Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
A description of our risk factors can be found in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022. There were no material changes to those risk factors during the six months ended March 31, 2023, except that the following risk factors are hereby updated or added:
Our business could suffer if consumer behaviors, or other factors, in connection with the use of prepaid cards change, or there are adverse developments with respect to the prepaid financial services industry in general.
As the prepaid financial services industry evolves, consumers may either find prepaid financial services to be less attractive than other financial services or may change the way in which they utilize the service prepaid cards provide. Consumers might not use prepaid financial services for any number of reasons. For example, negative publicity surrounding us or other prepaid financial service providers could impact the Payments business and prospects for growth to the extent it adversely impacts the perception of prepaid financial services. Consumer spend behaviors could increase or decrease, or become more difficult to accurately predict, thereby impacting operating revenues and/or expenses of the Company. Growth of prepaid financial services as an electronic payment mechanism may not occur or may occur more slowly than estimated. These factors could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
The loss or transition of key members of our senior management team or key employees in the Bank's divisions, or our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel, could adversely affect our business.
We believe that our success depends largely on the efforts and abilities of our senior executive management team and other key employees. Their experience and industry contacts significantly benefit us. Our future success also depends in part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate key management and operating personnel. We completed a Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer transition in October 2021 and announced a Chief Financial Officer transition in October 2022 that would have been effective April 30, 2023. This transition has been extended as the Company commenced a search for a successor on March 27, 2023, after announcing the Deputy Chief Financial Officer will no longer be succeeding the Chief Financial Officer. Management transitions may create uncertainty and involve a diversion of resources and management attention, be disruptive to our daily operations or impact public or market perception, any of which could negatively impact our ability to operate effectively or execute our strategies and result in a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
Additionally, as we continue to develop and expand our operations, we may require personnel with different skills and experiences, with a sound understanding of our business and the industries in which we operate. The competition for qualified personnel in the financial services industry is intense, and the loss of any of our key personnel or an inability to continue to attract, retain, and motivate key personnel could adversely affect our business.
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Adverse developments or concerns affecting the financial services industry in general or specific financial institutions, such as the recent bank closures and other developments in the United States banking industry could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds or other similar events, have in the past and may in the future lead to erosion of customer confidence in the banking system, deposit volatility, liquidity issues, stock price volatility, and other adverse developments. For example, the recent closures of Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") and Signature Bank has led to disruption and volatility, including deposit outflows and increased need for liquidity, at certain banks. Although a statement by the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC indicated that all depositors of SVB would have access to all of their money after only one business day of closure, including funds held in uninsured deposit accounts, it is not certain that the Federal Reserve or FDIC will treat future bank failures similarly. On May 1, 2023, First Republic Bank was also closed by its primary state regulator, which appointed the FDIC as receiver, and the FDIC announced that JP Morgan Chase Bank, National Association agreed to assume all of First Republic Bank's deposits and substantially all of its assets with an estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund of approximately $13 billion.
Similarly, inflation and rapid increases in interest rates have led to a decline in the trading value of previously issued government securities with interest rates below current market interest rates. Any sale of investment securities that are held in an unrealized loss position by financial institutions for liquidity or other purposes will cause actual losses to be realized. There can be no assurance that there will not be additional bank failures or issues such as liquidity concerns in the broader financial services industry or in the U.S. financial system as a whole. Adverse financial market and economic conditions can exert downward pressure on stock prices, security prices, and credit availability for financial institutions without regard to their underlying financial strength. The volatility and economic disruption resulting from the failures of SVB and Signature Bank have particularly impacted the price of securities issued by financial institutions, including us.
While we did not experience any abnormal changes in our total outstanding deposit balances following the recent bank closures and related events, we experienced changes in deposit balances resulting from typical seasonal fluctuations due to the nature of our business. While our deposit base primarily consists of millions of retail cards and other small dollar accounts with an average balance less than $1,000 and we maintain a liquidity position with numerous funding options available totaling over $4.0 billion as of March 31, 2023, we cannot be assured that unusual deposit withdrawal activity will not affect banks generally in the future or us in particular. Continued uncertainty regarding or worsening of the severity or duration of the volatility in the banking industry could also adversely impact our estimate of our allowance for credit losses and related provision for credit losses. In connection with the recent bank closures, the United States federal bank regulators announced that losses to support uninsured deposits of the closed banks would be recovered via a special assessment on banks, which along with related costs to the Deposit Insurance Fund could led to an increase in our deposit insurance assessments.
Any of these impacts, or any other impacts resulting from the events described above, could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and our current and/or projected business operations and financial condition and results of operations.
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