business Combination resulted in Paysafe Limited acquiring, and becoming the successor to, the Accounting Predecessor. Simultaneously, it completed the combination with the public shell company, FTAC, with an exchange of the shares and warrants issued by Paysafe Limited for those of FTAC. The Business Combination was accounted for as a capital reorganization followed by the combination with FTAC, which was treated as a recapitalization. Following the Business Combination, both the Accounting Predecessor and FTAC are indirect wholly owned subsidiaries of Paysafe Limited.

The Accounting Predecessor

As a result of the transaction being accounted for as a capital reorganization, Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited was deemed to be the Accounting Predecessor of Paysafe Limited. The Accounting Predecessor has a direct voting interest or a variable interest in the Group’s activities and operations that result in revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities. The financial statements for the Accounting Predecessor are included in this Report for the three years ended December 31, 2020.

 

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report on Form 20-F (including information incorporated by reference herein, the “Report”) contains or may contain forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that involve significant risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include information about our possible or assumed future results of operations or our performance. Words such as “anticipate,” “appear,” “approximate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “foresee,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “would” and variations of such words and similar expressions (or the negative version of such words or expressions) may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The risk factors and cautionary language referred to or incorporated by reference in this Report provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations described in our forward-looking statements, including among other things, the items identified in the section entitled “Item 3.D. Risk Factors” of this Report.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Report. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates which are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

In this Report, we present industry data, forecasts, information and statistics regarding the markets in which we compete as well as our analysis of statistics, data and other information that we have derived from third parties, including independent consultant reports, publicly available information, various industry publications and other published industry sources (including Mastercard’s investor presentation, eMarketer Inc.’s global eCommerce report dated June 2020 (referred to herein as “eMarketer”), the Strawhecker Group, Nilson, FIS, Newzoo, Eilers & Krejcik, H2 Gambling Capital, Allied Market Research,Glenbrook and Boston Consulting Group). Independent consultant reports, industry publications and other published industry sources generally indicate that the information contained therein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Such information is supplemented where necessary with our own internal estimates and information obtained from discussions with our customers, taking into account publicly available information about other industry participants and our management’s judgment where information is not publicly available. This information appears in “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview,” “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and other sections of this Report.

Although we believe that these third-party sources are reliable, it does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this information, and we have not independently verified this information. Forecasts and other forward-looking information obtained from these sources are subject to the same qualifications and uncertainties as the other forward-looking statements in this Report. These forecasts and forward-looking information are subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described under “Item 3.D. Risk Factors” of this Report. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in any forecasts or estimates. Some market data and statistical information are also based on our good faith estimates, which are derived from management’s knowledge of our industry and such independent sources referred to above. Certain market, ranking and industry data included elsewhere in this Report, including the size of certain markets and our size or position and the positions of our competitors within these markets, including its services relative to its competitors, are based on estimates by us. These estimates have been derived from management’s knowledge and experience in the markets in which we operate, as well as information obtained from surveys, reports by market research firms, our customers, distributors, suppliers, trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate and have not been verified by independent sources. Unless otherwise noted, all of our market share and

 

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market position information presented in this Report is an approximation. Our market share and market position in each of our business segments, unless otherwise noted, is based on our volume relative to the estimated volume in the markets served by each of our business segments. References herein to Paysafe being a leader in a market or product category refer to our belief that we have a leading market share position in each specified market, unless the context otherwise requires. As there are no publicly available sources supporting this belief, it is based solely on our internal analysis of our volume as compared to the estimated volume of our competitors. In addition, the discussion herein regarding our various end markets is based on how it defines the end markets for its products, which products may be either part of larger overall end markets or end markets that include other types of products and services.

Our internal data and estimates are based upon information obtained from trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate and management’s understanding of industry conditions. Although we believe that such information is reliable, it has not had this information verified by any independent sources.

 

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DEFINED TERMS

Unless otherwise stated or unless the context otherwise requires, all references to “we,” “us,” “our,” “Paysafe” or the “Company” refer to (i) Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited prior to the consummation of the Business Combination and to (ii) Paysafe Limited following the consummation of the Business Combination.

In addition, in this document:

“Accounting Predecessor” means Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited, a private limited company incorporated under the laws of Jersey, Channel Islands.

“Additional I/C Loans” means FTAC’s loans out of the Available Cash Amount, caused by the Company, to certain Subsidiaries of the Company following the FTAC Contribution.

“Affiliate” means, with respect to any specified Person, any Person that, directly or indirectly, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, such specified Person, through one or more intermediaries or otherwise; provided, except for the Company and its Subsidiaries, no Affiliate or portfolio company (as such term is commonly understood in the private equity industry) of funds advised by affiliates of CVC or Blackstone or any of their respective Affiliates shall be considered an Affiliate of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries.

“Available Cash Amount” means, as of immediately prior to Closing, all available Cash and Cash Equivalents of FTAC and its Subsidiaries, including (i) all amounts in the Trust Account (after reduction for the aggregate amount of payments required to be made in connection with FTAC Stockholder Redemption), (ii) the PIPE Investment Proceeds, and (iii) the aggregate amount of cash proceeds from the FTAC Financing.

“Blackstone” means The Blackstone Group Inc.

“Blackstone Investors” means certain funds affiliated with Blackstone.

“Brexit” means the United Kingdom (“UK”) leaving the EU.

“Business Combination” means the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement.

“Business Combination Proposal” means the proposal to adopt the Merger Agreement and approve the transactions contemplated thereby.

“CAGR” means compounded annual growth rate.

“Cannae” means Cannae Holdings and Cannae LLC.

“Cannae Holdings” means Cannae Holdings, Inc.

“Cannae LLC” means Cannae Holdings LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cannae Holdings.

“Cash and Cash Equivalents” means, for any Person, all cash and cash equivalents (including marketable securities, checks and bank deposits); provided, however that with respect to PGHL and its Subsidiaries, such amount shall (x) exclude segregated account funds and liquid assets as more fully described on Exhibit F-1 attached to the Merger Agreement and (y) include any costs, fees and expenses associated with refinancing or repricing the existing indebtedness of the Company (in accordance with the Merger Agreement) that have not been paid on or prior to the Closing Date.

“CBI” means the Central Bank of Ireland.

“Closing” means the closing of the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement and the PIPE Investment agreements.

 

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“Closing Date” means the date on which the Closing is completed.

“Code” means the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

“Committee” means the compensation committee of the Company’s Board, or such other committee of the Company’s Board to which it has properly delegated power, or if no such committee or subcommittee exists, the Company’s Board which the Omnibus Incentive Plan will be administered by.

“Company Board” means the board of directors of the Company from time to time.

“Company Bye-laws” means the bye-laws of the Company to be amended and restated substantially in the form of Exhibit B attached to the Merger Agreement prior to the Effective Time.

“Company Common Share(s)” means the common shares, par value $0.001 per share, of Paysafe Limited and any successors thereto or other classes of common share of the Company created in any Pre-Closing Recapitalization.

“Company LLC Contribution” means the transfer and contribution of FTAC and the Accounting Predecessor by the Company to the LLC in exchange for LLC Interests immediately following the I/C Loan.

“Company Net Debt Amount” means, as of immediately prior to the Closing, an amount equal to (i) the aggregate indebtedness for borrowed money of PGHL and its Subsidiaries and indebtedness issued by PGHL and its Subsidiaries in substitution or exchange for borrowed money, excluding any items set forth on Exhibit F-1 attached to the Merger Agreement minus (ii) Cash and Cash Equivalents of PGHL and its Subsidiaries minus (iii) any costs, fees and expenses associated with refinancing or repricing the existing indebtedness of the Company (in accordance with the Merger Agreement) that have been paid on or prior to the Closing Date. An illustrative example of the Company Net Debt Amount is set forth on Exhibit F-2 attached to the Merger Agreement.

“Company Warrants” means warrants that will entitle the holder thereof to purchase for $11.50 per share one Company Common Share in lieu of one share of FTAC Class A Common Stock (subject to adjustment in accordance with the Warrant Agreement).

“COVID-19” means SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, and any evolutions thereof or any other epidemics, pandemics or disease outbreaks.

“CVC” means CVC Advisers Limited.

“CVC Investors” means Pi Holdings Jersey Limited and Pi Syndication LP.

“CVC Party” means Pi Holdings Jersey Limited.

“DGCL” means the Delaware General Corporation Law.

“Effective Time” has the meaning specified in Section 2.04 of the Merger Agreement.

“ERISA” means Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

“EU” means European Union.

“EUR” means Euro, the legal currency of the European Union.

“Executive Management” means members of the executive management of Paysafe.

“Existing Paysafe Shareholders” means CVC Investors, Blackstone Investors and Executive Management.

 

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“FCA” means the UK Financial Conduct Authority and any successor authority thereto.

“Form F-4” means the Registration Statement on Form F-4 of Paysafe Limited filed on December 21, 2020 (file no. 333-251552), as amended on Form F-4/A on February 1, 2021 and on February 25, 2021.

“Forward Purchase Agreement” means the forward purchase agreement, dated as of July 31, 2020, between FTAC and Cannae Holdings, Inc.

“Founder” means Trasimene Capital FT, LP II.

“Founder LLC Contribution” means the contribution by Founder of FTAC Class C Common Stock to the LLC in exchange for exchangeable units.

“FTAC” means Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II.

“FTAC Class A Common Stock” means the Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of FTAC.

“FTAC Class B Common Stock” means the Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of FTAC.

“FTAC Common Stock” means FTAC Class A Common Stock and FTAC Class B Common Stock.

“FTAC Contribution” means, immediately following the Company LLC Contribution, the transfer by the LLC to the Accounting Predecessor, or a Subsidiary of the Accounting Predecessor, of all of the stock of FTAC, consummated prior to the consummation to the Additional I/C Loans.

“FTAC Financing” means the equity financing to be provided pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreement.

“FTAC Stockholders” means the holders of shares of FTAC Common Stock.

“GAAP” means generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.

“GDPR” means the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, as amended.

“Group” means, where appropriate, Paysafe and its subsidiaries.

“HMRC” means HM Revenue & Customs.

“I/C Loans” means the loans made by FTAC to the Company and the Accounting Predecessor out of the Available Cash Amount, made prior to the consummation of the Company LLC Contribution, FTAC Contribution and the Additional I/C Loans.

“Lien” means any mortgage, deed of trust, pledge, hypothecation, encumbrance, easement, license, option, right of first refusal, security interest or other lien of any kind.

“LLC” means, Paysafe Bermuda Holding LLC, a Bermuda exempted limited liability company.

“LLC Contribution” means, collectively, the Founder LLC Contribution and the Company LLC Contribution.

“LLC Interests” means the limited liability company interests in the LLC.

“Merger” means, immediately following the Founder LLC Contribution, on the terms and subject to the conditions of the Merger Agreement and in accordance with the DGCL and other applicable Laws, a business combination transaction by and among the Parties by which Merger Sub will merge with and into FTAC, with FTAC being the surviving corporation of the Merger, consummated prior to the consummation of the I/C Loans, the Company LLC Contribution, the FTAC Contribution and the Additional I/C Loans.

 

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“Merger Agreement” means the agreement and plan of merger made and entered into as of December 7, 2020, by and among FTAC, the Company, Merger Sub, the LLC, the Accounting Predecessor and PGHL.

“Merger Sub” means Paysafe Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and direct, wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

“NYSE” means the New York Stock Exchange.

“OECD” means the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“Omnibus Incentive Plan” means the Paysafe Limited 2021 Omnibus Incentive Plan attached as Exhibit H to the Merger Agreement.

“Paysafe Consolidated Financial Statements” means the consolidated statements of financial position of Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the related consolidated statements of comprehensive loss, shareholder’s equity, and cash flows, for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.

“Paysafe Limited” means Paysafe Limited, an exempted limited company incorporated under the laws of Bermuda.

“Paysafe Parties” means PGHL, the Accounting Predecessor, Merger Sub and the LLC.

“PCAOB” means the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

“PGHL” means Paysafe Group Holdings Limited, a private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales.

“Pi Topco” means Pi Jersey Topco Limited, a company incorporated in Jersey.

“PIPE Investment” means the commitments obtained by FTAC from certain investors for a private placement of Company Common Shares pursuant to those certain Subscription Agreements.

“PIPE Investment Proceeds” mean the aggregate amount funded and paid to the Company by the PIPE Investors pursuant to their Subscription Agreements.

“PIPE Investor” means an investor party to a Subscription Agreement.

“POS” means point of sale.

“Pre-Closing Recapitalization” means the Company shall be permitted to adjust, split, combine, subdivide, recapitalize, reclassify or otherwise effect (including by merger) any change in respect of the then-outstanding Company Common Shares (including any such event that involves the creation of new classes of common shares of the Company, which may have varying voting rights on a per-share basis) as necessary or appropriate to facilitate the Transactions.

“Principal Shareholders” means, collectively, the Founder, Cannae LLC, the CVC Investors and the Blackstone Investors.

“Registration Rights Agreement” means the agreement entered into by the Company, Pi Topco, PGHL, Cannae LLC, the Founder, the CVC Party and the Blackstone Investors in connection with the consummation of the Merger, attached to the Merger Agreement as Exhibit D.

“Senior Facilities Agreement” means that certain Senior Facilities Agreement dated as of December 20, 2017, among Paysafe Group Holdings II Limited (formerly Pi UK Holdco II Limited), Paysafe Group Holdings III

 

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Limited (formerly Pi UK Holdco III Limited), the Persons from time to time party thereto as TLB Borrowers, RCF Borrowers, and as Guarantors (in each case, as defined therein), the financial institutions from time to time party thereto as lenders, Credit Suisse AG, London Branch, as agent and as security agent, and the other Persons from time to time party thereto, as the same has been and may be further amended, restated, amended and restated, supplemented, replaced, refinanced, or otherwise modified from time to time in accordance with the terms thereof.

“Shareholders Agreement” means the agreement entered into by the Company, Pi Topco, PGHL and the Principal Shareholders in connection with the consummation of the Merger, attached to the Merger Agreement as Exhibit D.

“SMB” means small and medium-sized businesses.

“Subscription Agreement” means each individual subscription agreement entered into by each PIPE Investor.

“Transactions” means the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, including the Merger, the Paysafe Contribution, the FTAC Contribution, the Founder LLC Contribution, the Company LLC Contribution and the Pre-Closing Recapitalization.

“Trasimene Capital” means Trasimene Capital Management, LLC, a financial advisory firm led by William P. Foley, II.

“Treasury Regulations” means the regulations, including proposed and temporary regulations, promulgated under the Code.

“U.S. dollar,” “USD,” “US$” and “$” mean the legal currency of the United States.

“VAT” means any: (a) tax imposed in compliance with the council directive of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (EC Directive 2006/112) (including, in relation to the UK, value added tax imposed by the Value Added Tax Act 1994 and legislation and regulations supplemental thereto); and (b) other tax of a similar nature (including, without limitation, sales tax, use tax, consumption tax and goods and services tax), whether imposed in a member state of the European Union in substitution for, or levied in addition to, such tax referred to in (a), or elsewhere.

“Warrant Agreement” means that certain Warrant Agreement, dated as of August 21, 2020, between FTAC and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, a New York corporation.

 

 

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PART I

 

ITEM 1.

IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

 

A.	Directors and Senior Management

Information regarding the directors and senior management of the Company following consummation of the Business Combination is set forth in “Item 6.A. Directors and Executive Officers” of this Report.

 

B.

Advisors

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, 900 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 and Wakefield Quin Limited, Victoria Place, 31 Victoria Street, Hamilton, HM10, Bermuda have acted as counsel for the Company and will act as counsel to the Company upon and following the consummation of the Business Combination.

 

C.

Auditors

Deloitte LLP acted as the independent auditor for Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited and subsidiaries for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020.

 

ITEM 2.

OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 3.

KEY INFORMATION

 

B.	Capitalization and Indebtedness

Information pertaining to the indebtedness of Paysafe is set forth in the Form F-4, in the section entitled “Description of Certain Indebtedness,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

 

C.	Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

 

D.	Risk Factors

Summary

An investment in our shares involves substantial risks and uncertainties that may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows. Some of the more significant challenges and risks relating to an investment in our company include, among other things, the following:

 

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Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in loss of customer and merchant funds and personal data, including financial data, as well as serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.

 

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We must comply with money laundering regulations in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and any failure to do so could result in severe financial and legal penalties.

 

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Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, including in such a way as to criminalize certain of our activities.

 

•

Our success depends on our relationships with banks, payment card networks, issuers and financial institutions.

 

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We generate a significant portion of our revenue by processing online payments for merchants and customers engaged in the online gambling and foreign exchange trading sectors.

 

•

Our focus on specialized and high-risk verticals can increase our risks relative to other companies in our industry.

 

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We may become an unwitting party to fraud or be deemed to be handling proceeds of crimes being committed by customers.

 

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We are vulnerable to the effects of chargebacks, merchant insolvency and consumer deposit settlement risk.

 

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Our Integrated Processing Solutions business’s revenues from the sale of services to merchants that accept Visa cards and Mastercard cards are dependent on our continued financial institution sponsorship.

 

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We may fail to hold, safeguard or account accurately for merchant or customer funds.

 

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Our business and products are dependent on the availability, integrity and security of internal and external IT transaction processing systems and services.

 

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We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional operational risk.

 

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We are required to comply with payment card network operating rules.

 

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We are subject to financial services regulatory risks.

 

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We are subject to current and proposed regulations addressing both consumer and business privacy and data use, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

•

We face substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry, including from businesses that are larger than we are, have a more dominant and secure position or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer. These competitors may act on business opportunities within our specialized industry verticals, which may reduce our ability to maintain or increase our market share.

 

•

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty and measures taken in response to the pandemic, could materially impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.

 

•

If we are unable to develop and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

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If we fail to manage our growth effectively, our business could be harmed.

 

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Our business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and any failure to maintain, protect and enhance our brand could materially harm our business.

 

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If we cannot keep pace with rapid technological developments to provide new and innovative products and services, the use of our products and services and, consequently, our revenues could decline.

 

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Our Principal Shareholders exercise significant influence over us and their interests may conflict with ours or yours in the future.

 

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Risks Related to COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty and measures taken in response to the pandemic, could materially impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economy and put unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, businesses and individuals around the world. The impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to assess or predict. It is even more difficult to predict the impact on the global economic market, which will depend upon the actions taken by governments, businesses and other enterprises in response to the pandemic. The pandemic has already caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruption of global financial markets and economic uncertainty. The pandemic has resulted in authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter in place or total lock-down orders, and business limitations and shutdowns. Such measures have significantly contributed to rising unemployment and negatively impacted consumer and business spending. On March 17, 2020, as a precautionary measure in order to increase our cash position and preserve financial flexibility in light of uncertainty in the global markets resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we drew-down $216,000,000 under our revolving credit facility at an interest rate equal to 2.75% + USD LIBOR. We subsequently repaid all outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility during the period between August 17, 2020 and October 13, 2020. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts the Company’s financial results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information that may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions taken by governments to curtail or treat its impact, including shelter in place directives, business limitations and shutdowns, travel bans and restrictions, loan payment deferrals (whether government-mandated or voluntary), moratoriums on debt collection activities and other actions, which, if imposed or extended, may impact the economies in which the Company now or in the future operates in. Adverse market conditions resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially adversely affect our business and the value of our shares.

Our merchants, particularly in industries most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the retail, restaurant, hotel, hospitality, consumer discretionary and travel industries and companies whose customers operate in impacted industries, may reduce or delay their technology-driven transformation initiatives, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Further, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, slowed growth or decline in new demand for our products and services and lower demand from our existing merchants for expansion within our products and services, as well as existing and potential merchants reducing or delaying purchasing decisions. For example, while our Digital Wallet business is showing recovery as sporting events resume, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues and authorities implement measures to contain the pandemic that have the effect of decreasing or halting altogether sporting events, our Digital Wallet could be materially adversely affected. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, an increase in prospective merchants seeking lower prices or other more favorable contract terms and current merchants attempting to obtain concessions on the terms of existing contracts, including requests for early termination or waiver or delay of payment obligations, all of which has adversely affected and could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial condition in future periods. Further, we may face increased competition due to changes to our competitors’ products or services, including modifications to their terms, conditions and pricing that could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial condition in future periods.

The COVID-19 pandemic could cause our third-party service providers such as data center hosting facilities and cloud computing platform providers, which are critical to our infrastructure, to shut down their business, experience security incidents that impact our business, delay or disrupt performance or delivery of services or experience interference with the supply chain of hardware required by their systems and services, any of which could materially adversely affect our business. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in our employees and those of many of our customers working from home and conducting work via the internet, and if the network and infrastructure of internet providers becomes overburdened by increased usage or is otherwise unreliable or unavailable, our employees’ and our customers’ employees’ access to the internet to conduct business could be negatively impacted. Limitations on access or disruptions to services or goods provided by or to some of our suppliers upon which our platform and business operations rely could interrupt our ability to provide our platform, decrease the productivity of our workforce and significantly harm our business operations, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our technology platforms and the other systems or networks used in our business may experience an increase in attempted cyber-attacks, targeted intrusions, ransomware and phishing campaigns

 

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seeking to take advantage of shifts to employees working remotely using their household or personal internet networks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of any of these unauthorized attempts could substantially impact our technology platforms, the proprietary and other confidential data contained therein or otherwise stored or processed in our operations, and ultimately our business. Any actual or perceived security incident also may cause us to incur increased expenses to improve our security controls and to remediate security vulnerabilities. Additionally, we may experience an increased volume of unanticipated customer requests for support (resulting in increased volume to our customer support and operations centers) and regulatory requests for information and support or additional regulatory requirements, which could require additional resources and costs to address.

While the current macroeconomic environment as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak has adversely impacted general consumer and merchant spending with a more pronounced impact on travel and events verticals, the spread of COVID-19 has also accelerated the shift from in-store shopping and traditional in-store payment methods (e.g., credit cards, debit cards, cash) towards e-commerce and digital payments and resulted in increased customer demand for safer payment and delivery solutions (e.g. contactless payment methods, buy online and pick up in store) and a significant increase in online spending in certain verticals that have historically had a strong in-store presence. Our eCash Solutions segment has benefited from these behavioral shifts, including a significant increase in net new active accounts and payments volume. To the extent that consumer preferences revert to pre-COVID-19 behaviors as mitigation measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 are lifted or relaxed, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused us to modify our business practices to help minimize the risk of the pandemic to our employees, our partners, our merchants and their customers, and the communities in which we participate, which could negatively impact our business. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have enabled our employees to work remotely, implemented travel restrictions for all non-essential business and shifted company events to virtual-only experiences, and we may deem it advisable to similarly alter, postpone or cancel additional events in the future. There is no certainty that the measures we have taken will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the pandemic. If the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, especially in regions where we have offices, our business activities originating from affected areas could be adversely affected. Disruptive activities could include additional business closures in impacted areas, further restrictions on our employees’ and service providers’ ability to travel, impacts to productivity if our employees or their family members experience health issues and potential delays in hiring and onboarding of new employees. We may take further actions that alter our business operations as may be required by local, provincial, state or federal authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees. Such measures could negatively affect our sales and marketing efforts, sales cycles, employee productivity or customer retention, any of which could harm our financial condition and business operations.

Additionally, diversion of management focus to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially disrupt our operating plans. The extent and continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business will depend on certain developments, including: the duration and spread of the outbreak; government responses to the pandemic; the impact on our customers and our sales cycles; the impact on customer, industry or employee events; and the effect on our partners, merchants and their customers, third-party service providers, customers and supply chains, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. Because of our largely subscription-based business model, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and overall financial condition until future periods, if at all.

To the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.

Risks Related to Paysafe’s Business and Industry

Our focus on specialized and high-risk verticals can increase our risks relative to other companies in our industry.

We focus on specialized and high-risk verticals, including iGaming (which encompasses a broad selection of online betting related to sports, esports, fantasy sports, poker and other casino games) and Emerging Markets (which includes stock, FX and crypto trading, direct marketing, which can include nutraceuticals and multi-level marketing, travel and entertainment, integrated payments and digital goods. These revenue streams represented approximately $1.1 billion, or 74%, of our revenue for the year ended

 

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December 31, 2020. Although this focus distinguishes us from industry peers, it also increases risks inherent in our business and broader industry. For example:

 

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the industry verticals we serve are extensively regulated, and their regulation is evolving and subject to frequent change and uncertain interpretation. As a result of regulatory action, we have had to exit a market altogether, limit services we provide, or otherwise modify our business in ways that have adversely impacted profitability. We are also exposed to a higher risk of losses resulting from related investigations, regulatory actions and litigation. See “—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We generate a significant portion of our revenue by processing online payments for merchants and customers engaged in the online gambling and foreign exchange trading sectors”;

 

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serving these high-risk industry verticals routinely creates greater operational complexity, including for our compliance, legal and risk functions;

 

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with respect to certain industry verticals (such as iGaming), the laws related to, or the legal status of, such verticals vary significantly among the countries in which we operate and, in the U.S., from state to state, further adding operational complexity particularly in compliance and risk mitigation;

 

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we may have difficulty obtaining or maintaining relationships with merchants and third-party service providers for our business, such as banks and payment card networks, including as a result of their assessment and appetite for the compliance, cost, government regulation, risk of consumer fraud or public pressure that can be associated with some of the specialized industry verticals that we operate in. For example, merchants may compel us to change our operations or add bespoke or enhanced internal controls in order to do business with them; and

 

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from time to time, the industry verticals we serve (and we by association) are the subject of negative publicity, which can harm our brand and deter consumers and merchants from adopting our products and services and influence our third-party service providers’ assessment of our business.

The enhanced risks resulting from our specialized focus can materialize suddenly and without warning, which may result in increased volatility in our results of operations compared with other companies in our industry that do not provide services to companies in high-risk industry verticals, and could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in loss of customer and merchant funds and personal data, including financial data, as well as serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.

Our information technology (“IT”) security systems, software and networks and those of the customers and third parties with whom we interact may be vulnerable to unauthorized access (from within or by third parties), computer viruses or other malicious code, or other cybersecurity threats, which could result in the unauthorized access, loss, theft, changes to, unavailability, destruction or disclosure of confidential, proprietary, or personal information relating to merchants, customers and employees. Such access, loss, theft, changes to, unavailability, destruction or disclosure of confidential, proprietary, or personal information could result in identity theft, third party access to unique pin codes, the loss of card payment details that are stored on our system, and/or the loss of funds stored in customers’ wallets and prepaid cards or have other material impacts on our business. We, like other financial technology organizations, are routinely subject to cybersecurity threats and our technologies, IT systems and networks have been victims of cyberattacks in the past. Information security risks for payment and technology companies such as ours have significantly increased in recent years and in particular with the changes in ways of working driven by the pandemic, in part because of the proliferation of new technologies, the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies to conduct financial transactions, and the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime, hackers, terrorists and other external parties. Geopolitical events and resulting government activity could also lead to information security threats and attacks by affected jurisdictions and their sympathizers. Additionally, our ongoing migration of certain of our services to cloud computing platform providers, may introduce further, different security risks and potential attack paths to our businesses.

We are responsible for data security for ourselves and for third parties with whom we partner, including with respect to complying with rules and regulations established by the payment networks and card networks. These third

 

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parties include merchants, our distribution partners, our third-party payment processors and other third-party service providers and agents. We and other third parties collect, process, store and/or transmit personal information, such as names, contact details, addresses, social security numbers, credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers and bank routing information as well as certain information gathered during our Know Your Customer (“KYC”) procedures. We have ultimate liability to the payment networks and our partner banks for our failure or the failure of third parties with whom we contract to protect this data in accordance with payment network requirements. The loss, destruction or unauthorized modification of merchant or consumer data by us or our contracted third parties could result in significant fines, sanctions, proceedings or actions against us by governmental bodies, the payment networks, consumers, merchants or others, and could harm our business and reputation.

Certain of our products particular to our eCash Solutions business are identified by unique pin codes assigned to them at the point of sale when a customer uses the voucher on a merchant website. These active voucher pins are stored in our systems. Due to the anonymous nature of these pins, a theft and subsequent fraudulent utilization of pins from a server (either due to third-party hacking or due to internal fraud by an employee) could result in the original voucher holder’s inability to use his or her vouchers. While customer verification and fraud management procedures are in place to mitigate this risk, we would honor the payment by the original voucher holder from our own funds and therefore incur a loss. Our Digital Wallet business, on the other hand, could suffer from a loss of funds if a third-party hacker or an employee is successful in taking over one of our customer’s accounts as well as suffer the costs of any subsequent reimbursement to customers. Additionally, loss of payment card information would also lead us to incur card re-issuing costs, which depending on the size of the data breach could be significant. Significant losses incurred as a result of such activity would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and, depending on the nature of such fraudulent attacks, we may be required to notify relevant regulators and other authorities such as law enforcement. Any adverse publicity as a result of such theft and fraudulent utilization could adversely affect our reputation and the demand for our products.

Despite various mitigation efforts that we undertake, there can be no assurance that we will be immune to these risks and not suffer material security incidents and resulting losses in the future, or that our insurance coverage would be sufficient to cover all related financial losses. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized, improper, or illegal access to our systems, our data (including our confidential business information and intellectual property rights) or our customers’ data, to disable or degrade our services, demand ransom or to sabotage our systems are constantly evolving and have become increasingly complex and sophisticated. These techniques may be difficult to detect quickly, and often are not recognized or detected until after they have been launched against a target. Threats to our IT systems and our associated third parties’ IT systems may result from human error, fraud or malice on the part of employees or third parties, including state-sponsored organizations with significant financial and technological resources, organized crime groups or from accidental technological failure. For example, certain of our employees require access to sensitive data that could be used to commit identity theft or fraud. While we have internal controls in place surrounding system access and segregation of duties, if unauthorized individuals gain access to this data, the risk of malfeasance is heightened. Concerns about security increase when we transmit information electronically, even though we encrypt certain communications and data to reduce this risk, because such transmissions can be subject to attack, interception or loss. Also, computer viruses can be distributed and spread rapidly over the internet and could infiltrate our systems or those of our contracted third parties. Denial of service, ransomware, 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. These or similar types of actions and attacks could disrupt our delivery of services or make them unavailable. As cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, we may be required to expend significant additional resources to continue to modify or enhance our protective measures or to investigate and remediate any information security vulnerabilities. Any of the risks described above could materially adversely affect our overall business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have experienced and will likely continue to regularly experience denial-of-service and other cyberattacks and security events. In such circumstances, our data encryption practices and other protective measures have not always prevented and in the future may not prevent, as applicable, unauthorized access service disruption or system sabotage. For example, in November 2020, we discovered that we were the target of a cybersecurity attack that involved an outside actor attempting to exploit a potential vulnerability of a website used by part of our U.S. business. As a result of our investigation, we identified evidence of suspicious activity on the website that potentially impacted approximately 100,000 merchants and agents. Following the discovery of the cybersecurity

 

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incident, we began undertaking remediation efforts, took steps to prevent further unauthorized access and closed the website. We reported the data breach to the appropriate authorities. In addition, we provided the relevant individuals, at no cost to them, with two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services, and established a call center to respond to inquiries regarding the data breach.

Regardless of whether an actual or perceived breach is attributable to our products, such a breach could, among other things:

 

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interrupt our operations,

 

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result in our systems or services being unavailable,

 

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result in improper disclosure of data,

 

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result in a demand for a ransom payment,

 

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materially harm our reputation and brands,

 

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result in significant regulatory scrutiny and legal and financial exposure,

 

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cause us to incur significant remediation costs,

 

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lead to loss of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our products and services,

 

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divert the attention of management from the operation of our business,

 

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result in significant compensation or contractual penalties from us to our customers and their business partners as a result of losses to them or claims by them, and

 

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adversely affect our business and results of operations.

In addition, a significant cybersecurity breach of our systems or communications could result in payment networks prohibiting us from processing transactions on their networks or the loss of our sponsor banks that facilitate our participation in the payment networks, either of which could materially impede our ability to conduct our business. We may also be subject to liability for claims relating to misuse of personal information, such as unauthorized marketing, or violation of data privacy laws. In addition, our agreements with our sponsor banks 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 failure to adequately comply with these protective measures could result in fees, penalties, litigation or termination of our sponsor bank agreements. Although we generally require that our agreements with distribution partners or our service providers who may have access to merchant or consumer data include confidentiality obligations that restrict these parties from using or disclosing any merchant or consumer data except as necessary to perform their services under the applicable agreements, we cannot guarantee that these contractual measures will be followed or will be adequate to prevent the unauthorized access, use, modification, destruction or disclosure of data or allow us to seek damages from the contracted party. In addition, many of our merchants are small and medium businesses that may have fewer resources dedicated to data security and may thus experience data breaches. Any unauthorized use, modification, destruction or disclosure of data could result in protracted and costly litigation, and cause us to incur significant losses.

We are vulnerable to the effects of chargebacks, merchant insolvency and consumer deposit settlement risk.

We are exposed to the effect of chargebacks and merchant insolvency in our Integrated Processing Solutions business. In that business, we are liable to various acquiring banks for chargebacks incurred by our merchants where the merchants are unable to meet liabilities arising as a result of those chargebacks. If the average chargeback rate on any of our merchant portfolios at any acquiring bank exceeds the maximum average chargeback rate permitted by the card agreements, we will be required to take steps to reduce the average chargeback rate so that it falls below the maximum permitted rate or risk losing our relationship with that acquiring bank. Those steps might include processing more transactions for merchants who have lower chargeback rates to produce a lower average chargeback rate for the portfolio as a whole or terminating relationships with merchants who have higher chargeback rates, which could in turn lead to a material loss of revenue for us. Chargebacks may arise as individual claims or as multiple claims relating to the same facts or circumstances. For example, the insolvency or cessation of

 

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a merchant doing business could cause numerous individual customers to bring claims at once which, either singly or in aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects. Similarly, chargebacks or fraud related to our customers or merchants in our Digital Wallet business could cause the payment card schemes of which we are a member in Europe to require us to implement additional and potentially costly controls, and ultimately disqualify us from processing transactions if satisfactory controls are not maintained. Further, if any of the services we offer are deemed to have caused or contributed to illegal activity, customers, consumer protection agencies and regulatory firms could band together to initiate chargeback card payments or ACH reversals for transactions associated with the activity in question.

In our Digital Wallet business, we offer our merchants a “no chargeback policy.” A chargeback is the return of funds to a customer and in this context relates to a reversal of unauthorized charges to a customer’s credit card, for example, as a result of fraud or identity theft. Under our “no chargeback policy,” we agree to allow merchants who qualify under our vetting policy to retain all monies received from our NETELLER and Skrill digital wallet holders and undertake not to request reimbursement from such merchants in respect of chargebacks incurred. In such cases, the full amount of the disputed transaction is charged back to us and our credit card processor may levy additional fees against us unless we can successfully challenge the chargeback. We believe that our “no chargeback policy” is a key factor in a merchant’s decision to use our Digital Wallet services.

Our eCash Solutions business utilizes distribution partners and as such is exposed to credit risk in the event a distribution partner fails. This is managed through ongoing credit risk assessment with active exposure management including the use of credit limits, guarantees and insurance to limit overall exposure.

Our businesses are also subject to merchant credit risk in respect of non-payment for products provided and services rendered or non-reimbursement of costs incurred. The contracts we enter into may require significant expenditure prior to merchant payments and may expose us to potential credit risk or may require us to use our available bank facilities in order to meet payment obligations.

Additionally, we are exposed to risk associated with the settlement of consumer deposits. Digital Wallet deposits from financial institutions, such as bank accounts, are credited to customer accounts before settlement of funds is received. Thus, there is a risk that the funds may not be settled or may be recalled due to insufficient funds or fraud reasons, exposing us to the risk of negative customer wallet balances and bad debt. Further, Digital Wallet prepaid card deposits or transactions made by consumers may be charged back by consumers resulting in a negative balance and loss on our accounts. If we are unable to effectively manage and monitor these risks, they could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our success depends on our relationships with banks, payment card networks, issuers and financial institutions.

The nature of our business requires us to enter into numerous commercial and contractual relationships with banks, card networks, issuers and financial institutions. We depend on these relationships to operate on a day-to-day basis. If we are unsuccessful in establishing, renegotiating or maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with these parties, our business may be harmed. In addition, these relationships are subject to a number of risks, including the following:

 

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loss of banking relationships: we rely on the use of numerous bank accounts in the jurisdictions in which we operate for the efficient delivery of our services. A loss of any important banking relationship could have a material effect on our business and financial performance. For example, in the past, we have experienced the loss of three important banking relationships for our Digital Wallet business, which resulted in a higher concentration risk with our remaining banking partners;

 

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new banking relationships: as we are considered a high risk customer for our banks and payment partners, there is a long lead time associated with establishing new or replacing banking and non-bank payment partner relationships due to the extensive level of compliance due diligence required by the banks and providers. See “—Risks Related to Paysafe’s Business and Industry—Our focus on specialized industry verticals can increase our risks relative to other companies in our industry;

 

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loss of a banking product: many of our products rely on banks providing payments capability to us. We may lose that service although still maintain the banking relationship as the bank would, for example, continue to provide us with foreign exchange services. Such a loss of services from a bank (or banks) could have a material effect on our business and financial performance including on the geographies, customers and associated payment volumes which we are able to serve;

 

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loss of an alternative payment method: many of our products rely on processing relationships and connections to alternative or local payment methods, either direct or indirect via aggregators. Such a loss of payment methods or providers could have a material effect on our business and financial performance, including on the geographies, customers and associated payment volumes which we are able to serve;

 

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downstream correspondent banking risk: if the correspondent banks of our banks (or the underlying banks of our non-bank payment providers) change their risk appetite, this could lead to restrictions with or rejections of our products’ payment flows which could have a material effect on our business and financial performance, including on the geographies, customers and associated payment volumes which we are able to serve;

 

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failure of banks and financial institutions: across our businesses, we hold our own, merchants’ and customers’ funds on deposit at various banks and financial institutions. In our Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions businesses, we receive funds from our merchants and customers into a number of bank accounts operated by various banks in the countries in which we operate. We then transfer funds, from the various banks in the countries in which we operate, to multiple banks such that amounts equivalent to all merchant and customer funds are held in segregated accounts in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. While we have controls in place intended to monitor and mitigate this risk, there can be no guarantee that the banks in which funds are held will not suffer any kind of financial difficulty or commence any insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings, or any moratorium, composition, arrangement or enforcement action or any other kind of analogous event in any jurisdiction that may result in the permanent loss of some or all of our own funds or the funds of merchants or customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance;

 

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Visa and Mastercard operating rules: we are subject to the operating rules and regulations of Visa and Mastercard and changes to those operating rules and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business. If a merchant or an independent sales organization (“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. Policy changes by Visa and/or Mastercard could impact the merchant category code assignments to our business which can in turn impact our acceptance and authorization rates as well as our banking provider risk appetite assessment and costs. Policy changes can also impact our ability to acquire card transactions on a cross-border basis in particular markets, for example depending on the merchant country of registration;

 

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fines and assessments: the payment card schemes and their processing service providers may pass on fines and assessments in respect of fraud or chargebacks related to our merchants or disqualify us from processing transactions if satisfactory controls are not maintained;

 

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risk management policies: banks and financial institutions that provide us with services enabling us to operate our payments platform could reassess our risk profile due to the portfolio of products and services we offer and/or regard us as being non-compliant with certain laws or regulations (e.g., in relation to the regulation of e-money, cross border transactions or the provision of services to online gambling operators) that are applicable in their relevant jurisdictions or may regard our customers as being non-compliant. Banks and financial institutions may choose to withdraw from certain markets as a result of their internal risk management policies and may, in compliance with their regulatory obligations or internal risk and compliance policies, freeze the funds of our merchants and customers. In addition, consolidation in the banking sector may result in one of our banking providers being acquired by another bank, which may then prompt a change in our provider’s risk appetite and impacts our relationship with that provider;

 

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potential competitors: banks, payment card schemes, issuers and financial institutions may view us as being a competitor to their own business and may cease doing business with us as a result; and

 

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fee increases: we are required to pay interchange and assessment fees, processing fees and bank settlement fees to third-party payment processors and financial institutions. From time to time, payment card networks have increased, and may increase in the future, the interchange fees and assessments that they charge for each transaction processed using their networks. Banks occasionally raise our fees in order to compensate for the increased risk, controls and anti-money laundering monitoring costs the bank may incur due to increased regulatory requirements or scrutiny. Additionally, if one of our banking providers cease to supply us services, that could lead to an increase in costs to continue to offer those services via alternative means, particularly where the service is provided in multiple currencies due to the incursion of additional foreign transaction fees.

If, for any reason, any banks, payment card schemes, issuers or financial institutions cease to supply us with the services we require to conduct our business, or the terms on which such services are provided were to become less favorable or be cancelled, or a contractual claim made against us, it could impact our ability to provide our payment services, or the basis on which we are able to provide such services. This, and any of the factors set forth above, could result in a loss for us, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional operational risk.

We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, including the following:

 

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payment processing services from various service providers in order to allow us to process payments for merchants and customers and to properly code such transactions;

 

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payment networks;

 

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connectivity, routing and payment orchestration providers;

 

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banks;

 

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payment processors;

 

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payment gateways that link us to the payment card and bank clearing networks to process transactions;

 

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third parties that provide certain outsourced customer support functions, which are critical to our operations; and

 

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third parties that provide IT-related services including data center facilities and cloud computing and compliance and risk functions.

This reliance exposes us to increased operational risk. These third parties may be subject to financial, legal, regulatory and labor issues, cybersecurity incidents, privacy breaches, service terminations, disruptions or interruptions, or other problems, which may impose additional costs or requirements on us or prevent these third parties from providing services to us or our customers on our behalf, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

The European Banking Authority (“EBA”) published guidance on outsourcing arrangements that became effective on September 30, 2019 and is applicable to certain aspects of our businesses. These guidelines set out strict standards to follow when outsourcing critical or important functions that have a strong impact on a financial institution’s risk profile or on its internal control framework. Although we have implemented processes to ensure compliance with the required standards, a failure to meet these requirements could lead to regulatory challenge and require remediation and/or fines or penalties if we are found to be in noncompliance with the relevant regulation. Furthermore, any changes to our existing critical or important outsourced functions may be subject to regulatory approval, which, if not satisfied or obtained, may prevent us from initiating the change.

In addition, these third parties may breach their agreements with us, disagree with our interpretation of contract terms or applicable laws and regulations, refuse to continue or renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms or at all, fail or refuse to process transactions or provide other services adequately, take actions that

 

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degrade the functionality of our services, impose additional costs or requirements on us or our customers, or give preferential treatment to competitive services. Some of these third party service providers are, or may become, owned by our competitors. There can be no assurance that third parties who provide services directly to us or our customers on our behalf will continue to do so on acceptable terms, or at all. If any third parties do not adequately or appropriately provide their services or perform their responsibilities to us or our customers on our behalf, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other third parties in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms, or at all, and we may be subject to business disruptions, losses or costs to remediate any of the deficiencies, customer dissatisfaction, reputational damage, legal or regulatory proceedings, or other adverse consequences, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our Integrated Processing Solutions business’s revenues from the sale of services to merchants that accept Visa cards and Mastercard cards are dependent on our continued financial institution sponsorship.

Because we are not a bank, our North American Component of our Integrated Processing Solutions business is not eligible for membership in the card payment networks, and we are, therefore, unable to directly access these card payment networks, which are required to process transactions. These networks’ operating regulations require us to be sponsored by a member bank in order to process electronic payment transactions. Our various payment processing businesses are registered with the card networks through seven separate sponsor banks (who settle the transactions with our merchants).

Our sponsor banks may terminate their agreements with us if we materially breach the agreements and do not cure the breach within an established cure period, if we enter bankruptcy or file for bankruptcy, or if applicable laws or regulations, including Visa and/or Mastercard regulations, change to prevent either the applicable bank or us from performing services under the agreement. If these sponsorships are terminated and we are unable to secure a replacement sponsor bank within the applicable wind down period, we will not be able to process electronic payment transactions.

Furthermore, our agreements with our sponsor banks provide the sponsor banks with substantial discretion in approving certain elements of our business practices, including our solicitation, application and underwriting procedures for merchants. We cannot guarantee that our sponsor banks’ actions under these agreements will not be detrimental to us, nor can we provide assurance that any of our sponsor banks will not terminate their sponsorship of us in the future. Our sponsor banks have broad discretion to impose new business or operational requirements on us for purposes of compliance with payment network rules, which may materially adversely affect our business. If our sponsorship agreements are terminated and we are unable to secure another sponsor bank, we will not be able to offer Visa, Mastercard or other card scheme transactions or settle transactions which would likely cause us to terminate our operations.

Our sponsor banks also provide or supplement authorization, funding and settlement services in connection with our bankcard processing services. If our sponsorships agreements are terminated and we are unable to secure another sponsor bank, we will not be able to process Visa, Mastercard or other card scheme transactions, which would have a material adverse effect on results of operations, financial conditions and future prospects. A change in underwriting, credit policies, credit risk or reputational risk appetite of our sponsor banks may impact appetite for volume and/or merchant categories. Further, there is a long lead time to secure new sponsor banks, as described above under “—Our success depends on our relationships with banks, payment card networks, issuers and financial institutions—new banking relationships.”

In Bermuda and in many countries in which we operate, we are legally or contractually required to comply with the anti-money laundering laws and regulations, such as, in the United States, the Bank Secrecy Act, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act (collectively, the “BSA”), and similar laws of other countries, which, among other things, require that customer identifying information be obtained and verified. As described in “—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We must comply with money laundering regulations in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and any failure to do so could result in severe financial and legal penalties,” we are directly subject to certain of these requirements, including, in the United States, BSA requirements applicable to Skrill USA Inc. (“Skrill USA”). In other instances, we also have contractually agreed to assist our sponsor banks with their obligation to comply with any-money laundering requirements that apply to them, including, in the United States, BSA requirements applicable to such sponsor banks. In addition, we and our

 

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sponsor banks are subject to laws and regulations that prohibit persons in certain jurisdictions from engaging in transactions with certain prohibited persons or entities, such as those enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the United States (“OFAC”). Similar requirements apply in other countries. It could be costly for us to comply with these legal and contractual requirements and our failure to comply with any of these contractual requirements or laws could adversely affect our results of operations, financial conditions and future prospects, and could result in termination of the contracts.

We have obtained “principal membership” with both Mastercard Europe and Visa Europe payment networks to offer merchant acquiring services to merchants in the European Union. This means that we are solely responsible for the adherence to the rules and standards of the payment networks and it enables us to route transactions under our own payment network license to authorize and clear transactions. Under our payment network licenses, we are allowed to perform funds settlement directly to merchants. A loss of membership or significant change to the commercial terms of our European Mastercard and Visa payment network membership or sponsor bank relationships would have an adverse effect on the results of these businesses’ operations.

We may fail to hold, safeguard or account accurately for merchant or customer funds.

Our success requires significant public confidence in our ability to properly manage our customers’ balances and handle large and growing transaction volumes and amounts of customer funds. Customer and merchant funds must either be held in secure, liquid low-risk assets that are held by a custodian or placed in a segregated account of an authorized credit institution or we may hold an insurance policy or bank guarantee to safeguard the funds. In 2019, following a review of our United Kingdom (“UK”) regulated business, our UK regulator required us to hold additional cash as a liquidity buffer in respect of our European Acquiring, Digital Wallet and eCash businesses, resulting in a consequent increase in liquidity held in our UK regulated entities. Following our work with the regulator, we now have a liquidity and capital adequacy assessment framework in place in respect of our UK regulated entities.

We employ internal controls and compliance procedures designed to hold, safeguard and account accurately for customer and merchant funds. Our ability to manage and account accurately for the assets underlying our customer funds and comply with applicable liquidity requirements requires a high level of internal controls. As our business continues to grow and we expand our product offerings, we must continue to strengthen our associated internal controls. Any failure to account accurately for customer and merchant funds or to fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could result in reputational harm, lead customers to discontinue or reduce their use of our products and result in significant penalties and fines, which could materially harm our business. For more information regarding our assessment of the consequences of breaches of our e-money issuer, payment initiation services provider or money transmitter licenses, see “—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risk—We are subject to financial services regulatory risks.”

Our business and products are dependent on the availability, integrity and security of internal and external IT transaction processing systems and services.

Our business requires the ongoing availability and uninterrupted operation of internal and external transaction processing systems and services. We rely on controls and systems designed to ensure data integrity of critical business information and proper operation of our systems and networks, and we review the processes of our third party providers of transaction processing and IT-related functions. Such third parties are, however, ultimately responsible for maintaining their own network security, disaster recovery and system management procedures. All operational systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from targeted denial of service attacks, viruses, unauthorized access (internally or by third parties), natural or man-made disasters and human or technological failures under a variety of scenarios. A system outage or data loss, whether connected to our IT transaction processing systems and services or those of our third party providers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions, we are subject to scrutiny by regulators, and laws and regulations may require specific business continuity and disaster recovery plans and rigorous testing of such plans. This scrutiny and the related requirements may be costly and time-consuming and may divert our resources from other business priorities, and frequent or persistent site interruptions could lead to fines and penalties, and mandatory and costly changes to our business practices, and ultimately could cause us to lose existing licenses that we need to operate or prevent or delay us from obtaining additional licenses that may be required for our business. Events that could cause system interruptions or impact the ability of staff or

 

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third parties to supply necessary skills or services include pandemics, fire, earthquake, flood, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, attacks from malicious third parties, employee malfeasance or negligence, computer viruses, unauthorized entry, telecommunications failure, power loss, data loss, cyberattacks, acts of war or any similar events.

We may modify, enhance, upgrade and implement new systems, procedures and controls to reflect changes in our business, technological advancements and changing industry trends. These upgrades can create risks associated with implementing new systems and integrating them with existing ones. As a result, our IT and information management systems may fail to operate properly (for example, by capturing customer data erroneously) or become disabled as a result of events that are beyond our control, such as increased transaction volume. We may also incur additional costs in relation to any new or upgraded systems, procedures and controls and additional management attention could be required in order to ensure an efficient integration, placing burdens on our internal resources.

Despite the network security, disaster recovery and systems management measures that we have in place, we cannot ensure that we would be able to carry on our business in the ordinary course if our systems or those of our third party service providers fail or are disrupted. Indeed, while much of our processing infrastructure is located in multiple redundant data centers or hosted on cloud platforms, we have some core business systems that are located in only one facility and do not have redundancy. Any such failure of IT and information management systems could adversely affect our reputation, our ability to effect transactions and service customers and merchants, disrupt our business or result in the misuse of customer data, financial loss or liability to our customers or regulators, the loss of suppliers, regulatory intervention or reputational damage.

Additionally, as our customers may use our products for critical transactions, any errors, defects or other infrastructure problems could result in damage to such customers’ businesses. These customers could seek compensation from us for their losses and our insurance policies may be insufficient to cover such claims. Even if unsuccessful, this type of claim may be time consuming and costly for us. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We may become an unwitting party to fraud or be deemed to be handling proceeds resulting from the criminal activity of our customers.

We are focused on providing trusted services to our customers and merchants and ensuring that data and confidential information is transmitted and stored securely. Combatting money laundering and fraud is a significant challenge in the online payment services industry because transactions are conducted between parties who are not physically present, which in turn creates opportunities for misrepresentation and abuse. Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities such as identity theft, fraud and paper instrument counterfeiting. Online payment companies are especially vulnerable because of the convenience, immediacy and in some cases anonymity of transferring funds from one account to another and subsequently withdrawing them. The highly automated nature of, and liquidity offered by, our payments services make us a target for illegal or improper uses, including fraudulent or illegal sales of goods or services, money laundering and terrorist financing. Allegations of fraud may result in fines, settlements, litigation expenses and reputational damage.

While we employ a variety of tools to protect against fraud, these tools may not be successful. We reserve the right to refuse to accept accounts or transactions from many high-risk countries, internet protocol addresses and e-mail domains and continually update these screening filters. Our transaction monitoring systems are designed to identify various criteria, including the country of origination, in order to detect and monitor fraud and to reject any purported transactions if they appear to be fraudulent. Nevertheless, our transaction monitoring systems may not operate as intended or may otherwise fail to effectively detect fraudulent transactions or locate where a transaction is being made. We face significant risks of loss due to money laundering, fraud and disputes between senders and recipients, and if we are unable to deal effectively with losses from fraudulent transactions our business could be materially harmed.

The ability for customers to withdraw and deposit funds within various accounts and the potential for customer fraud in connection with certain gambling activities heightens the risks of money laundering and the unwitting receipt by us of criminal proceeds. Our industry is under increasing scrutiny from governmental authorities—in Europe, the United States and many other jurisdictions in which we operate—in connection with the

 

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potential for consumer fraud. The laws of some jurisdictions define or interpret what constitutes the underlying criminal activity that gives rise to criminal proceeds relatively narrowly (for example, terrorist financing). Conversely, other jurisdictions have adopted laws providing for relatively broad definitions or interpretations of underlying criminal activity (for example, in the UK criminal proceeds may arise from the conviction of any criminal offence where it is found that the defendant has benefitted from the criminal conduct). Further, to the extent to which payment processors may be held civilly or criminally liable for the criminal activities of its merchant customers also varies widely across the jurisdictions in which we operate.

If consumer fraud levels involving our services were to rise, it could lead to regulatory intervention and reputational and financial damage. This, in turn, could lead to additional government enforcement actions and investigations and concerns raised by merchants and our banking partners, which in turn could reduce the use and acceptance of our services or increase our compliance costs and thereby have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. By processing payments for merchants and customers in certain industry vehicles, such as those engaged in the online gambling sector, we may be deemed to be handling proceeds of crime in the jurisdiction where our merchants and customers are located. We are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including, in the United States, the BSA which requires money services businesses such as us to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions and suspicious activity and maintain transaction records. We have adopted a program to comply with these and other anti-money laundering regulations, but any errors or failure to implement the program properly could lead to lawsuits, administrative action and government fines and/or prosecution. In addition, even if we comply with such reporting and record-keeping requirements, law enforcement agencies in the relevant country could seize merchants’ or customers’ funds that are the proceeds of unlawful activity. Any such action could result in adverse publicity for our business and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our risk management policies and procedures may not be fully effective in mitigating our risk exposure in all market environments or against all types of risks, which could expose us to losses and liability and otherwise harm our business.

We operate in a rapidly changing industry and we have experienced significant change in recent years, including in connection with certain acquisitions and the Business Combination. Accordingly, our risk management policies and procedures may not be fully effective at identifying, monitoring and managing our risks at pace with these changes. Some of our risk evaluation methods depend upon information provided by third parties regarding markets, clients or other matters that are otherwise inaccessible to us. In some cases, however, that information may not be accurate, complete or up-to-date. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques and processes may not be effective at identifying all of the risks to which we are exposed or enabling us to mitigate the risks we have identified. In addition, when we introduce new services, focus on new business types or begin to operate in markets in which we have a limited history of fraud loss, we may be less able to forecast and reserve accurately for new risks. Some risk mitigations may be deemed ineffectual, for example, if our insurance coverage is not adequate. We may need to initiate legal proceedings at a high cost if we are unable to come to a settlement with adversarial parties. If our risk management policies and processes are ineffective, we may suffer large financial losses, we may be subject to civil and criminal liability and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We are required to comply with payment card network operating rules.

Payment networks, such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express, establish their own rules and standards that allocate liabilities and responsibilities among the payment networks and their participants. These rules and standards, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, govern a variety of areas, including how consumers and clients may use their cards, the security features of cards, security standards for processing, data security and allocation of liability for certain acts or omissions, including liability in the event of a data breach. The payment networks may change these rules and standards from time to time as they may determine in their sole discretion and with or without advance notice to their participants. These changes may be made for any number of reasons, including as a result of changes in the regulatory environment, to maintain or attract new participants, or to serve the strategic initiatives of the payment networks, and may impose additional costs and expenses on or be disadvantageous to certain participants. Participants are subject to audit by the payment networks to ensure compliance with applicable rules and standards. The networks may fine, penalize or suspend the registration of

 

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participants for certain acts or omissions or the failure of the participants to comply with applicable rules and standards. Furthermore, the networks may levy fines on our sponsor banks in the event that our processing behavior causes our sponsor banks to breach their obligations to scheme rules including breaching, for example, applicable thresholds, such as chargeback or fraud thresholds. This occurrence can lead to an adverse impact on our sponsor bank relationships and any required remedies can create additional costs. Our removal from a given network’s list of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant service providers could mean that existing merchants, customers, sales partners or other third parties may cease using or referring our services. Also, prospective merchants, customers, sales partners or other third parties may choose to terminate negotiations with us, or delay or choose not to consider us for their processing needs. In addition, the card networks could refuse to allow us to process through their networks. Any of the foregoing could materially adversely impact our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Changes to these network rules or how they are interpreted could have a significant impact on our business and financial results. For example, changes in the payment card network rules regarding chargebacks may affect our ability to dispute chargebacks and the amount of losses we incur from chargebacks. Changes to and interpretations of the network rules that were inconsistent with the way we operated has, in the past, required us to make changes to our business, and any future changes to or interpretations of the network rules that are inconsistent with the way we currently operate may require us to make changes to our business that could be costly or difficult to implement. If we fail to make such changes or otherwise resolve the issue with the payment card networks, the networks could pass on fines and assessments in respect of fraud or chargebacks related to our merchants or disqualify us from processing transactions if satisfactory controls are not maintained, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we are required to comply with additional clearing scheme rules not particular to card companies, such as Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (formerly known as the Bankers Automated Clearing System), and the Single Euro Payments Area (also known as the SEPA, EBA Step2) scheme, which govern the clearing and settlement of certain UK and European electronic payment methods. Changes in the classification of our business by Visa and/or Mastercard could result in restrictions on our service offerings. For examples, the classification of our Digital Wallet as a “Staged Digital Wallet,” a “Pass-Through Digital Wallet,” or a “Stored Value Digital Wallet” impacts which merchants in various jurisdictions can accept our funds.

Our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach may not succeed, and if we fail to manage our growth effectively, our business could be materially harmed.

While we intend to continue to broaden the scope of products and services we offer, we may not be successful in deriving any significant revenue from these products and services. Failure to broaden the scope of products and services that are attractive may inhibit our growth and harm our business. Furthermore, we may have limited or no experience in our newer markets and we cannot assure you that any of our products or services in our newer markets will be widely accepted or that they will generate revenue. Our offerings may present new and difficult technological, operational, regulatory and other challenges, and if we experience service disruptions, failures, or other issues, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Our newer activities may not recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Further, in order to manage our growth effectively, we must continue to strengthen our existing infrastructure, develop and improve our processes and internal controls, create and improve our reporting systems, and timely address issues as they arise. As we continue to strengthen our existing infrastructure and systems, we will also be required to hire additional personnel. These efforts may require substantial financial expenditures, commitments of resources, developments of our processes, and other investments and innovations. Furthermore, we encourage employees to quickly develop and launch new features for our products and services. As we grow, we may not be able to execute as quickly as smaller, more agile organizations. In addition, as we grow, we may not be able to maintain our entrepreneurial company culture, which fosters innovation and talent. If we do not successfully manage our growth, our business may be adversely affected.

 

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We might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses.

We expect to continue pursuing strategic and targeted acquisitions, investments and joint ventures to enhance or add to our skills and capabilities or offerings of services and solutions, or to enable us to expand in certain geographic and other markets. For example, in 2018 we acquired iPayment, a U.S.-based provider of payment and processing products for small and medium-sized businesses, but our broader plan to expand into the U.S. markets may not succeed. We may not be successful in identifying additional suitable investment opportunities. We also might not succeed in completing targeted transactions or achieve desired results of operations from these transactions.

Furthermore, we face risks in successfully integrating any businesses we might acquire or create through a joint venture. Ongoing business may be disrupted, and our management’s attention may be diverted by acquisition, investment, transition or integration activities. In addition, we might need to dedicate additional management and other resources, and our organizational structure could make it difficult for us to efficiently integrate acquired businesses into our ongoing operations and assimilate and retain employees of those businesses into our culture and operations. The potential loss of key executives, employees, customers, suppliers, and other business partners of businesses we acquire may adversely impact the value of the assets, operations or businesses. Moreover, acquisitions or joint ventures may result in significant costs and expenses, including those related to retention payments, equity compensation, severance pay, early retirement costs, intangible asset amortization and asset impairment charges, assumed litigation and other liabilities, and legal, accounting and financial advisory fees, which could negatively affect our profitability. We may have difficulties as a result of entering into new markets where we have limited or no direct prior experience or where competitors may have stronger market positions.

We might fail to realize the expected benefits or strategic objectives of any acquisition, investment or joint venture we undertake. We might not achieve our expected return on investment or may lose money. We may be adversely impacted by liabilities that we assume from a company we acquire or in which we invest, including from that company’s known and unknown obligations, intellectual property or other assets, terminated employees, current or former clients or other third parties. In addition, we may fail to identify or adequately assess the magnitude of certain liabilities, shortcomings or other circumstances prior to acquiring, investing in or partnering with a company, including potential exposure to regulatory sanctions or liabilities resulting from an acquisition target’s previous activities, internal controls and security environment. If any of these circumstances occurs, they could result in unexpected legal or regulatory exposure, unfavorable accounting treatment, unexpected increases in taxes or other adverse effects on our business. Litigation, indemnification claims and other unforeseen claims and liabilities may arise from the acquisition or operation of acquired businesses. If we are unable to complete the number and kind of investments for which we plan, or if we are inefficient or unsuccessful at integrating any acquired businesses into our operations, we may not be able to achieve our planned rates of growth or improve our market share, profitability or competitive position in specific markets or services.

We periodically evaluate, and have engaged in, the disposition of assets and businesses. Divestitures could involve difficulties in the separation of operations, services, products and personnel, the diversion of management’s attention, the disruption of our business and the potential loss of key employees. After reaching an agreement with a buyer for the disposition of a business, the transaction may be subject to the satisfaction of pre-closing conditions, including obtaining necessary regulatory and government approvals, which, if not satisfied or obtained, may prevent us from completing the transaction. Divestitures may also involve continued financial involvement in or liability with respect to the divested assets and businesses, such as indemnities or other financial obligations, in which the performance of the divested assets or businesses could impact our results of operations. Any divestiture we undertake could adversely affect our results of operations.

We depend on key management, as well as our experienced and capable employees, and any failure to attract, motivate, and retain our employees could harm our ability to maintain and grow our business.

We depend upon the continued services and performance of our directors and key senior management. Our directors and key senior management play a key role in maintaining our culture and in setting our strategic direction. The unexpected departure or loss of one of our directors or key senior management team members could harm our ability to maintain and grow our business, and there can be no assurance we will be able to attract or retain suitable replacements for such directors and/or key management in a timely manner, or at all. We also may incur significant additional costs in recruiting and retaining suitable replacements and avoiding disruption in integrating them into our business.

 

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In addition, our operations and the execution of our business plan depend on our ability to attract, train and retain suitably skilled or qualified personnel with relevant industry and operational experience and to ensure that we have a robust succession planning system in place. In order for us to expand our operations in the future we will need to recruit and retain further personnel with suitable experience, qualifications and skill sets capable of advancing our business. Additionally, we are in the process of incorporating more automation and re-engineering processes in our business, and uncertainty related to this transformation may affect our ability to retain our employees. Depending on the geographical area, there can be substantial competition for suitably skilled or qualified personnel with relevant industry and operational experience and there can be no assurance that we will be able to attract or retain our personnel on similar terms to those on which we currently engage our employees, or at all. We see this risk in particular in our Digital Wallet operations center in Sofia, Bulgaria, where we have found it can be more difficult to identify qualified local talent from which to staff our operations and in our Hyderabad, India technology hub, where there is a highly competitive local market for staff. If we are unable to attract or retain suitably skilled or qualified personnel then this could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and any failure to maintain, protect and enhance our brand could materially harm our business.

We believe that maintaining, protecting and enhancing our strong and trusted brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services and expanding our base of customers. Maintaining and promoting our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, secure, and innovative products and services, as well as our ability to maintain trust and be a technology leader. We may introduce, or make changes to, features, products, services, privacy practices, or terms of service that customers do not like, which may materially and adversely affect our brand. Our brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. The introduction and promotion of new products and services, as well as the promotion of existing products and services, may be partly dependent on our visibility on third-party advertising platforms, such as Google, Twitter, or Facebook. Changes in the way these platforms operate or changes in their advertising prices, data use practices or other terms could make the maintenance and promotion of our products and services and our brand more expensive or more difficult. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business could be materially and adversely affected.

Harm to our brand can arise from many sources, including failure by us or our partners and service providers to satisfy expectations of service and quality, inadequate protection or misuse of sensitive information, compliance failures and allegations, litigation and other claims, employee misconduct, fraud, fictitious transactions, bad transactions, negative customer experiences, and misconduct by our partners, service providers, or other counterparties. We have also been in the past, and may in the future be, the target of incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading or false statements about our company, our business, and our products and services that could damage our brand and deter consumers and merchants from adopting our products and services. From time to time, the industry verticals we serve (and we, by association) are the subject of negative publicity, which can harm our brand and deter consumers and merchants from adopting our products and services. See “—Our focus on specialized industry verticals can increase our risks relative to other companies in our industry.” Any negative publicity about our industry or our company, the quality and reliability of our products and services, our risk management processes, changes to our products and services, our ability to effectively manage and resolve customer complaints, our privacy, data protection, and information security practices, litigation, regulatory activity, policy positions, and the experience of our customers with our products or services could adversely affect our reputation and the confidence in and use of our products and services. If we do not successfully maintain a strong and trusted brand, our business could be materially and adversely affected.

In addition, the registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names that we own may be challenged, infringed, declared generic, or determined to be infringing on or dilutive of other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights in these trademarks and trade names, which we need in order to build name recognition with potential customers. Moreover, third parties may use, or file for registration of trademarks similar or identical to our trademarks; if they succeed in registering or otherwise developing common law rights in such trademarks, and if we are not successful in challenging such third-party’s use of such trademarks, our own trademarks may no longer be useful to develop brand recognition of our technologies, products or services. Furthermore, there could be potential

 

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trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks, including trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. If we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, we may not be able to compete effectively, which could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Global and regional economic conditions could materially harm our business.

Our operations and performance depend significantly on global and regional economic conditions. Uncertainty about global and regional economic events and conditions may result in consumers and businesses postponing or lowering spending in response to, among other factors:

 

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tighter credit;

 

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higher unemployment;

 

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consumer debt levels or reduced consumer confidence;

 

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financial market volatility;

 

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fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates;

 

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changes and uncertainties related to government fiscal and tax policies, U.S. and international trade relationships, agreements, policies, treaties and restrictive actions, including increased duties, tariffs, or other restrictive actions;

 

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government austerity programs; and

 

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other negative financial news, macroeconomic developments or pandemics.

In addition, many of our merchants are small businesses and these businesses may be disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturns and may fail at a higher rate than larger or more established businesses. If spending by their customers declines, these businesses would experience reduced sales and process fewer payments with us or, if they cease to operate, stop using our products and services altogether. Small businesses frequently have limited budgets and limited access to capital, and they may choose to allocate their spending to items other than our financial or marketing services, especially in times of economic uncertainty or in recessions. These and other global and regional economic events and conditions could have a material adverse impact on the demand for our products and services. Furthermore, any financial turmoil affecting the banking system or financial markets could cause additional consolidation of the financial services industry, significant financial service institution failures, new or incremental tightening in the credit markets, low liquidity, and extreme volatility or distress in the fixed income, credit, currency, and equity markets, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

If we cannot keep pace with rapid technological developments to provide new and innovative products and services, the use of our products and services and, consequently, our revenues could decline.

Rapid, significant, and disruptive technological changes, such as machine learning, container technology, artificial intelligence, biometrics (both authorization and authentication) as well as quantum computing, impact the industries in which we operate, including developments in payment card tokenization, mobile, social commerce (i.e., eCommerce through social networks), authentication, cryptocurrencies (including distributed ledger and blockchain technologies), and near-field communication, and other proximity payment technology, such as contactless payments. As a result, we expect new services and technologies to continue to emerge and evolve, and we cannot predict the effects of technological changes on our business. In addition to our own initiatives and innovations, we rely in part on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new or evolving technologies. These third parties may restrict or prevent our access to, or utilization of, those technologies, as well as their platforms or products. In addition, we may not be able to accurately predict which technological developments or innovations will become widely adopted and how those technologies may be regulated. We expect that new services and technologies applicable to the industries in which we operate will continue to emerge and may be superior to, or render obsolete, the technologies we currently use in our products and services. Developing and incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures, take considerable time, and ultimately may not be successful.

 

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In addition, our ability to adopt new products and services and to develop new technologies may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, payments networks, changes to laws and regulations, resistance to change from consumers or merchants, third-party intellectual property rights, or other factors. For example, consumers can use their Skrill and NETELLER wallets to trade in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender or backed by any government and have experienced price volatility, technological glitches and various law enforcement and regulatory interventions. The use of cryptocurrencies has been prohibited or effectively prohibited in some countries. If we fail to comply with prohibitions applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions and potential fines and other consequences. Even in countries where cryptocurrencies are permitted, businesses associated with cryptocurrencies have had and may continue to have their existing accounts with banks and financial institutions closed or services discontinued, and offering cryptocurrency services may cause difficulties in obtaining or maintaining our relationships with sponsor banks and payment card networks. Furthermore, the prices of cryptocurrencies are routinely highly volatile and subject to exchange rate risks as well as the risk that regulatory or other developments may adversely affect their value. Our success in providing cryptocurrency services, and with other rapid technological innovations, will depend on our ability to develop and incorporate new technologies and adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards; if we are unable to do so in a timely or cost-effective manner, our business could be harmed.

We are currently building a single core platform for our businesses to increase resilience, speed and security and provide firm foundations for future releases and enhancements. Related to this are various initiatives, which include increasing our risk management, fraud management and compliance capabilities and ensuring that our updated architecture can support a constantly evolving KYC, anti-money laundering, credit check and fraud monitoring environment; providing us with better reporting and analytics; providing our merchants with the ability to accept any payment method they wish and allowing for increased customer customization of their services. However, there is no assurance that this platform will operate effectively or that we will achieve these intended benefits. A failure to deliver the solutions identified by our businesses as important for their future success in a timely or cost-effective manner could have an impact on our future success.

We face substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry.

The global payments industry is highly competitive, rapidly changing, very innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny. We compete against a wide range of businesses, including businesses that are larger than we are, have a more dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer, as well as smaller companies that may be able to respond more quickly to regulatory and technological changes. These competitors may act on business opportunities within our specialized industry verticals, which may reduce our ability to maintain or increase or market share. In addition, the services of our various competitors are differentiated by features and functionalities such as brand recognition, customer service, trust and reliability, distribution network and channel options, convenience, price, speed, variety of payment methods, service offerings and innovation.

In addition, our competitors may be able to offer more attractive economic terms to our current and prospective clients. If competition requires us to offer more attractive economics by reducing our fees or otherwise modifying our terms in order to maintain market share and continue growing our client base, we will need to aggressively control our costs in order to maintain our profit margins and our revenues may be adversely affected, and our ability to control our costs is limited because we are subject to fixed transaction costs related to payment networks. Competition could also result in a loss of existing clients and greater difficulty in attracting new clients. One or more of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Furthermore, many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with changing and disruptive technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition may also intensify as businesses enter into business combinations and alliances, and established companies in other segments expand to become competitive with different aspects of our business. If we cannot compete effectively, the demand for our products and services may decline, which would adversely impact our competitive position, business and financial performance.

 

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Our international operations subject us to increased risks, which could harm our business.

We have extensive international operations and our customers are resident in over 120 countries and territories. There are risks inherent in doing business internationally on both a domestic (i.e., in-country) and cross-border basis, including, but not limited to:

 

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foreign currency and cross-border trade risks;

 

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risks related to government regulation or required compliance with local laws;

 

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local licensing and reporting obligations;

 

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obligations to comply with local regulatory and legal obligations related to privacy, data security and data localization;

 

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expenses associated with localizing our products and services, including offering customers the ability to transact business in the local currency, and adapting our products and services to local preferences (e.g., payment methods) with which we may have limited or no experience;

 

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trade barriers and changes in trade regulations;

 

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difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language and cultural differences;

 

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stringent local labor laws and regulations;

 

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credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud;

 

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profit repatriation restrictions, foreign currency exchange restrictions or extreme fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates for a particular currency;

 

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political or social unrest, economic instability, repression or human rights issues;

 

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geopolitical events, including natural disasters, public health issues, pandemics, acts of war and terrorism;

 

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import or export regulations;

 

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compliance with Bermuda, UK, Irish, U.S. and other international laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, such as the Bermuda Bribery Act, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act, the Irish Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018 and other local anticorruption laws;

 

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compliance with Bermuda, UK, Irish, U.S. and other international laws and associated regulations designed to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities;

 

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antitrust and competition regulations;

 

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potentially adverse tax developments and consequences;

 

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economic uncertainties relating to sovereign and other debt;

 

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national or regional differences in macroeconomic growth rates;

 

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different, uncertain, overlapping, or more stringent user protection, data protection, privacy and other laws and regulations; and

 

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increased difficulties in collecting accounts receivable.

Violations of the complex UK, Irish, U.S. and other international laws, rules and regulations that apply to our international operations may result in fines, criminal actions, or sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. These risks are inherent in our international operations and expansion, may increase our costs of doing business internationally, and could harm our business.

 

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Catastrophic events or geopolitical conditions may disrupt our business.

War, terrorism, political events, geopolitical instability, trade barriers and restrictions, public health issues, pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events have caused and could cause damage or disruption to the economy and commerce on a global, regional, or country-specific basis, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, our customers, and companies with which we do business. Such events could decrease demand for our products and services or make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver products and services to our customers. The frequency and severity of some catastrophic events, such as flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, extended droughts, and wildfires are contributed to by global climate change, which many in the scientific community, in governmental bodies and elsewhere believe will continue for decades to come, potentially resulting in increased disruption to us. Geopolitical trends, including nationalism, protectionism, and restrictive visa requirements could limit the expansion of our business in those regions. Our business operations are subject to interruption by, among others, natural disasters, fire, power shortages, earthquakes, floods, nuclear power plant accidents, and events beyond our control such as other industrial accidents, terrorist attacks and other hostile acts, labor disputes and public health issues. A catastrophic event that results in a disruption or failure of our systems or operations could result in significant losses and require substantial recovery time and significant expenditures in order to resume or maintain operations, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our operating results and operating metrics are subject to seasonality and volatility, which could result in fluctuations in our quarterly revenues and operating results or in perceptions of our business prospects.

We have experienced in the past, and expect to continue to experience, seasonal fluctuations in our business. For instance, our Integrated Processing Solutions and eCash Solutions businesses historically experiences increased activity during the traditional holiday period and around other nationally recognized holidays, when certain of our games operators may run promotions, consumers enjoy more leisure time and younger consumers may receive our products as gifts. Our Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions businesses experience increased activity based on the occurrence and timing of sporting events. Volatility in our revenue, key operating metrics or their rates of growth could result in fluctuations in our financial condition or results of operations and may lead to adverse inferences about our prospects, which could result in declines in our share price.

Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks

Our operations can be constrained in countries with less predictable legal and regulatory frameworks.

If the legal and regulatory system in a particular country is less predictable, this can create a more difficult environment in which to conduct business. For example, any of the following could hamper our operations and reduce our earnings in these types of countries:

 

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the absence of a statutory or regulatory basis or guidance for engaging in specific types of business or transactions;

 

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conflicting or ambiguous laws and regulations, or the inconsistent application or interpretation of existing laws and regulations;

 

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uncertainty concerning the enforceability of contractual, intellectual property or other obligations;

 

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difficulty in competing in economies in which the government controls or protects all or a portion of the local economy or specific businesses, or where graft or corruption may be pervasive; and

 

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the threat of arbitrary regulatory investigations, civil litigations or criminal prosecutions, the imposition of licensing requirements, or the termination or unavailability of licenses, to operate in the local market or the suspension of business relationships with governmental bodies.

Conducting business in countries with less predictable legal and regulatory regimes could require us to devote significant additional resources to understanding, and monitoring changes in, local laws and regulations, as well as structuring our operations to comply with local laws and regulations and implementing and administering related internal policies and procedures.

Given the above mentioned challenges and the ever changing landscape, we may fail to conduct our business in compliance with the laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which we operate and/or those jurisdictions in which we provide services, and the risk of noncompliance can be greater in countries that have less predictable legal and regulatory systems.

 

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Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, including in such ways as could criminalize certain of our activities.

We are subject to a wide variety of laws, regulations, licensing schemes and industry standards in the countries and localities in which we operate. These laws, regulations, and standards govern numerous areas that are important to our business, including, but not limited to, online gambling, consumer protection, privacy, information security, anti-money laundering, safeguarding of client funds, strong customer authentication, financial services, securities, labor and employment, competition, data protection, biometric data processing and marketing and communications practices. Such laws, regulations, and standards are subject to changes and evolving interpretations and application, including by means of legislative changes, administrative changes and/or executive orders, and it can be difficult to predict how they may be applied to our business and the way we conduct our operations, particularly as we introduce new products and services and expand into new jurisdictions. Any perceived or actual breach of laws, regulations, and standards could result in investigations, regulatory inquiries, loss of licensure, litigation, fines, injunctions, negative customer sentiment, impairment of our existing or planned products and services, or otherwise materially and adversely impact our business. In addition, regulatory scrutiny in one jurisdiction can lead to increased scrutiny from regulators and legislators in other jurisdictions that may harm our reputation, brand and third-party relationships and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial performance and future prospects.

We are also subject to oversight by various governmental agencies and authorities in the countries and localities in which we operate. In light of the current conditions in the global financial markets and economy, lawmakers and regulators have increased their focus on the regulation of the financial services industry. Although we have a compliance program focused on the laws, rules, and regulations that we believe are applicable to our business, we may still be subject to a requirement to change various aspects of our business or the manner in which we carry out our business in certain countries, or to fines, injunctions or other penalties levied by regulators in one or more jurisdictions. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include significant criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, increased licensure requirements, loss of licensure or other enforcement actions. Any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us with respect to applicable laws, rules and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation as a trusted brand and could cause us to lose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches and expose us to legal risk and potential liability.

In the future, we may also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. For example, in Norway, the Norwegian gambling regulator notified us that processing gambling payments for Norwegians is prohibited, and consequently we have stopped processing certain gambling payments there, which will result in a small loss of a revenue. As another example, the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) may conduct a similar market review to that carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) in the UK and require us to safeguard additional amounts in respect of our European Acquiring business and the acquiring activities of our European eCash business resulting in a consequent increase in our liquidity requirements. See “—We are subject to financial services regulatory risks.”

Relatedly, as another example of a potential future regulatory change, the common reporting standard (the “CRS”) was first released by the OECD in February 2014 as a result of the G20 members endorsing a global model of automatic exchange of information in order to increase international tax transparency. The Directive 2014/107/EU on Administrative Cooperation in the Field of Taxation (the “DAC II”) implements the CRS in a European context and creates a mandatory obligation for all EU Member States to exchange financial account information of residents in other EU Member States on an annual basis. Over 100 jurisdictions have committed to implementing the CRS, including the UK and Bermuda. To the extent the CRS and/or the DAC II (as applicable) is implemented in any of our relevant jurisdictions, these arrangements will require affected banks and financial institutions to report certain information to their local tax authorities about account holders from the jurisdictions which are party to such arrangements (which information will in turn be provided to the relevant tax authorities). Although currently, we do not believe that any of our accounts fall within the remit of the CRS or DAC II, this may

 

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change in the future and it is not clear if, and to what extent, the obligations under the CRS/DAC II will apply. To the extent that the accounts we offer come to fall within the remit of the CRS/DAC II, certain operational challenges with respect to collecting and reporting the requisite information may arise. Additionally, it is generally necessary to capture the information required for CRS reporting at the time a customer is taken on, which may impact the onboarding process and reduce customer adoption, and/or customers may choose to discontinue using our services altogether.

We generate a significant portion of our revenue by processing online payments for merchants and customers engaged in the online gambling and foreign exchange trading sectors.

 

We generate a significant portion of our revenue from merchants operating in the regulated gaming and sports betting and foreign exchange trading sectors. We and our merchants and customers are subject to various laws and regulations in relation to online gambling. Regulations in the gaming and sports betting and foreign exchange trading sectors vary significantly among different countries and localities. In many cases, they may be unclear and may also change, sometimes dramatically, and such laws and regulations are constantly evolving and are often subject to conflicting interpretations.

In the United States, for instance, the evolving regulatory regime of online gambling creates uncertainty and could adversely affect our operations in those jurisdictions. As a particular example, in 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) reversed its previously-issued opinion published in 2011, which stated that interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to sports betting fall outside the purview of the Wire Act of 1961 (the “Wire Act”). The DOJ’s updated opinion concluded instead that the Wire Act was not uniformly limited to sports betting and that certain of its provisions apply to non-sports-related wagering activity. On June 3, 2019, in a case challenging the DOJ’s updated opinion, Judge Paul Barbadoro of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire found that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting and not to other online gambling games. On January 20, 2021, the First Circuit affirmed the ruling of the lower court, finding that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting.

The EU, by contrast, has generally moved towards controlled regulation of online-based gambling operators, rather than absolute prohibition. For example, in March 2019, German regulators agreed on the Third Amendment to the Interstate Treaty on Gambling, which provides new, temporary regulations for sports betting companies in the country effective January 1, 2020 until permanent regulations can be established by June 2021. In March 2020, German regulators subsequently agreed to additional legislation that will legalize online forms of certain gambling, such as casino and poker, within certain parameters. The regimes in Italy and France have similarly moved away from state-run monopoly-based markets to controlled regulation. However, local laws in place in EU member states are sometimes incompatible with EU laws, regulations and directives, which introduces additional uncertainty around licensing and ongoing compliance obligations into the regulatory framework.

Additionally, many jurisdictions, particularly those outside of Europe and the United States, have not updated their laws to address the supply of online gambling, which by its nature is a multijurisdictional activity. Due to the borderless nature of online gaming and sports betting and foreign exchange trading, a merchant properly licensed in its home jurisdiction may still provide services to consumers in other jurisdictions, knowingly or unknowingly, including in jurisdictions whose regulations are ambiguous or where gaming, sports betting and/or foreign exchange trading are prohibited. For example, in India, we recently were notified about a small number of investigations being conducted by the Government of India Enforcement Directorate (“ED”) relating to gambling activity by Indian residents which indirectly concern the provision of digital wallet services to our Indian resident customers. If the ED or other Government of India regulatory authority finds that we violated Indian law by failing to restrict certain payments from being made, it could lead to certain penalties being imposed on us or we may cease providing services to Indian resident customers altogether if it is determined that our services to Indian resident customers are licensable in India and we cannot, or decide not to, obtain a license. Additionally, in Latvia, the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission (the “Commission”) notified us of their belief that we were in breach of Latvian law as a result of processing gambling payments between Latvian customers and gambling operators that do not have a local license. Following engagement with the Commission, we asserted that we were not in breach of Latvian law and currently have not received a response.

 

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We have policies and procedures in place that are designed to ensure that we comply with applicable rules regarding card brands, regulated verticals and bank sponsor requirements. However, these policies and procedures may not always be effective. If we provide services, intentionally or unintentionally, to gaming and sports betting and foreign exchange trading companies that do not have proper regulatory authorizations, we could be subject to fines, penalties, reputational harm or other negative consequences. Other jurisdictions have updated legislation to pass laws to regulate online gambling but only to permit license holders to supply services in that jurisdiction, some of which laws purport to have an extra territorial effect and which specifically preclude payment support of any gambling transactions, with powers to request the co-operation of banks and card issuers, or, in some jurisdictions, to criminalize the support they provide. Nevertheless, the legality of online gambling and the provision of services to online gambling merchants and customers is subject to uncertainties arising from differing approaches by legislatures, regulators and enforcement agents, including in relation to determining in which jurisdiction the game or the bet takes place and, therefore, which law applies and where the transaction should be taxed. This uncertainty creates a risk for us that even in instances where older laws have not been updated to address new technology, courts may interpret older legislation in an unfavorable way and determine our activities to be illegal. This could lead to criminal or civil actions being brought against our customers, merchants, us or any of our directors, or us (or our merchants or customers) being forced to cease doing business in a particular jurisdiction, all or any of which may, individually or collectively, materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition and damage our reputation.

We rely on the continued supply of our services to merchants within the online gambling industry. Digital Wallet and our eCash Solutions businesses (each of which primarily provides services to the online gambling industry) represent approximately 51% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020. Changes in the regulation of online gambling in the markets where we operate may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition if such merchants are subject to increased taxes, compliance costs, levies and license fees or are forced to cease operating in a jurisdiction as a result of prohibitive legislation, which may result in reduced demand for our services within the online gambling industry.

While we do not provide gambling services, it is possible that we could be found to be acting unlawfully for processing gambling related payments. For example, we previously processed payments in connection with online gambling in the United States until the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (“UIGEA”), which banned the processing of payments related to illegal online gambling in the United States, in 2006. Within days of enactment of the UIGEA, we announced our intention to withdraw from the U.S. market. However, in January 2007 the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (the “USAO”) initiated criminal actions against us and two former senior executives and founding shareholders of NETELLER related to gambling and unlicensed money transmitting violations, seized approximately $60 million in customer funds that were in transit with our payment processors and prohibited us from engaging in any further transactions with U.S. banks, effectively preventing our customers from withdrawing their funds. As a result, we suspended all U.S. gambling-related processing and negotiated a plan to facilitate the complete return of funds to our U.S. customers. In July 2007, we entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with the USAO, providing for forfeiture of $136 million, completion of the return of funds to U.S. customers, imposition of an ongoing obligation to cooperate with any further USAO inquiries and the appointment of a forensic accounting firm to monitor our activities in order to ensure we continued to comply with the UIGEA. All of our U.S. customers subsequently had their money returned, and the USAO obtained dismissal of the complaint and terminated the DPA in August 2009. Both former founders of NETELLER pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to violate U.S. gambling and money-transmitting laws and agreed to a combined forfeiture of $100 million. None of the management or directors at the time of the DPA are now employed by the Company.

If we were found to be acting unlawfully for processing online gambling payments in any jurisdiction, it could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, operations and financial performance. Additional civil, criminal or regulatory proceedings could also be brought against us and/or our directors, executive officers and employees as a result. We could also be joined to proceedings brought against a merchant or other third parties for tracing claims resulting in the seizure of funds. Any such proceedings would potentially have cost, resource and reputational implications, and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial performance and future prospects and on our ability to retain, renew or expand our portfolio of licenses. Moreover, even if successfully defended, the process may result in us incurring considerable costs and require significant management resource and time.

 

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In addition to gambling related payments, our payment systems may be used for potentially illegal or improper uses, including the fraudulent sales of goods or services, illegal sales of controlled substances or to facilitate other illegal activity. Such usage of our payment systems may subject us to claims, individual and class action lawsuits, government and regulatory investigations, inquiries or requests that could result in liability and reputational harm for us. Changes in law have increased the penalties for intermediaries providing payment services for certain illegal activities, and government authorities may consider additional payments-related proposals from time to time. Owners of intellectual property rights or government authorities may seek to bring legal action against providers of payments solutions that are peripherally involved in the sale of infringing or allegedly infringing items. Any threatened or resulting claims could result in reputational harm, and any resulting liabilities, loss of transaction volume, or increased costs could harm our business.

We are subject to financial services regulatory risks.

Certain of our subsidiaries in the UK are authorized by the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 to perform the regulated activity of issuing e-money and the provision of payment services (which has the meaning specified in the Second Electronic Money Directive) as well as to provide account information services and payment initiation services to support our Rapid Transfer service. We have the appropriate licenses and permissions to act as an e-money issuer in the UK.

Additionally, we have obtained authorization from the CBI for two of our entities in Ireland to act as e-money issuers and to provide payment services (including account information and payment initiation services) and have completed the necessary passporting notifications necessary to operate in other European Economic Area (“EEA”) jurisdictions. As with the FCA, the CBI also implements, maintains and enforces a range of rules covering (among other things) market conduct, communications with customers, the safeguarding of users’ funds and the fair treatment of consumers and other vulnerable customers. These rules are contained in various sources including the Consumer Protection Code and the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 and apply to the regulated activities we carry out from Ireland across the EEA. Breach of these rules may result in fines, public censures, customer remediation and redress and ultimately in the revocation of our regulatory licenses in Ireland.

EU laws and regulations are typically subject to different and potentially inconsistent interpretations by the local authorities in EU member states, which can make compliance more costly and operationally difficult to manage. Moreover, countries that are EU members may each have different and potentially inconsistent domestic regulations implementing European Directives, including the Revised Payment Services Directive (“PSD2”), which may further increase compliance costs and operational complexity. As a result of PSD2, we have had to make changes which impacted our business. PSD2 seeks to enable new payment models whereby a newly formed category of regulated payment provider would be able to access bank and payment accounts (including our customers’ payment accounts) for the purposes of accessing account information or initiating a payment on behalf of a customer. Such access could subject us to data security and other legal and financial risks and could create new competitive forces and new types of competitors in the European payments market. PSD2 imposes new standards for payment security and strong customer authentication that may make it more difficult and time consuming to authorize a transaction, which may adversely impact our customer value proposition and its European business.

Additionally, Skrill USA is registered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) as a money services business and is regarded as a money transmission business in the United States. Money transmitting businesses are subject to numerous regulations in the United States at the federal and state levels, and we have obtained or applied for money transmitter licenses (or applicable similar licenses) in all U.S. states and territories in which we are required to do so, with licenses pending. As a result, we are also subject to inspections, examinations, supervision, and regulation by each state in which we are licensed, and are subject to direct supervision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”). The CFPB has authority to interpret, enforce and issue regulations implementing enumerated consumer laws, including certain laws that apply to our business. The Dodd-Frank Act also empowers state attorneys general and other state officials to enforce federal consumer protection laws under specified conditions.

Although we have the authorizations and licenses referred to above, we issue e-money to customers in over 120 countries and territories and we are not licensed as an e-money issuer in the vast majority of these jurisdictions. We take the view that, in general, we are not conducting regulated activities in these other jurisdictions on the basis

 

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that our activities of issuing e-money are not conducted in each jurisdiction in which our relevant customers reside, but rather e-money is issued in jurisdictions in which we are licensed. We acknowledge that local regulators in these jurisdictions may take a different view and, as transaction volumes increase and/or the matter is brought to our attention by local regulators, we will take advice in respect of local requirements on a case-by-case basis.

Due to ongoing developments in e-money regulation, we obtain advice from external counsel as required in order to assess any applicable risk and, where necessary, will limit the extent of our operations in a particular jurisdiction or will consider whether to obtain a license in such jurisdiction. For example, we are evaluating whether payments laws enacted in Russia in June 2019 will impact our ability to continue operating in that jurisdiction, and in Norway, we intend to cease processing gambling payments following an approach by a local regulator. We believe that the likelihood of any enforcement action by a regulator is low due to factors such as the operation of the services through the internet on a cross-border basis from a country in which the relevant entity holds a license, the limited extent of our activities in the respective jurisdictions, the lack of enforcement action against similar payment processors, the lack of a physical presence in the respective jurisdictions and the effective management of our relationships with our customers. However, the adoption of new money transmitter or other licensing statutes in the jurisdictions in which we operate, changes in regulators’ interpretation of existing money transmitter or other licensing statutes or regulations, or disagreement by a regulatory authority with our interpretation of such statutes or regulations, could require additional registrations or licenses, limit certain of our business activities until they are appropriately licensed, and expose us to financial penalties.

We are not aware of any circumstances that may result in us being in breach of the terms of our e-money issuer, payment initiation service provider or money transmitter licenses that would be likely to lead to a revocation or termination of such licenses or a material restriction on such licenses, nor are we aware of any current or pending financial, civil or criminal proceedings asserted against us in connection with a failure to hold a license in any relevant jurisdiction. However, if we were found to be in violation of any current or future regulations, or to have previously been in breach of any regulation, in any countries from which we accept merchants or customers, including as a result of any failure by our employees to apply correctly our anti-money laundering procedures, this could result in a requirement for future compliance, fines, other forms of liability and/or force us to change business practices or to cease operations altogether, and we, our directors, executive officers or employees may also be exposed to a financial liability, civil or criminal liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We are subject to current and proposed regulation addressing both consumer and business privacy and data use, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to a number of laws, rules, directives, and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, storage, destruction, security, processing, transfer, and sharing of personal information about our customers and employees in the countries where we operate. Our business relies on the processing of data in many jurisdictions and the movement of data across national borders. As a result, much of the personal information that we process, especially financial information, is regulated by multiple privacy laws and, in some cases, the privacy laws of multiple jurisdictions. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relationships. These laws and regulations may at times be conflicting, and the requirements to comply with these regulations could result in a negative impact to our business.

Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, data protection, and the collection, use, storage, destruction, security, processing, transfer and sharing of personal information is increasing around the world. There is uncertainty associated with the legal and regulatory environment relating to privacy and data protection laws, which continue to develop in ways we cannot predict, including with respect to evolving technologies such as cloud computing and blockchain technology. Additionally, these laws and regulations may change or be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible they will be interpreted and applied in ways that will materially and adversely affect our business.

For example, we are subject to enhanced compliance and operational requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018. Since 2016, we have engaged in a large, transformative program regarding data privacy in connection with GDPR compliance requirements. The GDPR

 

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applies to companies processing personal data of EU residents, imposes a strict data protection compliance regime with severe penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of 4% of worldwide annual turnover or €20 million. The penalties for noncompliance with the GDPR could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We have incurred and we expect to continue to incur significant expenses to meet the obligations of the GDPR, which have required us to make significant changes to our business operations.

Although the GDPR applies across the EU without a need for local implementing legislation, each EU member state has the ability to interpret the GDPR opening clauses, which permit country-specific data protection legislation and which have created inconsistencies, on a country-by-country basis. Brexit and ongoing developments in the UK have created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the UK and could result in the application of new data privacy and protection laws and standards to our operations in the UK, our handling of personal data of users located in the UK, and transfers of personal data between the EU and UK. The UK GDPR, effective as of January 1, 2021, and the UK Data Protection Act of 2018 (as amended on January 1, 2021) and which supplements the UK GDPR, now apply to our processing of personal data in the UK and elsewhere, if the processing is of UK residents. While the UK GDPR broadly mirrors the GDPR, it is still unclear what legal mechanisms will be required to transfer personal data from the EU to the UK under the GDPR. The UK and EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“TCA”) permits data transfers from the EU to the UK to continue without restriction for four months post-Brexit (including a potential extension of two months) while the EU considers the UK’s application for adequacy of its data protection procedures. Such an adequacy decision would permit personal data transfers between the EU and UK without further safeguards in place (such as standard contractual clauses). If the UK does not receive an adequacy decision from the EU, we may be required to implement new processes and put new agreements in place, such as standard contractual clauses, to govern any transfers of personal data from the EU to the UK. In addition, while the UK data protection regime currently permits data transfers from the UK to the EU and other third countries covered by a European Commission (“EC”) adequacy decision, and currently includes a framework to permit the continued use of EU standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules for personal data transfers from the UK to third countries, this is subject to change in the future, and any such changes could impact our ability to transfer personal data from the UK to the EU and other third countries.

Additionally, Brexit and the subsequent implementation of the UK GDPR will expose us to two parallel data protection regimes, each of which potentially authorizes similar significant fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations.

Meanwhile, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued a decision on July 16, 2020 (commonly known as “Schrems II”) invalidating the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, a previously lawful mechanism of transfer for personal data from the EU to the United States. While the Schrems II decision did not invalidate standard contractual clauses, another lawful mechanism for making cross-border transfers, the decision has called their validity into question under certain circumstances, and has made the legality of transferring personal information from the EU to the United States more uncertain, and it may require government cooperation to resolve this issue. The issues and risks arising from the Schrems II decision, apply equally to transfers of personal information from the EU to any country which has not received an adequacy finding by the European Commission. Other jurisdictions could require us to make additional changes to the way we conduct our business and transmit data between the United States, the UK, the EU and the rest of the world.

Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our privacy policies, with applicable industry data protection or security standards, with any applicable regulatory requirements or orders, or with privacy, data protection, information security, or consumer protection-related laws and regulations in one or more jurisdictions could result in proceedings or actions against us by data protection authorities, governmental entities or others, including class action privacy litigation in certain jurisdictions, which could subject us to significant awards, fines, sanctions (including prohibitions on the processing of personal information), penalties, judgments, and negative publicity arising from any financial or non-financial damages suffered by any individuals. This could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business.

Policymakers around the globe are using these GDPR requirements as a reference to adopt new or updated privacy laws that could result in similar or stricter requirements in other jurisdictions. In the United States, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (along with its implementing regulations) restricts certain collection, processing,

 

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storage, use and disclosure of personal financial information, requires notice to individuals of privacy practices and provides individuals with certain rights to prevent the use and disclosure of certain nonpublic or otherwise legally protected information. These rules also impose requirements for the safeguarding and proper destruction of such information through the issuance of data security standards or guidelines. In addition, there are new state laws in the United States governing the collection and processing of personal information (including, as of January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and as of March 2, 2021, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), which will become effective January 1, 2023). The CCPA imposes stringent data privacy and data protection requirements for the personal data of California residents, and provides for government penalties for noncompliance of up to $7,500 per violation, if willful, and provides for a private right of action in the event of a data breach affecting certain un-redacted or non-encrypted personal information of California residents. Implementing regulations for the CCPA were released in August 2020, and on November 3, 2020, California voters approved a new law, the California Privacy Rights Act, which will come into effect on January 1, 2023, applying to personal data collected on or after January 1, 2022. As a result of these constant changes, it is still not certain how the various provisions of the CCPA and the CPRA will be interpreted and enforced. The CPRA expands the rights of consumers and establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency, providing the agency with investigative, enforcement and rule-making powers. The effects of the CCPA are potentially far-reaching, however, and may require us to continue to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Certain other state laws impose or are in the process of imposing similar privacy obligations, including the recently passed VCDPA, that may be different from those under the CCPA, and, in addition, all 50 states have laws with varying obligations to provide notification of security breaches of personal information to affected individuals, state officers and/or others. The use or generation of biometric data as an aid to fraud prevention is becoming increasingly regulated through a patchwork of laws in both the EU and across the United States, with a number of state laws now requiring consent to such use. For example, Illinois has passed the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), Texas and Washington have passed similar laws, and other states plan to pass similar laws. The application of privacy laws to new technology, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is not always clear and can pose additional regulatory risk and material harm to our business operations.

Some jurisdictions are also considering requirements for businesses that collect, process and/or store data within their borders (“data localization”), as well as prohibitions on the transfer of data abroad, leading to technological and operational implications. Other jurisdictions are considering adopting sector-specific regulations for the payments industry, including forced data sharing requirements or additional verification requirements that overlap or conflict with, or diverge from, general privacy rules. Failure to comply with these laws, regulations and requirements could result in fines, sanctions or other penalties, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition, and reputation. Collective or class-action litigations relating to data privacy violations are permitted under the GDPR and are beginning to arise in the EU, and are no longer unique to the United States. We may also be exposed to similar lawsuits in the UK with respect to Brexit.

Regulation of privacy and data protection and information security often requires monitoring of and changes to our data practices in regard to the collection, use, disclosure, storage, transfer and/or security of personal information. We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with evolving mandatory privacy and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards, shifting consumer expectations, or contractual obligations. In particular, with laws and regulations, such as the GDPR in the EU, the GDPR in the UK, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) in Canada (including its provincial laws) and the CCPA, CPRA, VCDPA and BIPA in the United States, imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations, and with substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of these and other laws and regulations, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices, and may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so. New requirements or reinterpretations of existing requirements in these areas, or the development of new regulatory schemes related to the digital economy in general, may also increase our costs and could impact the products and services we offer and other aspects of our business, such as fraud monitoring, the development of information-based products and solutions and technology operations. We may not be able to respond quickly or effectively to regulatory, legislative, and other developments, and these changes may in turn impair our ability to offer our existing or planned features, products, and services and/or increase our cost of doing business. Any of these developments could materially and adversely affect our overall business and results of operations.

 

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In addition, fraudulent activity could encourage regulatory intervention, which could damage our reputation and reduce the use and acceptance of our integrated products and services or increase our compliance costs. Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to capture consumer account information to engage in illegal activities such as counterfeiting or other fraud, including setting up fake Paysafe websites or using stolen credentials from the dark web to attack customer accounts, where such customers are using the same credentials across multiple sites or accounts. While we are taking measures we believe will make payments more secure, increased fraud levels involving our products and services, or misconduct or negligence by third parties servicing our products and services, could lead to regulatory intervention, such as enhanced security requirements, as well as damage to our reputation.

Legal, political and economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the nature of the future relationship between the UK and the EU is likely to be a source of instability in international markets, could cause disruption to and create uncertainty surrounding our business and result in new regulatory challenges and costs.

The UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, but remained in the EU’s customs union and single market for a transition period that expired on December 31, 2020. On December 24, 2020, the UK and the EU announced that they had agreed to a new a trade and cooperation deal (the “Trade and Cooperation Agreement”) governing certain aspects of the future relationship between the UK and the EU. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement was formally approved by the UK parliament on December 30, 2020 and applies provisionally from January 1, 2021. It is currently expected to be formally ratified by the EU parliament by April 30, 2021. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides clarity in respect of the intended shape of the future relationship between the UK and the EU and some detailed matters of trade and cooperation. However, there remain uncertainties related to Brexit and the relationship between the UK and the EU which will continue to be developed and defined and could cause instability in EU, UK or worldwide political, regulatory, economic or market conditions. Any Brexit-related effects are likely to be compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. See “—Risks Related to COVID-19—The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty and measures taken in response to the pandemic, could materially impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.”

We have significant operations in the UK and the EU. A withdrawal from the EU is unprecedented, and it is unclear how the UK’s access to the EU’s single market for goods, capital, services and labor within the EU and the wider commercial, legal and regulatory environment, will impact our UK operations. Lack of clarity about future UK laws and regulations, as the UK determines which EU laws and regulations to keep or replace in the UK, or how such laws and regulations may be changed, may adversely impact the behavior of our customers and increase costs and cause disruption to our business. There are likely to be changes in the legal rights and obligations of commercial parties across all industries, particularly in the services sector (including financial services), and we are likely to face new regulatory costs and challenges as a result of Brexit that could have an adverse effect on our operations and development programs, consumer and investor confidence and the level of consumer discretionary purchases, thereby impacting the use of our payments services by merchants.

In addition, Brexit could also result in increasingly divergent laws, regulations, and licensing requirements for us over time. Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and increased complexity for financial services firms if national laws and regulations in the UK start to diverge from EU laws and regulations. While we have obtained the necessary licenses, completed the necessary passporting notifications from the CBI, opened and staffed an additional office in Ireland and completed the transfer of our EEA business to enable the continuation of operations within ongoing EEA jurisdictions after the end of the Transition Period, there may still continue to be uncertainty surrounding the consequences of Brexit, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. For example, applicable tax rules and regulations concerning the transfer of assets and operations from the UK to EEA jurisdictions are complex and subject to significant judgment and interpretation. If HMRC or other applicable tax authorities were successful in challenging our conclusions in this regard, we may be liable for material additional taxes and penalties. In addition, political decisions could result in the relocation of businesses and people, cause business interruptions, cause currency fluctuations (including in relation to the British Pound), lead to trade restrictions and increases in or the imposition of trade tariffs, lead to economic recession or depression and impact the stability of the financial markets, the availability of credit, political systems, financial institutions and the financial and monetary system. By extension, this could impact our business and/or envisioned business arrangements, licenses and contingency plans, thereby damaging our reputation, operations and financial position and lead to increased costs to retain current revenues, any of which could have a material adverse effect on us.

 

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We must comply with money laundering regulations in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and any failure to do so could result in severe financial and legal penalties.

We are subject to various anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws and regulations around the world that prohibit, among other things, our involvement in transferring the proceeds resulting from criminal activities. Facilitating financial transactions over the internet creates a risk of fraud and ensuring customer data security, privacy, and ongoing compliance with applicable regulations requires significant capital expenditure. Applicable money laundering regulations require firms to put preventative measures in place and to perform KYC procedures, including conducting customer identification and verification and undertaking ongoing monitoring. In addition, regulations require companies to keep records of identity and to train their staff on the requirements of the relevant money laundering regulations. At present, for instance, in the UK and Ireland, a senior member of staff needs to be appointed and approved by the FCA or by the CBI, respectively, to oversee appropriate policies and procedures. Regulators globally continue to increase their scrutiny of compliance with these obligations, which may require us to further revise or expand our compliance program, including the procedures we use to verify the identity of our customers and to monitor transactions. Regulators regularly re-examine the transaction volume thresholds at which we must obtain and keep applicable records or verify identities of customers and any change in such thresholds could result in greater costs for compliance. In the EU, the implementation of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (“MLD5”) (which had to be transposed by each Member State by 10 January 2020) amended the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive by (among other things) limiting the scope of customer due diligence exemptions for electronic money products and revising the monitoring requirements of existing customers. The implementation of MLD5 and the consequent potential for divergence in interpretation and application by EU Member States may make compliance more costly and operationally difficult to manage, lead to increased friction for customers, and result in a decrease in business. In the United States, the BSA requires among other things, money services businesses (such as money transmitters and providers of prepaid access) to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions and suspicious activity, and maintain transaction records. We are also subject to regulatory oversight and enforcement by FinCEN and have registered Skrill USA with FinCEN as a money services business. Any determination that we have violated the anti-money-laundering laws could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and future prospects. For example, the BSA requires us to report currency transactions in excess of $10,000, including identification of the customer by name and social security number, to the IRS. This regulation also requires us to report certain suspicious activity, including any transaction that exceeds $2,000 that we know, suspect or have reason to believe involves funds derived from illegal activity or is designed to evade federal regulations or reporting requirements and to verify sources of such funds. Substantial penalties can be imposed against us if we fail to comply with this regulation. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, the imposition of a substantial penalty could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our customers reside in over 120 countries and territories. However, we believe that we do not conduct regulated activities in all of these jurisdictions. Rather, we conduct regulated activity in only a limited number of jurisdictions and our wider customer base accesses our services online. We are subject to anti-money laundering regulations in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and in any other jurisdiction where we are established and performing activities that would require that we apply anti-money laundering regulations. Where a customer resides in a jurisdiction outside of Europe in which we do not consider ourselves to be conducting a regulated activity, we follow the home state laws of the relevant Group regulated entities and our group policies which seek to apply the highest common standard regardless of the residency of that customer. We believe that these processes are of the requisite standard, although there can be no guarantee that they meet all the requirements of other jurisdictions. However, if we were to violate laws or regulations governing money transmitters or electronic fund transfers, either in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada or elsewhere, including as a result of any failure by our employees to apply correctly our KYC procedures, this could result in a requirement for future compliance, fines, other forms of liability and/or force us to change business practices or to cease operations altogether.

We are also subject to rules and regulations imposed by, amongst others, the European Union, HM Treasury and OFAC restricting the transfer of funds to certain specifically designated countries. While we believe that we have in place appropriate systems and procedures to ensure that transfers to merchants or customers in countries on watch lists are not executed, there can be no guarantee that such controls are, or will continue to be, effective and any sanctions imposed by any regulatory body on us for executing a transfer to a country on a watch list could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

 

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Limitations imposed by the FCA and CBI on the right to own our securities may result in sanctions being imposed on our regulated subsidiaries and an acquirer of such securities in the event of noncompliance by such acquirer, and may reduce the value of our shares.

Several of the Company’s indirect subsidiaries are subject to regulatory supervision, including the requirement to obtain prior consent from the relevant regulator when a person holds, acquires or increases a qualifying holding in those entities. See “Item 4.B. Business Overview—Licensing and Regulation—Payments Regulation” of this Report and “Description of the Company’s Securities” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference. On the basis of these regulations, no person may hold or acquire, alone or together with others, a direct or indirect stake of 10% or more of our shares, 10% of the voting rights attached to our shares, or exercise, directly or indirectly, significant influence over any of the regulated subsidiaries (or increase an existing holding of 10% or more of our shares or the voting rights attached to our shares crossing a control threshold (20%, 30% or 50%)) without first obtaining the prior approval of the FCA and the CBI.

Noncompliance with those requirements constitutes a criminal offense that may lead to criminal prosecution, as well a violation of applicable laws governing the payment services and electronic money industry in the relevant jurisdictions, which may lead to injunctions, penalties and sanctions against the Company’s regulated subsidiaries as well as the person seeking to hold, acquire or increase the qualifying holding (including, but not limited to, substantial fines, public censure and prison sentences), may subject the relevant transactions to cancellation or forced sale, and may result in increased regulatory compliance requirements or other potential regulatory restrictions on our business (including in respect of matters such as corporate governance, restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, financings and distributions), enforced suspension of operations, cancellation of corporate resolutions made on the basis of such qualifying holding, restitution to customers, removal of board members, suspension of voting rights and variation, cancellation or withdrawal of licenses and authorizations. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, uncertainty and inconvenience created by those regulatory requirements may discourage potential investors from acquiring 10% or more of our shares, which may in turn reduce the value of the shares.

We may not be able to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or third parties may allege that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.

Our success and ability to compete in various markets around the world depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the United States and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures and contractual measures. We rely on copyright, trade secret and trademark laws to protect our technology, including the source code for proprietary software, and other proprietary information. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services, including confidentiality and invention assignment agreements entered into with our employees and contractors and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business. We have not applied for any patents in respect of our electronic payment processing systems and cannot give assurances that any patent applications will be made by us in the future or that, if they are made, will be granted.

We may, over time, increase our investment in protecting our intellectual property through additional trademark, patent and other intellectual property filings, which could be expensive and time-consuming. We may not be able to obtain protection for our technology and even if we are successful in obtaining effective patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright protection, it is expensive to maintain these rights and the costs of defending our rights could be substantial. Moreover, our failure to develop and properly manage new intellectual property could hurt our market position and business opportunities.

Although we have generally taken measures to protect our intellectual property rights, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting or enforcing our rights in every jurisdiction, or that contractual arrangements and other steps that we have taken to protect our intellectual property will prevent third parties from

 

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infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property or deter independent development of equivalent or superior intellectual property rights by others. If we are unable to prevent third parties from adopting, registering, or using trademarks and trade dress that infringe, dilute, or otherwise violate our trademark rights, the value of our brands could be diminished and our business could be adversely affected. Also, we may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. Our intellectual property rights may be infringed, misappropriated, or challenged, which could result in them being narrowed in scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. Any failure to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or the significant costs incurred in doing so, could diminish the value of our intangible assets and materially harm our business.

Similarly, our reliance on unpatented proprietary information and technology, such as trade secrets and confidential information, depends in part on agreements we have in place with employees and third parties that place restrictions on the use and disclosure of this intellectual property. These agreements may be insufficient or may be breached, in either case potentially resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and other intellectual property, including to our competitors, which could cause us to lose any competitive advantage resulting from this intellectual property. Individuals not subject to invention assignment agreements may make adverse ownership claims to our current and future intellectual property. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our intellectual property or obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary and, if successful, may potentially cause us to lose market share or otherwise harm our business and ability to compete. There can be no assurance that the intellectual property we own or license will provide competitive advantages or will not be challenged or circumvented by our competitors.

We are, from time to time, subject to litigation related to alleged infringement of other parties’ patents. As the number of products in the technology and payments industries increases and the functionality of these products further overlaps, and as we acquire technology through acquisitions or licenses, we may become increasingly subject to intellectual property infringement and other claims. These risks have been amplified by the increase in so-called non-practicing entities, third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims. Even if we believe that any of these intellectual property related claims are without merit, litigation may be necessary to determine the validity and scope of the patent or other intellectual property rights of others. The ultimate outcome of any alleged infringement claim is often uncertain and, regardless of the outcome, any such claim, with or without merit, may be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, divert management’s time and attention from our business, and require us to, among other things, redesign or stop providing our products or services, pay substantial amounts to satisfy judgments or settle claims or lawsuits, pay substantial royalty or licensing fees, or satisfy indemnification obligations that we have with certain parties with whom we have commercial relationships. Alternatively, we may, from time to time, determine to incur the costs required to obtain a third party patent license so as to avoid the uncertainty, significant costs and potentially negative publicity associated with patent litigation. We may not be able to obtain licenses to relevant intellectual property on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and such inability could materially harm or restrict our business. Even if we were able to obtain such a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same technologies licensed to us. In addition, we could be found liable for significant monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent or other intellectual property right. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could similarly harm our business.

Our use of open source software could compromise our ability to offer our products or services and subject us to possible litigation.

We use open source software in connection with our products and services. Companies that incorporate open source software into their products have, from time to time, faced claims challenging the use of open source software and compliance with open source license terms. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming noncompliance with open source licensing terms. While the use of open source software may reduce development costs and speed up the development process, it may also present certain risks that may be greater than those associated with the use of third-party commercial software. For example, open source software is generally provided without any warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement or the quality of the code, including the existence of security vulnerabilities. Despite our efforts to monitor our use of open source software and compliance with applicable license terms (for example through our using of monitoring software to assess vulnerability and licensing implication), we cannot guarantee we comply with all terms of open source licenses applicable to us, and we could be required by the terms

 

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of applicable open source software licenses to publicly disclose all or part of the proprietary source code to our software and/or make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. The terms of some open source licenses are ambiguous, and third parties may claim that we have violated terms of open source licenses even if we believe we comply. There is little legal precedent in this area and any actual or claimed requirement to disclose our proprietary source code or pay damages for breach of contract could harm our business and could help third parties, including our competitors, develop products and services that are similar to or better than ours. Any of the foregoing could be harmful to our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to comply with our obligations under license or technology agreements with third parties, we may be required to pay damages and we could lose license rights that are critical to our business.

We license certain intellectual property that is important to our business, including technologies, data and software from third parties, and in the future we may enter into additional agreements that provide us with licenses to valuable intellectual property, technology, or data. Certain of our agreements may provide that intellectual property arising under these agreements, such as data valuable to our business, will be owned by the counterparty, in which case, we may not have adequate rights to use such data or may not have exclusivity with respect to the use of such data, which could result in third parties, including our competitors, being able to use such data to compete with us. If we fail to comply with any of the obligations under our license agreements, we may be required to pay damages and the licensor may have the right to terminate the license. Termination by the licensor could cause us to lose valuable rights, and could prevent us from selling our products and services, or inhibit our ability to commercialize future products and services. Our business could suffer if any current or future licenses expire or are terminated, if the licensors fail to abide by the terms of the license, if the licensors fail to enforce licensed intellectual property against infringing third parties, if the licensed intellectual property rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable, or if we are unable to enter into necessary licenses on acceptable terms, or at all. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Changes in tax law, changes in our effective tax rate or exposure to additional tax liabilities could affect our profitability and financial condition.

We carry out our business operations through entities in multiple foreign jurisdictions. As such, we are required to file corporate income tax returns that are subject to foreign tax laws. The foreign tax liabilities are determined, in part, by the amount of operating profit generated in these different taxing jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate, earnings and operating cash flows could be adversely affected by changes in the mix of operating profits generated in countries with higher statutory tax rates as well as by the positioning of our cash balances globally. If statutory tax rates or tax bases were to increase or if changes in tax laws, regulations or interpretations were made that impact us directly, our effective tax rate, earnings and operating cash flows could be adversely impacted.

Any such adverse changes in the applicability of tax to us could increase the levels of taxation payable by us which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition to the possibility of a substantial tax burden being imposed on us, the risk that we may become subject to an increased level of taxation may result in us needing to change our corporate or operational structure, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, the tax authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements. For example, various levels of government and international organizations, such as the OECD and the EU, increasingly focus on future tax reform and any result from this development may create changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our effective tax rate. Additionally, tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate tax treatment of companies engaged in internet commerce and financial technology. These developing changes could affect our financial position and results of operations. In particular, due to the global nature of the internet, it is possible that tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels may attempt to regulate our transactions or levy new or revised sales & use taxes, VAT, digital services taxes, income taxes, or other taxes relating to our activities in the internet commerce and financial technology space. New or revised taxes, in particular, sales & use taxes, VAT, and similar taxes, including digital service taxes, would likely increase the cost of doing business. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

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Furthermore, any changes in other jurisdictions to the political and social perception of running a business out of a tax-friendly jurisdiction (such as Bermuda) or any action by HMRC or any other tax authority to investigate our tax arrangements could result in adverse publicity and reputational damage for us, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. For example, in January 2019, HMRC introduced its Profit Diversion Compliance Facility (“PDCF”), the focus of which is to target, and subsequently bring into the charge to tax, transactions which are considered to result in a diversion of profits from the UK corporation tax net. We are engaged in submissions and correspondence with HMRC in connection with the PDFC, primarily relating to legacy transfer pricing policies. Transfer pricing is an inherently subjective area requiring significant management judgments. If HMRC or any other tax authority is successful in challenging our tax arrangements, we may be liable for additional tax and penalties and interest related thereto, which may have a significant impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may be affected by Sections 1471-74 of the Code (“FATCA”) and other cross border automatic exchange of information provisions.

In light of FATCA, certain non-U.S. financial institutions (“foreign financial institutions” or “FFIs”) are required to register with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) to obtain a Global Intermediary Identification Number (“GIIN”) and comply with the terms of FATCA, including any applicable intergovernmental agreement (“IGA”) and any local laws implementing such agreement or FATCA. Based on our current operations and business activities, including our Digital Wallet business, we have registered certain of our subsidiaries, and may be required to register additional subsidiaries, as FFIs and will therefore be required to register with the IRS to obtain a GIIN, and required to comply with the terms of any applicable IGA. Failure to comply with FATCA (including as the same may be implemented under the terms of any applicable IGA) could subject certain payments of U.S. source fixed, determinable, annual, or periodical income made to us to 30% FATCA withholding tax. Further, our FFI subsidiaries would need to perform diligence on their existing and new customers, provided that their account balances reached certain thresholds, including obtaining self-certifications regarding the account holder’s citizenship or tax residence in the United States. They would then be required to report certain information about their U.S. accountholders to either the IRS or their local tax authorities (which will in turn provide such information to the IRS). This reporting requirement could potentially dissuade customers from doing business with us.

We are regularly subject to litigation, regulatory actions and government inquiries.

We may be and in some cases have been subject to claims, lawsuits (including class action lawsuits), government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other adverse legal proceedings involving areas such as intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy, data protection, biometric data processing, gambling, labor and employment, immigration, competition, accessibility, securities, tax, marketing and communications practices, commercial disputes, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions and other matters. See “Item 4.B. Business Overview—Legal Proceedings.” For example, Al’s Pals Pet Care, LLC, et al. filed a class action lawsuit in 2017 against Woodforest National Bank (“Woodforest”) and its former payment processing affiliate that we acquired in August 2017, Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions (“MCPS”). The lawsuit alleged, in claims extending back to December 2013, that sales agents of MCPS were enrolling merchants without properly disclosing that those merchants were switching payment services providers. In addition, it was alleged that merchants were assessed unauthorized charges by MCPS. Woodforest and Paysafe Payment Processing Solutions, LLC (“Paysafe Payment”), as successor to MCPS, settled the lawsuit in January 2019 for a maximum of $15 million. The settlement was funded from an escrow account established in connection with our acquisition of MCPS. The number and significance of disputes and inquiries may increase as our business expands in scale, scope and geographic reach, and our products and services increase in scale and complexity. In addition, the laws, rules and regulations affecting our business, including those pertaining to internet and mobile commerce, data protection, payments services, and credit, are subject to evolving interpretation by the courts and governmental authorities, and the resulting uncertainty in the scope and application of these laws, rules, and regulations increases the risk that we will be subject to private claims and governmental actions alleging liability on our part. Further, our focus on specialized industry verticals exposes us to a higher risk of losses resulting from investigations, regulatory actions and litigation. See “—Risks Related to Paysafe’s Business and Industry—Our focus on specialized industry verticals can increase our risks relative to other companies in our industry.”

The scope, outcome, and impact of any claims, lawsuits, government investigations, disputes, and other legal proceedings to which we are subject cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such matters can

 

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have an adverse impact, which may be material, on our business, financial condition and results of operations because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, reputational damage, and other factors. Determining reserves for our pending litigation and regulatory proceedings is a complex, fact-intensive process that involves a high degree of discretionary judgment. Resolving one or more of such legal and regulatory proceedings or other matters could potentially require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments, fines, or penalties or to settle claims or proceedings, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, criminal sanctions, consent decrees, or orders that prevent us from offering certain products or services, cause us to withdraw from certain markets or terminate certain relationships, require us to change our business practices in costly ways, or develop non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies. Any of these consequences could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

Risks Related to Paysafe’s Indebtedness

Our substantial leverage could adversely affect our financial condition, our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, our ability to operate our business, our ability to engage in acquisitions, our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry or our ability to pay our debts, and could divert our cash flow from operations to debt payments.

We are highly leveraged. As of December 31, 2020, on a pro forma basis after giving effect to the Business Combination, the total principal amount of our debt was approximately $2.1 billion. Subject to the limits contained in the credit agreements that govern our credit facilities, we may be able to incur substantial additional debt from time to time to finance working capital, capital expenditures, investments or acquisitions, or for other purposes. If we do so, the risks related to our high level of debt could increase. Specifically, our high level of debt could have important consequences, including the following:

 

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making it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to our debt;

 

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limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements;

 

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requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments instead of other purposes, thereby reducing the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;

 

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increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;

 

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exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings are at variable rates of interest;

 

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limiting our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in the industry in which we compete;

 

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placing us at a disadvantage compared to other, less leveraged competitors; and

 

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increasing our cost of borrowing.

We are a holding company, and our consolidated assets are owned by, and our business is conducted through, our subsidiaries. Revenue from these subsidiaries is our primary source of funds for debt payments and operating expenses. Our credit agreements contain covenants that restrict our subsidiaries from making distributions, subject to certain baskets and exceptions, which may impair our ability to meet our debt service obligations or otherwise fund our operations. Moreover, there may be restrictions on payments by subsidiaries to their parent companies under applicable laws, including laws that require companies to maintain minimum amounts of capital and to make payments to shareholders only from profits. As a result, although a subsidiary of ours may have cash, we may not be able to obtain that cash to satisfy our obligation to service our outstanding debt or fund our operations.

Despite our current level of indebtedness, we may be able to incur substantially more debt and enter into other transactions which could further exacerbate the risks to our financial condition described above.

We may be able to incur significant additional indebtedness in the future. Although certain of the agreements governing our existing indebtedness contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness and entering into certain types of other transactions, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions. Additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. These restrictions also

 

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do not prevent us from incurring obligations, such as trade payables, that do not constitute indebtedness as defined under our debt instruments. To the extent new debt is added to our current debt levels, the substantial leverage risks described in the immediately preceding risk factor would increase. See “Description of Certain Indebtedness” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our indebtedness service obligations to increase significantly.

Interest rates may increase in the future. As a result, interest rates on our variable rate credit facilities could be higher or lower than current levels. As of December 31, 2020, on a pro forma basis after giving effect to the Business Combination, the Company held approximately $2.1 billion of outstanding debt at variable interest rates. We have entered into interest rate caps maturing on December 31, 2021 and interest rate swaps maturing on December 31, 2023 with combined notional amounts of $1.9 billion, which may mitigate the exposure to changes in interest rates. However, if interest rates were to increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even where the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, would correspondingly decrease.

Further, our USD First Lien Term Loan, USD Second Lien Term Loan and First Lien Revolving Credit Facility (each, as defined in “Description of Certain Indebtedness”) bear interest at a rate that varies depending on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). The FCA, which regulates LIBOR, has announced that it intends to stop encouraging or requiring banks to submit LIBOR rates after 2021 and it is unclear if LIBOR will cease to exist or if new methods of calculating LIBOR will evolve. Changes in the method by which LIBOR is determined or the transition from LIBOR to a successor benchmark rate may result in, among other things, a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in LIBOR, a delay in the publication of LIBOR, and changes in the rules or methodologies in LIBOR, which may discourage market participants from continuing to administer or to participate in LIBOR’s determination, and, in certain situations, could result in LIBOR no longer being determined and published. If a published U.S. dollar LIBOR rate is unavailable after 2021, the interest rates on our USD First Lien Term Loan and USD Second Lien Term Loan will be determined using various alternative methods, any of which may result in interest obligations that are more than or do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on such debt if U.S. dollar LIBOR was available in its current form. Further, the same costs and risks that may lead to the discontinuation or unavailability of U.S. dollar LIBOR may make one or more of the alternative methods impossible or impracticable to determine. Any of these proposals or consequences could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our debt agreements impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and our subsidiaries, which could prevent us from capitalizing on business opportunities.

The agreements that govern our credit facilities impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us. These restrictions limit the ability of certain of our subsidiaries to, among other things:

 

•

incur additional indebtedness and make guarantees;

 

•

create liens on assets;

 

•

engage in mergers or consolidations or make fundamental changes;

 

•

sell assets;

 

•

pay dividends and distributions or repurchase share capital;

 

•

make investments, loans and advances, including acquisitions;

 

•

engage in certain transactions with affiliates;

 

•

enter into certain burdensome agreements;

 

•

make changes in the nature of their business; and

 

•

make prepayments of junior debt.

 

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In addition, with respect to the First Lien Revolving Credit Facility, certain of our subsidiaries are required to maintain a maximum consolidated first lien net leverage ratio not to exceed 9.00:1.00, tested at the end of each quarter in which the principal amount of the First Lien Revolving Credit Facility outstanding exceeds 40% of the total commitments under such facility at such time. Furthermore, the Paysafe Payment Credit Agreement requires Paysafe Payment to maintain, as of the last day of each four fiscal quarter period, (i) a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio, (ii) a maximum leverage ratio and (iii) a minimum liquidity amount. For additional information, see “Item 3.B. Capitalization and Indebtedness” of this Report.

As a result of these restrictions, we are limited as to how we conduct our business and we may be unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could include similar or more restrictive covenants. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders or amend the covenants.

Our failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above as well as other terms of our other indebtedness or the terms of any future indebtedness from time to time could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or are unable to refinance these borrowings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our business may be adversely impacted by changes in currency exchange rates.

As we operate across multiple jurisdictions and currencies, changes in currency exchange rates could lead to adverse impacts on our financial assets and liability, and in particular on our external debt and intercompany transactions. A deterioration in reported earnings as a result of currency exchange rate fluctuations could lead to a covenant breach and result in an event of default in our agreements relating to our outstanding indebtedness which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or are unable to refinance these borrowings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our failure to comply with the agreements relating to our outstanding indebtedness, including as a result of events beyond our control, could result in an event of default that could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and our financial condition.

If there were an event of default under any of the agreements relating to our outstanding indebtedness, the holders of the defaulted debt could cause all amounts outstanding with respect to that debt to be due and payable immediately. We cannot assure you that our assets or cash flows would be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under our outstanding debt instruments if accelerated upon an event of default. Further, if we are unable to repay, refinance or restructure our indebtedness under our secured debt, the holders of such debt could proceed against the collateral securing that indebtedness. In addition, any event of default or declaration of acceleration under one debt instrument could also result in an event of default under one or more of our other debt instruments.

Upon a change of control, all of our outstanding debt under our credit facilities would become immediately due and payable.

Upon a change of control, as defined under our Senior Facilities Agreement, all of our outstanding debt under the Senior Facilities Agreement would be immediately due and payable. A person or group of persons acting in concert (other than with the CVC Investors and the Blackstone Investors and any person directly or indirectly controlled by any of them) acquiring (directly or indirectly) more than 50% of the Company Common Shares would constitute a change of control under our credit agreements. In order to obtain sufficient funds to repay our debt if a change of control occurs, we expect that we would have to refinance our debt. We cannot assure you that we would be able to refinance our debt on reasonable terms, if at all. Our failure to repay all outstanding debt which becomes due and payable due to a change of control would trigger an event of default under the applicable credit agreement and may be an event of default under one or more of our other agreements. Moreover, such an event of default under one credit facility may cause the acceleration of our other debt under our other credit facilities. Our future debt also may contain restrictions on repayment requirements with respect to specified events or transactions that constitute a change of control under our debt agreements. Such restrictions could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company, including actions that our shareholders may deem advantageous, or negatively affect the trading price of the Company Common Shares.

 

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Repayment of our debt is dependent on cash flow generated by our subsidiaries, which may be subject to limitations beyond our control.

Our subsidiaries own all of our assets and conduct all of our operations. Accordingly, repayment of our indebtedness is dependent on the generation of cash flow by our subsidiaries and their ability to make such cash available by dividend, debt repayment or otherwise.

Unless they are obligors of our indebtedness, our subsidiaries do not have any obligation to pay amounts due on such indebtedness or to make funds available to the notes issuers for that purpose. Our non-guarantor subsidiaries may not be able to, or may not be permitted to, make distributions to enable us to make payments in respect of our indebtedness. Each non-guarantor subsidiary is a distinct legal entity and, under certain circumstances, legal and contractual restrictions may limit our ability to obtain cash from our non-guarantor subsidiaries. While limitations on our subsidiaries restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other intercompany payments, these limitations are subject to certain qualifications and exceptions.

In the event that we are unable to receive distributions from our subsidiaries or make other intercompany payments, we may be unable to make required principal and interest payments on our indebtedness.

Our inability to generate sufficient cash flow could affect our ability to execute our strategic plans.

Organic growth opportunities are an important element of our strategy. See “Item 4.B. Business Overview—Our Growth Strategies.” We may not generate sufficient cash flow to finance such growth plans. Consequently, the execution of our growth strategy may require access to external sources of capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. Limitations on our access to capital, including on our ability to issue additional debt or equity, could result from events or causes beyond our control, and could include decreases in our creditworthiness or profitability, significant increases in interest rates, increases in the risk premium generally required by investors, decreases in the availability of credit or the tightening of terms required by lenders. Any limitations on our ability to secure external capital, continue our existing finance arrangements or refinance existing financing obligations could limit our liquidity, financial flexibility or cash flow and affect our ability to execute our strategic plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our consolidated financial statements include significant intangible assets which could be impaired.

We carry significant intangible assets on our statement of financial position. As of December 31, 2020, on an adjusted basis after giving effect to the Business Combination, we had $1.5 billion of intangible assets, including $113.3 million in brands, and $3.5 billion in goodwill. Pursuant to current accounting rules, we are required to assess goodwill for impairment at least annually or more frequently if impairment indicators are present. Impairment indicators include, but are not limited to, significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, a significant decline in share price or market capitalization and negative industry or economic trends. If such events were to occur, the carrying amount of our goodwill may no longer be recoverable and we may be required to record an impairment charge. The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business was an impairment indicator that we assessed. See “—Risks Related to COVID-19—The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty and measures taken in response to the pandemic, could materially impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.” Due to the impairment indicators triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 and the effect of the resulting uncertainty on future performance, we performed an assessment of goodwill and intangible assets at March 31, 2020. We then performed our annual goodwill impairment test on October 1, 2020 and also assessed our intangible assets for impairment as of September 30, 2020 and for the most recent reporting date as of December 31, 2020. Should the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our revenue be more severe or of longer duration than assumed in the downside sensitivity, the goodwill balance may be at risk of impairment. Other intangible assets, such as trademarks and customer relationships, are amortized across their useful economic lives. However, if impairment indicators are present, we are required to test such intangible assets for impairment.

 

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Risks Related to the U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of the Business Combination and Paysafe

The IRS may not agree that Paysafe (i) should be treated as a non-U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes and (ii) should not be treated as a “surrogate foreign corporation” for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

Under current U.S. federal income tax law, a corporation generally will be considered to be a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes only if it is created or organized in the United States or under the law of the United States or of any State. Accordingly, under generally applicable U.S. federal income tax rules, Paysafe, which is not created or organized in the United States or under the law of the United States or of any State but is instead a Bermuda incorporated entity, would generally be classified as a non-U.S. corporation. Section 7874 of the Code and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder, however, contain specific rules that may cause a non-U.S. corporation to be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If it were determined that Paysafe is treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 7874 of the Code and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder, Paysafe would be liable for U.S. federal income tax on its income just like any other U.S. corporation and certain distributions made by Paysafe to non-U.S. holders of Paysafe’s securities would be subject to U.S. withholding tax. In addition, even if Paysafe is not treated as a U.S. corporation, it may be subject to unfavorable treatment as a “surrogate foreign corporation” in the event that ownership attributable to former FTAC Stockholders exceeds a threshold amount. If it were determined that Paysafe is treated as a surrogate foreign corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 7874 of the Code and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder, dividends by Paysafe would not qualify for “qualified dividend income” treatment, and U.S. affiliates of Paysafe could be subject to increased taxation under the inversion gain rules and Section 59A of the Code.

As more fully described in “Proposal No. 1—The Business Combination Proposal—Material Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations—Tax Treatment of Paysafe,” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference, Paysafe believes it should not be treated as a U.S. corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 7874 of the Code or otherwise be subject to unfavorable treatment as a surrogate foreign corporation under Section 7874 of the Code. However, whether the requirements for such treatment have been satisfied must be finally determined after the completion of the Business Combination, by which time there could be adverse changes to the relevant facts and circumstances. No IRS ruling has been requested or will be obtained in connection with the Business Combination. Furthermore, the interpretation of Treasury regulations relating to the required ownership of Paysafe is subject to uncertainty and there is limited guidance regarding their application. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the IRS will not take a contrary position to those described above or that a court will not agree with a contrary position of the IRS in the event of litigation.

If a United States person is treated as owning at least 10% of Company Common Shares, such person may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

If a United States person is treated as owning (directly, indirectly or constructively) at least 10% of the value or voting power of Company Common Shares, such person may be treated as a “United States shareholder” with respect to each of Paysafe and its direct and indirect subsidiaries (the “Paysafe Group”) that is a “controlled foreign corporation.” If the Paysafe Group includes one or more U.S. subsidiaries, under recently enacted rules, certain of Paysafe’s non-U.S. subsidiaries could be treated as controlled foreign corporations regardless of whether Paysafe is treated as a controlled foreign corporation (although there is currently a pending legislative proposal to significantly limit the application of these rules). Immediately following the Business Combination, the Paysafe Group includes a U.S. subsidiary.

A United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation may be required to report annually and include in its U.S. taxable income its pro rata share of the controlled foreign corporation’s “Subpart F income” and (in computing its “global intangible low-taxed income”) “tested income” and a pro rata share of the amount of U.S. property (including certain stock in U.S. corporations and certain tangible assets located in the United States) held by the controlled foreign corporation regardless of whether such controlled foreign corporation makes any distributions. Failure to comply with these reporting obligations (or related tax payment obligations) may subject such United States shareholder to significant monetary penalties and may prevent the statute of limitations with respect to such United States shareholder’s U.S. federal income tax return for the year for which reporting (or payment of tax) was due from starting. An individual that is a United States shareholder with respect to a controlled foreign corporation generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be

 

39

allowed to a United States shareholder that is a U.S. corporation. Paysafe cannot provide any assurances that it will assist holders in determining whether any of its non-U.S. subsidiaries are treated as a controlled foreign corporation or whether any holder is treated as a United States shareholder with respect to any of such controlled foreign corporations or furnish to any holder information that may be necessary to comply with reporting and tax paying obligations. United States persons should consult with their tax advisor regarding the potential application of these rules.

If Paysafe were a passive foreign investment company for United States federal income tax purposes for any taxable year, U.S. holders of Company Common Shares could be subject to adverse United States federal income tax consequences.

If Paysafe is or becomes a “passive foreign investment company,” or a PFIC, within the meaning of Section 1297 of the Code for any taxable year during which a U.S. holder (as defined in “Proposal No. 1—The Business Combination Proposal—Material Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations—U.S. Holders” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference) holds Company Common Shares, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences may apply to such U.S. holder. Paysafe does not believe that it was a PFIC for its prior taxable year and does not expect to be a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes for the current taxable year or in the foreseeable future. However, PFIC status depends on the composition of a company’s income and assets and the fair market value of its assets from time to time, as well as on the application of complex statutory and regulatory rules that are subject to potentially varying or changing interpretations. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that Paysafe will not be treated as a PFIC for any taxable year.

If Paysafe were treated as a PFIC, a U.S. holder of Company Common Shares may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences, such as taxation at the highest marginal ordinary income tax rates on capital gains and on certain actual or deemed distributions, interest charges on certain taxes treated as deferred, and additional reporting requirements. See “Proposal No. 1—The Business Combination Proposal—Material Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations—U.S. Holders—Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. holders of Company Common Shares should consult with their tax advisor regarding the potential application of these rules.

Risks Related to Paysafe’s Business, Operations and Corporate Structure Following the Business Combination

Paysafe will rely on its operating subsidiaries to provide it with funds necessary to meet Paysafe’s financial obligations and Paysafe’s ability to pay dividends may be constrained.

Paysafe operates through a holding structure. Paysafe is a holding company with no material, direct business operations. Paysafe’s only assets are its direct and indirect equity interests in its operating subsidiaries. As a result, Paysafe is dependent on loans, dividends and other payments from these subsidiaries to generate the funds necessary to meet its financial obligations, including the payment of dividends. The ability of Paysafe’s subsidiaries to make such distributions and other payments depends on their earnings and may be subject to contractual or statutory limitations, such as limitations imposed by Paysafe’s financing facilities to which Paysafe’s subsidiaries are borrowers or guarantors or the legal requirement of having distributable profits or distributable reserves. For additional information, see “Item 8.A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information” of this Report. As an equity investor in Paysafe’s subsidiaries, Paysafe’s right to receive assets upon a subsidiary’s liquidation or reorganization will be structurally subordinated to the claims of such subsidiary’s creditors. To the extent that Paysafe is recognized as a creditor of a subsidiary, its claims may still be subordinated to any security interest in or other lien on such subsidiary’s assets and to any of its debt or other obligations that are senior to Paysafe’s claims.

The actual payment of future dividends on the Company Common Shares and the amounts thereof depend on a number of factors, including, inter alia, the amount of distributable profits and reserves, including capital contribution reserves (which can be reduced by losses in a current year or carried forward from previous years), Paysafe’s capital expenditure and investment plans, revenue, profits, financial condition, Paysafe’s level of profitability, leverage ratio (as such term is defined under our credit agreements), applicable restrictions on the payment of dividends under applicable laws, compliance with credit covenants, general economic and market conditions, future prospects and such other factors as the Paysafe board of directors may deem relevant from time to

 

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time. There can be no assurance that the abovementioned factors will facilitate or allow adherence to Paysafe’s dividend policy. Paysafe’s ability to pay dividends may be impaired if any of the risks described in this section “Risk Factors” were to occur. As a result, Paysafe’s ability to pay dividends in the future may be limited and Paysafe’s dividend policy may change. Paysafe’s board of directors will revisit Paysafe’s dividend policy from time to time.

Our Principal Shareholders exercise significant influence over us and their interests may conflict with ours or yours in the future.

Our Principal Shareholders beneficially own approximately 49.5% of our Company Common Shares. Moreover, under the Company Bye-laws and the Shareholders Agreement with our Principal Shareholders, for so long as our Principal Shareholders retain significant ownership of us, we will agree to nominate to our board individuals designated by such shareholders. For so long as each such shareholder continues to own a significant percentage of our Company Common Shares, such shareholder will still be able to significantly influence the composition of our board of directors and the approval of actions requiring shareholder approval through their voting power. Accordingly, for such period of time, our Principal Shareholders will have significant influence with respect to our management, business plans and policies, including the appointment and removal of our officers. In particular, for so long as our Principal Shareholders continue to own a significant percentage of our Company Common Shares, such shareholder may be able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our board of directors and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could deprive you of an opportunity to receive a premium for your Company Common Shares as part of a sale of our company and ultimately might affect the market price of our Company Common Shares.

Paysafe has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting and if our remediation of such material weaknesses is not effective, or if we are unable to develop and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable laws and regulations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Management has identified the following material weaknesses, affecting each of the five components of the Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) by the Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (“COSO 2013”), which have caused management to conclude that as of December 31, 2020 we did not maintain an effective control framework:

 

•

Inadequate controls over key accounting judgment areas including capitalized development costs and purchase price allocations

 

•

Insufficient review of the completeness and accuracy of data inputs associated with certain key controls impacting multiple financial statement account balances and disclosures, including data inputs to the impairment model for acquired intangibles

We have concluded that these material weaknesses arose because, as a private company, we did not have the necessary business processes, systems, personnel and related internal controls necessary to satisfy the accounting and financial reporting requirements of a public company.

To address the material weaknesses related to our ineffective control framework as of December 31, 2020, we hired employees with extensive experience related to internal control over financial reporting. These employees have identified and assessed relevant risks of material misstatement. We have also designed and implemented new processes and controls in each of the areas impacted by the material weaknesses. We intend to continue to take steps to remediate the material weaknesses described above through hiring additional qualified accounting and financial reporting personnel, providing additional training, and further evolving our accounting processes and systems. While we have made good progress on remediation, we will not be able to fully remediate these material weaknesses until these steps have been completed and have been operating effectively for a sufficient period of time.

 

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Furthermore, we cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, and actions we may take in the future, will be sufficient to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or that they will prevent or avoid potential future material weaknesses. Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement may prevent us from detecting errors on a timely basis, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Effective internal control is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and is important to prevent fraud.

Beginning with our second annual report filed with the SEC, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an annual basis. If we are not able to complete our initial assessment of our internal controls and otherwise implement the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to certify as to the adequacy of our internal controls over financial reporting. Matters impacting our internal controls may cause us to be unable to report our financial information on a timely basis and thereby subject us to adverse regulatory consequences, including sanctions by the SEC or violations of applicable stock exchange listing rules, which may result in a breach of the covenants under our financing arrangements. There also could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. Confidence in the reliability of our financial statements also could suffer if we or our independent registered public accounting firm were to report a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. This could materially adversely affect us and lead to a decline in the price of our Company Common Shares.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of rules under the U.S. securities laws and are permitted to file less information with the SEC than a U.S. company. This may limit the information available to holders of the common shares.

We were founded in the UK in 1996 and were previously listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the time of the consummation of the Business Combination, the majority of our outstanding voting securities were directly and indirectly owned of record by non-U.S. residents. In addition, U.S. residents do not comprise a majority of our executive officers or directors, and most of our assets are located, and our business is principally administered, outside of the United States. As a result, we report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Under Rule 405 of the Securities Act, the determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter and, accordingly, the next determination will be made with respect to us on June 30, 2021.

As a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to public companies organized within the United States. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act, including the U.S. proxy rules under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. In addition, our officers and directors are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, while we expect to submit quarterly interim consolidated financial data to the SEC under cover of the SEC’s Form 6-K, we will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. public companies and will not be required to file quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K under the Exchange Act. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning our business than there would be if we were a U.S. public company. Additionally, certain accommodations in the NYSE corporate governance standards allow foreign private issuers, such as us, to follow “home country” corporate governance practices in lieu of the otherwise applicable corporate governance standards. The Company Bye-laws do not require shareholder approval for the issuance of authorized but unissued shares, including (i) in connection with the acquisition of shares, stock or assets of another company; (ii) when it would result in a change of control; (iii) when a share option or purchase plan is to be established or materially amended or other equity compensation arrangement made or materially amended, pursuant to which shares may be acquired by officers, directors, employees, or consultants; or (iv) in connection with certain private placements. To

 

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this extent, our practice varies from the requirements of the corporate governance standards of NYSE, which generally requires an issuer to obtain shareholder approval for the issuance of securities in connection with such events. While we do not currently intend to rely on any other home country accommodations, for so long as we qualify as a foreign private issuer, we may take advantage of them.

There can be no assurance we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of the NYSE for our securities.

If we fail to continue to meet the listing requirements of the NYSE, the Company Common Shares and Company Warrants may be delisted, and Paysafe and its shareholders could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

 

•

limited availability of market quotations for its securities;

 

•

limited amount of news and analyst coverage for Paysafe; and

 

•

decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.

We may lose our foreign private issuer status which would then require us to comply with the Exchange Act’s domestic reporting regime and cause us to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses.

For so long as we qualify as a foreign private issuer, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. We may no longer be a foreign private issuer as early as June 30, 2021 (the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter that follows the consummation of the Business Combination), which would require us to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to U.S. domestic issuers as of January 1, 2022. In order to maintain our current status as a foreign private issuer, either (a) a majority of our securities must be either directly or indirectly owned of record by non-residents of the United States or (b)(i) a majority of our executive officers or directors cannot be U.S. citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50% of our assets must be located outside the United States and (iii) our business must be administered principally outside the United States. If we lose our status as a foreign private issuer, we would be required to comply with the Exchange Act reporting and other requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, which are more detailed and extensive than the requirements for foreign private issuers. We may also be required to make changes in our corporate governance practices in accordance with various SEC and NYSE rules. For example, the annual report on Form 10-K requires domestic issuers to disclose executive compensation information on an individual basis with specific disclosure regarding the domestic compensation philosophy, objectives, annual total compensation (base salary, bonus, and equity compensation) and potential payments in connection with change in control, retirement, death or disability, while the annual report on Form 20-F permits foreign private issuers to disclose compensation information on an aggregate basis. We would also have to mandatorily comply with U.S. federal proxy requirements, and our officers, directors, and principal shareholders will become subject to the short-swing profit disclosure and recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act.

The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws if we are required to comply with the reporting requirements applicable to a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly higher than the cost we would incur as a foreign private issuer. As a result, we expect that a loss of foreign private issuer status would increase our legal and financial compliance costs and is likely to make some activities highly time consuming and costly. We also expect that if we were required to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, it would make it more difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors.

 

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The Company Bye-laws and Shareholders Agreement, as well as Bermuda law, contain provisions that could discourage acquisition bids or merger proposals, which may adversely affect the market price of our Company Common Shares.

The Company Bye-laws and Shareholders Agreement, as well as Bermuda law, contain provisions that may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, amalgamation, acquisition, or other change in control that shareholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your Company Common Shares. These provisions may also prevent or frustrate attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove our management. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:

 

•

authorizing blank check preference shares, which could be issued without shareholder approval and with voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our Company Common Shares;

 

•

providing that any action required or permitted to be taken by our shareholders must be taken at a duly called annual or special meeting of such shareholders and may not be taken by any consent in writing by such shareholders; provided that for so long as our Principal Shareholders beneficially own, collectively, at least 30% of the issued and outstanding shares carrying the right to vote at general meetings at the relevant time, any action (except the removal of a director or an auditor) which may be done by resolution of the shareholders in a general meeting may also be done by resolution in writing, signed by the shareholders who at the date of the notice of the resolution in writing represent not less than the minimum number of votes as would be required to pass the resolution if the resolution was voted on at a quorate meeting of the shareholders;

 

•

requiring, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, advance notice of shareholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our shareholders and for shareholder-proposed nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors;

 

•

establishing a classified board of directors, so that not all members of our board are elected at one time, with the election of directors requiring only a plurality of votes cast;

 

•

providing that certain actions required or permitted to be taken by our shareholders, including amendments to the Company Bye-laws and certain specified corporate transactions, may be effected only with the approval of our board of directors, in addition to any other vote required by the Company Bye-laws and/or applicable law;

 

•

prohibit us from engaging in a business combination with a person who acquires at least 10% of our Company Common Shares for a period of three years from the date such person acquired such common shares unless approved by the Company Board and authorized at an annual or special meeting of shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of our issued and outstanding voting shares that are not owned by such person, subject to certain exceptions. This provision shall not apply to our Principal Shareholders and any of their respective direct or indirect transferees;

 

•

limiting the filling of vacancies or newly created seats on the Company Board between general meetings to the decision of our board of directors then in office at any time when our Principal Shareholders beneficially own, collectively, less than 30% of the issued and outstanding shares carrying the right to vote at general meetings at the relevant time, subject to the rights granted to one or more series of preference shares then outstanding or the rights granted under the Shareholders Agreement; and

 

44

•

providing that directors may be removed by shareholders only by resolution with or without cause upon the affirmative vote of a majority of our issued and outstanding voting shares; provided, however, at any time when our Principal Shareholders beneficially own, collectively, less than 30% of the issued and outstanding shares carrying the right to vote at general meetings at the relevant time, directors may only be removed for cause (as determined by the Company Board), and only upon the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the issued and outstanding shares carrying the right to vote at general meetings at the relevant time, voting together as a single class.

The existence of the foregoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for common shares. They could also deter potential acquirers of our Company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you could receive a premium for your Company Common Shares in an acquisition. See “Description of the Company’s Securities” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference for a more detailed discussion of these provisions.

You may have difficulty enforcing judgments of U.S. courts against us in Bermuda courts.

We are organized as an exempted company pursuant to the laws of Bermuda. In addition, a number of our directors and executive officers are not residents of the United States, and a substantial portion of our assets and their assets are or may be located in jurisdictions outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for you to effect service of process within the United States upon those persons or us or to recover against them or us on judgments of U.S. courts, including judgments predicated upon civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws.

We have been advised that there is no treaty in force between the United States and Bermuda providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. As a result, whether a U.S. judgment would be enforceable in Bermuda against us or our directors and officers depends on whether the U.S. court that entered the judgment is recognized by the Bermuda court as having jurisdiction over us or our directors and officers, as determined by reference to Bermuda conflict of law rules. A judgment debt from a U.S. court that is final and for a sum certain based on U.S. federal securities laws will not be automatically enforceable in Bermuda unless the judgment debtor had submitted to the jurisdiction of the U.S. court, and the issue of submission and jurisdiction is a matter of Bermuda (not U.S.) law.

In addition, and irrespective of jurisdictional issues, the Bermuda courts will not enforce a U.S. federal securities law that is either penal or contrary to Bermuda public policy. We have been advised that an action brought pursuant to a public or penal law, the purpose of which is the enforcement of a sanction, power or right at the instance of the state in its sovereign capacity, will not be entertained by a Bermuda court. Certain remedies available under the laws of U.S. jurisdictions, including certain remedies under U.S. federal securities laws, would not be available under Bermuda law or enforceable in a Bermuda court, as they would be contrary to Bermuda public policy. Further, no claim may be brought in Bermuda against us or our directors and officers in the first instance for violation of U.S. federal securities laws because these laws have no extraterritorial jurisdiction under Bermuda law and do not have force of law in Bermuda. A Bermuda court may, however, impose civil liability on us or our directors and officers if the facts alleged in a complaint constitute or give rise to a cause of action under Bermuda law.

Our shareholders may have more difficulty protecting their interests than shareholders of a U.S. corporation.

The rights of shareholders under Bermuda law are not as extensive as the rights of shareholders under legislation or judicial precedent in many U.S. jurisdictions. Class actions and derivative actions are generally not available to shareholders under Bermuda law. However, Bermuda courts ordinarily would be expected to follow English case law precedent, which would permit a shareholder to commence an action in the name of a company to remedy a wrong done to a company where the act complained of is alleged to be beyond the corporate power of a company, is illegal or would result in the violation of that company’s memorandum of association or bye-laws. Furthermore, consideration would be given by a Bermuda court to allow derivative action rights where acts that are

 

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alleged to constitute a fraud against the minority shareholders or where an act requires the approval of a greater percentage of our shareholders than actually approved it. The winning party in such an action generally would be able to recover a portion of attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with such action.

We will incur increased costs and become subject to additional regulations and requirements as a result of becoming a public company, which could lower our profits or make it more difficult to run our business.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we have not incurred as a private company, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements. We also will incur costs associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related rules implemented by the SEC and the NYSE. The expenses incurred by public companies generally for reporting and corporate governance purposes have been increasing. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly, although we are currently unable to estimate these costs with any degree of certainty. These laws and regulations also could make it more difficult or costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we may be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. These laws and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as our executive officers. Furthermore, if we are unable to satisfy our obligations as a public company, we could be subject to delisting of our Company Common Shares, fines, sanctions and other regulatory action and potentially civil litigation.

There may not be an active trading market for our Company Common Shares, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities and make it difficult for you to sell our Company Common Shares.

Prior to the consummation of the Business Combination, there was no public trading market for our Company Common Shares. It is possible that after the consummation of the Business Combination an active trading market will not develop or continue or, if developed, that any market will be sustained which would make it difficult for you to sell your Company Common Shares at an attractive price or at all.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they downgrade their recommendations regarding our Company Common Shares, the price of our Company Common Shares and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Company Common Shares will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If any of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Company Common Shares or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our Company Common Shares may decline. If analysts cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price of our Company Common Shares or trading volume to decline and our Company Common Shares to be less liquid.

We may issue additional Company Common Shares or other securities without shareholder approval, which would dilute existing ownership interests and may depress the market price of Company Common Shares.

Paysafe may issue additional Company Common Shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, repayment of outstanding indebtedness or Paysafe’s equity incentive plan, without shareholder approval, in a number of circumstances.

Paysafe’s issuance of additional Company Common Shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank would have the following effects:

 

•

Existing Paysafe Shareholders’ proportionate ownership interest in Paysafe may decrease;

 

•

the amount of cash available per share, including for payment of dividends in the future, may decrease;

 

•

the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding Company Common Shares may be diminished; and

 

•

the market price of Company Common Shares may decline.

 

46

Future sales of the Company Common Shares issued to the Existing Paysafe Shareholders and other significant shareholders may cause the market price of Company Common Shares to drop significantly, even if Paysafe’s business is doing well.

Under the Merger Agreement, the Existing Paysafe Shareholders will receive, among other things, a significant amount of Company Common Shares. Pursuant to the Shareholders Agreement, the Existing Paysafe Shareholders will be restricted from selling any of the Company’s securities that they receive as a result of the share exchange during the six month period after the closing date of the Business Combination, subject to certain exceptions.

Subject to the Shareholders Agreement, the Existing Paysafe Shareholders and certain other shareholders party to the Shareholders Agreement may sell Company’s securities pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act, if available. In these cases, the resales must meet the criteria and conform to the requirements of that rule, including, because FTAC and Paysafe are currently shell companies, waiting until one year after Paysafe’s filing of this Report reflecting the Business Combination.

Upon expiration or waiver of the applicable lock-up periods, and upon effectiveness of the registration statement Paysafe files pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement or upon satisfaction of the requirements of Rule 144 under the Securities Act, the Existing Paysafe Shareholders and certain other significant shareholders may sell large amounts of the Company’s securities in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, which could have the effect of increasing the volatility in Paysafe’s share price or putting significant downward pressure on the price of the Company Common Shares.

Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our Company Common Shares, you may not receive any return on your investment unless you sell your Company Common Shares for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

We have no current plans to pay cash dividends. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends on our Company Common Shares 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 and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our shareholders 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 our credit facilities and may be limited by covenants of other indebtedness we or our subsidiaries incur in the future. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our Company Common Shares unless you sell your Company Common Shares for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

The market price of our Company Common Shares may be volatile, which could cause the value of your investment to decline.

Even if a trading market develops, the market price of our Company Common Shares may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. Securities markets worldwide experience significant price and volume fluctuations. This market volatility, as well as general economic, market or political conditions, could reduce the market price of our Company Common Shares regardless of our operating performance. In addition, our operating results could be below the expectations of public market analysts and investors due to a number of potential factors, including variations in our quarterly operating results or dividends, if any, to shareholders, additions or departures of key management personnel, failure to meet analysts’ earnings estimates, publication of research reports about our industry, litigation and government investigations, changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations or differing interpretations or enforcement thereof affecting our business, adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or securities we may issue in the future, changes in market valuations of similar companies or speculation in the press or investment community, announcements by our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, dispositions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments, adverse publicity about the industries we participate in or individual scandals, and in response the market price of our Company Common Shares could decrease significantly. You may be unable to resell your Company Common Shares at or above the initial public offering price.

In the past few years, stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. In the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

 

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ITEM 4.

INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

 

A.	History and Development of the Company

Paysafe Limited was incorporated by PGHL under the laws of Bermuda on November 23, 2020 for the purpose of effectuating the Business Combination described herein and became the parent company of the combined business following the consummation of the Business Combination, which was consummated on March 30, 2021. See “Explanatory Note” for further details regarding the Business Combination. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” for a discussion of Paysafe’s principal capital expenditures and divestitures for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020. There are no material capital expenditures or divestitures currently in progress as of the date of this Report.

The mailing address of Paysafe Limited’s registered office is c/o M Q Services Ltd., Victoria Place, 31 Victoria Street, Hamilton HM10, Bermuda. It is the intention that, in the longer term, the affairs of Paysafe will be conducted so that the central management and control of Paysafe is exercised in the UK with its principal executive office located at 25 Canada Square, 27th Floor, London, United Kingdom E14 5LQ and its telephone number is +44 (0) 207 608 8460. The Company’s principal website address is www.paysafe.com. We do not incorporate the information contained on, or accessible through, the Company’s websites into this Report, and you should not consider it as a part of this Report. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website is www.sec.gov.

 

B.	Business Overview

Overview

Paysafe is a leading, global pioneer in digital commerce with over $92 billion in volume processed in 2020 and $98 billion processed in 2019. Paysafe generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2020 and $1.4 billion in revenue in 2019, with net losses of $127 million and $110 million during the same periods, respectively. We empower over 15 million active users in more than 120 countries and over 250,000 SMBs across the United States, Canada and Europe to conduct secure and friction-less commerce across online, mobile, in-app and in-store channels, generating over 75% of our revenue from Online and Integrated Commerce solutions. We focus on specialized and high-risk verticals, including iGaming (which encompasses a broad selection of online betting related to sports, esports, fantasy sports, poker and other casino games) and Emerging Markets (which include stock, FX and crypto trading, direct marketing, which can include nutraceuticals and multi-level marketing, travel and entertainment, integrated payments and digital goods). These revenue streams represented approximately $1.1 billion, or 74%, of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020. We believe that an increasing percentage of digital commerce around the world is becoming too complex for traditional retail payment services, many of which still use legacy business processes and technologies that were developed 10 or more years ago to address an earlier generation of eCommerce. These legacy platforms lack the specialized functionality, sophisticated risk management and robust regulatory compliance infrastructures required to address this large and fast-growing area of the market.

To address this opportunity, we have developed a suite of innovative, proprietary digital commerce solutions that we deploy across the Paysafe Network, a unique combination of Business to Business (“B2B”) and Business to Consumer (“B2C”) relationships. These solutions help (1) solve the complexities of facilitating digital commerce, (2) remove significant friction and pain points from the customer experience, (3) enable our business and consumer clients to transact in a faster, safer and more convenient manner and (4) help our business customers grow their operations by bringing active users to their platforms. Our solutions extend well beyond the basic card-based payments functionality of traditional payment vendors and target an addressable market that is over 2x larger by providing the advanced capabilities of digital wallets, alternative payment methods (“APMs”) and digital currency transactions, which together can address an estimated $58 trillion in global personal consumption expenditures, according to a 2019 report from Mastercard. These include:

 

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The #2 Global Stored-Value Digital Wallet Solution—that enables users to upload, store, withdraw, pay and send funds from a branded virtual account that can transact in over 15 languages and over 40 currencies and is integrated with close to 70 alternative payment methods, or APMs, from around the world1;

 

 

1	Derived from analysis by Paysafe management that (i) excludes stored credential wallets (e.g. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay) and closed loop wallets (e.g. retailer-led) and (ii) is based on 120+ markets currently served.

 

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•

The #1 eCash Network—that enables users to transform cash at over 650,000 locations across 50 countries into a proprietary digital currency accessed by a mobile app, a virtual account or a user code and used for online gaming, video games, mobile commerce, or in-app purchases; and

 

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The #4 Independent Merchant Acquiring Solution in the United States—that enables SMBs to conduct eCommerce, software-integrated commerce and in-store commerce more effectively by utilizing our single API, proprietary gateway, data tokenization, risk management and fraud tools and over 150 integrated software vendor (“ISV”) integrations to process credit card, debit card and APM services seamlessly.

We create a powerful and differentiated, end-to-end offering with global and vertical-specific capabilities for our clients by combining three key elements of our business to create distinct competitive advantages in the market, as illustrated below. These include:

 

1.

Our global digital commerce solutions, which we deliver across the Paysafe Network;

 

2.

Our 20 years of global expertise and entrepreneurial culture in solving and simplifying the complexities of digital commerce beyond traditional payments; and

 

3.

Our global platform of capabilities, which includes:

 

a.

Unity, our proprietary, cloud-based technology platform;

 

b.

Highly sophisticated global risk management and compliance operations, embedded into almost all of our offices and consisting of over 300 professionals with significant expertise in risk and regulatory compliance; and

 

c.

The Paysafe Expansion Playbook, our proven and repeatable ability to source, consolidate and unlock value from emerging digital commerce solutions and ecosystems.

 

We believe this unique combination has enabled us to become a global leader in attractive digital commerce market segments, such as iGaming (which encompasses a broad selection of online betting related to sports, esports, fantasy sports, poker and other casino games), gaming (multi-player online games) and eCommerce platforms, which are

 

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large, fast-growing and have significant expansion potential around the world, but which also have specific service requirements that are difficult for traditional vendors to provide. For example:

 

•

Paysafe is a global leader in iGaming payment services, which encompasses a broad selection of online betting related to sports, esports, fantasy sports, poker and other casino games. This vertical is highly regulated and requires significant technology development and compliance infrastructure to facilitate cross-border commerce and the penetration of new markets, such as the United States and South East Asia, which are opening due to favorable secular and regulatory trends and the increasing use of smartphones as a primary interface. Paysafe already serves over 1,000 operators across our global iGaming market. According to reports by EDC and H2 Gambling Capital, the global iGaming market is projected to grow significantly over the next five years, from $77 billion in transaction volume in 2020 to $135 billion in transaction volume by 2025—a 12% CAGR (these estimates exclude North America and China). The iGaming market is also projected to grow at a 15% CAGR in Canada during the same time frame and at a 55% CAGR in the United States from 2019 to 2025, with the potential to reach nearly $50 billion in volume by 2025 in North America based on industry reports and management estimates. As a global leader, Paysafe launched its iGaming services in (1) Canada in 2010, covering 100% of all card processing there, and (2) the United States in 2013, where our iGaming services are already live in 14 states and used by over 34 operators—representing approximately 75% of all iGaming operators in the U.S. market.

 

•

Paysafe is a global leader in payments services to eSports, console games and multi-player online games. Our eCash solution, paysafecard, has established itself as a top payment method in gaming and we support payments across the leading gaming merchants, including Sony PlayStation, Google Play, Stadia, Steam, Wargaming.net, Riot Games, Roblox, Twitch, EPIC Games, Ubisoft, Mojang, Innogames, Facebook, Activision Blizzard and others. paysafecard enables these gaming merchants to accept eCash payments, resulting in higher conversion rates and new customer acquisition, which comes from a customer segment untapped by the conventional payment options. Based on the success of our eCash services, we have also begun to cross-sell our Digital Wallet and Integrated Processing Solutions to some of these gaming merchants, increasing the continuity of our relationships.

 

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Paysafe is a global leader in eCommerce payment services. We support numerous eCommerce platforms and online marketplaces to enable them to accept various payments inside of their ecosystems. Our Skrill digital wallet supports a wide range of eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Wix, Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop. We have also integrated our services with large online marketplaces that sell their own goods services as well as the inventories of third-party merchants. For example, we enable users to load funds onto their Amazon account via Paysafecash, allowing them to pay for goods and services using cash. Through our systems, a user can generate a unique barcode for a transaction on Amazon and use that code to pay in cash at one of our 190,000 participating locations: our systems will then credit the payment to the users’ Amazon account, allowing Amazon to complete the transaction and initiate an email confirmation of the payment to the user. We also enable paysafecard users to pay for content and services on across various Google platforms in over 16 countries, such as the Google Play Store, YouTube and Stadia, and have enabled the auto-provisioning of our Skrill prepaid and NET+ cards into Google Pay.

Consumers in these and other verticals are also attracted to the differentiated functionality of our digital wallet and digital currency solutions that enable them to load funds onto a stored value account that can be used easily and flexibly online, through a mobile device or an integrated app. Many of our consumer clients come from the lucrative younger demographic of Millennial and Generation Z users, who either do not have a bank account, credit or debit card or who often prefer not to use their bank account, credit or debit cards online, are attracted to the additional security of our solutions and want to control their spending more effectively.

We go to market, serve and support our clients through an omni-channel model that leverages the global reach and B2B and B2C relationships of our Paysafe Network. This enables us to manage and serve our clients through our network of offices around the world with strong knowledge of local and regional markets, customs and regulatory environments. We sell our solutions through a combination of direct and indirect sales strategies. We have a direct sales force of 63 associates who build and develop relationships with larger merchants and help them configure or develop digital and point-of-sale commerce solutions from our suite technology services. We sell our

 

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solutions online to smaller merchants using targeted marketing campaigns designed to address specific use cases across verticals, geographies and user profiles. We also leverage a network of partners, such as ISVs and independent sales organizations (“ISOs”), who integrate our solutions into their own services or resell our solutions by utilizing their own sales initiatives.

We operate across three business segments, which provide our digital commerce solutions to different end markets. These are:

 

•

Our Digital Wallet segment which includes our global NETELLER® and Skrill® wallet brands. This segment accounted for 28% of revenue in 2020, of which 100% of our revenue came from Online solutions generated by approximately 3.5 million active users.

 

•

Our eCash Solutions segment which includes our Paysafecash® and paysafecard® digital currency brands. This segment accounted for 23% of revenue in 2020, generated by approximately 13 million active users, over 650,000 distribution points and 2,800 redeemable online stores.

 

•

Our Integrated Processing segment which includes our Paysafe® and Petroleum Card Services® merchant acquiring brands. This segment accounted for 50% in 2020, of which 50% of our revenue came from Online and Integrated Commerce solutions generated by over 250,000 SMBs and over 150 ISVs.

We typically generate revenue across our solutions based on per transaction fees that are calculated as a percentage of the transaction dollar volume, a fixed per transaction fee or a combination of both. We generate these fees when funds are loaded onto wallets or cards, when funds are used to make transactions or when we process a transaction on behalf of our merchants or partners. In certain cross-border transactions, we may also generate revenue from foreign exchange fees.

In 2019, we generated $98 billion of total payment volume and $1.4 billion in revenue, up 28% and 24% year-over-year, respectively. During the same period, we had a net loss of $110 million and generated $466 million of Adjusted EBITDA, a change of 177% and 14% year-over-year, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we generated $92 billion of total payment volume and $1.4 billion in revenue, down 7% and up 1% year-over-year, respectively. During the same period, we had a net loss of $127 million and generated $426 million of Adjusted EBITDA, a change of 15% and -9% year-over-year, respectively. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” of this Report for additional information relating to non-GAAP measures presented in this Report and for a reconciliation of such non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

Our Journey & Evolution as a Pioneer in Digital Commerce

Since our foundation in 1996, we have pioneered and continue to innovate around the development of digital payment solutions that help reduce complexity and expand payment alternatives for merchants and consumers. We have evolved since then by strengthening our domain expertise, adding new capabilities and extending our market reach to build on our early mover advantages in digital commerce and establish ourselves as a scaled market leader across all of our business segments. Some of the key milestones in our evolution include:

 

•

Our Foundations and Pioneering of Digital Commerce—We began as an eCommerce gateway in the UK called NETBANX in 1996 and the first customer to sign up for our system was Arsenal Football Club. Separately, the NETeller Group was established in May 2000 in Canada to commercialize an e-Wallet concept it had been developing to fund internet-based transactions without the security risk of processing each transaction at each separate merchant site.

 

•

Our Expansion and Consolidation—Adoption of the NETELLER® system grew rapidly in the early 2000s as merchants and consumers benefited from the ease of use of our solutions and the growing number of funding sources and alternative payment methods that could be used to fund our digital accounts.

 

•

In 2004, NETeller plc conducted an initial public offering and listed its shares on the AIM Stock Exchange in 2004 and in 2005 it acquired NETBANX.

 

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•

In 2008 the company changed its name to Neovia Financial plc (“Neovia”) as part of a wider rebranding strategy to differentiate the company from is various solutions, NETELLER®, NETBANX® and NET+, a prepaid card product.

 

•

In 2011, Neovia acquired substantially all of the assets of 7012985 Canada Inc. and changed its name to Optimal Payments plc (“Optimal Payments”).

 

•

In 2014 and 2015, Optimal Payments acquired five additional companies including the Skrill Group, which included the Skrill and paysafecard businesses. In November 2015, Optimal Payments changed its name to Paysafe Group plc, incorporated in the Isle of Man.

 

•

In December 2015, Paysafe Group plc listed its shares on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

 

•

Our Privatization and Significant Investment in the Business—In December 2017, a consortium led by CVC Capital Partners and The Blackstone Group agreed to acquire Paysafe for approximately a $4 billion U.S. dollar equity value, the largest private equity backed privatization of a London-listed company since the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the Company’s shares were delisted from the London Stock Exchange in December 2017.

Our Large & Fast-Growing Market Opportunity

We believe that an increasing percentage of digital commerce around the world is becoming too complex for traditional payment and eCommerce services providers using legacy business models, payment solutions and risk management platforms to support an aging generation of retail eCommerce solutions. These legacy platforms and vendors lack the specialized functionality, sophisticated risk management and robust regulatory compliance infrastructures required to address a large and fast-growing area of the market, which includes digital wallets, APMs and digital currency transactions. Consumers in these verticals are attracted to the differentiated functionality of these next-generation solutions, which enable them to load funds or cash onto a virtual stored-value account that can be used easily and flexibly online, through a mobile device, or inside an integrated app. Many of these users come from the desirable demographic of Millennials and Generation Z users, who either do not have a bank account or often prefer to use alternative payment methods as they are less comfortable using their bank account, credit card, or debit card online. Instead they are attracted to the additional functionality and security features of these solutions, which enable them to engage in digital commerce and control their spending more effectively. According to a 2019 report from Mastercard, the total global addressable market for personal consumption expenditures that can be addressed with a card product, such as a credit or debit card, was $28 trillion. However, the global addressable market that includes person-to-person payments and personal cash and checks, which are more closely associated with digital wallets, APMs and digital currencies, was $58 trillion, more than two times larger.

Our eCash Solutions segment make online payments accessible to a market of over 60 million American users and over 500 million European users who may not have a credit card or who prefer to pay with cash. COVID-19 has accelerated the need to transact online and has consequently had a discriminating effect on this consumer segment. We see significant long-term opportunities to provide an eCash payment solution in key categories such as rental payments, utilities, telco, healthcare and government.

Key Market Trends

The traditional global electronic payments market is projected to grow 6% annually according to the 2019 Global Payments Study by the Boston Consulting Group. In the United States, total purchase volume of credit and debit cards is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6% from 2019 to 2024, according to the Nilson Report. We focus on serving the SMB segment in the United States, which compares favorably to the total credit and debit card market with a projected annual growth rate of 8%, according to a report by The Strawhecker Group. In addition, we are positioned in key market segments that are being impacted by favorable trends which are driving faster growth and changing the way digital commerce and payments are being implemented. For example:

 

•

Growth in Digital Commerce—The growth of the Internet, the decreasing costs of technology used to access the Internet and the increasing adoption of electronic payments has helped drive more commerce to online channels. We believe this migration will continue as market demographics shift to

 

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newer generations of consumers who use the Internet and mobile smartphones more heavily and engage in more forms of digital commerce, such as online gaming and social commerce. According to a 2019 report by eMarketer, global eCommerce spending as a percentage of global retail spending is projected to increase from 13.6% in 2019 to 21.4% in 2024 as volumes grow from $3.4 trillion in 2019 to $6.3 trillion in 2024, a CAGR of 13%.

 

•

Growth in Digital Wallets—Consumer adoption of digital wallets is expected to continue growing at a rapid pace. According to a 2020 report by FIS, digital wallets will represent half of global eCommerce sales by 2023. In addition, a 2020 report by Allied Market Research projects that the mobile wallet market will grow from $1.04 trillion in 2019 to $7.6 trillion in 2027, a CAGR of 28%. Digital person-to-person volumes, which are facilitated by digital wallets, were also projected to grow nearly 28% from 2019 to 2020 by eMarketer.

 

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Growth in Integrated Commerce—As the costs of technology have decreased, access to the internet has increased and SaaS software has become easier to use. SMB businesses are increasingly using more technologies at the point of sale (“POS”) to help them run their operations more efficiently. As a result, technology companies, such as smart device vendors and ISVs, are adding more commerce-enabling features, such as payments and loyalty applications, into their core offerings. These firms are increasingly partnering with digital commerce solutions providers to integrate these features as seamlessly as possible. According to a study by Glenbrook Partners, ISV-driven payment revenues in the United States are projected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 11% from 2017 to 2021, which compares favorably to estimated growth for all digital payments of approximately 6% annually through 2028, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group.

 

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Increased Adoption of Cash in the Digital World—Online and brick and mortar merchants are continuing to adopt prepaid and eCash solutions. Prepaid and eCash payments acceptance allows merchants to access a large market of cash-based security-conscious and unbanked consumers. The global prepaid cards market is expected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2027, growing at a 16% CAGR between 2020-2027, according to a report by Allied Market Research. We believe that we are a leading player in the eCash market, connecting merchants with millions of cash-based consumers across a number of high-growth verticals and geographies.

 

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Shift to Alternative Payment Methods—As consumers increasingly migrate their commercial activities online and engage in more cross-border transactions, we believe they are looking to use the convenient local payment methods that they use every day to conduct their local purchases. In return, businesses are looking for partners who can provide them with the abilities to seamlessly integrate and accept a growing number of APMs from around the world.

 

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Shift to Universal Commerce Engagement—Consumer shopping habits are increasingly involving engagement across channels and the combination of payments and loyalty applications, such as digital offers and smart incentives. For example, a consumer can view items online and purchase in-store with a digital reward or buying online using targeted digital incentives. We believe these trends are incentivizing businesses to manage their customer-facing operations, including their retail presence, inventory, incentive programs, payment acceptance alternatives, returns and customer service, across all available channels—in store, online and mobile. As a result, businesses are gravitating to payments partners with the capability to provide integrated solutions that can manage across all channels with highly sophisticated engagement, payment, reporting and data management and analytics capabilities.

 

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The Payments Industry is Continuing to Rapidly Consolidate—Strategic and Financial buyers of payments businesses are expected to continue to pursue deals that enhance scale, technology capabilities and vertical and geographic expansion. We believe M&A will continue to be an attractive growth opportunity for the sector and believe we are well-positioned to be a leading M&A platform in the space. We have a broad and successful track-record of M&A execution and integration and believe there are a number of actionable targets across our three core business segments.

 

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Rising Demand for Integrated Multi-Solution Payments Platforms—eCommerce and brick and mortar merchants are continuing to demand partnering with highly sophisticated payments providers with a broad range of solutions. As the global consumer evolves, the leaders in payments technology are best equipped to help their merchants provide multiple transaction methods, content and highly

 

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specialized vertical-specific value-added services all-in-one to serve these consumers. We believe that merchants will continue to demand payments partners with integrated solutions provided seamlessly across a single platform. We believe that our solutions, platform and technology will continue to attract merchants and consumers to our platform.

 

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COVID-19 Crisis Has Accelerated Adoption Trends—The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting limitations on regular brick and mortar commerce has resulted in an acceleration of the shift towards digital commerce. We believe this acceleration is likely to have a long-term benefit on the rate of adoption of digital wallets and integrated commerce.

Key Market Challenges

As a result of these market trends, we believe businesses and consumers are facing challenges, which pose risks and opportunities for vendors in our market. These include:

 

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Need for Omni-Channel Engagement—Consumers are increasingly demanding the ability to engage with businesses and merchants seamlessly across in-store, online and mobile channels, using traditional and alternative payment methods, across geographic borders, with feature-rich yet simple customer experiences. As a result, businesses are looking for commerce enabling partners that can assist them with these capabilities and the advanced data and insights needed to manage their businesses more effectively, through a unified offering and a single integration.

 

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Need for Global Capabilities—Businesses are increasingly demanding service providers and partners capable of serving their needs across a broad range of geographic markets and do not want to manage the complexity associated with having multiple providers and partners in separate markets. As a result, the need for global platforms with global service, support and risk management capabilities are becoming more important.

 

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Need for Strong Regulatory & Risk Management—As commerce across borders, channels and technologies continues to evolve, we believe risk management and regulatory compliance requirements will become more complex. This will present both challenges and opportunities for participants and require digital commerce enabling partners to build and provide a strong regulatory compliance expertise that will not expose customers to unnecessary risks.

 

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Need for Strong Security & Data Protection—The shift to digital commerce and increasing use of data has resulted in larger amounts of sensitive information being transmitted and stored electronically by a growing number of consumers, businesses and government entities. High-profile data breaches have increased awareness, concern and regulation covering data use, storage and protection. As a result, we believe consumers and businesses are increasingly looking to engage with vendors that have strong global risk management expertise and infrastructures.

Key Verticals & Trends

Within Digital Commerce, we serve a number of specific industry verticals and have established a strong position in iGaming and Emerging Markets, which we have identified as our key verticals because Paysafe believes there is significant market potential for growth and expansion in these areas, and Paysafe is committed to focusing on opportunities for organic and inorganic growth in iGaming and Emerging Markets.

 

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iGaming Vertical—We operate in the global iGaming vertical, which encompasses a broad selection of online betting related to sports, esports, fantasy sports, poker and other casino games, as well as lotteries and bingo. The iGaming industry is highly regulated, and participation requires specific expertise, significant technology development and compliance infrastructure to facilitate cross-border commerce successfully. Laws governing the vertical are complex, vary considerably by geography and are continually evolving, which creates a significant opportunity to provide value-added services to iGaming providers due to a strong focus on risk management. The ability to develop and offer products and services that comply with applicable regulations provides valuable advantages to address this large and attractive market opportunity. For example, the initial and anticipated ongoing legalization of sports betting in the United States opened a very large market opportunity for iGaming providers capable of offering compliant products and services. iGaming is expected to account for an

 

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increasing percentage of the overall global gaming market as technology innovation paves the way for enhanced product offerings and increased digital access by consumers. For example, key growth drivers in the vertical include: (1) increased access to the internet and continued smartphone penetration, (2) growing consumer preference for online gaming alternatives to physical locations and (3) continuous product development and improvements, including iGaming-related apps that offer increased convenience and better overall user experiences. Revenue from our iGaming vertical for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $503.3 million, $455.1 million and $371.6 million, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we revised our methodology for allocating consumer fee revenue to this vertical in order to provide a more representative view of our exposure to iGaming. The impact of this change on the revenues previously reported for the iGaming vertical for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, would have been an increase of $19.6 million and $49.1 million, respectively.

 

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Emerging Markets vertical – We focus on a number of emerging and fast-growing industries that we consider as part of our Emerging Markets vertical. This includes Integrated Payments, where we leverage our specialized processing capabilities to provide solutions for thousands of merchants. Merchants in this sector, including ISVs, can benefit from our gateway, multiple APMs and risk management capabilities. We also include Fintech Services, where we support financial trading merchants across stocks, FX and crypto, as well as consumer-focused remittance. Travel & Entertainment, including hospitality and recreation, is an area where our risk management capabilities enable us to support merchants that are struggling to get the service they need from the market. Finally, Digital Goods is led predominantly by our eCash Solutions business, supporting social, streaming and gaming merchants online. Revenue from our Emerging Markets vertical for the years ending December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $555.8 million, $539.6 million and $495.3 million respectively.

Our Competitive Strengths

Over the course of our evolution, we have developed highly differentiated attributes, assets and capabilities that we combine to create powerful competitive advantages. We believe these advantages have enabled us to establish our leadership position in the market and positioned us favorably to continue to innovate, grow and expand the markets we serve. These strengths include:

Global Digital Solutions & Reach

We offer our business and consumer clients a comprehensive suite of advanced, differentiated, commerce-enabling solutions and specialized payment services through the Paysafe Network to help them transact in a faster, safer and more convenient manner around the world. The advantages of our global digital solutions include:

 

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Differentiated Value Propositions—Our solutions are highly differentiated in the market and help solve the complexities of digital commerce, remove significant friction and pain points from the customer experience and enable our business and consumer clients to transact in a faster, safer and more convenient manner. For example, we leverage the advantages of the Paysafe Network to extend our digital capabilities beyond basic card-based payments and unlock the monetization potential of local digital wallets, close to 70 major alternative payment methods, crypto-currencies and cash transactions. We also leverage our technology, risk management expertise and compliance infrastructure to empower buyers and sellers to connect and transact in more complex markets where traditional services do not work well, such as iGaming and gaming. We also offer more traditional services, such as eCommerce payments and SMB merchant acquiring and differentiate these by integrating new technologies to make them more powerful and convenient, such as our global gateway and smart devices to create a differentiated value proposition.

 

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Superior Client Experiences—Our solutions create superior experiences for our business and consumers across their customer journey, including in-store, online, mobile, as well as hybrid models such as pay online/pick up in-store and cash-funded online purchases. This begins in our product development phase as we prioritize solving the friction and pain points of more traditional commerce, listen to our clients’ specific needs and develop tangible solutions that are designed to solve real-world

 

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problems. It continues in our client onboarding phase through a combination of attractive UX design for our applications and fast, easy, and convenient data entry processes. Once our clients initiate or receive a transaction request, we provide a fast and seamless integration of different environments into the payment flow, such as the use of our digital wallets to checkout at a merchant website, the use of our digital currency inside of a live video game application, the integration of our proprietary services, such as Rapid Transfer with an online banking application, or a proprietary application programming interface (“API”)-based integration with third-party services such as a country-specific APM or a third-party software enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) solution. After the transaction, we continue to differentiate our client experiences further with high-quality customer support that is designed to provide quick and easy answers utilizing our intuitive artificial intelligence tools or personalized, relationship-building service through our call centers and relationship managers who prioritize making our customers happy versus completing a service call.

 

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Global Reach with Local Capabilities—Our Paysafe Network enables us to reach our clients and distribute our solutions in over 120 countries around the world and across multiple digital and physical channels. This enables us to utilize a combination of global commerce expertise with a strong knowledge of local and regional markets, customs, and regulatory environments to facilitate cross-border commerce. For example, our digital wallets accommodate a wide range of funding options and allow funds to be securely sent and received instantly, empowering online gaming companies and their consumers to conduct commerce together more efficiently. Our eCash Solutions also enable online purchases for cash-pay consumers and can be purchased at over 650,000 distribution points in over 50 countries.

Unique Global Culture & Expertise

Since we were a pioneer in the early days of eCommerce, we developed strong company characteristics over the last 20 years that we believe provide us with material advantages, including:

 

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Entrepreneurial Culture and Client-Centric Focus—We have proactively developed an entrepreneurial culture within Paysafe to foster a highly energetic, innovative and collaborative mindset for our employees by promoting four core employee value statements:

 

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Pioneering—We are curious and collaborate to find innovative ways to improve our business;

 

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Focused—We are results driven, achieving our goals by delivering relevant solutions that meet our clients’ needs;

 

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Open—We are open and transparent in the way we work together, building trustworthy relationships with our colleagues, customers and shareholders; and

 

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Courageous—We encourage empowered people to be brave when challenging the status quo, and decisive when proposing and implementing the resulting change.

We have also curated an attractive workplace environment for our employees, as demonstrated by our glassdoor.com employer ratings as of December 2020, including: a 4.3 stars (out of 5) overall score, a 99% approval rating of our CEO, and 87% of employees who would recommend Paysafe to a friend. In addition, we have encouraged a strong client-centric mentality across all our functions to prioritize solving the friction and pain points that our clients experience when trying to conduct commerce online rather than trying to sell undifferentiated payment services. Together, our entrepreneurial culture and client centric focus form the core spirit of our company, which has enabled us to: (1) pioneer and establish a leadership position empowering digital commerce throughout the world; (2) develop our Paysafe Network and its various advantages and capabilities; and (3) differentiate our solutions, service quality and client relationships from the more traditional legacy payment vendors that sell increasingly commoditized products and services.

 

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Deep Expertise in Solving and Simplifying the Complexity of Digital Commerce—We have been able to learn from our experiences to develop a deep expertise in digital commerce and in highly regulated markets with complex compliance requirements. This has enabled us to develop new ways for consumers, merchants and integrated partners to conduct commerce and open new markets for commercial transactions across channels, verticals and geographies.

 

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Smart Global Platform for Growth

We have built our integrated technology and risk management platforms into highly differentiated assets at the center of Paysafe, which provides us with powerful, distinct competitive advantages in the marketplace, including:

 

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Powerful Technology and Data Management Capabilities—We developed a proprietary, cloud-based technology platform, Unity, with modular, next-generation capabilities delivered through a micro-services architecture. This provides us with a highly scalable, integrated, single point of access to our products and services and facilitates the customization and delivery of market-specific payment solutions that meet the requirements and purchasing preferences of local markets. Unity enables us to efficiently manage our solutions and other functions and quickly deploy new services to any market we target for expansion. In addition, Unity leverages a large and growing data lake and powerful analytics platform featuring a range of internally developed A.I capabilities which provide us with unique insights into transaction flows, purchasing habits and trends within our payments ecosystem. This enables us to address the increasing demand from merchants for analytics and insights that will empower them to better understand their customers and design more productive consumer engagement strategies. Our massive data lake also contains valuable information on fast-growing areas of commerce and attractive demographic behaviors that we do not believe are well understood by traditional vendors;

 

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Powerful Risk Management and Compliance Capabilities—In order to successfully serve our markets, we run highly sophisticated risk management and regulatory compliance operations with global capabilities. Our risk management processes include stringent operating policies, multi-layered customer onboarding procedures and best-in-class transaction monitoring capabilities. Our compliance and risk teams now numbers over 300 professionals and have significant expertise in managing risk and regulatory requirements across the entire payments landscape. We believe these skills are a key strategic advantage for us and will serve as part of the foundation for our continued growth and expansion. Our proactive approach to these functions helps drive credibility with key constituents, including customers, partners, bank sponsors and regulators, making Paysafe the provider of choice in many specialized and complex verticals; and

 

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Proven and Repeatable Expansion Playbook—We have successfully acquired and integrated 15 companies since our foundation and have an advantaged platform for consolidation. As such we have: (a) global capabilities that enable us to source acquisition targets from a large and fragmented pool of attractive candidates that we can evaluate and learn from; (b) a “plug and play” platform infrastructure, such as Unity, that we can leverage to generate revenue and cost synergies from an acquired company; (c) a significant amount of deal experience and expertise across a seasoned team that enables us to source, identify, negotiate and execute deals effectively; and (d) strong integration capabilities powered by our strong entrepreneurial culture and global HR infrastructure that enable us to welcome, integrate and empower new company founders, management teams and employee bases around the world.

Attractive Strategic & Structural Advantages

Our capabilities also provide us with several strategic and structural advantages that we believe are very difficult to replicate, including:

 

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Early Mover Leadership in Complex and Emerging Commerce—As a pioneer in providing digital commerce solutions in markets with complex payments requirements, we have an early-mover advantage that positions us as a market leader and trusted brand in the sector. We believe this also provides us with a privileged market position globally to capitalize on new payment opportunities in emerging market segments and verticals;

 

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Diversified Business and Portfolio of Clients—Our business is highly diversified from both a customer and geographic perspective. We conduct business in over 120 countries and territories and serve over 3.5 million active users in our digital wallets, 13 million active users in our eCash solutions and over 250,000 SMB businesses. In iGaming, our largest vertical, we serve over 1,000 operators globally.

 

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Strong Global Banking Infrastructure—Paysafe leverages a network of nearly 70 commercial banks across 30 countries, with over 1,000 bank accounts in more than 30 currencies. We work with top tier institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and BBVA as well as employ a network of regional and domestic banks across North America, the EMEA region, and Asia to augment our reach and serve our markets locally. In addition, eight large corporate and investment banks provide us with liquidity for our foreign exchange activities, with sizeable trading capacity.

 

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Structural Economic Advantages—Due to the differentiated nature of our value proposition and superior client experiences, our business also has several structural economic advantages over traditional, legacy payment services. While our business requires more focus on risk management and product development to address the greater complexity of the markets that we serve, we typically don’t face the same competitive and pricing pressures that many other providers face who sell more traditional, increasingly commoditized services. As a result, our business generates an average revenue yield or take rate of 1.5% in 2020 on our transacted volume, which we believe is at the higher end of the industry.

 

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Powerful Network Effects in our Ecosystem—Our business has created a unique ecosystem that has powerful, self-reinforcing network effects. For example, our expertise enables us to design and deploy solutions to address complex markets for digital commerce. These solutions enable us to connect and serve businesses and consumers in existing markets and develop new digital commerce solutions. As we attract a larger number of active users for our solutions, we also attract a larger number of businesses that want to accept our solutions, opening further markets and use cases for our users. As we continue to scale, the breadth and depth of our Paysafe Network continues to grow, enabling us to leverage our growing expertise to expand the scope of our services and solutions into new areas.

 

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Significant Barriers to Entry—We have built a highly differentiated business with broad global capabilities that we believe are defensible and have significant barrier to entry. We believe it will be difficult for new entrants to replicate the combination of our (1) more than 20 years of deep domain expertise in digital commerce, (2) proprietary Paysafe Network with B2B and B2C capabilities, (3) highly specialized and vertical specific capabilities, (4) proprietary technology platform, (5) global risk management platform and regulatory compliance infrastructure and (6) global omni-channel reach with strong local capabilities. In addition, we believe our ability to successfully design, deploy, integrate and secure new solutions for merchants and consumers in complex, highly regulated markets is very difficult to replicate.

 

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Experienced Team with a Track Record of Solving Commerce Friction & Managing Risk—We have a highly experienced management team with a powerful combination of global industry, operational and technical expertise. Our team has successfully developed and delivered commerce-enabling payments products in numerous market segments, including markets that are highly regulated and have more complex compliance requirements than traditional markets. In addition, we have a long track record of managing risk and risk events around the world. For example, in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our management team responded quickly by reducing our merchant credit risk exposure to potentially at risk verticals by 67% from March 2020 to December 2020, such as: (1) Airlines, Travel and Cruises, (2) Gyms, Events and Ticketing, and (3) Tangible Goods and Others. We believe this proactive risk management has enabled us to limit our credit losses during the crisis.

Our Growth Strategies

We will leverage the leadership, scale and competitive advantages of our leading digital solutions, global expertise and global platforms to grow our business and extend the Paysafe Network around the world. We will continue to build upon our core foundations to grow our business by optimizing our current operations to help our business and consumer clients transact more effectively, innovating to create new solutions that reduce friction and

 

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unlock new areas for digital commerce to flourish and expanding into new markets and verticals. In general, we have organized our growth and expansion initiatives around four key strategies. These are:

 

1.	Penetrate and Serve Our Large Client Base More Effectively

We will continue to generate new revenue and earnings growth from a series of initiatives that we have begun implementing to drive new volumes, revenue yield and operating efficiencies from our large, existing client base and operations. These include:

 

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Enterprise-Wide Sales—we are implementing an enterprise-wide sales strategy to offer our business clients all our solutions in a more integrated manner and through a single API rather than through discrete sales initiatives and service integrations. We believe this will enable us to monetize our client relationships more effectively by cross-selling our digital commerce, eCash and integrated processing solutions more efficiently, capturing greater volumes and increasing our revenue yield per client over time.

 

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Global Gateway Convergence—we are connecting our leading, digital wallet gateway with our integrated processing services to provide a unified and more powerful gateway solution that supports our enterprise sales and enables our business clients to secure, authorize and execute different types of transactions through a convenient and seamless service experience. We believe this will enable us to capture greater volume opportunities and save operating and development costs from operating discrete gateway services.

 

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Solution Innovation—we will continue to innovate and develop new functionalities and solutions to capture greater volume and revenue opportunities. For example, we are working to roll-out new features in app-based commerce, social networking commerce, marketplace selling, unified account balances and rewards maximization. Our global gateway will enable us to integrate, market and deploy these additional capabilities quickly and more effectively into our installed base of clients and promote them to new clients. In addition, we are capitalizing on the increasing demand for integrated payments functionality and are working to make Paysafe a partner of choice for software developers by enabling them to integrate seamlessly with our Unity platform.

 

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Platform Optimization—we are implementing a series of initiatives to create new synergies and greater operating efficiencies within our platform. For example:

 

a)

Data & Insights—we are leveraging the significant amount of data across our global ecosystem to (i) provide our business clients with valuable insights into consumer preferences and spending trends that help them grow their sales volumes and (ii) optimize our underwriting and onboarding capabilities to increase our acceptance rates and reduce the number of declined transactions due to false positive triggers;

 

b)

Global Banking-as-a Service—we are leveraging our large and growing relationships with global banks to realize better execution and cost savings through the implementation of more efficient Banking-as-a-Service solutions that are better integrated with our technology platform and back-office functions; and

 

c)

Artificial Intelligence & Automation—we are leveraging the implementation of A.I. and process automation technologies to optimize the speed and operating efficiencies of our technology and risk management platforms as well as our internal processes and back office systems to generate better marginal cost efficiencies.

 

2.	Penetrate High-Growth and Profitable Verticals & Markets

We will continue to pursue new revenue and earnings growth opportunities through specific initiatives designed to expand our ecosystem and the reach of our Paysafe Network to capture greater digital commerce volumes from new clients in large and attractive verticals and markets. These initiatives include:

 

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Increase Share in Existing Markets—We intend to increase our market share in key, high-growth markets where we currently operate, such as iGaming, gaming, Remittances, Digital Trading, Social Media, Property Management and Rentals, Wellness and Membership, Utilities and Subscriptions. To

 

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achieve these share gains, we will (a) continue marketing the advantages of our solutions across channels, (b) continue innovating to add vertical-specific functionalities that help drive new client adoption and (c) continue pursuing new distribution and partnerships. We will also pursue the same strategy in our integrated processing market segments, with a focus on growing our eCommerce volumes, growing our base of SMB merchants and ISV partners and growing our base of clients in specialized verticals, such as Petroleum stations, where we have differentiated sales and service capabilities.

 

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Enter New Vertical and Geographic Markets—We intend to enter new verticals and geographic markets where we can successfully leverage our competitive advantages to provide superior digital commerce solutions and gain share. For example, while we are a top four independent merchant acquirer in the United States, we are still in the early stages of penetrating the market with our full suite of digital commerce solutions. Similarly, while we are the second largest global stored-value digital wallet solution in the world, we are still in the early stages of penetrating a large and fast-growing ecosystem of eCommerce platforms. We will continue to integrate our digital commerce solutions with new eCommerce platforms to enable our approximately 3.5 million digital wallet active users and 13 million eCash active users to purchase goods and services online.

 

3.	Win in the Highly Attractive U.S. iGaming Market

We will continue to leverage our privileged position as the global leader of digital commerce solutions in the iGaming market to benefit from the very fast growth and large addressable market opportunity in U.S. iGaming. This market is expanding rapidly due to favorable secular and regulatory trends and is projected to grow volumes from $3.4 billion in 2019 to $24 billion in 2025, a 39% CAGR according to reports by EDC, H2 Gambling Capital and Eilers & Krejcik, which assume the ongoing legalization of iGaming in the United States. According to these reports and company estimates, if the U.S. market reaches iGaming activity levels comparable to the UK, volumes in the United States could reach up to $47 billion by 2025, resulting in a CAGR of 55%. We entered the U.S. market in 2013 and currently serve over 34 operators across 14 states including DraftKings and the state lotteries of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, New Hampshire, North Carolina and North Dakota. We believe the combination of our brand, breadth of solutions, our ability to serve both businesses and consumers, our ease of integration and our strong risk management and regulatory compliance provide us with powerful competitive advantages to capture additional market share.

 

4.	Pursue Strategic Acquisitions to Consolidate the Market

We will pursue acquisitions to gain access to strategically important technology, products and distribution, as well as to enter new markets or supplement our position in markets we currently serve. We have a demonstrated track record of growth through acquisitions as shown by our successful acquisition and integration of 15 companies since our foundation. Since the digital commerce market is still relatively fragmented and regional in nature, we believe there are a large number of potential acquisition opportunities to evaluate and consolidate around the world. For example, we believe there are over 170 specialized digital wallet solutions around the world and many of these lack significant scale and capabilities. However, they represent an opportunity for us to add specific features, distribution and active users which can be incorporated into our global digital wallet solutions. Similar to this, we believe there are attractive consolidation opportunities to add distribution, capabilities and client bases in eCash, Online, APMs and iGaming value-added services around the world.

Our Segments & Solutions

We offer a broad selection of B2B and B2C digital commerce solutions to online businesses, SMB merchants and consumers through our proprietary Paysafe Network. Our solutions are designed to reduce friction in digital and in-store channels and expand our clients’ payment alternatives, enabling them to conduct commerce more efficiently and effectively across our global footprint. While we manage our business holistically and in an integrated manner, we provide our solutions across three business segments to optimize our management of each. Our three segments include (1) Digital Wallet, which includes our global Skrill and NETELLER wallet solutions, (2) eCash Solutions, which includes our Paysafecash and paysafecard digital currency solutions and (3) Integrated Processing, which includes our Paysafe and Petroleum Card Services merchant acquiring services.

 

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Overview by Segment

 

		Digital Wallet		eCash Solutions		Integrated Processing
Description		Digital wallet solutions enable users to upload, store, withdraw and pay funds and APMs from a virtual account		Proprietary digital currency solutions empowering online, mobile and in-app commerce for gamers and cash users		Online, Integrated and POS solutions for SMBs and Online sellers to accept payments across channels
Key Brands
Market Position		#2 Global Stored Value Digital Wallet		#1 eCash Network		#4 Independent Merchant Acquirer in the United States
Geographic Footprint		120+ Markets		50+ Markets		United States, Canada and Europe
Clients		3.5 million Active Users		13 million Active Users		Over 250,000 Businesses
Key Metric		$1 billion Total Balance		650,000+ Distribution Points		150+ ISV Integrations
2020 Volume		$20.4 billion		$4.6 billion		$67.6 billion
2020 Revenue		$395 million		$333 million		$720 million
% Online & Integrated Revenue		100%		100%		50%+

Digital Wallet

Our proprietary digital wallet solutions are marketed under the NETELLER and Skrill brand names, as well as a proprietary pay-by-bank solution marketed in Europe under the Rapid Transfer brand. Skrill and NETELLER remove friction from complex commerce situations and dramatically simplify the complexity of traditional payment mechanisms, such card-based payments, enabling our active users to send, spend, store and accept funds online more easily. We have 3.5 million active NETELLER and Skrill wallet users who generate over 90 million transactions annually, driving $20 billion in transaction volume in 2020. Our Rapid Transfer solution is a pay-by-bank alternative for eCommerce applications that provides a safe, low-cost payment alternative for consumers and merchants. In 2019, this segment generated $428 million in revenue and $213 million in Adjusted EBITDA, up 25% and 12% year-over-year, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2020, this segment generated $20 billion of total payment volume, $395 million in revenue and $179 million in Adjusted EBITDA, down 23%, down 8% and 16% period-over-period, respectively.

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
Skrill Digital Wallet		Our Skrill digital wallet is an internet-based account used by merchants and consumers that enables account holders to send and receive funds instantly, conveniently and securely using a wide selection of funding options. Skrill allows consumers to pay for goods and services online without exposing personal financial data, as well as to receive money from merchants, such as winnings from an internet-based gambling website or payments from an auction website.   Once deposits are made into a Skrill wallet, all transfers, user-to-user and user-to-merchant, are completed instantly as internal transactions with no money moving between bank accounts or payments systems. Transactions involve only the counterparty’s digital wallet account, in contrast to traditional card payments which require an issuer, an acquiring bank and a payment service provider in addition to customer and merchant accounts.		•   Facilitates domestic and cross-border payments and money transfer for consumers and merchants   •   Supports a wide selection of funding alternatives including close to 70 alternative payment method integrations, including cryptocurrency   •   Offered in over 120 countries, over 40 currencies and over 15 languages   •   Money transfer feature allows Skrill wallet holder to transfer funds to over 35 countries
				•   Appeals to gamers and digital traders due to access to leading online merchants, crypto exchanges, FX and send money services   •   Maintains confidentiality of personal account information   •   Mobile and in-app capabilities   •   Revenue generated directly from merchants and consumers
Knect		Knect is a Skrill-related loyalty program that awards points to users based on their deposit or spend transaction activity.		•   Rewards points can be redeemed for cash awards, discounts and other deals based on a defined point value

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
NETELLER Digital Wallet		Our NETELLER digital wallet is an online stored value account that allows customers to make and receive instant, secure, guaranteed payments over the internet with a similar functionality to Skrill.   NETELLER has a significant presence and strong market share in emerging markets, including in Latin America and Asia.		•   Similar to Skrill with some small variations in deposit features and cross-border fees
Net+ Prepaid Mastercard		The Net+Prepaid Mastercard is a companion product enabling NETELLER digital wallet active users to access and use stored funds anywhere that Mastercard card products are accepted.		•   Accepted at online and physical sales outlets worldwide on the Mastercard network   •   Provides cash withdrawal ability at all Mastercard connected ATMs
Rapid Transfer		Our Rapid Transfer solution enables customers to make instant payments directly from their bank account using their online banking credentials. Rapid Transfer allows users to benefit from their bank’s online security measures while remaining on the merchant website throughout the transaction process.   Highly efficient, direct integration capabilities make Rapid Transfer easy for merchants to add as a checkout option.		•   Addresses consumer preference for using their bank account to make online purchases instead of using credit cards or other payment alternatives   •   Supports over 200 banks   •   Customers benefit from their bank’s online security measures   •   Provides merchants with a low cost, safe payment acceptance mechanism   •   Increases customer conversions and reduces shopping cart abandonment   •   Allows merchants to avoid Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) and fraud issues associated with card payments   •   Available as a funding alternative for Skrill and NETELLER wallet transfers
Card Issuing		We provide issuing services for prepaid, virtual, and private label cards on behalf of our merchant customers. Our issuing program solutions range from white label to fully customized, multichannel solutions, and include program design and setup.   As an issuing bank, the Paysafe Group is able to provide bank identification number (“BIN”) sponsorship to organizations that are not financial institutions but wish to offer prepaid card programs.   As of December 2020, we had approximately 350,000 physical cards and over 180,000 virtual cards in issue.		•   FCA-authorized issuer of e-money and payment instruments   •   Principal Member of Mastercard International Inc. for issuing

 

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eCash Solutions

Our proprietary eCash solutions are marketed under the paysafecard and Paysafecash brands. These solutions provide consumers with a safe and easy way to purchase goods and services online without the need for a bank account or credit card and allow merchants to expand their target market to include consumers who prefer to pay with cash. paysafecard and Paysafecash are available at approximately 650,000 locations in over 50 countries worldwide and can be used to make purchases on over 2,800 online stores and online platforms, such as Amazon. We have an estimated 13 million active users who generate over 175 million transactions annually, driving $5 billion in transaction volume in 2020. In 2019, this segment generated $273 million in revenue and $92 million in Adjusted EBITDA, up 3% and up 3% year-over-year, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2020, this segment generated $5 billion of total payment volume, $333 million in revenue and $116 million in Adjusted EBITDA, up 22% and 26% period-over-period, respectively.

 

 

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
Paysafecash		Paysafecash is a bill payment eCash solution that enables users to shop online and then pay offline in cash to finalize the transaction. Paysafecash users submit a purchase order online and select Paysafecash as the payment method during checkout. The user receives a barcode transaction identifier that can be printed out, uploaded to a mobile phone, or into a digital wallet. The transaction is completed when the user makes a cash payment at a designated retail location authorized to accept Paysafecash by presenting the barcode identifier.		•   Appeals to consumers who prefer not to disclose bank account information online   •   Allows consumers that don’t have a bank account or credit card to shop online   •   Allows online merchants to extend target market to include cash-pay consumers   •   Excellent for bill-pay applications   •   Online and mobile/in-app functionality
paysafecard		paysafecard is a prepaid eCash solution based on a prepaid voucher containing a 16-digit PIN code.   paysafecards are available in more than 50 countries worldwide through a distribution network of 650,000 points of sale and redeemable in more than 2,800 online shops. They are available in various denominations in each respective country’s local currency. Purchasers receive a secure 16-digit PIN code that is printed on a physical paper voucher.   The PIN can also be uploaded to a digital paysafecard account, in which case online payments are made using a username and password.		•   Appeals to consumers who prefer not to disclose personal account information online   •   Allows online merchants to extend target market to include cash-pay consumers   •   Accepted as a method of payment at thousands of online retailers, including gaming, online communities, music, film, entertainment sites and, where permissible, by licensed online gambling providers   •   Accommodates low-value transactions and micro-payments   •   Currency conversion feature facilitates payments in foreign currencies   •   Excellent tool for controlling online spending, such as parents who wish to restrict the amount that their children can spend online and gamers and gamblers who want to control amounts spent on games or wagered   •   Online and mobile/in-app functionality
paysafecard Mastercard		We also offer a paysafecard prepaid Mastercard that can be linked to a digital paysafecard account and used to make purchases anywhere in the world, online or offline, where Mastercard is accepted. The paysafecard Mastercard, which can be funded with cash through a fully verified digital paysafecard account, or with credits from online gaming merchants, is currently available to our customers in 18 countries.		•   Similar to paysafecard, but with the broader acceptance network capabilities provided by Mastercard

Integrated Processing Solutions

Our Integrated Processing Solutions are marketed under the Paysafe and Petroleum Card Services brands. These solutions include a full range of PCI-compliant payment acceptance and transaction processing solutions for merchants and integrated service providers including merchant acquiring, transaction processing, online solutions, gateway solutions, fraud and risk management tools, data and analytics, POS systems and merchant financing solutions, as well as comprehensive support services that we provide to our independent distribution partners. We service over 250,000 SMB merchants and over 150 ISV partners in the United States, Canada and Europe which generate over 800 million transactions annually, driving $68 billion in transaction volume in 2020. In 2019, this segment generated $735 million in revenue and $222 million in Adjusted EBITDA, up 35% and 25% year-over-

 

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year, respectively. For the year ended 31 December 2020, this segment generated $68 billion of total payment volume, $720 million in revenue and $204 million in Adjusted EBITDA, with total payment volume down 2%, revenue down 2% and Adjusted EBITDA down 8% period-over-period, respectively.

 

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
Merchant Acquiring & Payment Processing		We provide a comprehensive suite of payment acceptance and processing services enabling SMBs to accept payments in over 100 currencies through in store, online, or mobile channels.   We sell our solutions directly and indirectly through partners, to a diverse set of merchants and integrated service providers in the United States, Canada and European markets.   We have obtained Principal Membership designation from Mastercard Europe and Visa Europe to offer merchant acquiring services to merchants in the European Union. With the Principal Membership of Visa and Mastercard, Paysafe is able to act as an acquiring bank.		•   Customized processing solutions for key markets:   •   iGaming   •   gaming   •   SMB Retail   •   Petroleum   •   SMB Restaurants   •   Travel   •   Proprietary, highly sophisticated, cloud-based sales management tool supports selling and cross-selling/ upselling efforts for partners (agents, ISOs) to support their selling efforts   •   Comprehensive partner (ISO, Agent) management and support tools
				•   Automated application and boarding tools   •   Fraud and risk management tools   •   PCI decision support system compliance and Peer-to-Peer encryption   •   Advanced analytics, reporting and Customer Relationship Management tools   •   Chargeback management

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
Integrated & Online Solutions		Our Integrated & Online Solutions is similar to Merchant Acquiring and Payment Processing, but targeted towards Online merchants and software-integrated merchants with integrated payment capabilities for over 150 ISVs.   We provide a comprehensive, full-featured Online toolkit that allows merchants and ISVs in the United States, Canada and Europe to build and scale their online commerce presence. Our solution, which can easily integrate with merchant websites and social media platforms addresses the full range of online commerce requirements.   We also offer merchants and ISVs a global turn-key payments gateway solution, providing critical connectivity between merchant Online sites and payment acceptance and transaction processing providers. Through our global feature-rich gateway, we manage and provide all connections to card processing networks, acquiring banks and transaction processors. We continually expand our gateway functionality with emerging payment types to ensure that our merchant customers can serve the largest target market possible.		•   Highly flexible, feature-rich solutions, including:   •   Gateway connectivity   •   Shopping carts   •   Tokenization and encryption   •   Fraud and risk management   •   Support a broad selection of payment alternatives:   •   Traditional card-based payments   •   Alternative payment methods   •   Mobile and in-app payments   •   Seamless integrations into leading eCommerce platforms, including Magento, Shopify and Woo Commerce   •   Multiple APMs to offer targeted, localized payment methods in key markets   •   Multiple settlement currencies   •   Specialized suite of Representational State Transfer APIs and platform access tools that enable developers to manage the user onboarding experience as well as the buyer checkout experience, including:   •   Account Management API to allow platforms and partners to create a customized onboarding process. This is used to onboard users and merchants as part of their application to enable the processing of payments.

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
				•   Split Payouts which enables platforms and partners to receive their service fees directly from their merchant and user accounts as part of each transaction and to share and distribute payments among multiple accounts.   •   Balance Transfers which enables transfer balances between the ISVs account and any linked accounts for their users and merchants.   •   APM integrations which enables ISVs to offer targeted, localized payment methods in key markets.   •   Paysafe Software Developer Toolkits, such as our Server-side Software Development Kit (“SDK”), Mobile iOS and Android SDKs and JavaScript SDKs to help developers create hosted payments pages, including:   •   Paysafe.js to develop a fully customized PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire (“SAQ”)-A compliant embedded hosted payment form   •   Paysafe Checkout to develop a drop-in SAQ-A payment form   •   Paysafe Request to take payments from a web site using mobile-based payment methods, such as Apple Pay
Business Management Solutions		Our merchant acquiring and payment processing solutions are supplemented by a suite of value-added, business management solutions including:   •   Working Capital Solutions   •   Merchant Cash Advance   •   Merchant Funding   •   Equipment Leasing		•   Highly customizable working capital management and reporting features   •   Allow merchants to manage and improve cash flow   •   Provide a variety of business funding alternatives for merchants
Smart POS Systems		We offer a suite of advanced POS systems available in a wide range of hardware and software configurations. Our offering includes highly customizable systems as well as systems featuring segment-specific		•   Support a comprehensive suite of SMB-focused business management tools, including:   •   Back office management   •   Real-time transaction views   •   Business analytics

 

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Solution		Description		Features and Benefits
		functionality in order to address specific merchant requirements.   Our Paysafe POS system is designed specifically for retail, restaurant and quick- serve restaurant use and features purpose-built functionality.   We offer Clover®, an industry leading, flexible, scalable POS system offering multiple hardware and software configurations as well as over 500 downloadable business management apps.		•   Offline processing   •   Inventory management   •   Restaurant menu builds   •   Security and data protection   •   24/7 support

Our Distribution & Sales

We reach over 15 million active users in more than 120 countries and over 250,000 small businesses across North America and Europe. In 2020, we generated approximately 47% of our revenue in North America, 39% in Europe and 14% in the rest of the world, based on the region where a transaction was initiated for our Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions or the merchant location for our Integrated Processing Solutions. We go to market and reach our clients through a combination of online and physical channels that we sell into utilizing a range of direct and indirect sales strategies across our three business segments. These sales strategies include:

 

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Direct Sales—We market and sell our solutions directly to our clients through online marketing, our various branded solutions portals and a dedicated sales team.

 

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Online Sales—We sell our solutions online to consumers using targeted marketing campaigns and search engine optimization tools designed to address specific verticals, geographies and user profiles. Users can sign up for our services at one of our proprietary online portals such as skrill.com, neteller.com and paysafecard.com.

 

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Relationship & Call Center Sales—We have a direct sale force of 63 associates who build and develop relationships with larger merchants or respond to their inquiries via our dedicated sales centers that respond to calls or online inquiries. These sales personnel help businesses learn about our solutions and then will help configure a commercial solution for them from our suite of offerings.

 

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Indirect Sales—We have built a network of resellers and partners, such as online portals, ISVs, Payment Facilitators and ISOs, who integrate our solutions into their own services or resell our solutions by utilizing their own salesforces or online marketing initiatives.

 

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Online Resellers—We work with selected merchants and partners in specific verticals, such as iGaming, who promote our solutions or sell them in store.

 

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paysafecard Distributors—We work with over 200 distribution partners in over 50 countries who distribute eCash products paysafecard and Paysafecash across 650,000 distribution points-of-sale.

 

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ISVs—We work with over 150 ISVs who develop vertical-specific business management SaaS solutions for industries such as restaurants, spa/salon, gyms, charities, property managers, and field service companies, among others. These ISVs service downstream merchants in Canada, the US, the UK and the EU. We provide development tools and APIs to help these software companies integrate our payment solutions into their software to facilitate membership billing, subscriptions, online or in person payments while minimizing their PCI obligations. We also provide onboarding tools that allow the ISV to provide a seamless and embedded onboarding experience, risk tools that protect the ISV and their downstream merchants against fraud, and data and reporting services that allow the ISV to consume payment data within their own applications to offer a true one-stop-shop experience to their merchant customers. ISVs leveraging our payment technology can act as referral partners, be registered ISOs or registered payment facilitators. Our technology can support any of these models.

 

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Independent Resellers—We work with over 1,000 active independent resellers, such as agents, ISOs, referral partners or bank partners who typically resell our solutions and services to SMB merchants in North America for commissions, revenue share agreements or referral fees.

 

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Payment Facilitators (PayFacs)—We work with sponsored payment facilitators in our portfolio and also help our ISO, ISV or platform clients to easily embed a custom payment solution into their offerings to create a “payfac-lite” or “payfac-in-a-box” solution. This enables our clients to get all of the features and benefits of being a PayFac without the risk, extensive underwriting and registration burdens, cash reserve requirements, or compliance and monitoring overhead.

Our Customer Service & Support

We provide customer support services that have been designed to address the specific support issues of each of our three business segments. These include:

 

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Digital Wallet Support—We provide customer support 24 hours per day and 7 days per week in 12 different languages through automated online tools for simple requests and through dedicated support contact centers located in Sofia, Bulgaria and Calgary, Canada. Our Digital Wallet support team is comprised of 205 agents with another 61 support and management staff who are organized to support consumers and VIP members from all over the world. These teams are trained and equipped with a broad range of tools including communication templates and a state-of-the-art knowledge base to help address over 250 different contact types. More complex support issues are escalated to dedicated teams for resolution. In 2020, our customer service team successfully handled over 2.9 million service requests via phone, email, chat and social media achieving 80% first contact resolution. We are focused on increasing automation and self-service capabilities across our support operations and introduced virtual assistant, automated caller authentication, and robotic process automation solutions in 2020.

 

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eCash Support—We provide customer support from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. CET 7 days per week in 22 different languages through multiple channels like phone, e-mail, and automated online tools for simple requests and through dedicated support call centers located in Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Vienna, Austria. Our eCash customer support team is comprised of approximately 122 1st Level Support call center agents and 11 2nd Level Support agents. These teams are trained and equipped with a broad range of support scripts and preconfigured solutions to help resolve Level 1 support issues quickly and efficiently. More complex support issues are escalated to dedicated 2nd Level Team for resolution. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we handled over 890,000 customer support inquiries. We are also focused on increasing automation and self-service capabilities in this segment through the continued development of our webforms and FAQ’s, and the implementation of a self-resolution email service.

 

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Integrated Processing Support—We provide customer support 24 hours per day and 7 days per week for our merchant customers as well as our sales partners, such as agents, ISOs and VARs. We provide support through dedicated service centers located in the United States (Houston, Tampa Bay, West Lake Village, Minden), Jamaica, the UK (London) and Canada (Montreal). We support customers across a variety of channels including calls, email, chat and social media. Our support services are conducted primarily in English and secondarily in Spanish, but we can provide support in approximately 100 languages through our language support partner. Our customer support teams are comprised of approximately 200 agents with another 30 support and management staff trained to help resolve Level 1 support issues quickly and efficiently. More complex Level 2 and Level 3 support issues are escalated to dedicated technical teams for resolution. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we handled over 650,000 customer support calls.

Unity—Our Global Technology Platform

Unity is a proprietary, cloud-based technology platform that we have developed to manage and power our omni-channel solutions around the world in a highly scalable and efficient manner. Our Platform-as-a-Service (“Paas”) technology model was designed with a modular, micro-services architecture and a range of next-generation automation and A.I. capabilities. These enable us to develop and deploy our app-based solutions efficiently so they

 

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can be plugged into our ecosystem and rolled out quickly across our Paysafe Network to keep up with new innovations and revenue opportunities. As illustrated in the graphic below, Unity enables us to:

 

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Configure—Integrating, consolidating and curating functions and micro-services to facilitate the delivery of market-specific payment solutions that meet the requirements and purchasing preferences of local markets and partners. It also enables us to provide our clients with a convenient, single point of access through our Unity API to interface with these wide range of solutions and services;

 

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Transact—Providing powerful processing capabilities through our global gateway to capture, authorize, clear and settle transactions on our own account-to-account payments network or to route and process transactions through third-party networks and alternative payment methods;

 

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Analyze—Leveraging a large and growing data lake and powerful analytics platform featuring a range of internally developed A.I capabilities that provide us with unique insights into transaction flows, purchasing habits and trends within our payments ecosystem. This enables us to address the increasing demand from merchants for analytics and insights that will empower them to better understand their customers and design more productive consumer engagement strategies. Our massive data lake also contains valuable information on fast growing areas of commerce and attractive demographic behaviors that we do not believe are well understood by traditional vendors;

 

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Defend—Securing our client accounts and their transactions by utilizing a range of cybersecurity, fraud detection and risk management technologies and algorithms that we have developed in-house, integrated from best-of-breed third-party vendors, or customized through a combination of both approaches into our core technology stack; and

 

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Manage—Hosting, automating and streamlining a range of client engagement technologies such as our mobile apps and back-office functions, such as our on-boarding to interact, manage and support our clients more effectively.

 

The Unity platform is continuously updated with an average of 92 new features delivered every month using agile development methodologies and app-based solutions deployed by 243 developers in our technology organization. Combined, these features and attributes provide us with a range of operating advantages that we believe enable us to run our systems faster, more effectively and more efficiently, while optimizing our development resources to control our costs, including accelerating the cloud migration of nearly all of our core services, consolidating our digital wallets onto a single system and reducing our data centers from 12 to 2 physical sites and 2 cloud-based sites that are fully redundant and maintain a 99.99% uptime service level.

 

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Our Global Risk and Compliance Management Program

Paysafe’s global risk and compliance program includes the development, deployment and management of proprietary models to detect and prevent compliance risk, card scheme risk, fraud risk and credit risk. We leverage the vast amount of data in our ecosystem and the learnings derived from our global and local operating experts to continuously update and improve our compliance and risk management practices. We utilize real-time detection and prevention processes and create alerts, which are then reviewed by our risk and compliance teams to ensure we act quickly to stop any potential fraudulent behavior. The outcomes of our reviews are driven back into our machine learning models for continuous improvement in accuracy. Our risk and compliance teams are geographically aligned with our business footprint around the world and include both global and local expertise in compliance and regulatory requirements across the entire payments landscape. The focus areas of our global risk, regulatory and compliance operations include:

 

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Global Expertise & Policies—We have leveraged our deep domain expertise and over 20 years of experience in solving the complexities of digital commerce to develop a series of stringent proprietary operating policies that enable us to operate a broad global business with deep local risk and regulatory compliance capabilities;

 

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Licenses & Certifications—We have built a network of relationships with regulators, networks and financial institutions, undergone numerous certification and registration processes and successfully acquired numerous operating licenses that enable us to operate in multiple jurisdictions in a safe and compliant manner. We maintain strict controls over these licenses and leverage our expertise to add new ones as we move into new markets;

 

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Underwriting & Risk Management—We have created sophisticated underwriting and real-time risk mitigation processes through a range of machine learning models and behavioral detection systems to identify potentially suspicious activity and reduce fraud. Our risk management infrastructure enables us to safely process billions of dollars in payments on a monthly basis.

 

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Credit Risk Management—Proprietary credit risk management system that monitors the top credit risks across the enterprise and allows expert analysts to conduct periodic reviews and make recommendations to mitigate large credit exposures.

 

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Account On-Boarding & Monitoring—We developed a series of multi-layered onboarding procedures to review new merchants and consumers. We validate and confirm information provided against government and other agency records or government issued documents to complete KYC checks at onboarding and then undertake further checks during the consumer lifecycle. We also employ models and monitoring rules to detect potential fraud and AML activity and report suspicious activity to the relevant government entities as appropriate as well as cooperating with any inquiries.

 

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Transaction Encryption & Management—We have developed strong transaction security capabilities that enable us to secure and monitor transactions within our own wallet and digital currency networks and safely encrypt and decrypt transactions from third-party networks and alternative payment methods. We also provide automation technologies and transaction management tools to help identify and manage chargebacks and transaction reversals in a convenient and easy to use manner for our clients.

 

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Enterprise Risk and Risk Appetite—We have integrated a robust enterprise risk framework to our strategic decision making, which ensures we have ongoing and reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of our strategic objectives. This framework consists of a multi-layered governance structure to identify, assess, respond to and manage risks in line with our global risk appetite. Our global risk appetite has qualitative and quantitative measures in place, to support our business with broad-based guidance on the amount and type of risk we are willing to accept in pursuit of our strategic objectives.

 

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Core Risk Tracking System—We leverage governance, risk and compliance tools to track enterprise-wide risks, document improvement actions, identify accountable owners and track progress towards closure of key risks.

 

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Centralized Risk Repository—We have centralized a repository of core risk policies, processes and control documentation via global risk governance and Enterprise Risk Management.

 

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Licensing and Regulation

Laws and regulations in jurisdictions around the world apply to many key aspects of our business. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with these requirements may result in, among other things, revocation of required licenses or registrations, loss of approved status, private litigation, regulatory or governmental investigations, administrative enforcement actions, sanctions (including public fines), civil and criminal liability, public censures and constraints on our ability to continue to operate, as well as potentially adverse effects on our brand and position with respect to competitors. It is also possible that current or future laws or regulations could be interpreted or applied in a manner that would prohibit, alter, or impair our existing or planned products and services, or that could require costly, time-consuming, or otherwise burdensome compliance measures from us. This discussion is not exhaustive, and there are numerous other regulatory agencies that have or may assert jurisdiction over our activities. The laws and regulations applicable to the payments industry in any given jurisdiction are subject to interpretation and change.

Payments Regulation

Various laws and regulations govern the global payments industry. In Europe, certain of our subsidiaries are authorized by the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 to perform the regulated activity of issuing e-money and the provision of payment services (which has the meaning specified in the Second Electronic Money Directive) as well as to provide account information services and payment initiation services to support our Rapid Transfer service. Additionally, we are authorized by the CBI under the European Communities (Electronic Money) Regulations 2011 for two of our entities in Ireland to act as e-money issuers and to provide payment services (including account information and payment initiation services to support our Rapid Transfer service) and have completed the necessary passporting notifications to operate in other EEA jurisdictions. E-money means electronically (including magnetically) stored monetary value, as represented by a claim on the electronic money issuer, which (a) is issued on receipt of funds for the purpose of making payment transactions; (b) is accepted by a person other than the electronic money issuer; and (c) is not excluded by regulation. An e-money issuer is someone who issues and redeems electronic money and provides payment services in accordance with the Second Electronic Money Directive. In connection with the Skrill and NETELLER Cryptocurrency Services, we have also applied for registration as a cryptoasset business with the FCA. The FCA has not been able to assess and register all firms that have applied for registration by the deadline for registration of January 10, 2020, due to the complexity and standard of the applications received, and the pandemic restricting the FCA’s ability to visit firms as planned. As a result, the Skrill and NETELLER Cryptocurrency Services have been temporarily registered under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 as a cryptoasset business until July 9, 2021, pending the determination of our applications by the FCA. Additionally, one of Paysafe’s subsidiaries is also licensed in Switzerland as a financial intermediary with supervised membership of the self-regulatory authority Treuhand Suisse.

Both the UK and Ireland prescribe that, with respect to our payment services entities, no person may hold or acquire, alone or together with others, a direct or indirect stake of 10% or more of our shares, 10% of the voting rights attached to our shares, or exercise, directly or indirectly, significant influence over any of the regulated subsidiaries (or increase an existing holding of 10% or more of our shares or the voting rights attached to our shares crossing a control threshold (20%, 30% or 50%)) without first obtaining the prior approval of the FCA and the CBI.

Furthermore, certain of our subsidiaries are considered Foreign Money Service Businesses (“FMSBs”) under the recently amended Canadian Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and are therefore required to hold FMSB licenses with FINTRAC, the Canadian Regulator. These licensed subsidiaries are subject to record keeping and reporting requirements for all activity involving money transferring, foreign exchange dealing, and as of June 1, 2021, all offerings related to virtual currency. These same subsidiaries are also licensed as money service businesses with the Quebec Autorité de Marchés Financiers and are subject to record keeping requirements for all money transfers and foreign exchange transactions involving Quebec residents.

In the United States, Skrill USA Inc. (“Skrill USA”), is registered with FinCEN as a money services business and regarded as a money transmission business. Money transmitting businesses are subject to numerous regulations in the United States at the federal and state levels, and we have obtained or applied for money transmitter licenses (or applicable similar licenses) in all U.S. states and territories in which we are required to do so, with licenses

 

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pending. These licenses and registrations subject us, among other things, to record-keeping requirements, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, limitations on the investment of customer funds, and inspection by state and federal regulatory agencies. We are also subject to inspections, examinations, supervision, and regulation by each state in which we are licensed. Furthermore, to the extent that our activities cause us to be deemed to be engaged in other business involving digital currency activities that are regulated in any state in which we operate, we may be required to seek a license or otherwise register with a state regulator and comply with state regulations. If we are required to register in these states and comply with their individual requirements, we can expect to incur significant compliance costs, including increased legal expenses, accounting expenses and internal costs. Without a required money transmitter license, we could not engage in money transmitter activities with such state).

Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, there have been substantial reforms to the supervision and operation of the financial services industry, including numerous new regulations that have imposed compliance costs on us and our financial institution partners and clients. Among other things, the Dodd-Frank Act established the CFPB, which is empowered to conduct rule-making and supervision related to, and enforcement of, federal consumer financial protection laws. Certain money transmitters engaged in international money transfers such as Skrill USA are required to provide additional consumer information and disclosures, adopt error resolution standards and adjust refund procedures for international transactions originating in the United States, and certain money transmitters that are deemed by regulation to be “larger participants” in the international money transfer market, such as Skrill USA, are subject to direct supervision by the CFPB. In addition, the CFPB may adopt other regulations governing consumer financial services, including regulations defining unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, and new model disclosures. Skrill USA could be subject to fines or other penalties if it is found to have violated the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition against unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices or other consumer financial protection laws enforced by the CFPB. The CFPB’s authority to change regulations adopted in the past by other regulators could increase our compliance costs and litigation exposure. Skrill USA may also be liable for failure of its agents to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act. The legislation and implementation of regulations associated with the Dodd-Frank Act have increased Skrill USA’s costs of compliance and required changes in the way it and its agents conduct business. In addition, Skrill USA is subject to examination by the CFPB from time to time.

The Dodd-Frank Act also empowers state attorneys general and other state officials to enforce federal consumer protection laws under specified conditions. We, including Skrill USA, have periodically been involved in reviews, investigations, proceedings (both formal and informal), and information-gathering requests, by various government offices and agencies, including various state agencies and state attorneys general (as well as the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Justice). These examinations, inquiries and proceedings could result in, among other things, substantial fines, penalties or changes in business practices that may require us to incur substantial costs.

Although we have the licenses and authorizations referred to above, our Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions business combined issues e-money to customers in over 120 countries and territories, a majority in which we are not licensed as an e-money issuer. We take the view that, in general, we are not conducting regulated activities in these other jurisdictions on the basis that our activities of issuing e-money are not conducted in each jurisdiction in which our relevant customers reside, but rather e-money is issued in jurisdictions in which we are licensed. We acknowledge that local regulators in these jurisdictions may take a different view and, as transaction volumes increase and/or the matter is brought to our attention by local regulators, we will take advice in respect of local requirements on a case-by-case basis. Failure to comply with local regulations in these jurisdictions could also lead to examinations, inquiries and proceedings that could result in, among other things, fines, penalties, prohibitions on operating in jurisdictions or changes in business practices that may require us to incur substantial costs.

Due to ongoing developments in e-money regulation, we obtain advice from outside legal counsel as required in order to assess any applicable risk and, where necessary, will limit the extent of our operations in a particular jurisdiction or will consider whether to obtain a license in such jurisdiction. We believe that the likelihood of any enforcement action by a regulator is low due to factors such as the operation of the services through the internet on a cross-border basis from a country in which the relevant entity holds a license, the limited extent of our activities in the respective jurisdictions, the lack of enforcement action against similar payment processors, the lack of a physical presence in the respective jurisdictions, and the effective management of our relationships with our customers. However, the adoption of new money transmitter statutes in other jurisdictions, changes in regulators’ interpretation of existing state and federal money transmitter or money services business statutes or regulations, or disagreement

 

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by a regulatory authority with our interpretation of such statutes or regulations, could require additional registrations or licenses, limit certain of our business activities until they are appropriately licensed and expose us to financial penalties. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We are subject to financial services regulatory risks.”

Payment Network Rules and Standards and Relationships with Partner Banks

Payment networks, such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express, establish their own rules and standards that allocate liabilities and responsibilities among the payment networks and their participants. These rules and standards, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, govern a variety of areas, including how consumers and clients may use their cards, the security features of cards, security standards for processing, data security and allocation of liability for certain acts or omissions, including liability in the event of a data breach. With respect to the payment networks of which we are a participant, those payment networks rules apply to us directly. In addition, where we partner with a member bank to access payment networks, as described below, those payment networks’ rules may apply to us indirectly, as the rules may impact the nature of our relevant bank partnership. The payment networks may change these rules and standards from time to time as they may determine in their sole discretion and with or without advance notice to their participants. These changes may be made for any number of reasons, including as a result of changes in the regulatory environment, to maintain or attract new participants, or to serve the strategic initiatives of the networks, and may impose additional costs and expenses on or be disadvantageous to certain participants. Participants are subject to audit by the payment networks to ensure compliance with applicable rules and standards. The networks may fine, penalize or suspend the registration of participants for certain acts or omissions or the failure of the participants to comply with applicable rules and standards.

In order for our Integrated Processing Solutions business to process and settle transactions for our merchants, we have entered into sponsorship agreements with banks that are members of the payment systems. Because we are not a “member bank” as defined by the major payment networks’ rules and standards, we are not permitted to access those networks directly; instead, we are required to access the payment networks through our sponsor banks. Our bank partners sponsor our adherence to the rules and standards of the payment networks and enable us to route transactions under the sponsor banks’ control and BINs across the payment networks to authorize and clear transactions. Payment network rules restrict us from performing funds settlement directly and require that merchant settlement funds be in the possession of the member bank until the merchant is funded. These restrictions place the settlement assets and liabilities under the control of the member bank.

Our sponsorship agreements with our bank partners also give our sponsor banks substantial discretion in approving certain aspects of our business practices, including our solicitation, application and qualification procedures for clients and the terms of our agreements with clients, and provide them with the right to audit our compliance with the payment network rules and guidelines. We are also subject to network operating rules and guidelines promulgated by the National Automated Clearing House Association (“NACHA”) relating to payment transactions we process using the Automated Clearing House Network. Like the payment networks, NACHA may update its operating rules and guidelines at any time, which could require us to take more costly compliance measures or to develop more complex monitoring systems. Similarly, our ACH sponsor banks have the right to audit our compliance with NACHA’s rules and guidelines, and are given wide discretion to approve certain aspects of our business practices and terms of our agreements with ACH clients.

We have obtained Principal Membership designation from Mastercard Europe and Visa Europe to offer merchant acquiring services to merchants in the European Union. With the Principal Membership of Visa and Mastercard, Paysafe is able to act as the acquiring bank. This means that we are solely responsible for the adherence to the rules and standards of these payment networks, and it enables us to route transactions under our own payment network licenses to authorize and clear transactions. Under our payment network licenses, we are allowed to perform funds settlement directly to merchants. In addition, our European payment processing business has similar relationships with sponsor banks as described above for our North American component of our Integrated Processing Solutions business in order to access other European payment networks.

 

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Indirect and Direct Regulatory Requirements

Our sponsor banks and certain of our merchants are financial institutions that are directly subject to various regulations and compliance obligations issued by their regulators and in the countries in which they operate. While these regulatory requirements and compliance obligations do not apply directly to us, many of these requirements materially affect the services we provide to our clients and us overall. For example, many regulators require financial institutions to manage their third-party service providers, including us. In turn, we also have certain direct obligations to oversee our critical suppliers. Among other things, these requirements include performing appropriate due diligence when selecting third-party service providers; evaluating the risk management, information security, and information management systems of third-party service providers; imposing contractual protections in agreements with third-party service providers (such as performance measures, audit and remediation rights, indemnification, compliance requirements, confidentiality and information security obligations, insurance requirements and limits on liability); and conducting ongoing monitoring, diligence and audit of the performance of third-party service providers. Accommodating these requirements applicable to our clients imposes additional costs and risks in connection with our relationships with financial institutions. We expect to expend significant resources on an ongoing basis in an effort to assist our clients in meeting their legal requirements. Similarly, we need to work very closely with our third-party core processors who sit between us and the payments network in the payment cycle.

Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices (“UDAAP”) and Other Consumer Protection Standards

We and many of our clients are subject to laws and regulations prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices in jurisdictions around the world. In the United States, this includes Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTCA”) and various state laws in the United States similar in scope and subject matter thereto. In addition, laws prohibiting these activities and other laws, rules and or regulations, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule, which gives effect to the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, may directly impact the activities of certain of our clients, and in some cases may subject us, as the client’s payment processor or provider of certain services, to investigations, fees, fines and disgorgement of funds if we are deemed to have aided and abetted or otherwise provided the means and instrumentalities to facilitate the illegal or improper activities of a client through our services. In the UK, the FCA implements, maintains and enforces a range of rules covering (among other things) management and control, market conduct, communications, financial prudence, the fair treatment of customers and the protection of vulnerable customers. These rules are contained in various sources including the FCA handbook of Rules and Guidance and the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and apply to the regulated activities we carry out. Breach of these rules may result in fines, public censures, customer remediation and redress and ultimately in the revocation of our regulatory license. In addition, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets out a framework of statutory consumer protection measures, and protects consumers in almost all purchases they make, through enforcing that products and services are of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and are as described before the purchase. In addition, and of particular relevance to our business, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets out a framework for the assessment of unfair terms in consumer contracts, including a list of terms which will always be considered to be unfair and those terms which may be considered unfair. These provisions apply to our terms of business, as well as to “consumer notices” which includes items such as marketing material and pre-contractual discussions with customers. Consumers have the right to challenge unfair contract terms, such as disproportionate fees and charges, terms which create a significant imbalance between a customer’s rights and ours, as terms which may exclude any statutory duties we owe. Additionally, the FCA enforces and oversees compliance with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in relation to regulated firms. Breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 may result in contracts or certain terms being unenforceable, damages liability and/or regulatory action.

In Ireland, the CBI also implements, maintains and enforces a range of rules covering (among other things) market conduct, communications with customers, the safeguarding of users’ funds and the fair treatment of consumers and other vulnerable customers. These rules are contained in various sources including the Consumer Protection Code and the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 and apply to the regulated activities we carry out from Ireland across the EEA. Breach of these rules may result in fines, public censures, customer remediation and redress and ultimately in the revocation of our regulatory licenses in Ireland.

 

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Various regulatory enforcement agencies in jurisdictions around the world, including the Federal Trade Commission and the states attorneys general in the United States, and the FCA in the UK, have authority to take action against payment processors who violate such laws, rules and regulations. To the extent we are processing payments or providing services for a client suspected of violating such laws, rules and regulations, we may face enforcement actions and, as a result, incur losses and liabilities that may adversely affect our business. In the absence of a Federal privacy law, the Federal Trade Commission in particular has prosecuted privacy misdemeanors under Section 5 of FTCA, which are also open to prosecution by the CFPB.

The CFPB has attempted to extend certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that prevent the employment of unfair, deceptive or abusive practices to payment processors. Though there is still litigation and uncertainty involving the meaning of “abusiveness” under the Dodd-Frank Act and whether payment processing companies are subject to these provisions (and the extent of their application), these provisions may apply or be applicable to us in the future. UDAAPs could involve omissions or misrepresentations of important information to consumers or practices that take advantage of vulnerable consumers, such as elderly or low-income consumers. The CFPB has initiated enforcement actions against a variety of bank and non-bank market participants with respect to a number of consumer financial products and services that has resulted in those participants expending significant time, money and resources to adjust to the initiatives being pursued by the CFPB. Such enforcement actions may serve as precedent for how the CFPB interprets and enforces consumer protection laws, including UDAAP, which may result in the imposition of higher standards of compliance with such laws and, as a result, limit, restrict or adversely affect our business of our business. The CFPB has indicated that it is considering whether future rulemaking may clarify the meaning of “abusiveness” under the Dodd-Frank Act UDAAP rule, though the scope and content of any such future rulemaking (and the extent to which any such future rulemaking may affect our business) remains uncertain.

Anti-Money Laundering

We are subject to various anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws and regulations that prohibit, among other things, our involvement in transferring the proceeds of criminal activities. Facilitating financial transactions over the internet creates a risk of fraud. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We must comply with money laundering regulations in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and any failure to do so could result in severe financial and legal penalties.” Applicable money laundering regulations require firms to put preventative measures in place and to perform KYC procedures, including conducting customer identification and verification and undertaking ongoing monitoring. In addition, regulations require companies to keep records of identity and to train their staff on the requirements of the relevant money laundering regulations. We are also subject to rules and regulations imposed by, amongst others, HM Treasury and OFAC, regarding watch lists published by such bodies restricting the transfer of funds to certain specifically designated countries. If we are not in compliance with U.S. or other anti-money laundering laws, we may be subject to criminal and civil penalties and other remedial measures, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Any investigation of any potential violations of anti-money laundering laws by U.S. or international authorities could harm our reputation and could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Our customers are resident in over 120 countries and territories. However, we believe that we do not conduct regulated activities in all of these jurisdictions. Rather, we conduct regulated activity in only a limited number of jurisdictions, and our wider customer base accesses our services online. We are subject to anti-money laundering regulation in Bermuda, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States and in any other jurisdiction, including other member states of the EEA, where we are established and performing activities that would require that we apply anti-money laundering regulation. Our merchants are subject to due diligence in accordance with our policies and procedures before acceptance and, subject to the below, we intend for all customers to be subjected to progressive, risk-based KYC procedures with levels of identity verification through a combination of screening, monitoring of activity patterns and transaction volumes surpassing pre-set limits (in accordance with applicable regulations in Europe, the UK and in North America). Our systems are designed to have all consumer transactions be subject to strict, real-time transaction monitoring. Certain of our products and services, such as paysafecard e-vouchers, are exempted from KYC regulations due to the low monetary value of the transactions. We have put into place procedures designed to mitigate money laundering risks in these circumstances, including (i) strict, real-time transaction monitoring on the use of the vouchers, (ii) certain limitations on spending and (iii) limiting the frequency

 

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of voucher issuance in respect of a single customer or through certain points of sale or distributors. We conduct additional due diligence and verification when we detect high risk or suspicious activity. As a result, we believe that we have the appropriate processes in place to comply with the anti-money laundering laws and regulations to which we are subject and will become subject.

Online Gambling Regulation

We do not provide gambling services and, as a result, in most jurisdictions outside of the United States, do not require any gambling licenses or associated regulatory permissions. Where any associated regulatory permission is required to supply merchants in this sector we work to ensure that we hold the appropriate permission. However, our Digital Wallet and eCash businesses offer an online alternative to traditional payment methods and a large proportion of the customers and merchants of those businesses are engaged in the use or provision of online gambling services. Additionally, in February of 2019, we launched a new strategic partnership with Worldpay Inc. to establish an industry-leading digital payments acceptance and security platform in iGaming and Sports Betting in the United States.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, we derived approximately 36% of our revenue directly or indirectly from processing transactions for merchants and customers in the online gambling sector.

Given the importance of the online gambling sector to our business, we expend significant time and resources to ensure that we have an in-depth understanding of the regulatory environment in the main territories in which our gambling industry merchants operate and customers reside, monitoring closely the developing regulatory regimes in those territories and adapting our business acceptance policies where necessary. Currently, we monitor legal and regulatory developments in all of our material markets closely and generally seek to keep abreast of legal and regulatory developments affecting the gambling industry as a whole. We adapt our regulatory policies and, therefore, the scope of our ongoing monitoring on the basis that an individual market’s materiality to us may change. We have adopted a market presence policy that assesses a number of factors, including the legislative regime applicable to the relevant country, whether we have a presence in such country and the overall environment for online gambling activities in that country; we then consider whether any changes are required to the extent of our business activities in those countries. For example, in Norway, the Norwegian gambling regulator notified us that processing gambling payments for Norwegians is prohibited, so we have stopped processing certain gambling payments there, which will result in a small loss of a revenue. We also engage external counsel to conduct an assessment of our top 20 online gambling revenue producing countries to assist in our assessments of risk. However, we do not necessarily monitor, on a continuous basis, the laws and regulations in every jurisdiction where we facilitate payments for merchants or customers. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, including in such ways as could criminalize certain of our activities.”

The global online gambling market is characterized by regulatory inconsistencies across many jurisdictions and frequent changes in the laws and regulations governing online gambling. For instance, due to the borderless nature of online gaming and sports betting and foreign exchange trading, a merchant properly licensed in its home jurisdiction may still provide services to consumers in other jurisdictions, knowingly or unknowingly including in jurisdictions whose regulations are ambiguous or where gaming, sports betting and/or foreign exchange trading are prohibited. For example, the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission (the “Commission”) notified us of their belief that we were in breach of Latvian law as a result of processing gambling payments between Latvian customers and gambling operators that do not have a local license. Following engagement with the Commission, we asserted that we were not in breach of Latvian law and currently have not received a response. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We generate a significant portion of our revenue by processing online payments for merchants and customers engaged in the online gambling and foreign exchange trading sectors.”

Risk Assessment Process

We have designed risk management systems to identify the geographic locations of our customers, identify the regulatory system to which such customers are subject and then determine whether such customers should be

 

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permitted to transact payments for online gambling through our system. Where we have made a decision for legal and/or policy reasons not to accept gambling transactions from customers in particular territories, we endeavor to implement those decisions rigorously using our risk management platform.

Before we accept business from merchants or customers for gambling activities, we are careful to assess the risk for us of accepting such business. Our determination as to whether or not to permit online gambling customers in a given jurisdiction to access our services is based on a number of factors. These factors include, among others, our understanding of:

 

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what licenses are held by our merchants and the strength of their legal position that the licenses permit their activities or that no license is required;

 

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the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction where the merchants and customers are located, interpreted in accordance with applicable law;

 

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the approach to the application or enforcement of such laws and regulations by regulatory and other authorities, including the approach of such authorities to the extraterritorial application and enforcement of such laws;

 

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the willingness of online gambling merchants and other e-money and/or payment processing businesses to offer their services for gambling purposes in a particular jurisdiction;

 

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the willingness of financial institutions in our network (principally banks and card payment companies) and our competitors to process funds in relation to online gambling by customers in a particular jurisdiction; and

 

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the potential for a challenge of a local licensing regime based on the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”).

When the legal position is unclear, we will consider the above factors and make a decision whether to do business based on a review and weighting of the above factors. We re-evaluate our assessment of individual jurisdictions as required and the categorization applied and may change our view. For example, we consider planned changes to legislation or court judgments which may affect our categorization of any jurisdiction and our willingness to transact gambling payments for customers located there. Such reviews take place as soon as practicable after becoming aware of them and when a review can meaningfully be undertaken. These reviews comprise the solicitation of legal advice (and updated advice) as well as the assessment of market intelligence, which are then assessed and determined by our Market Presence Committee. Other gambling operators, regulators and other payments businesses and financial institutions may, however, take a different view of the legal environment in any particular jurisdiction. In this regard, we have created and used the following categories of classification for the Group:

 

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Banned countries. We currently regard seventeen countries and territories as “banned,” in respect of our services, as a result of certain factors but primarily geographic sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. Where we classify a market as banned, such as Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria, we decline any customers in that market (irrespective of whether the end user intends to use the products and services for gambling) and customers resident in other countries should not be able to access their accounts when present in any of the banned countries.

We have a policy in place to screen our customers upon customer account registration against the Specially Designated Nationals list published by OFAC and the HM Treasury sanctions list. Decisions to add or remove countries from our banned country list are taken on a country-by-country basis and we adopt a risk based approach when making such decisions and, among other things, will conduct an assessment of the legal environment.

 

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Non-Serviced countries and territories. We designate certain countries and territories as non-serviced, which could either mean we do not provide any of our services in that particular country or territory or that we do not provide payment services in relation to a particular industry such as online gambling in that country or territory. A decision to classify a country or territory or an industry as non-serviced is made after a careful analysis of business risks associated with such activity.

 

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Limited service countries. In certain countries we are prepared to provide payment services in relation to a particular industry but subject to certain requirements or restrictions (e.g., we accept online gambling business in these types of countries provided the merchant is licensed). Those countries have introduced regulations that permit online gambling merchants provided that they are licensed by the regulator in that country (as in Italy, France, UK and Spain). In some jurisdictions, we have also agreed not to support certain black-listed gambling operators after an assessment of the relevant regulatory regime.

 

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Accepted markets. Where the market is not classified as either banned, non-serviced or limited service, we categorize it as accepted and support processing payments in relation to online gambling from such jurisdictions. An example of an accepted market is a market is which an online gambling licensing regime has been implemented where we believe that the regime could be subject to challenge under EU law, such as where only a limited number of operators have been granted licenses or impediments exist in the application process for which there is no obvious market justification. We closely monitor the regulatory position in the major markets that we have categorized as accepted markets to ensure that the level of risk to us, our merchants and customers is acceptable. To implement this monitoring process, we have created an experienced team with in-depth industry knowledge, who take a number of measures in order to ensure that they are well placed to make decisions to accept or decline business in particular jurisdictions and to deploy our technology platform in order to best apply these decisions. These measures include taking specific legal advice, attending conferences and industry meetings, reviewing market studies on what banks and other payment processors do, exploring the regulatory position with others in the sector (including competitors and their own merchant base), and continually developing our technology platform in order to best implement our business acceptance policies. We augment this review with risk mitigation in ensuring that our operations, people and assets are not located in jurisdictions (even temporarily) where it is not clear that online gambling is legal.

In making the assessment for each relevant country, we will assess the risk in the market, the approach of our competitors and the likelihood of enforcement action being taken. We regularly review our categorization of jurisdictions of existing gambling merchants and customers as the regulatory environment within countries changes over time which may, along with a potential change in our attitude towards risk, result in us reconsidering our approach. It is also possible that, while our assessment of a jurisdiction may not change, enforcement action could still be taken against us and/or our executive officers or directors, depending upon the local laws in the relative jurisdiction. Although we have designed these systems with the intention of effectively assessing risk, our risk assessment processes may not always be effective. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may become an unwitting party to fraud or be deemed to be handling proceeds resulting from the criminal activity of our customers.”

Regulatory Change: Trends and Outlook

Although the general trend in gambling regulation over the last ten years has been to seek to restrict the activities of online-based operators, in the EU this has generally resulted in a move towards controlled regulation, rather than absolute prohibition. For example, the regimes in Italy and France have both moved away from state-run monopoly-based markets to controlled regulation (and Germany has moved from prohibition to controlled regulation). Not all regimes license all types of gambling products. Changes in the regulation of online gambling in the markets described above and elsewhere may impact us both positively (where the markets are liberalized or become regulated) and negatively (where markets are restricted or become prohibited). See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, including in such ways as could criminalize certain of our activities.”

Data Protection and Information Security

We process personal data, some of which may be sensitive, as part of our business and are subject to increasingly complex regulations related to privacy, data protection and information security in the jurisdictions in which we do business. Ensuring customer data security, privacy, and ongoing compliance with applicable regulations requires significant capital expenditure. Moreover, these regulations could result in negative impacts to

 

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our business. In the EU, we are also subject to enhanced compliance and operational requirements under the GDPR, which became effective in May 2018. The GDPR expands the scope of the EU data protection law to all foreign companies processing personal data of EU residents, imposes a strict data protection compliance regime with severe penalties of up to the greater of 4% of worldwide turnover or €20 million, and includes new rights such as the “portability” of personal data. Although the GDPR applies across the EU without a need for local implementing legislation, each EU member state has the ability to interpret the GDPR opening clauses, which permit country-specific data protection legislation and has created inconsistencies, on a country-by-country basis.

Since 2016, we have engaged in a large, transformative program regarding data privacy in connection with GDPR compliance requirements. However, policymakers around the globe are using these requirements as a reference to adopt new or updated privacy laws that could result in similar or stricter requirements in other jurisdictions. In the United States, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (along with its implementing regulations) restricts certain collection, processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal financial information, requires notice to individuals of privacy practices and provides individuals with certain rights to prevent the use and disclosure of certain nonpublic or otherwise legally protected information. These rules also impose requirements for the safeguarding and proper destruction of such information through the issuance of data security standards or guidelines. Within Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) law is under consultation review in order to align more closely to GDPR and ensure continuation of its adequacy status from the European Commission and the provincial Quebec privacy law is also currently in the process of amendment.

In addition, there are state laws in the United States governing the collection of personal information (including, as of January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) and, as of March 2, 2021, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), which will become effective January 1, 2023), including those restricting the ability to collect and use certain types of information such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers. The CCPA imposes stringent data privacy and data protection requirements for the data of California residents, and provides for penalties for noncompliance of up to $7,500 per violation, if willful, and provides for a private right of action in the event of a data breach affecting specified personal information of California residents. Implementing regulations for the CCPA were released in August 2020, and on November 3, 2020, California voters approved a new law, the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). The CPRA expands the rights of consumers and establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency, providing the agency with investigative, enforcement and rule-making powers. Certain other state laws impose or are in the process of imposing similar privacy obligations, including the recently passed VCDPA. Certain other state laws impose similar privacy obligations as well and, in addition, all 50 states have laws with varying obligations to provide notification of security breaches of computer databases that contain personal information to affected individuals, state officers and others. Additionally, the use or generation of biometric data as an aid to fraud prevention is becoming increasingly regulated through a patchwork of laws in both the EU and across the United States, with a number of state laws now requiring consent to such use. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We are subject to current and proposed regulation addressing both consumer and business privacy and data use, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

Intellectual Property and R&D

We rely upon a combination of copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, license agreements, confidentiality policies and procedures, nondisclosure agreements and technical measures designed to protect the intellectual property and commercially valuable confidential information and data used in our business in jurisdictions around the world. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the United States and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services. We have not applied for any patents in respect of our electronic payment processing systems and cannot give assurances that any patent applications will be made by us or that, if they are made, they will be granted. Additionally, it is possible that third parties, including our competitors, may obtain patents relating to technologies that overlap or compete with our technology. If third parties obtain patent protection with respect to such technologies, they may assert that our technology infringes their patents and seek to charge us a licensing fee or otherwise preclude us from using our technology.

 

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The steps we have taken to protect our copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and other intellectual property may not be adequate, and third parties could infringe, misappropriate or misuse our intellectual property. If this were to occur, it could harm our reputation and adversely affect our competitive position or results of operations.

We also license from third parties a variety of content, data and other intellectual property. Although we believe that alternative technologies and work-arounds are likely to be available should these agreements terminate or expire, there is no guarantee that third-party technologies will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or that work-arounds would be readily available for deployment in a commercially reasonable time frame. See “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—We may not be able to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or third parties may allege that we are infringing their intellectual property rights,” “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—Our use of open source software could compromise our ability to offer our products or services and subject us to possible litigation” and “Item 3.D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Regulatory, Legal and Tax Risks—If we fail to comply with our obligations under license or technology agreements with third parties, we may be required to pay damages and we could lose license rights that are critical to our business.”

Our total research and development expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $7,952,207.

Competition

The global payments industry is highly competitive, rapidly changing, highly innovative and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight. We compete against a wide range of businesses, including businesses that are larger than we are, have a dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer, as well as smaller companies that may be able to respond more quickly to regulatory and technological changes than we can. We compete against all forms of payments, including credit and debit cards; automated clearing house and bank transfers; other online payment services, local alternative payment methods, and digital wallets; mobile payments; cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies; and offline payment methods, including cash and check. We also compete against banks, merchant acquirers, and third-party payment processors, including Chase Merchant Services, Bank of America Merchant Services, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, U.S. Bank’s Elavon division, Fiserv, FIS, Global Payments, PayPal and Square. We compete primarily on the basis of the following:

 

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brand recognition;

 

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distribution network and channel options;

 

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convenience;

 

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variety of payment methods;

 

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product and service offerings;

 

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customer service for both consumers and merchants;

 

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trust and reliability;

 

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speed;

 

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data protection and security;

 

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price; and

 

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innovation.

Employees

As of December 31, 2020, we had approximately 3,400 employees globally. None of these employees are represented by a labor union and we consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

 

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Properties

The mailing address of Paysafe Limited’s registered office is c/o M Q Services Ltd., Victoria Place, 31 Victoria Street, Hamilton HM10, Bermuda. It is the intention that, in the longer term, the affairs of Paysafe will be conducted so that the central management and control of Paysafe is exercised in the UK with its principal executive office located at 25 Canada Square, 27th Floor, London, United Kingdom, E14 5LQ. Our London lease expires on September 3, 2025. We also lease a number of operations, business, data center and sales offices and facilities which include 24 offices in 12 countries and 15 data centers in 8 countries. Our business is not capital intensive. We believe that our facilities are generally adequate for our current anticipated and future use, although we may from time to time lease additional facilities or vacate existing facilities as our operations require.

Seasonality

Our business is subject to seasonal influences. Our Integrated Processing Solutions and eCash businesses historically experience increased activity during the traditional holiday periods and around other nationally recognized holidays. Our Digital Wallet and eCash businesses experience increased activity based on the occurrence and timing of major sporting events.

Legal Proceedings

We are, from time to time, party to general legal proceedings and claims, which arise in the ordinary course of business. We may be and in some cases have been subject to claims, lawsuits, government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other proceedings involving areas such as online gambling regulation, intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy, data protection, labor and employment, immigration, import and export practices, product labeling, competition, accessibility, securities, tax, marketing and communications practices, commercial disputes, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions and other matters.

While it is not possible to quantify the financial impact or predict the outcome of all pending claims and litigation, management does not anticipate that the outcome of any current proceedings or known claims, either individually or in aggregate, will have a material adverse effect upon our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

 

C.	Organizational Structure

The following diagram depicts the organizational structure of the Company as of the date of this Report:

 

 

 

 

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Each of the Founder, Cannae LLC, the CVC Investors and the Blackstone Investors, to whom we refer collectively as the “Principal Shareholders,” are party to the Shareholders Agreement described in “Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions—Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions—Paysafe—Shareholders Agreement,” set forth in the Form F-4, which is incorporated herein by reference pursuant to which, among other things, they have each agreed to vote in favor of their respective nominees to the Company Board. Accordingly, the Principal Shareholders constitute a group within the meaning of Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act representing approximately 49.5% of the outstanding voting securities of the post-combination company. See “Item 7.A. Major Shareholders” and “Item 8.A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Unaudited Pro Forma Combined Financial Information” for additional information.

The significant subsidiaries of the Company are listed below.

 

Name		Country of Incorporation and Place of Business Address		Nature of Business				Proportion of Ownership Interest Held by the Company
Paysafe Financial Services Limited		United Kingdom 25 Canada Square, Floor 27, London, England E14 5LQ			Payment Services				100	%
Paysafe Partners LLC		United States 2600 Michelson Drive, Suite 1600 Irvine, CA 92612			Payment Services				100	%
Paysafe Payment Processing Solutions LLC		United States 128 Vision Park Blvd. Shenandoah, TX 77384			Payment Services				100	%
Skrill Limited		United Kingdom 25 Canada Square, Floor 27, London, England E14 5LQ			Payment Services				100	%
Paysafe Prepaid Services Limited		United Kingdom 25 Canada Square, Floor 27, London, England E14 5LQ			Payment Services				100	%
Paysafe Merchant Services Inc.		Canada 3500 de Maisoneuve Blvd. West 2 Place Alexis-Nihon, Suite 700 Westmount Québec H3Z 3C1			Payment Services				100	%

 

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D.	Property, Plants and Equipment

None / Not applicable.

 

ITEM 4A.

UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None / Not applicable.

 

ITEM 5.

OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our Paysafe Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report.

In addition to historical information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences are discussed in “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.”

Any reference to “we,” “us,” “Paysafe,” the “Company,” “management” and “our” as used herein refer to Pi Jersey Holdco 1.5 Limited and its subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the Business Combination.

Our Company

Paysafe is a leading, global pioneer in digital commerce solutions. We empower over 15 million active users in more than 120 countries and over 250,000 SMBs across the United States, Canada, and Europe to conduct secure and friction-less commerce across online, mobile, in-app, and in-store channels. Our core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading capabilities in Integrated Processing, Digital Wallet and online eCash Solutions.

We serve and support our clients through an omni-channel model that leverages the global reach and B2B and B2C relationships of our Paysafe Network. This enables us to manage and serve our clients through 6 hubs around the world with strong knowledge of local and regional markets, customs and regulatory environments. We sell our solutions through a combination of direct and indirect sales strategies. We have a direct sales force of 63 associates who build and develop relationships with larger merchants and help them configure or develop digital and point-of-sale commerce solutions from our suite of technology services. We sell our solutions online to smaller merchants and consumers using targeted marketing campaigns designed to address specific use cases across verticals, geographies and user profiles. We also leverage a network of partners, such as ISVs and ISOs, who integrate our solutions into their own services or resell our solutions by utilizing their own sales initiatives. We operate across three lines of business, which provide our digital commerce solutions to different end markets. Our three lines of business, which represent our operating and reporting segments, are Integrated Processing, Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions.

Integrated Processing: Our Integrated Processing solutions are marketed under the Paysafe and Petroleum Card Services brands. These solutions include a full range of PCI-compliant payment acceptance and transaction processing solutions for merchants and integrated service providers including merchant acquiring, transaction processing, eCommerce solutions, gateway solutions, fraud and risk management tools, data and analytics, point of sale systems and merchant financing solutions, as well as comprehensive support services that we provide to our independent distribution partners.

 

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Digital Wallet: Our Digital Wallet solutions are marketed under the NETELLER and Skrill brand names, as well as a proprietary pay-by-bank solution marketed in Europe under the Rapid Transfer^TM brand. Skrill and NETELLER remove friction from complex commerce situations and dramatically simplify the complexity of traditional payment mechanisms, such card-based payments, enabling our active users to send, spend, store and accept funds online more easily.

eCash Solutions: Our proprietary eCash solutions are marketed under the Paysafecard and Paysafecash brands. These solutions provide consumers with a safe and easy way to purchase goods and services online without the need for a bank account or credit card and allow merchants to expand their target market to include consumers who prefer to pay with cash. Paysafecard and Paysafecash are available at over 650,000 locations in 50 countries worldwide.

Trends and Factors Affecting Our Future Performance

Significant trends and factors that we believe may affect our future performance include the items noted below. For a further discussion of trends, uncertainties and other factors that could affect our operating results see “Item 4.B. Business Overview—Our Large & Fast-Growing Market Opportunity—Key Market Trends” and “Item 3.D. Risk Factors” in this Report.

Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economy and put unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, businesses and individuals around the world. The impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to assess or predict. It is even more difficult to predict the impact on the global economic market, which will depend upon the actions taken by governments, businesses and other enterprises in response to the pandemic. The pandemic has already caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruption of global financial markets and economic uncertainty. The pandemic has resulted in authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter in place or total lock-down orders, and business limitations and shutdowns. Such measures have significantly contributed to rising unemployment and negatively impacted consumer and business spending.

On March 17, 2020, as a precautionary measure in order to increase our cash position and preserve financial flexibility in light of uncertainty in the global markets resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we borrowed $216,000 under our revolving credit facility. We subsequently repaid all outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility during the period between August 17, 2020 and October 13, 2020. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts the Company’s future financial results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information that may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions taken by governments to curtail or treat its impact, including shelter in place directives, business limitations and shutdowns, travel bans and restrictions, loan payment deferrals (whether government-mandated or voluntary), moratoriums on debt collection activities and other actions, which, if imposed or extended, may impact the economies in which the Company now, or may in the future, operate. Adverse market conditions resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially adversely affect our business and the value of our shares.

Our merchants, particularly in industries most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the retail, restaurant, hotel, hospitality, consumer discretionary and travel industries and companies whose customers operate in impacted industries, may reduce or delay their technology-driven transformation initiatives, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Further, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, slowed growth or decline in new demand for our products and services and lower demand from our existing merchants for expansion within our products and services, as well as existing and potential merchants reducing or delaying purchasing decisions. This is particularly relevant for Integrated Processing and Digital Wallet, where these effects contributed in part to the impairment of intangible assets in these segments for the year ended December 31, 2020 of $109,047 and $21,373, respectively, and an increase in credit losses. While our Digital Wallet business is showing recovery as sporting events resume, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues and authorities implement measures to contain the pandemic that have the effect of decreasing or halting altogether sporting events, our Digital Wallet business could be materially adversely affected. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, an increase in prospective merchants seeking lower prices or other

 

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more favorable contract terms and current merchants attempting to obtain concessions on the terms of existing contracts, including requests for early termination or waiver or delay of payment obligations, all of which has adversely affected and could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial condition in future periods. Further, we may face increased competition due to changes to our competitors’ products or services, including modifications to their terms, conditions and pricing that could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial condition in future periods.

While the current macroeconomic environment as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak has adversely impacted general consumer and merchant spending with a more pronounced impact on travel and events verticals, the spread of COVID-19 has also accelerated the shift from in-store shopping and traditional in-store payment methods (e.g., credit cards, debit cards, cash) towards e-commerce and digital payments and resulted in increased customer demand for safer payment and delivery solutions (e.g. contactless payment methods, buy online and pick up in store) and a significant increase in online spending in certain verticals that have historically had a strong in-store presence. Our eCash Solutions segment has benefited from these behavioral shifts, including a significant increase in net new active accounts and payments volume. To the extent that consumer preferences revert to pre-COVID-19 behaviors as mitigation measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 are lifted or relaxed, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

Additionally, diversion of management focus to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially disrupt our operating plans. The extent and continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business will depend on certain developments, including: the duration and spread of the outbreak; government responses to the pandemic; the impact on our customers and our sales cycles; the impact on customer, industry or employee events; and the effect on our partners, merchants and their customers, third-party service providers, customers and supply chains, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted.

Public company costs

As a result of the Business Combination, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We expect that these costs will include additional personnel, legal, consulting, regulatory, insurance, accounting, investor relations and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. While at the time of this filing we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, this status is subject to change pending our ability to qualify in the future. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules adopted by the SEC and national securities exchanges, requires public companies to implement specified corporate governance practices that have not been applicable to us as a private company. These additional rules and regulations will increase our legal, regulatory and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly.

Share based compensation

Certain of our outstanding share-based compensation awards include a service-based vesting condition and a performance-based vesting condition that are satisfied upon a qualifying Exit Event (defined as an Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) whereby Blackstone and CVC retain less than 50% of the B ordinary shares they held immediately prior to the IPO through one or multiple transactions, winding-up or completion). Awards for which the service-based condition has already been met were recognized, as a result of the Business Combination, which satisfied the performance condition and such awards vested immediately, resulting in a share-based compensation expense. See “Item 8.A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Unaudited Pro Forma Combined Financial Information” of this Report for additional information. Awards for which the service-based condition has not yet been met will result in a share-based compensation expense being recognized over time as services are rendered by employees. As a result, we have recognized share-based compensation expense beginning in 2021 related to awards that vested upon the occurrence of the Business Combination. See “Item 8.A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Unaudited Pro Forma Combined Financial Information” of this Report for additional information. In addition, from time to time we expect to make grants of equity-based awards of our common shares under the Omnibus Incentive Plan to employees, officers and directors. We generally expect to recognize expense related to the grant date fair value of these share-based compensation awards over the applicable service period.

Foreign currency impact

Our revenues and expenses are subject to changes in foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar which can impact our results of operations. It is difficult to predict the fluctuations of foreign currency exchange rates and how those fluctuations will impact our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss in the future. As a result of the relative size of our international operations, these fluctuations may be material.

 

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Recent Company Initiatives and Events

Recent acquisitions

In March 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of International Card Services, LLC, for cash consideration of $23,505 with an additional contingent earnout to be paid in future periods based on earnings targets. Our preliminary estimate of the total expected consideration including earnouts is $28,577. The acquisition was accounted for as a business combination.

In August 2020, the Company completed the acquisition of Openbucks to accelerate the expansion of eCash Solutions in the United States as well as benefit from certain partnerships with retailers. This acquisition was not significant. The total expected purchase price, including earnouts is $13,262, comprised of cash consideration of $9,760 and an additional contingent earnout to be paid in future periods based on earnings targets. The operating results of the acquisition have been included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements since the respective date of acquisition. The effects of the business combination were not material to the Company’s consolidated results of operations.

On June 1, 2018, we completed the acquisition or iPayment Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries (“iPayment”), a U.S. based provider of payment processing products for small and medium-sized businesses. The acquisition formed part of Paysafe’s strategy to expand its presence in North America in response to significant growth opportunities.

Recent dispositions

On October 5, 2020, the Company disposed of Payolution GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The total consideration consists of cash consideration of $47,098 and a contingent consideration receivable, of which $4,885 had been earned prior to December 31, 2020 and is recorded within “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” within the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (at closing foreign exchange rates). The remainder of the receivable is contingent upon the future financial performance of Payolution GmbH, as well as certain operational achievements. The consideration for financial performance conditions will be due in the second quarters of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022.

Components of Our Operating Results

Revenue

Revenue consists primarily of fees derived from transaction processing services through three main lines of business: Integrated Processing, Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions. Substantially all of our Integrated Processing revenue stream is earned by charging merchants processing fees for facilitating payment processing transactions. The Digital Wallet revenue streams are almost entirely derived from charging merchants fees for allowing payments on their platforms using our services or from revenues for charging customers on a transactional basis for using our digital wallet. Similarly, in our eCash Solutions segment all revenue streams are earned either from charging merchants fees for accepting our eCash Solutions services or from transaction fees from customers using Paysafecard services.

The Company’s promise to stand ready to provide electronic payment services is not based on a specified number of transactions, but rather is a promise to process all the transactions needed each day. Therefore, we measure revenue for our payment service daily based on the services that are performed on that day. We recognize revenue net of taxes collected from customers. These taxes are subsequently remitted to governmental authorities.

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization)

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) consists primarily of the cost of transaction processing systems through three main lines of business: Integrated Processing, Digital Wallet and eCash Solutions. Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) for Integrated Processing consists primarily of merchant residual payments to our network of independent sales organizations, as well as other fees incurred by the Company in the processing of transactions. Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) does not include

 

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interchange fees charged by the card issuing financial institutions and fees charged by payment networks in the Integrated Processing segment, which are presented net within revenue. Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) for Digital Wallet consists primarily of the costs to accept a customer’s funding source of payment and subsequent withdrawals from the wallet. These costs include fees paid to payment processors and other financial institutions. Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) for eCash Solutions consists primarily of commission paid to distributors. These expenses exclude any depreciation or amortization, which is described below.

Selling, general and administrative

Selling, general and administrative consists primarily of employee related costs, including salaries and benefits, credit losses, information technology expenses and other administrative costs as noted below. Selling expenses are comprised of sales and marketing personnel-related costs, including salaries, and benefits. General and administrative expenses are comprised of expenses associated with operational and supporting personnel-related costs, including salaries and benefits, as well as credit losses on financial assets, corporate management, information technology, office infrastructure, external professional services and other activities.

We adopted ASC 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (“ASC 326”), on January 1, 2020. As a result, for the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized credit losses at asset inception based on the losses expected to occur over the remaining life of our financial assets. Prior to the adoption of ASC 326, credit losses on these financial assets were recognized when an occurrence was deemed to be probable. Refer to Note 1, Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, within the Paysafe Consolidated Financial Statements appearing elsewhere in this Report for further information.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization consist of depreciation and amortization expenses related to computer and communication equipment, furniture and equipment, right-of-use assets, leasehold improvements, acquired and internally developed software, customer relationships and other intangible assets. Research and development costs for software development projects are capitalized when it is probable that the project will be completed, and the software will be used to perform the function intended. These costs are amortized over their useful life.

Impairment expense on intangible assets

Impairment expense on intangible assets relates to loss on impairment of intangible assets.

Restructuring and other costs

Restructuring and other costs include acquisition costs related to the Company’s merger and acquisition activity, restructuring costs, strategic transformation costs resulting from value creation initiatives following business acquisitions and professional consulting and advisory fees related to public company readiness activities. This includes certain professional advisory costs, office closure costs and resulting severance payments to employees.

Transaction costs that are incremental and directly attributable to an equity transaction are deferred and charged against the gross proceeds received upon completion of the equity transaction.

Gain on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net

On October 5, 2020, Skrill Capital UK Limited, an indirect subsidiary of the Company, disposed of 100% of the share capital of Payolution GmbH. The gain on disposal of subsidiaries recognized in 2020 relates to the gain on sale of Payolution GmbH.

On June 26, 2019, Paysafe Group Limited, an indirect subsidiary of the Company, disposed of 100% of the share capital of Paysafe UK GOLO Holdco Limited. The gain on disposal of subsidiaries relates to the gain on the sale of Paysafe UK GOLO Holdco Limited in 2019.

 

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Other (expense)/income, net

Other (expense)/income, net consists primarily of foreign exchange gains and losses, fair value movement in contingent consideration receivable, capital raising costs, and fair value movement in derivative instruments.

Interest expense, net

Interest expense, net primarily consists of the interest associated with our outstanding debt obligations and the amortization of debt issuance costs.

Income tax (benefit)/expense

Income tax (benefit)/expense represents income taxes generated in the United Kingdom and numerous foreign jurisdictions. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than the United Kingdom. Our effective tax rates will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, interest, penalties, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in uncertain tax positions, and changes in tax laws.

Key Performance Indicators

We regularly monitor the following key performance indicators to evaluate our business and trends, measure our performance, prepare financial projections and make strategic decisions. We believe that these key performance indicators are useful in understanding the underlying trends in the Company’s businesses.

There are limitations inherent in key performance indicators. Investors should consider any key performance indicator together with the presentation of our results of operations and financial condition under GAAP, rather than as an alternative to GAAP financial measures. These measures may not be comparable to other performance measures used by the Company’s competitors.

Volume and Take Rate

Gross dollar volume is calculated as the dollar value of payment transactions processed by the Company. To reflect the distinct nature of our products across each segment, this includes, but is not limited to, the following:

 

•

For Integrated Processing: Credit card and debit card transactions, and purchases made via PayLater

 

•

For Digital Wallet: Deposits, withdrawals, transfers to merchants from consumers, transfers from merchants to consumers, wallet-to-wallet transfers, and pre-paid Mastercard transactions

 

•

For eCash Solutions: Transactions where vouchers are redeemed at merchants, and pre-paid Mastercard transactions

Volume (also known as gross dollar volume) is a meaningful indicator of our business and financial performance, as we typically generate revenue across our solutions based on per transaction fees that are calculated as a percentage of transaction dollar volume. In addition, volume provides a measure of the level of payment traffic we are handling for our consumers and merchants. Many marketing initiatives are focused on driving more volume, either through encouraging greater adoption of our payment products or increasing activity through existing merchants or consumers.

Take rate is calculated as operating segment revenue divided by gross dollar volume. Take-rate is a meaningful indicator of our business and financial performance as it describes the percentage of revenue collected by Paysafe on the volume of transactions processed. This is used by management as an indication of pricing or product mix trends over time rather than absolute pricing within each segment, due to the mix of product types and pricing agreements that will be in place with specific merchants. It will also factor in revenue from fees that are not directly linked to volume-based transactions, such as inactivity fees charged on dormant accounts.

 

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The following table sets forth our gross dollar volume and take rate for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018:

 

		For the year ended December 31, 2020
(U.S. dollars in millions)		Integrated Processing				Digital Wallet				eCash Solutions				Intersegment elimination				Total
Gross dollar volume		$	67,590			$	20,417			$	4,640			$	(544	)		$	92,103
Take Rate			1.1	%			1.9	%			7.2	%							1.5	%
		For the year ended December 31, 2019
(U.S. dollars in millions)		Integrated Processing				Digital Wallet				eCash Solutions				Intersegment elimination				Total
Gross dollar volume		$	68,878			$	26,564			$	3,801			$	(588	)		$	98,655
Take Rate			1.1	%			1.6	%			7.2	%							1.4	%
		For the year ended December 31, 2018
(U.S. dollars in millions)		Integrated Processing				Digital Wallet				eCash Solutions				Intersegment elimination				Total
Gross dollar volume		$	52,838			$	21,147			$	3,618			$	(553	)		$	77,050
Take Rate			1.0	%			1.6	%			7.3	%							1.5	%
		Increase / (Decrease) 2020 vs 2019
(U.S. dollars in millions)		Integrated Processing				Digital Wallet				eCash Solutions				Intersegment elimination				Total
Gross dollar volume		$	(1,288	)		$	(6,147	)		$	839			$	44			$	(6,552	)
Take Rate			0.0	%			0.3	%			0.0	%							0.1	%
		Increase / (Decrease) 2019 vs 2018
(U.S. dollars in millions)		Integrated Processing				Digital Wallet				eCash Solutions				Intersegment elimination				Total
Gross dollar volume		$	16,040			$	5,417			$	183			$	(35	)		$	21,605
Take Rate			0.1	%			0.0	%			(0.1	)%							(0.1	)%

Non-GAAP Financial Measure

We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP, which includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions and in the preparation of financial statements. In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, we have provided Adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure.

We include a non-GAAP measure in this Report because it is a basis upon which our management assess our performance and we believe it reflects the underlying trends and an indicator of our business. Although we believe the non-GAAP measure is useful for investors for the same reasons, the measure is not a substitute for GAAP financial measures or disclosures.

Our non-GAAP measure may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies and has limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the operating results as reported under GAAP.

An explanation of the relevance of the non-GAAP measure, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP is set out below. The non-GAAP measure has limitations in that it does not reflect all of the amounts associated with our results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. We do not regard the non-GAAP measure as a substitute for, or superior to, the equivalent measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP or the one calculated using a financial measure that is calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income/(loss) before the impact of income tax (benefit)/expense, interest expense, net, depreciation and amortization, impairment expense on intangible assets, restructuring and other costs,

 

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loss/(gain) on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net, and other (expense)/income, net. These adjustments also include certain costs and transaction items that are not reflective of the underlying operating performance of the Company. Management believes these adjustments improve the comparability of operating results across reporting periods.

We use Adjusted EBITDA as our measure of segment profitability to assess the performance of our businesses. Additionally, we believe it is important to consider our profitability on a basis that is consistent with that of our operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA reported for our segments is not, however, considered a non-GAAP measure as it is presented in conformity with Accounting Standards Codification 280, Segment Reporting, and is excluded from the definition of a non-GAAP measure under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation G and Item 10(e) of Regulation S-K. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA should be made available to securities analysts, investors and other interested parties to assist in their assessment of the performance of our businesses.

Despite the importance of this measure in analyzing our business, measuring and determining incentive compensation and evaluating our operating performance, as well as the use of Adjusted EBITDA by securities analysts, lenders and others in their evaluation of companies, Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for net income (loss) or other methods of analyzing our results as reported under GAAP. We do not use or present Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of liquidity or cash flow.

Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA are:

 

•

It does not reflect our cash expenditures or future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

 

•

It does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

 

•

It does not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements to service interest or principal payments on debt;

 

•

It does not reflect income tax payments we are required to make;

 

•

Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized often will have to be replaced in the future and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements; and

 

•

Other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Results of Operations

Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2019

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:

 

		Year ended December 31,								Variance
(U.S. dollars in thousands)		2020				2019				$				%
Revenue			1,426,489				1,418,140				8,349				0.6	%
Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization)			534,823				508,735				26,088				5.1	%
Selling, general and administrative			465,897				443,064				22,833				5.2	%
Depreciation and amortization			268,166				279,831				(11,665	)			(4.2	)%
Impairment expense on intangible assets			130,420				88,792				41,628				46.9	%
Restructuring and other costs			20,640				50,683				(30,043	)			(59.3	)%
Gain on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net			(13,137	)			(4,777	)			(8,360	)			175.0	%
Operating income			19,680				51,812				(32,132	)			(62.0	)%
Other expense, net			(40,805	)			(13,914	)			(26,891	)			193.3	%
Interest expense, net			(164,788	)			(164,559	)			(229	)			0.1	%
Loss before taxes			(185,913	)			(126,661	)			(59,252	)			46.8	%
Income tax benefit			(59,199	)			(16,524	)			(42,675	)			258.3	%
Net loss			(126,714	)			(110,137	)			(16,577	)			15.1	%
Less: net income attributable to non-controlling interest			1				61				(60	)			(98.4	)%
Net loss attributable to the Company			(126,715	)			(110,198	)			(16,517	)			15.0	%

 

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Revenue

Revenue remained largely consistent year on year, with offsetting movements in each of our segments. The movements were driven by a 22.1%, or $60,197, increase in our eCash Solutions division due to higher volumes from online poker merchants during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of changes in customer behavior. This is offset by a 7.9%, or $33,648, decrease in our Digital Wallet division mainly due to COVID-19 impact on sports betting as well as a 2.1%, or $15,477 decrease in our Integrated Processing division due to lower volumes as a result of COVID-19. For further detail on our segments, see “Analysis by Segments” below.

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization)

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) increased $26,088, or 5.1%, to $534,823 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $508,735 for the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase is largely attributable to an increase of $22,549, or 17.9%, in our eCash Solutions segment due to the increase in volume and revenue as noted above, as well as an increase of $8,750, or 2.9%, in our Integrate Processing segment due to an increase in fees paid to ISO partners because of a change in revenue mix. This is offset by a decrease of $2,488, or 2.5%, in our Digital Wallet segment due to the decrease in volume and revenue as noted above, partly offset by an increase in fees paid to processing partners primarily due to the growth of certain business lines such as Skrill Money Transfer.

Selling, general and administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $22,833, or 5.2%, to $465,897 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $443,064 for the year ended December 31, 2019. This movement is primarily driven by an increase in personnel-related costs of $10,429 due to an increase in headcount resulting from investments in certain critical functions, such as risk, compliance, and finance. The remaining increase is largely due to an increase in legal and professional fees of $4,405, due to fees paid to third parties to support remediation of control deficiencies and increased spend in risk management tools, as well as other offsetting movements.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization decreased $11,665, or 4.2%, to $268,166 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $279,831 for the year ended December 31, 2019. This decrease was primarily attributable to the impact of the impairment on intangible assets recognized during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, partially offset by the impact of additions in intangible assets in the same period.

Impairment expense on intangible assets

Impairment expense on intangible assets increased by $41,628, or 46.9%, to $130,420 for the year ended, December 31, 2020 from $88,792 for the year ended December 31, 2019. In the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company recognized an impairment loss for certain software development and customer relationships resulting from the deterioration in their forecasted cash flows as well as higher than anticipated merchant attrition rates due, in part, to the impact of COVID-19. The impairment loss in 2019 related to a deterioration in forecasted cash flows and higher than anticipated merchant and consumer attrition rates relating to certain software development and customer relationships.

Restructuring and other costs

Restructuring and other costs decreased $30,043, or 59.3%, to $20,640 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $50,683 for the year ended December 31, 2019. The decrease was primarily attributable to the following factors:

 

•

A decrease in restructuring costs of $5,150. For the year ended December 31, 2019, we incurred restructuring costs related to the integration of iPayment into the Company. The costs incurred include office closure costs, severance payments made to employees as a direct result of this restructure and certain professional advisory costs.

 

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•

A decrease in costs related to our Brexit migration of $4,923. In 2020, we successfully transferred our EEA customers from our U.K. subsidiaries regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to subsidiaries based in Ireland regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Most of the costs incurred relating to this migration were incurred in 2019. The costs incurred related primarily to professional advisory costs.

 

•

A decrease in costs related to US public market readiness costs of $17,396. In 2019 we incurred professional advisory costs related to the establishment of our Sarbanes-Oxley (“SOX”) program, as well as accounting advisory costs in anticipation of a potential listing. The costs incurred related to the Business Combination were primarily incurred in the fourth quarter of 2020. Unlike the costs incurred in 2019 which were considered general readiness costs not tied to a particular transaction, costs directly attributable and incremental to the Business Combination have been deferred and will be charged against the gross proceeds received upon completion of the transaction.

The remaining movement relates to an increase in acquisition costs incurred in the year ended December 31, 2020, offset by a decrease in strategic transformation costs in the year.

Gain on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net

Gain on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net increased $8,360, or 175%, to a gain of $13,137 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from a gain of $4,777 for the year ended December 31, 2019. The gain in 2020 related to the disposal of Payolution GmbH, an indirect subsidiary of the company, whereas the gain in 2019 related to the disposal of Paysafe UK GOLO Holdco Limited, another indirect subsidiary of the Company.

Other (expense)/income, net

Other expense, net increased $26,891, or 193.3%, to an expense of $40,805 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from an expense of $13,914 the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase in other expense, net was primarily driven by an increase in foreign exchange losses of $15,979 and a decrease in the fair value gain on contingent consideration receivable of $17,443, offset by a reduction in interest expense, net, on related party balances of $6,903.

Interest expense, net

Interest expense, net increased slightly by $229, or 0.1%, to $164,788 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $164,559 for the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase in interest expense, net was primarily driven by the additional drawdown of the revolving credit facility in 2020, in an effort to improve liquidity during the uncertain COVID-19 period, offset by other movements. We subsequently repaid all outstanding drawdowns prior to December 31, 2020.

Income tax (benefit)/expense

The income tax benefit was $59,199 for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to $16,524 for the year ended December 31, 2019. This resulted in an effective tax rate of 31.8% for the year ended December 31, 2020 and 13.0% for the year ended December 31, 2019. The change in the effective tax rate in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily arises as a result of the tax expense of valuation allowances recorded against restricted interest expense carry forwards in 2019 and income earned in higher tax jurisdictions in 2020 offset by tax benefits associated with the CARES Act and utilization of previously unrecognized tax losses. A reconciliation between the statutory income tax rate and the income tax (benefit) provision reported in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss is summarized in Note 3, Taxation, in the Paysafe Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report.

Net loss

Net loss increased by $16,577, or 15.1%, to a net loss of $126,714 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from a net loss of $110,137 for the year ended December 31, 2019. This increase in net loss was driven by the increase in cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization), selling, general, and administrative, impairment expense on intangible assets, and other (expense)/income, partly offset by a decrease in restructuring and other costs and an increase in income tax benefit discussed above.

 

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Non-GAAP financial measure

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA for the Company decreased $40,572, or 8.7%, to $425,769 for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $466,341 for the year ended December 31, 2019. This decrease was driven primarily by the increase in cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) of $26,088 which was only partially offset by a $8,349 increase in revenue. Additionally, this decrease was the result of an increase in selling, general and administrative expenses of $22,833 due primarily to an increase in employee costs and adoption of ASC 326. For further explanation on the year-over-year change on these financial statement line items, please refer to the commentary above in “Results of Operations.”

A reconciliation of Net loss to Adjusted EBITDA is as follows for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:

 

		Year Ended December 31,
(U.S. dollars in thousands)		2020				2019
Net Loss		$	(126,714	)		$	(110,137	)
Income tax benefit			(59,199	)			(16,524	)
Interest expense, net			164,788				164,559
Depreciation and amortization			268,166				279,831
Impairment expense on intangible assets			130,420				88,792
Restructuring and other costs			20,640				50,683
Gain on disposal of subsidiaries and other assets, net			(13,137	)			(4,777	)
Other expense, net			40,805				13,914
Adjusted EBITDA		$	425,769			$	466,341

 

(1)

As noted above, restructuring and other costs include acquisition costs related to the Company’s merger and acquisition activity, restructuring costs, strategic transformation costs resulting from value creation initiatives following business acquisitions and professional consulting and advisory fees related to public company readiness activities. This includes certain professional advisory costs, office closure costs and resulting severance payments to employees. For the year ended December 31, 2020, restructuring and strategic transformation costs amounted to $12,571. Other costs primarily consisted of advisory fees related to public company readiness activities as well as other advisory fees incurred on merger and acquisition activity and the Company’s Brexit planning. For the period ended December 31, 2019, restructuring and strategic transformation costs amounted to $24,792. Other costs primarily consisted of advisory fees related to public company readiness activities as well as other advisory fees incurred on merger and acquisition activity and the Company’s Brexit planning.

(2)

As noted above, other expense, net, consists primarily of foreign exchange gains and losses, fair value movement in contingent consideration receivable, capital raising costs, interest expense on related party balances, net and fair value movement in derivative instruments. For the year ended December 31, 2020, other expense, net includes loss on foreign exchange of $19,280, fair value gain on contingent consideration receivable of $9,831, fair value loss on derivative instruments of $22,463 and interest expense, net, on related party balances of $1,554, together with other costs of $7,339. For the year ended December 31, 2019, other expense, net includes loss on foreign exchange of $3,301, fair value gain on contingent consideration receivable of $27,274, fair value loss on derivative instruments of $17,325 and interest expense on related party balances of $8,457, together with other costs of $12,105.

Year Ended December 31, 2019 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2018

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018:

 

		Year ended December 31,								Variance
(U.S. dollars in thousands)		2019				2018				$				%
Revenue			1,418,140				1,140,662				277,478				24.3	%
Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization)			508,735				390,715				118,020				30.2	%
Selling, general and administrative			443,064				341,960				101,104				29.6	%
Depreciation and amortization			279,831				234,256				45,575				19.5	%
Impairment expense on intangible assets			88,792				—				88,792				—
Restructuring and other costs			50,683				57,789				(7,106	)			(12.3	)%
Gain on disposal of subsidiary and other assets, net			(4,777	)			—				(4,777	)			—
Operating income			51,812				115,942				(64,130	)			(55.3	)%
Other (expense)/income, net			(13,914	)			5,995				(19,909	)			(332.1	)%
Interest expense, net			(164,559	)			(156,027	)			(8,532	)			5.5	%

 

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		Year ended December 31,								Variance
(U.S. dollars in thousands)		2019				2018				$				%
Loss before taxes			(126,661	)			(34,090	)			(92,571	)			271.5	%
Income tax (benefit)/expense			(16,524	)			5,621				(22,145	)			(394.0	)%
Net loss			(110,137	)			(39,711	)			(70,426	)			177.3	%
Less: net income attributable to non controlling interest			61				—				61				—
Net loss attributable to the Company			(110,198	)			(39,711	)			(70,487	)			177.5	%

Revenue

Revenue increased by $277,478, or 24.3%, to $1,418,140 for the year ended December 31, 2019 from $1,140,662 for the year ended December 31, 2018. This increase was in part driven by inclusion of the full year results of iPayment, which was acquired on June 1, 2018. For the year ended December 31, 2019, iPayment contributed to $324,856 of revenue, an increase of $135,548 from the year ended December 31, 2018. The remaining increase in revenue is primarily due to the growth in our Integrated Processing and Digital Wallet segments. For further detail on our segments, see “Analysis by Segments” below.

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization)

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) increased $118,020, or 30.2%, to $508,735 for the year ended December 31, 2019 from $390,715 for the year ended December 31, 2018. Movements in our cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) are largely related to changes in volume and revenue. This increase was therefore in part driven by inclusion of the full year results of iPayment, which was acquired on June 1, 2018 and is a lower margin business than the average of the Company’s existing business lines. For the year ended December 31, 2019, iPayment contributed to $132,233 of cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization), an increase of $54,669 from the year ended December 31, 2018. The remaining increase is primarily due to an increase in cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) incurred within the Digital Wallet segment due to growth in the business, as well as an increase in commissions paid to affiliate partners for the introduction of new customers. The increase in cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization) of the Digital Wallet division was $35,473 from the year ended December 31, 2018.

Selling, general and administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $101,104, or 29.6%, to $443,064 for the year ended December 31, 2019 from $341,960 for the year ended December 31, 2018. This increase was primarily attributable to the following:

 

•

An increase in personnel-related costs of $40,037 as the average number of monthly employees increased from 2,861 to 3,189 during the period ending December 31, 2019. The increase in the average number of monthly employees was in part driven by the full-year impact of the acquisition of iPayment, as well as investment into certain corporate functions.

 

•

An increase in credit losses incurred of $26,527, primarily due to the full-year impact of the acquisition of iPayment as well as a material credit loss event relating to a former customer in which we incurred losses of $13,500.

The remaining increase was largely driven by an increase in marketing costs and professional costs. Marketing costs increased due to certain key campaigns in the period, including major sporting events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup, whereas professional costs were higher than the prior period due in part to an increased spend in outsourced services resulting from investments in our risk capabilities.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization increased $45,575, or 19.5%, to $279,831 for the year ended December 31, 2019 from $234,256 for the year ended December 31, 2018. This increase was in part attributable to the full year-impact of the intangible assets recognized as a result of the iPayment acquisition. The remaining increase is due to a revision of useful lives of certain computer software and customer relationships acquired as part of the past acquisitions of Paysafe Group Limited and iPayment. The revised useful lives reflect management’s best estimate of

 

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