Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
General
As a cloud-based, Fintech payment processor, we serve multiple industry verticals with technology that facilitates payment acceptance and funds disbursement in a single, full-stack ecosystem. We provide payment acceptance through multiple payment methods including: payment facilitation, prepaid card and electronic billing products and services to businesses, merchants and consumers. We seek to grow our business both organically through the continued development and enhancement of our products and services and through acquisitions of new products and services. We will continue to look for opportunities (both internally and externally) to enhance our offerings to meet customer demands as they arise.
Since 1998, Usio has entered a number of market verticals within the payments industry in order to satisfy the growing payment needs of consumers and merchants across the United States. Beginning with our Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment, or EBPP, product that launched the Company, we entered into the electronic funds transfer space through the ACH network, developing ancillary and complementary products such as PINless debit in 2016, and Remotely Created Checks, or RCC, account validation, and account inquiry in 2019. These supplementary product options offer customers access to faster and more convenient payment options and tools to improve operating efficiencies. Further, our credit card payment offering was expanded in 2017 with the development of Payment Facilitation, or PayFac, that utilizes our unique technology that allows for instant enrollment of merchants and combined our suite of payment options into an integrated platform for merchants and customers to utilize.
Through our innovative Prepaid Debit Card platform, we offer a variety of prepaid card products such as reloadable, incentive, promotional and corporate card programs. Combined with our printing and mailing services, through the acquisition of IMS in December of 2020, we can satisfy the diverse requirements of customer needs with physical and virtual document creation and distribution, including traditional paper checks. Our Consumer Choice product developed and debuted in 2022 that provides flexible ways to initiate a variety of payment distributions through a multitude of payment methods including physical prepaid and virtual cards, ACH, paper checks, real-time PINless debit and others. This offering allows us a superior opportunity to increase our cross-selling efforts through all of our payment methods.
With the growing need for faster payment methods, we continue to invest in technology that can help us further expand our suite of payment technology. With the rise of Real Time Payments, or RTP, we began expansion into this market vertical in 2023, which serves as an alternative to ACH payments. As well, we continue to enhance our existing product offerings, with improvements in reporting, data management, fraud and risk monitoring, ease of access, and accelerations in client onboarding and implementation times. With our transition to a cloud-based platform, our speed, security, and scalability in payment processing is further expanded, allowing us to seamlessly grow as the market demands.
Payment Acceptance. We provide integrated electronic payment processing services to merchants and businesses, including credit, and debit card-based processing services and electronic funds transfer via the ACH network. The ACH network is a nationwide electronic funds transfer system that is regulated by the Federal Reserve and the National Automatic Clearing House Association, or NACHA, the electronic payments association, and provides for the clearing of electronic payments between participating financial institutions. Our ACH processing services enable merchants or businesses to both disburse and collect funds electronically using e-checks instead of traditional paper checks. An e-check is an electronic debit to a bank checking account that is initiated at the point-of-sale, on the Internet, over the telephone, or via a bill payment sent through the mail via a physical check. E-checks are processed using the ACH network. We are one of nine companies that hold the prestigious NACHA certification for Third-Party Senders and were the second company to receive the certification and are the most tenured to hold the certification.
Our payment acceptance services are delivered in a variety of forms and situations. For example, our capabilities allow merchants to convert a paper check to an e-check or receive card authorization at the point-of-sale, allow our merchants’ respective customer service representatives to take e-check or card payments from their consumers by telephone, and enable their consumers to make e-check or card payments directly through the use of a website or by calling an interactive voice response telephone system.
Similarly, our PINless debit product allows merchants to debit and credit accounts in real-time.
Card-Based Services. Our card-based processing services enable merchants to process both traditional card-present, tap-and-pay, or "swipe" transactions, as well as card-not-present transactions. A traditional card-present transaction occurs whenever a card holder physically presents a credit or debit card to a merchant at the point-of-sale. A card-not-present transaction occurs whenever the customer does not physically present a payment card at the point-of-sale and may occur over the Internet, mail, or telephone. A tap-and-pay transaction occurs whenever a consumer taps their phone on a physical terminal utilizing third party wallet services like Apple Pay®, Samsung Pay™ and Google Pay™.
Payment Facilitation. Following the completion of the Singular Payments acquisition in 2017, we launched our payment facilitation, or PayFac, platform called "PayFac-in-a-Box" in late 2018 targeting partnership opportunities with app and software developers in bill-centric verticals, such as legal, healthcare, property management, utilities and insurance. The PayFac-in-a-Box platform 'integration layer' offers a simple integration experience for technology companies who are looking to monetize payments within an existing base of downstream clients. The added value of offering our integration partners access to real-time merchant enrollment, credit card, debit card, ACH and prepaid card issuance capabilities through a single vendor partner relationship in face-to-face, mobile and virtual payment acceptance environments provides a true single channel commerce experience through an application programming interface, or API.
Prepaid and Incentive Card Services. Through our December 2014 acquisition of the assets of Akimbo Financial, Inc., we added a highly talented technical staff of industry subject matter experts and an innovative cardholder service platform including cardholder web and mobile applications and launched what is now our UsioCard business. As a result of this acquisition, through our subsidiary, FiCentive, Inc., we offer customizable prepaid cards which companies use for expense management, incentives, refunds, claims and disbursements, as well as unique forms of compensation such as per diem payments, government disbursements, and similar payments. This comprehensive money disbursement platform allows businesses to pay their contractors, employees, or other recipients by choosing among a prepaid debit Mastercard, real-time deposit to a checking account, traditional ACH, direct deposit or paper check. These cardholder web and mobile applications have been fully integrated into FiCentive’s prepaid card core processor, and now support all program types and brands offered by FiCentive and its clients.
As part of our Prepaid card-based processing services, we develop and manage a variety of Mastercard-branded prepaid card program types, including consumer reloadable, consumer gift, incentive, promotional, general and government disbursement and corporate expense cards. We also offer prepaid cards to consumers for use as a tool to stay on budget, manage allowances and share money with family and friends. Our UsioCard platform supports Apple Pay®, Samsung Pay™ and Google Pay™.
In our over 20+year history, we have created a loyal customer base that relies on us for our convenient, secure, innovative and adaptive services and technology, and we have built long-standing and valuable relationships with premier banking institutions such as Fifth Third Bank, Sunrise Bank, TransPecos and others.
Electronic Billing. On December 15, 2020, we entered into the business of electronic bill presentment, document composition, document decomposition and printing and mailing services serving hundreds of customers representing a wide range of industry verticals, including utilities and financial institutions through the acquisition of IMS. This product offering provides an outsourced solution for document design, print, and electronic delivery to potential customers and entities looking to reduce postage costs and increase efficiencies. This acquisition increased our ability to grow new revenue streams and allowed us to reenter the electronic bill presentment and payment revenue stream. The success of this new business line depends on our ability to realize the anticipated growth opportunities; we cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to realize these opportunities.
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Industry Background and Trends
In the United States, the use of non-paper-based forms of payment, such as credit and debit cards, has risen steadily over the past several years. According to the triennial 2022 Federal Reserve Payments Study, or FRPS, as updated through July 27, 2023, the estimated number of non-cash payments continue to increase at accelerated rates. The FRPS reflects the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in an increase of non-paper payments by 24% from 2019 through the end of 2020. The growth of electronic commerce has made the acceptance of card-based and other electronic forms of payment a necessity for businesses, both large and small, in order to remain competitive.
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The value of core noncash payments in the United States grew 9.5% per year since 2018, faster than in any previous FRPS measurement period since 2000.
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The number of core non-cash payments, comprising debit card, credit card, ACH, and check payments, reached 204.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 30.7 billion from 2018. The value of these payments totaled $128.51 trillion in 2021, an increase of $31.47 trillion from 2018, more than twice the rate of increase in the previous three-year period (2015 to 2018).
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ACH payments exhibited accelerating growth, increasing 8.3% per year by number and 12.7% per year by value from 2018 to 2021, and accounted for more than 90% of the rise in non-cash payments.
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In 2021 ACH transfers grew to $91.85 trillion, representing 72% of core non-cash payments value.
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Card payments continued to show robust growth from 2018 to 2021, collectively increasing 6.2% per year by number and 10% by value up from the 8.6% yearly rate of increase in the 2015 to 2018.
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From 2015 to 2018, total card payments - the sum of credit card, non-prepaid debit card and prepaid debit card payments - increased 25.9 billion to reach 157 billion payments by number and increased $2.35 trillion to reach $9.43 trillion by value in 2018.
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Within card payments, prepaid debit card payments had the highest growth rate in 2021 over 2018, by value, at 20.6%, compared with 13.7% per year for non-prepaid debit card payments and 7% for credit card payments.
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Remote payments, by the end of 2020, represented 37.65% of the total number of card payments, having increased 7.2 billion by number and $37 billion in value over 2020. As a result, e-commerce comprised more than two-thirds of remote card payments by number, and 59.16% by value.
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Chip authenticated payments accounted for 75.2% of in-person general-purpose card payments in 2020, compared with 2.0% in 2015, and grew 22.6% by number from 2018 to 2020.
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From 2019 to 2020 innovative payment methods grew in popularity, such as contactless card, digital wallet, and P2P payments.
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Figure 1 (below) illustrates the overall growth in key non-cash metrics since the Federal Reserve Payments Study was first reported for the year 2000 and reflects the acceleration of growth in recent years.
Figure 2 (below) illustrates the overall growth in key cash metrics since the Federal Reserve Payments Study was first reported for the year 2000 and reflects the acceleration of growth in recent years.
Note: All estimates are on a triennial basis, except that card payments were also estimated for 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020. Credit card payments include general-purpose and private-label versions. Prepaid debit card payments include general-purpose, private-label, and electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, versions. Estimates for prepaid debit card payments are not available for 2000 or 2003. The points mark years for which data were collected and estimates were produced. Lines connecting the points are linear interpolations.
Source: 2022 Federal Reserve Payments Study
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We believe that the electronic payment processing industry will continue to benefit from the following trends:
Favorable Demographics
As consumers age, we expect that they will continue to use the payment technology to which they have grown accustomed. More consumers are beginning to use card-based and other electronic payment methods for purchases at an earlier age. These consumers have witnessed the wide adoption of card products, technology innovations such as mobile phone payment applications, widespread adoption of the internet and a significant increase in card not present transactions and on-line shopping during COVID-19. As younger consumers comprise an increasing percentage of the population and as they enter the work force, we expect purchases using electronic payment methods will become a larger percentage of total consumer spending. We believe the increasing usage of smart phones as an instrument of payment will also create further opportunities for us in the future. We also believe that contact-less payments like Apple Pay®, Samsung Pay™ and Google Pay™ will increase payment processing opportunities for us.
Increased Electronic Payment Acceptance by Small Businesses
Small businesses are a vital component of the U.S. economy and are expected to contribute to the increased use of electronic payment methods. The lower costs associated with electronic payment methods are making these services more affordable to a larger segment of the small business market. In addition, we believe these businesses are experiencing increased pressure to accept electronic payment methods in order to remain competitive and to meet consumer expectations. As a result, many of these small businesses are seeking to provide customers with the ability to pay for merchandise and services using electronic payment methods, including those in industries that have historically accepted cash and checks as the only forms of payment for their merchandise and services.
Growth in Online Transactions
Market researchers expect continued growth in card-not-present transactions due to the steady growth of the internet and electronic commerce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, estimated retail e-commerce sales for 2023 were estimated at $1,118.7 billion, an increase of approximately 7.6% from 2022.
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Products and Services
Our suite of payment solutions is driven by a sophisticated infrastructure that merges our own technology with strategic alliances, offering secure, scalable, and resilient payment processing services. Leveraging the latest in cloud computing and cybersecurity, including Microsoft Azure's robust security features, we ensure the protection of data transmissions and transactions. Our adoption of Azure's hub-spoke architecture and other cutting-edge technologies supports enhanced performance and security, facilitating seamless integrations with third-party processors and offering tailored payment services to meet the specific requirements of our clients.
The platform supports secure data exchanges using state-of-the-art encryption standards and secure communication protocols, using the latest technology in best-practices encryption to safeguard electronic transactions across the internet. With comprehensive data warehousing, we offer efficient storage, retrieval, and data analysis, ensuring all sensitive information is encrypted and securely managed.
Payment Acceptance. Our service offerings encompass a broad spectrum of ACH transaction processing, including innovative solutions like Represented Check and Check Conversion for electronic payment facilitation. Clients have the flexibility to initiate transactions via our online portal or leverage our expertise for transaction processing on their behalf via a robust API set.
We extend merchant services across major card networks (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB), supported by online and physical terminal access. Our proprietary platform merges ACH and card processing capabilities, enabling businesses to handle both e-checks and card payments efficiently.
The expansion of our platform and the transition to cloud-based infrastructure underscore our commitment to speed, security, and scalability in payment processing. Our direct Fed ACH system integration, facilitated by NACHA certification, exemplifies our efforts to optimize processing efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance merchant services.
Prepaid and Incentive Card Services . Our Prepaid and Incentive Card Issuance Services are anchored by our sophisticated processing platform, which supports an array of card program types in partnership with prominent banks and offers highly customizable digital solutions. A key feature of our innovative service offerings is the integration of an external authorization engine that provides real-time transaction authorization through a unique dual-funding mechanism, enhancing transactional flexibility and user experience by allowing for the application of real-time value loads by the program managers. This engine, coupled with our comprehensive support for popular mobile wallets via Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Services, underscores our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver seamless and enriched payment experiences. Our platform's rapid custom solution deployment capability further cements our position as a leader in the market, demonstrating our dedication to innovation and operational agility in meeting the advanced payment solution needs of our clients.
Electronic Billing . Following the acquisition of Information Management Solutions, LLC, or IMS, we've enhanced and expanded our services to include electronic bill presentment and comprehensive document management solutions, catering to a wide array of industries. Our state-of-the-art digital printing capabilities, combined with our status as a seamless mailer with USPS, enable us to meet high-volume demands efficiently, ensuring we remain at the forefront of printing and mailing services. Output Solutions provides printing and mailing services to utilities, healthcare providers, credit unions, banks, governmental agencies, and manufacturing and other customers that have high volume billing and printing needs.
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Relationships with Sponsors and Processors
We have agreements with several processors that provide us, on a non-exclusive basis,with transaction processing and transmittal, transaction authorization and data capture, and access to various reporting tools. In order to provide payment processing services for ACH transactions, we must maintain a relationship with an Originating Depository Financial Institution, or ODFI, in the ACH network because we are not a bank and therefore, we are not eligible to be an ODFI. For the ODFI portion of our ACH business, we have entered into agreements with the North American Banking Company, or NABC, Metropolitan Commercial Bank and TransPecos Banks. We are financially liable for all fees, fines, chargebacks, and losses related to our ACH processing merchant customers. We may also require cash deposits and other types of collateral from certain merchants to mitigate any such risk. Similarly, in order to provide payment-processing services for Visa, Mastercard and Discover transactions, we must be sponsored by a financial institution that is a principal member of the respective Visa, Mastercard and Discover card associations. Central Bank of St. Louis and Fifth Third Bank have, respectively, sponsored us under the designations Third Party Processor, or TPP, and Independent Sales Organization, or ISO, with the Visa card association, and under the designations Third Party Servicer, or TPS, and Merchant Service Provider, or MSP, with the Mastercard card association. We have an agreement with TriSource Solutions, LLC and an agreement with Global Payments, Inc. through which their member banks, Central Bank of St. Louis and Fifth Third Bank, sponsor us for membership in the Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover card associations and settle card transactions for our merchants. These agreements may be terminated by the processor if we materially breach the agreements and we do not cure the breach within 30 days, or if we enter bankruptcy or file for bankruptcy. We also maintain a bank sponsorship agreement with Sunrise Banks, N.A. for our prepaid card programs. We are liable for any card-associated losses for cards that we issue that might incur a negative balance and we are liable for card association fines, fees and chargebacks.
Under our processing agreement with TriSource Solutions and Vantiv, we are financially liable for all fees, fines, chargebacks and losses related to our card processing merchant customers. Under our processing agreement with Global Payments, Inc., we are not financially liable for all fees, chargebacks and losses related to our card processing merchant customers, but we are liable for potential card association fines. If, due to insolvency or bankruptcy of our merchant customers, or for another reason, we are unable to collect from our merchant customers amounts that have been refunded to the cardholders because the cardholders properly initiated a charge-back transaction to reverse the credit card charges, we must bear the credit risk for the full amount of the card holder transaction. We utilize a number of systems and procedures to evaluate and manage merchant risk, such as obtaining approval of prospective merchants from our processor and sponsor bank, setting transaction limits and monitoring account activity. We may also require cash deposits and other types of collateral from certain merchants to mitigate any such risk. We maintain a reserve for losses resulting from card processing and related chargebacks. We estimate our potential loss for chargebacks by performing a historical analysis of our charge-back loss experience with similar merchants and considering other factors that could affect that experience in the future, such as the types of card transactions processed and nature of the merchant relationship with their consumers.
We are currently sponsored by Evolve Bank & Trust, TransPecos Bank and CBW Bank in order to access certain regional debit networks. Through these sponsorships, we created a new service in late 2016 to provide both the issuance of real time credits and debits to a debit card holder via a regional network without using a PIN. Regional networks are not affiliated with major credit card associations and operate independently. Through our sponsorships with Evolve Bank & Trust, TransPecos Bank and CBW Bank, we are financially liable for all fees, fines, chargebacks and losses related to our PINless debit card processing for our merchant customers. We may also require cash deposits and other types of collateral from certain merchants to mitigate any such risk. The banking sponsor and each of the regional debit networks have the ability to terminate our access or anyone of our merchant’s access to process payments without notice. If either case occurs, our revenue could be negatively affected. In January 2018, our previous sponsor, Pueblo Bank and Trust, terminated their relationship with our gateway provider and as a result we stopped processing PINless debit transactions for a short period of time. We secured a relationship with Evolve Bank & Trust and resumed processing PINless debit transactions and subsequently secured a sponsoring relationship with CBW Bank in 2021 and TransPecos bank in 2023.
We maintain an allowance for estimated losses resulting from the inability or failure of our merchant customers to make required payments for fees charged by us. Amounts due from customers may be deemed uncollectible because of merchant disputes, fraud, insolvency or bankruptcy. We determine the allowance based on an account-by-account review, taking into consideration such factors as the age of the outstanding receivable, historical pattern of collections and financial condition of the customer. We closely monitor extensions of credit and if the financial condition of our customers were to deteriorate, resulting in an impairment of their ability to make contractual payments, additional allowances may be required.
Sales and Marketing
We sell and market our ACH products and services primarily through non-exclusive resellers that act as an external sales force, with minimal direct investment in sales infrastructure and management, as well as direct contact by our sales personnel. Our direct sales efforts are coordinated by two sales executives and supported by other employees who function in sales capacities. Our primary market focus is on companies generating high volumes of electronic payment transactions. We tailor our sales efforts to reach this market by pre-qualifying prospective sales leads through direct contact or market research. Our sales personnel typically initiate contact with prospective customers that we identify as meeting our targeted customer profile.
We also market and sell our prepaid card program directly to government entities, corporations and to consumers through the Internet. A major initiative will be the packaging and cross selling of our platform of payment options across our portfolio of merchants. As a part of this major initiative, we will continue to analyze our sales and marketing efforts to optimize productivity, increase sales force effectiveness, broaden our reach through reseller initiatives and advantageous alliances and effectively optimize sales and marketing expenses while meeting our revenue and profit objectives.
We also offer additional services relating to electronic bill presentment, document composition, document decomposition and printing and mailing services serving hundreds of customers representing a wide range of industry verticals, including utilities and financial institutions. This service, which we began with the acquisition of IMS in December 2020, allows us to cross-sell existing service offerings to our customers.
Customers
Our customers are consumers, merchants, and businesses that use our Automated Clearing House and/or card-based processing services in order to provide their consumers with the ability to pay for goods and services without having to use cash or a paper check. These merchant customers operate in a variety of predominately retail industries and are under contract with us to exclusively use the services that we provide to them. Recent areas of customer focus have included system integrators, law firms, churches, charitable organizations, medical and dental clinics, doctor's offices, property management and homeowner associations, hospitality firms and municipalities. Most of our merchant customers have signed long-term contracts, generally with three-year terms, that provide for volume-based transaction fees. Our merchant accounts increased 12% to 6,281 customers at December 31, 2023 from 5,601 customers at December 31, 2022. Our customers are geographically dispersed throughout the United States.
No customer accounted for more than 10% of revenues in 2023 or 2022.
Competition
The payment processing industry is highly competitive. Many small and large companies compete with us in providing payment processing services and related services to a wide range of merchants. There are a number of large transaction processors, including Fiserv, Inc., Elavon Inc., WorldPay, Stripe and Square that serve a broad market spectrum from large to small merchants and provide banking, automatic teller machine, and other payment-related services and systems in addition to card-based payment processing. There are also a large number of smaller transaction processors that provide various services to small and medium- sized merchants. Many of our competitors have substantially greater capital resources than us and operate as subsidiaries of financial or bank holding companies, which may allow them on a consolidated basis to own and conduct depository and other banking activities that we do not have the regulatory authority to own or conduct. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market include:
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quality of service;
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reliability of service;
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ability to evaluate, undertake and manage risk;
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ability to offer customized technology solutions;
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speed in implementing payment processes;
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price and other financial terms; and
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multi-channel payment capability.
We believe that our specific focus on providing integrated payment processing solutions to merchants, in addition to our keen understanding of the needs and risks associated with providing payment processing services electronically, gives us a competitive advantage over other competitors, which have a narrower market perspective, and over competitors of a similar or smaller size that may lack our experience and expertise in the electronic payments industry. We believe this allows us to satisfy the market demands for risk management, and service reliability. Furthermore, we believe we present a competitive distinction through our internal technology to provide a single integrated payment warehouse that consolidates, processes, tracks and reports all payments regardless of payment source or channel. This integrated payments approach helps offer superior quality in service, alongside industry leading implementation times, and platform reliability. We also believe our customized technology solutions and high level of service provide a competitive advantage, particularly for smaller businesses that do not have large internal technology capabilities or the ability to comply with payment security regulations, saving our customers time and money, while offering a broad range of diverse payment options.
Due to our proprietary systems and our ability to create and establish corporate-branded card programs in shorter time frames than our competitors, our prepaid card offerings are competitive with those of much larger companies. We also believe that our ten plus years of prepaid industry experience in processing and managing prepaid card programs is a competitive advantage over many of our competitors. We believe our connectivity and the ability to process via the contact-less networks of Apple Pay®, Samsung Pay™ and Google Pay™ are also competitive advantages. We also believe that the Akimbo mobile application technology and advanced card holder websites provide a competitive advantage in securing both consumers and business clients that have a need for a card program for their customer base. Finally, we believe we hold a significant competitive advantage over potential entrants into the prepaid industry as a result of the significant barrier in obtaining bank sponsorships for prepaid card program management and an even higher barrier for performing prepaid card processing.
Trademarks and Domain Names
We own federally registered trademarks on the marks “Usio,” “Payment Data Systems, Inc.,” “Akimbo,” “FiCentive Innovations in Prepaid Card Solutions,” “Don’t change your bank, just your card” and “ZBILL” and their respective designs.
Some of our material websites are www.usio.com, www.payfacinabox.com, www.ficentive.com, www.akimbocard.com, and www.usiooutput.com. The inclusion of these website addresses in this Annual Report do not include or incorporate by reference the information on or accessible through these websites, and the information contained on or accessible through these websites should not be considered as part of this annual report on Form 10-K.
We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other intellectual property protection methods to protect our services and related products.
Government Regulation
Our industry is highly regulated. Any new, or changes made to, U.S. federal, state and local laws, regulations, card network rules or other industry standards affecting our business may require significant development efforts or have an unfavorable impact to our financial results. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services and/or the imposition of civil and criminal penalties, including fines. Certain of our services are also subject to rules set by various payment networks, such as Visa and Mastercard.
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The Dodd-Frank Act
President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, into law on July 21, 2010. The Dodd-Frank Act caused significant structural reforms to the financial services industry. The Dodd-Frank Act regulates the fees charged or received by issuers for processing debit transactions and the transaction routing options available to merchants. The Dodd-Frank Act also established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB to regulate consumer financial services, including many services offered to our customers. These rules clarify the prepaid regulatory landscape for consumer access to disclosures, fees and statements, error resolution, limited liability and overdrafts. Additionally, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act provided that interchange fees that a card issuer or payment network receives or charges for debit transactions will now be regulated by the Federal Reserve and must be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred by the card issuer in authorizing, clearing and settling the transaction. In addition, the Durbin Amendment contains prohibitions on network exclusivity and merchant routing restrictions.
The Dodd-Frank Act caused interchange fees to be lowered on large bank-issued debit cards. The lowered interchange fees had a mild negative impact on our revenues and increased our earnings due to the fact that we were able to keep our prices constant with our merchants. If our competitors start to pass the extra margin into savings to their merchants, we may be forced to follow their actions and become exposed to lower earnings on the debit card transactions for large banks.
CARD Act
As an agent of, and third-party service provider to, our issuing banks, we are subject to indirect regulation and direct audit and examination by the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or FRB, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
On March 23, 2010, the FRB issued a final rule implementing Title IV of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009, or CARD Act, which imposes requirements relating to disclosures, fees and expiration dates that are generally applicable to gift certificates, store gift cards and general-use prepaid cards. We believe that our general purpose re-loadable prepaid cards, and the maintenance fees charged on our general purpose re-loadable cards, are exempt from the requirements under this rule, as they fall within an express exclusion for cards which are re-loadable and not marketed or labeled as a gift card or gift certificate. However, this exclusion is not available if the issuer, the retailer selling the card to a consumer or the program manager, promotes, even if occasionally, the use of the card as a gift card or gift certificate. As a result, we provide retailers with instructions and policies regarding the display and promotion of our general purpose re-loadable cards. However, it is possible that despite our instructions and policies to the contrary, a retailer engaged in offering our general purpose re-loadable cards to consumers could take an action with respect to one or more of the cards that would cause each similar card to be viewed as being marketed or labeled as a gift card, such as by placing our general purpose re-loadable cards on a display which prominently features the availability of gift cards and does not separate or otherwise distinguish our general purpose re-loadable cards from the gift cards. In such event, it is possible that such general purpose re-loadable cards would lose their eligibility for such exclusion to the CARD Act and its requirements, and therefore we could be deemed to be in violation of the CARD Act and the rule, which could result in the imposition of fines, the suspension of our ability to offer our general purpose re-loadable cards, civil liability, criminal liability, and the inability of our issuing banks to apply certain fees to our general purpose re-loadable cards, each of which would likely have a material adverse impact on our revenues.
In 2014, we resumed issuing gift cards. Any gift cards we issue will be governed by the CARD Act and other various regulations. Any violations with our gift card issuance could result in the imposition of fines, the suspension of our ability to offer our gift cards, civil liability, criminal liability, and the inability of our issuing banks to apply certain fees to our gift cards, each of which would likely have a material adverse impact on our revenues.
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Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Regulation
Our business is subject to U.S. federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, or collectively, the BSA. The BSA, among other things, requires money services businesses to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions and suspicious activity and maintain transaction records. On September 29, 2017, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, amended the Customer Due Diligence Rule, or CDD Rule, requiring the collection and verification of beneficial owners holding equal to or greater than 25% equity interest. The CDD Rule states that sole proprietorships-individual or spousal-and unincorporated associations are not legal entity customers as defined by the Rule, even though such businesses may file with the Secretary of State in order to register a trade name or establish a tax account. This is because neither a sole proprietorship nor an unincorporated association is a separate legal entity from the associated individual(s), and therefore beneficial ownership is not inherently obscured. The CDD Rule does not rely on the tax-exempt status of an entity as described in the Internal Revenue Code “IRC”. All nonprofit entities-whether or not tax-exempt-that are established as a nonprofit, or non-stock corporation, or similar entity that has been validly organized with the proper State authority are excluded from the ownership/equity prong of the requirement because nonprofit entities generally do not have ownership interests. As of May 2018, we are required to collect and verify beneficial owners holding equal to or greater than 25% equity interest based on rules promulgated by FinCEN.
We are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, that prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with specified countries, their governments and, in certain circumstances, their nationals, narcotics traffickers, and terrorists or terrorist organizations.
Similar anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and proceeds of crime laws apply to movements of currency and payments through electronic transactions and to dealings with persons specified on lists maintained by organizations similar to OFAC in several other countries and which may impose specific data retention obligations or prohibitions on intermediaries in the payment process.
Prepaid Services
Prepaid card programs managed by us are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations, which may include laws and regulations related to consumer and data protection, licensing, consumer disclosures, escheat, anti-money laundering, banking, trade practices and competition and wage and employment. As regulations evolve, or change, we may be required to obtain state licenses to expand our distribution network for prepaid cards, which licenses we may not be able to obtain. Furthermore, the CARD Act and the Federal Reserve’s Regulation E impose requirements on general-use prepaid cards, store gift cards and electronic gift certificates. These laws and regulations are evolving, unclear and sometimes inconsistent and subject to judicial and regulatory challenge and interpretation, and therefore the extent to which these laws and rules have application to, and their impact on, us, financial institutions, merchants or others is in flux. At this time, we are unable to determine the impact that the clarification of these laws and their future interpretations, as well as new laws, may have on us, financial institutions, merchants or others in a number of jurisdictions. Prepaid services may also be subject to the rules and regulations of Visa®, Mastercard® and other payment networks with which we and the card issuers do business. The programs in place to process these products generally may be modified by the payment networks at their discretion and such modifications could also impact us, financial institutions, merchants and others.
Environmental Laws
We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign environmental, health and safety laws and regulations governing, among other things, the generation, storage, handling, use and transportation of hazardous materials; the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into the environment; and the health and safety of our employees. We have incurred and expect to continue to incur costs to maintain or achieve compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. To date, these costs have not been material to the Company.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2023, we had 126 full-time employees. We are not a party to any collective bargaining agreements. We believe that our relations with our employees are good.
Growth and Development. Our strategy to develop and retain the best talent includes an emphasis on employee training and development. We promote our core values of ownership, innovation, camaraderie, service, authenticity and trust as an organization and offer awards to colleagues who exemplify these qualities. We require a mandatory online training curriculum for our employees that includes annual anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training.
Inclusion and Diversity. Our inclusion and diversity program focuses on our employees, workplace and community. We believe that our business is strengthened by a diverse workforce that reflects the communities in which we operate. We believe all of our employees should be treated with respect and equality, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious beliefs or other characteristics. Inclusion and diversity remain a common thread in all of our human resource practices so that we can attract, develop and retain the best talent for our workforce.
Available Information
Usio was founded under the name Billserv.com, Inc. in July 1998 and incorporated in the State of Nevada. On June 26, 2019, we changed our corporate name from Payment Data Systems, Inc. to Usio, Inc. Our principal offices are located at 3611 Paesanos Parkway, Suite 300, San Antonio, TX 78231. Our telephone number is (210) 249-4100.
Our corporate website is located at www.usio.com. We make available on this website, free of charge, copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports, as applicable and as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such materials to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Interested persons can view such materials without charge under the "Investor Relations" section and then by clicking "Financials" on the Company's website, www.usio.com.
The inclusion of website addresses in this Annual Report does not include or incorporate by reference the information on or accessible through these websites, and the information contained on or accessible through these websites should not be considered as part of this annual report on Form 10-K.
You may also read and copy any materials we file with or furnish to the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at https://www.sec.gov.
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