What changed in this filing

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

2026-02-25 compared with 2025-02-26 · 22 added, 20 removed, 326 unchanged (11% of the section changed)

8 unchanged sentences

Economic conditions globally and locally directly affect unemployment and credit availability.

Adverse conditions (including natural disasters and extreme weather events), economic changes (including significant inflation), political volatility and financial disruptions (including unemployment) could place financial pressure on the consumer, which may reduce our ability to collect on our consumer receivable portfolios and may adversely affect the value of our consumer receivable portfolios.

Adverse conditions (including natural disasters and extreme weather events), economic changes (including significant inflation, changes in trade policy and tariffs), political volatility and financial disruptions (including unemployment) could place financial pressure on the consumer, which may reduce our ability to collect on our consumer receivable portfolios and may adversely affect the value of our consumer receivable portfolios.

Further, increased financial pressures on the financially distressed consumer may result in additional regulatory requirements or restrictions on our operations and increased litigation filed against us.

6 unchanged sentences

We do not know how long portfolios will be available for purchase on terms acceptable to us, or at all.

The availability of receivable portfolios at favorable prices depends on a number of factors, including:

The availability of receivable portfolios that meet our purchasing standards depends on a number of factors, including:

• volume of defaults in consumer debt;

• continued sale of receivable portfolios by originating institutions and portfolio resellers at sufficient volumes and acceptable price levels;

• continued sale of receivable portfolios by originating institutions at sufficient volumes and acceptable price levels;

• competition in the marketplace;

• our ability to develop and maintain favorable relationships with key major credit originators and portfolio resellers;

• our ability to obtain adequate data from credit originators or portfolio resellers to appropriately evaluate the collectability of, estimate the value of, and collect on portfolios;

• our ability to develop and maintain favorable relationships with key major credit originators;

• our ability to obtain adequate data from credit originators to appropriately evaluate the collectability of, estimate the value of, and collect on portfolios;

• changes in laws and regulations governing consumer lending, bankruptcy, and collections.

23 unchanged sentences

We acquire and service charged-off receivables that the obligors have failed to pay and the sellers have deemed uncollectible and have written off.

The originating institutions and/or portfolio resellers generally make numerous attempts to recover on these nonperforming receivables, often using a combination of their in-house collection and legal departments, as well as third-party collection agencies.

The originating institutions generally make numerous attempts to recover on these nonperforming receivables, often using a combination of their in-house collection and legal departments, as well as third-party collection agencies.

In order to operate profitably over the long term, we must continually purchase and collect on a sufficient volume of charged-off receivables to generate revenue that exceeds our costs.

55 unchanged sentences

If we become unable to continue to acquire or use information and data in the manner in which it is currently acquired and used, or if we were prohibited from accessing or aggregating the data in these systems or profiles for any reason, we may lose a significant competitive advantage, in particular if our competitors continue to be able to acquire and use such data, and our business could be materially and adversely affected .

If our technology and telecommunications systems were to fail, fail to be effective, or if we are not able to successfully anticipate, invest in, or adopt technological advances within our industry, it could have an adverse effect on our operations.

If our technology platforms were to fail, become ineffective, or if we are not able to successfully anticipate, invest in, or adopt technological advances within our industry, it could have an adverse effect on our operations.

Our success depends in a large part on sophisticated computer and telecommunications systems.

3 unchanged sentences

In addition, our business relies on computer and telecommunications technologies, and our ability to integrate new technologies into our business is essential to our competitive position and our success.

We may not be successful in anticipating, investing in, or adopting technological changes on a timely or cost-effective basis.

We may not be successful in anticipating, investing in, or adopting technological changes, including emerging automation and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, on a timely or cost-effective basis.

Computer and telecommunications technologies are evolving rapidly and are characterized by short product life cycles.

8 unchanged sentences

We collect and store sensitive data, including personal, confidential or proprietary consumer or employee information, on our information technology networks.

Despite the implementation of risk and security measures (see Item 1A-Cybersecurity), our information technology networks and systems have been, and in the future may again be, subject to breaches, disruptions and shutdowns due to attacks by threat actors or breaches due to malfeasance by contractors, employees and others who have access to our networks and systems.

Despite the implementation of risk and security measures (see Item 1C-Cybersecurity), our information technology networks and systems have been, and in the future may again be, subject to breaches, disruptions and shutdowns due to attacks by threat actors or breaches due to malfeasance by contractors, employees and others who have access to our networks and systems.

In addition to our own systems, we use third-party service providers, who in turn may also use third-party providers, to process certain data or information on our behalf.

51 unchanged sentences

In addition, the CFPB has engaged in enforcement activity in sectors adjacent to our industry, impacting credit originators, collection firms, payment processors and credit reporting agencies, among others.

Additionally, state regulators may increase enforcement activity and supervisory scrutiny within their respective jurisdictions, sometimes applying novel or more expansive interpretations of state law.

Enforcement activity in these spaces by the CFPB or others, especially in the absence of clear rules or regulatory expectations, may be disruptive to third parties as they attempt to define appropriate business practices.

14 unchanged sentences

The Stipulated Judgment required us to, among other things, continue to follow a narrow subset of the operational requirements contained in the 2015 Consent Order, all of which have long been part of the Company’s routine practices and pay a $15.0 million civil monetary penalty.

The Stipulated Judgment expired in October 2025.

In addition, new federal, state or local laws or regulations, or changes in the ways these rules or laws are interpreted or enforced, could limit our activities in the future and/or significantly increase the cost of regulatory compliance.

5 unchanged sentences

Failure to comply with any applicable laws, regulations, rules or contractual compliance obligations could result in investigations, information gathering, public censures, financial penalties, disciplinary measures, liability and/or enforcement actions, including licenses or permissions that we need to do business not being granted or being revoked or the suspension or termination of our ability to conduct collections.

In addition, our debt purchase contracts with vendors include certain conditions and failure to comply or revocation of a permission or authorization, or other actions taken by us that may damage the reputation of the vendor, may entitle the vendor to terminate any agreements with us.

Damage to our reputation, whether because of a failure to comply with

applicable laws, regulations or rules, revocation of a permission or authorization, any other regulatory action or our failure to comply with contractual compliance obligations, could deter vendors from choosing us as their debt purchase or collections provider.

entitle the vendor to terminate any agreements with us.

Damage to our reputation, whether because of a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations or rules, revocation of a permission or authorization, any other regulatory action or our failure to comply with contractual compliance obligations, could deter vendors from choosing us as their debt purchase or collections provider.

Compliance with this extensive regulatory framework is expensive and labor-intensive.

13 unchanged sentences

These stories may follow the announcements of litigation or regulatory actions involving us or others in our industry.

Negative publicity about our alleged or actual debt collection practices, the debt collection industry in general, our cybersecurity or any exfiltration or disclosure of sensitive data could adversely affect our stock price, our position in the marketplace in which we compete, and our ability to purchase charged-off receivables, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Negative publicity about our alleged or actual debt collection practices, the debt collection industry in general, our cybersecurity or any exfiltration or disclosure of sensitive data, and concerns related to the use of new digital or artificial intelligence AI‑enabled collection technologies could adversely affect our stock price, our position in the marketplace in which we compete, and our ability to purchase charged-off receivables, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Risks Related to Our Indebtedness and Common Stock

1 unchanged sentence

As described in greater detail in “Note 6:

Borrowings” to our consolidated financial statements, as of December 31, 2024, our total long-term indebtedness outstanding was approximately $3.7 billion.

Our substantial indebtedness could have important consequences to investors.

Borrowings” to our consolidated financial statements, as of December 31, 2025, our total long-term indebtedness outstanding was $4.0 billion.

Our significant indebtedness could have important consequences to investors.

For example, it could:

70 unchanged sentences

However, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of the notes surrendered therefor or to settle conversions in cash.

In addition, certain of our debt agreements contain restrictive covenants that limit our ability to engage in specified types of transactions, which may affect our ability to repurchase our notes.

In addition, certain of our debt agreements contain restrictive covenants that limit our

ability to engage in specified types of transactions, which may affect our ability to repurchase our notes.

Further, our ability to repurchase our notes or to pay cash upon conversion may be limited by law, by regulatory authority or by agreements governing our future indebtedness.

Our failure to repurchase the notes or to pay cash upon conversion of the notes at a time when the repurchase or cash payment upon conversion is required by any indenture pursuant to which the notes were offered

would constitute a default under the relevant indenture.

Such default could constitute a default under other agreements governing our indebtedness.

30 unchanged sentences

Adverse changes in the Company’s actual or expected operating results, market capitalization, business climate, economic factors or other negative events that may be outside the control of management could result in a material non-cash impairment charge in the future.

We recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $100.6 million at the Cabot reporting unit during the fourth quarter of 2024.

We had previously recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $238.2 million at the Cabot reporting unit in the fourth quarter of 2023.

We recorded goodwill impairment charges at the Cabot reporting unit of $238.2 million and $100.6 million during

the fourth quarters of 2023 and 2024, respectively.

There can be no assurance that we will not be required to take an additional impairment charge in the future, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

10 unchanged sentences

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1A. Risk Factors