RISK FACTORS

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below before making an investment decision. Our business, prospects, financial condition or operating results could be harmed by any of these risks, as well as other risks not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial. The trading price of our securities could decline due to any of these risks, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment. As used in the risks described in this subsection, references to “we,” “us” and “our” are intended to refer to Priority unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Risk Factors Related to Our Business

The payment processing industry is highly competitive and such competition is likely to increase, which may adversely influence the prices we can charge to merchants for our services and the compensation we must pay to our distribution partners, and as a result, our profit margins.

The payment processing industry is highly competitive. We primarily compete in the small and medium business (“SMB”) merchant industry. Competition has increased recently as other providers of payment processing services have established a sizable market share in the SMB merchant acquiring industry. Our primary competitors for SMB merchants in these markets include financial institutions and their affiliates and well-established payment processing companies that target SMB merchants directly and through third parties, including Bank of America Merchant Services, Chase Merchant Services, Elavon, Inc. (a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp), Wells Fargo Merchant Services, First Data Corporation, Worldpay, Inc., Global Payments, Inc., TSYS and Square. We also compete with many of these same entities for the assistance of distribution partners. For example, many of our distribution partners are not exclusive to us but also have relationships with our competitors, such that we have to continually expend resources to maintain those relationships. Our growth will depend on the continued growth of payments with credit, debit and prepaid cards (“Electronic Payments”), particularly Electronic Payments to SMB merchants, and our ability to increase our market share through successful competitive efforts to gain new merchants and distribution partners.

In addition, many financial institutions, subsidiaries of financial institutions or well-established payment-enabled technology providers with which we compete, have substantially greater capital, technological, management and marketing resources than we have. These factors may allow our competitors to offer better pricing terms to merchants and more attractive compensation to distribution partners, which could result in a loss of our potential or current merchants and distribution partners. Competing with financial institutions is also challenging because, unlike us, they often bundle processing services with other banking products and services. This competition may effectively limit the prices we can charge our merchants, cause us to increase the compensation we pay to our distribution partners and require us to control costs aggressively in order to maintain acceptable profit margins. Our current and future competitors may also develop or offer services that have price or other advantages over the services we provide.

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

To acquire and retain a segment of our merchants, we depend in part on distribution partners that may not serve us exclusively and are subject to attrition.

We rely in significant part on the efforts of independent sales organizations (“ISOs”), independent software vendors (“ISVs”) and referral partners to market our services to merchants seeking to establish a merchant acquiring relationship. These distribution partners seek to introduce us, as well as our competitors, to newly established and existing SMB merchants, including retailers, restaurants and other businesses. Generally, our agreements with distribution partners (with the exception of a portion of our integrated technology partners and bank referral partners) are not exclusive, and distribution partners retain the right to refer merchants to other merchant acquirers. Gaining and maintaining loyalty or exclusivity can require financial concessions to maintain current distribution partners and merchants or to attract potential distribution partners and merchants from our competitors. We have been required, and expect to be required in the future, to make concessions when renewing contracts with our distribution partners and such concessions can have a material impact on our financial condition or operating performance. If these distribution partners switch to another merchant acquirer, cease operations or become insolvent, we will no longer receive new merchant referrals from them, and we risk losing existing merchants that were originally enrolled by them. Additionally, our distribution partners are subject to the requirements imposed by our bank sponsors, which may result in fines to them for non-compliance and may, in some cases, result in these entities ceasing to refer merchants to us. We cannot accurately predict the level of attrition of our distribution partners or merchants in the future, particularly those merchants we acquired as customers in the portfolio acquisitions we have completed in the past five years, which makes it difficult for us to forecast growth. If we are unable to establish relationships with new distribution partners or merchants, or otherwise increase our transaction processing volume in order to counter the effect of this attrition, our revenues will decline.

Unauthorized disclosure of merchant or cardholder data, whether through breach of our computer systems, computer viruses, or otherwise, could expose us to liability, protracted and costly litigation and damage our reputation.

We are responsible for data security for ourselves and for third parties with whom we partner, including by contract and under the rules and regulations established by the payment networks, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, as well as debit card networks. These third parties include merchants, our distribution partners and other third-party service providers and agents. We and other third parties collect, process, store and/or transmit sensitive data, such as names, addresses, social security numbers, credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates, driver’s license numbers and bank account numbers. We have ultimate liability to the payment networks and our bank sponsors that register us with Visa or MasterCard 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 cardholder data by us or our contracted third parties could result in significant fines, sanctions and proceedings or actions against us by the payment networks, governmental bodies, consumers or others.

Information security risks for us and our competitors have substantially increased in recent years in part due to the proliferation of new technologies and the increased sophistication, resources and activities of hackers, terrorists, activists, organized crime, and other external parties, including hostile nation-state actors. Examples of such information security risks are the recent Spectre and Meltdown threats which, rather than acting as viruses, were design flaws in many CPUs that allowed programs to steal data stored in the memory of other running programs and required patch software to correct. The techniques used by these bad actors to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, sabotage systems or utilize payment systems in an effort to perpetrate financial fraud change frequently and are often difficult to detect. Furthermore, threats may derive from human error, fraud or malice on the part of employees or third parties, or may result from accidental technological failure. For example, certain of our employees have access to sensitive data that could be used to commit identity theft or fraud. Concerns about security increase when we transmit information electronically 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 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 types of actions and attacks and others could disrupt our delivery of services or make them unavailable. Any such actions or attacks against us or our contracted third parties could hurt our reputation, force us to incur significant expenses in remediating the resulting impacts, expose us to uninsured liability, result in the loss of our bank sponsors or our ability to participate in the payment networks, subject us to lawsuits, fines or sanctions, distract our management or increase our costs of doing business. For example, we are presently evaluating whether the recent Spectre and Meltdown threats may require us to replace substantial portions of our current technology hardware and infrastructure in order to mitigate the risk associated with those threats. If we are required to replace a substantial portion of our current technology hardware and infrastructure, either as a result of the Spectre and Meltdown threats or similar future threats, we would likely incur substantial capital expenditures, which may materially and adversely affect our free cash flow and results of operations as a result.

We and our contracted third parties could be subject to breaches of security by hackers. Its encryption of data and other protective measures may not prevent unauthorized access to or use of sensitive data. A breach of a system may subject us to material losses or liability, including payment network fines, assessments and claims for unauthorized purchases with misappropriated credit, debit or card information, impersonation or other similar fraud claims. A misuse of such data or a cybersecurity breach could harm our reputation and deter merchants from using electronic payments generally and our services specifically, thus reducing our revenue. In addition, any such misuse or breach could cause us to incur costs to correct the breaches or failures, expose us to uninsured liability, increase our risk of regulatory scrutiny, subject us to lawsuits, and result in the imposition of material penalties and fines under state and federal laws or by the payment networks. While we maintain insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions, cover certain aspects of cyber risks, our insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all losses. 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 bank sponsors that facilitate our participation in the payment networks, either of which could materially impede our ability to conduct business.

The confidentiality of the sensitive business information and personal consumer information that resides on our systems and our associated third parties’ systems are critical to our business. While we maintain controls and procedures to protect the sensitive data we collect, we cannot be certain that these measures will be successful or sufficient to counter all current and emerging technology threats that are designed to breach these systems in order to gain access to confidential information. For example, although we generally require that our agreements with distribution partners or our service providers which may have access to merchant or cardholder data include confidentiality obligations that restrict these parties from using or disclosing any merchant or cardholder data except as necessary to perform their services under the applicable agreements, we cannot guarantee that these contractual measures will prevent the unauthorized use, modification, destruction or disclosure of data or allow us to seek reimbursement from the contracted party. In addition, many of our merchants are small and medium businesses that may have limited competency regarding data security and handling requirements and may thus experience data breaches. Any unauthorized use, modification, destruction or disclosure of data could result in protracted and costly litigation, and incurring significant losses.

In addition, our agreements with our bank sponsors and our third-party payment processors (as well as payment network requirements) require us to take certain protective measures to ensure the confidentiality of merchant and consumer data. Any failure to adequately comply with these protective measures could result in fees, penalties, litigation or termination of our bank sponsor agreements.

Any significant unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data entrusted to us would cause significant damage to our reputation and impair our ability to attract new integrated technology and referral partners, and may cause parties with whom we already have such agreements to terminate them.

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

We may experience breakdowns in our processing systems that could damage client relations and expose us to liability.

Our core business depends heavily on the reliability of our processing systems. A system outage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Not only would we suffer damage to our reputation in the event of a system outage, but we may also be liable to third parties. Many of our contractual agreements with clients require us to pay penalties if our systems do not meet certain operating standards. To successfully operate our business, we must be able to protect our processing and other systems from interruption, including from events that may be beyond our control. Events that could cause system interruptions include, but are not limited to, fire, natural disaster, unauthorized entry, power loss, telecommunications failure, computer viruses, terrorist acts, cyber-attacks, and war. Although we have taken steps to protect against data loss and system failures, there is still risk that we may lose critical data or experience system failures. To help protect against these events, we perform the vast majority of disaster recovery operations ourselves, but we also utilize select third parties for certain operations. To the extent we outsource our disaster recovery, we are at risk of the vendor’s unresponsiveness or other failures in the event of breakdowns in our systems. In addition, our property and business interruption insurance may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses or failures that may occur.

Governmental regulations designed to protect or limit access to or use of consumer information could adversely affect our ability to effectively provide our services to merchants.

Governmental bodies in the United States have adopted, or are considering the adoption of, laws and regulations restricting the use, collection, storage, and transfer of, and requiring safeguarding of, non-public personal information. Our operations are subject to certain provisions of these laws. Relevant federal privacy laws include the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which applies directly to a broad range of financial institutions and indirectly, or in some instances directly, to companies that provide services to financial institutions. These laws and regulations restrict the collection, processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal information, require notice to individuals of privacy practices and provide individuals with certain rights to prevent the use and disclosure of protected information. These laws also impose requirements for safeguarding and proper destruction of personal information through the issuance of data security standards or guidelines.

The Federal Trade Commission’s information safeguarding rules under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act require us to develop, implement and maintain a written, comprehensive information security program containing safeguards that are appropriate for our size and complexity, the nature and scope of our activities and the sensitivity of any customer information at issue. Our financial institution clients are subject to similar requirements under the guidelines issued by the federal banking regulators. As part of their compliance with these requirements, each of our financial institution clients is expected to have a program in place for responding to unauthorized access to, or use of, customer information that could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to customers and they are also responsible for our compliance efforts as a major service provider. In addition, regulators are proposing new laws or regulations which could require us to adopt certain cybersecurity and data handling practices. In many jurisdictions consumers must be notified in the event of a data breach, and such notification requirements continue to increase in scope and cost. The changing privacy laws in the United States create new individual privacy rights and impose increased obligations on companies handling personal data.

In addition, there are state laws restricting the ability to collect and utilize certain types of information such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers. Certain state laws impose similar privacy obligations as well as obligations to provide notification of security breaches of computer databases that contain personal information to affected individuals, state officers and consumer reporting agencies and businesses and governmental agencies that own data.

In connection with providing services to our merchants, we are required by regulations and contracts with our merchants and with our financial institution referral partners to provide assurances regarding the confidentiality and security of non-public consumer information. These contracts require periodic audits by independent companies regarding our compliance with industry standards and also allow for similar audits regarding best practices established by regulatory guidelines. The compliance standards relate to our infrastructure, components and operational procedures designed to safeguard the confidentiality and security of non-public consumer personal information shared by our merchants with it. Our ability to maintain compliance with these standards and satisfy these audits will affect our ability to attract, grow and maintain business in the future. If we fail to comply with the laws and regulations relating to the protection of data privacy, we could be exposed to suits for breach of contract or to governmental proceedings. In addition, our relationships and reputation could be harmed, which could inhibit our ability to retain existing merchants and distribution partners and obtain new merchants and distribution partners.

If more restrictive privacy laws or rules are adopted by authorities in the future, our compliance costs may increase and our ability to perform due diligence on, and monitor the risk of, our current and potential merchants may decrease, which could create liability for it. Additionally, our opportunities for growth may be curtailed by our compliance capabilities or reputational harm, and our potential liability for security breaches may increase.

Potential distribution partners and merchants may be reluctant to switch to a new merchant acquirer, which may adversely affect our growth.

Many potential distribution partners and merchants worry about potential disadvantages associated with switching merchant acquirers, such as a loss of accustomed functionality, increased costs and business disruption. For our distribution partners, switching to us from another merchant acquirer or integrating with us may be perceived by them as a significant undertaking. As a result, many distribution partners and merchants often resist change. There can be no assurance that our strategies for overcoming potential reluctance to change vendors or initiate a relationship with us will be successful, and this resistance may adversely affect our growth and performance results.

Because we rely on third-party vendors to provide products and services, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to fulfill their obligations.

Our business is dependent on third-party vendors to provide us with certain products and services. For example, we utilize First Data and TSYS to provide authorization and settlement services. Our current amended and restated processing agreement with First Data was entered into in December 2014 and will remain in effect through December 2019 and automatically renews for successive one year terms thereafter unless either party provides written notice of non-renewal to the other party. Our current processing agreement with TSYS was entered into in November 2014 and will remain in effect through December 2019 and automatically renews for successive one year terms thereafter unless either party provides written notice of non-renewal to the other party. In this regard, we have provided TSYS with a notice of our intent to terminate the agreement effective as of April 3, 2019, in connection with our intent to negotiate and enter into a new agreement with TSYS. There can be no assurance, however, that we will be successful in negotiating or entering into such a subsequent agreement with TSYS, and in the event we are unable to do so, we may determine to shift all or a portion of our current TSYS processing work to other providers.

The failure of these vendors, such as First Data and TSYS, to perform their obligations in a timely manner could adversely affect our operations and profitability. In addition, if we are unable to renew our existing contracts with our most significant vendors, such as First Data and TSYS, it might not be able to replace the related product or service at the same cost, which would negatively impact our profitability. Specifically, while we believe we would be able to locate alternative vendors to provide substantially similar services at comparable rates, or otherwise replicate such services internally, it is not assured that a change will not be disruptive to our business, which could potentially lead to a material adverse impact on our revenue and profitability until resolved.

Changes in card association and debit network fees or products could increase costs or otherwise limit our operations.

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

We are subject to extensive government regulation, and any new laws and regulations, industry standards or revisions made to existing laws, regulations or industry standards affecting the electronic payments industry may have an unfavorable impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to numerous regulations that affect electronic payments including, U.S. financial services regulations, consumer protection laws, escheat regulations, and privacy and information security regulations. Regulation and proposed regulation of our industry has increased significantly in recent years. Changes to statutes, regulations or industry standards, including interpretation and implementation of statutes, regulations or standards, could increase our cost of doing business or affect the competitive balance. For example, the Trump Administration has called for changes in existing regulatory requirements, including those applicable to financial services.

We cannot predict the impact, if any, of such changes on our business. It is likely that some policies adopted by the new administration will benefit us, while others will negatively affect it. Until we know what changes are adopted, we will not know whether in total we benefit from, or are negatively affected by, the changes. Failure to comply with regulations may have an adverse effect on our business, including the limitation, suspension or termination of services provided to, or by, third parties, and the imposition of penalties or fines.

Interchange fees, which are typically paid by the payment processor to the issuer in connection with electronic payments, are subject to increasingly intense legal, regulatory, and legislative scrutiny. In particular, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), significantly changed the United States financial regulatory system, including by regulating and limiting debit card fees charged by certain issuers, allowing merchants to set minimum dollar amounts for the acceptance of credit cards and allowing merchants to offer discounts or other incentives for different payment methods.

Rules implementing the Dodd-Frank Act also contain certain prohibitions on payment network exclusivity and merchant routing restrictions. These restrictions could limit the number of debit transactions, and prices charged per transaction, which would negatively affect our business. The Dodd-Frank Act also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”), which has assumed responsibility for most federal consumer protection laws, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which has the authority to determine whether any non-bank financial company, which may include us within the definitional scope, should be supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve Board”), because it is systemically important to the United States financial system. Any such designation would result in increased regulatory burdens on our business, which increases our risk profile and may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

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

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

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

Failure to comply with the rules established by payment networks or standards established by third-party processors could result in those networks or processors imposing fines or the networks suspending or terminating our registrations through our bank sponsors.

In order to provide our merchant acquiring services, we are registered through our bank sponsors with the Visa and MasterCard networks as service providers for member institutions. More than $32 billion of our processing volume in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 was attributable to transactions processed on the Visa and MasterCard networks. As such, we and our merchants are subject to payment network rules. The payment networks routinely update and modify requirements applicable to merchant acquirers including rules regulating data integrity, third-party relationships (such as those with respect to bank sponsors), merchant chargeback standards and Payment Card Industry and Data Security Standards (the “PCI DSS”). Standards governing our third-party processing agreements may also impose requirements with respect to compliance with PCI DSS.

If we do not comply with the payment network requirements or standards governing our third-party processing agreements, our transaction processing capabilities could be delayed or otherwise disrupted, and recurring non-compliance could result in the payment networks or third-party processors seeking to fine it, the payment networks suspending or terminating our registrations which allow us to process transactions on their networks, which would make it impossible for us to conduct our business on our current scale.

A card association has sent us an inquiry regarding a subset of merchants representing approximately 2% of 2017 processing volume for potential noncompliance with card association rules. The card association identified at least one merchant as having engaged in deceptive practices with consumers and being noncompliant with their card association requirements, which resulted in excessive chargebacks. The card association has also found evidence that certain merchants have engaged in activities that violated certain card association rules, including entering transactions that did not represent bona fide business between the merchant of record and the cardholder, and processing sales for the same cardholder under different merchant accounts over time. The card association also raised concern about data security failures by merchants or merchant non-compliance with PCI DSS and about a customer relationship vendor that some of our merchants use.

As a result of these and other findings, we took certain corrective actions, after reviewing these merchant accounts for violations of card association rules and our terms of service, including opening duplicate or multiple accounts to avoid compliance with our chargeback limitations. The corrective actions increase the costs of our compliance program which were passed along to resellers representing these merchants. As a result of some of these discrete corrective actions as well as standard risk assessment conducted through our risk management systems, we have terminated certain merchant accounts. We continue to evaluate additional existing and new merchant accounts for similar activity, and the number and type of merchants we will onboard in the future could potentially be affected. In addition, if we are in the future forced to close a material number of our merchant accounts as a result of separate inquiries from card associations of our own internal risk assessment process, such closures could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We have not been fined by the credit card association, however, had we not resolved the issues presented in such notices, we may be required to pay a fine. If in the future we are unable to recover fines from or pass-through costs to our merchants and/or resellers, or recover losses under insurance policies, we would experience a financial loss, and any such loss could be significant.

Under certain circumstances specified in the payment network rules or our third-party processing agreements, we may be required to submit to periodic audits, self-assessments or other assessments of our compliance with the PCI DSS. Such activities may reveal that we have failed to comply with the PCI DSS. In addition, even if we comply with the PCI DSS, there is no assurance that we will be protected from a security breach. The termination of our registration with the payment networks, or any changes in payment network or issuer rules that limit our ability to provide merchant acquiring services, could have an adverse effect on our payment processing volumes, revenues and operating costs. If an audit or self-assessment under PCI DSS identifies any deficiencies that we need to remediate, the remediation efforts may distract our management team and be expensive and time consuming.

Changes in payment network rules or standards could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Payment network rules are established and changed from time to time by each payment network as they may determine in their sole discretion and with or without advance notice to their participants. The timelines imposed by the payment networks for expected compliance with new rules have historically been, and may continue to be, highly compressed, requiring us to quickly implement changes to our systems which increases the risk of non-compliance with new standards. In addition, the payment networks could make changes to interchange or other elements of the pricing structure of the merchant acquiring industry that would have a negative impact on our results of operations.

There may be a decline in the use of electronic payments as a payment mechanism for consumers or adverse developments with respect to the electronic payments industry in general which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Maintaining or increasing our profitability is dependent on consumers and businesses continuing to use credit, debit and prepaid cards at the same or greater rate than previously. If consumers do not continue to use these cards for their transactions or if there is a change in the mix of payments between cash and electronic payments which is adverse to us, our business could decline and we could incur material losses. Regulatory changes may also result in merchants seeking to charge customers additional fees for use of electronic payments. Additionally, in recent years, increased incidents of security breaches have caused some consumers to lose confidence in the ability of retailers to protect their information.

In order to remain competitive and to continue to increase our revenues and earnings, we must continually update our products and services, a process which could result in increased costs and the loss of revenues, earnings, merchants and distribution partners if the new products and services do not perform as intended or are not accepted in the marketplace.

The electronic payments industry in which we compete is subject to rapid technological changes and is characterized by new technology, product and service introductions, evolving industry standards, changing merchant needs and the entrance of non-traditional competitors. We are subject to the risk that our existing products and services become obsolete, and that we are unable to develop new products and services in response to industry demands. Our future success will depend in part on our ability to develop or adapt to technological changes and the evolving needs of our resellers, merchants and the industry at large. We are continually involved in many business and technology projects, such as Commercial Payments Exchange (“CPX”), MX Connect and MX Merchant. MX Connect and MX Merchant provide resellers and merchant clients, a flexible and customizable set of business applications that help better manage critical business work functions and revenue performance using core payment processing as our leverage point. Additionally, CPX provides Accounts Payable (“AP”) automation solutions that offers enterprise clients a bridge for buyer to supplier payments. These may require investment in products or services that may not directly generate revenue. These projects carry the risks associated with any development effort, including difficulty in determining market demand and timing for delivery of new products and services, cost overruns, delays in delivery and performance problems. In addition, new products and offerings may not perform as intended or generate the business or revenue growth expected. Defects in our software and errors or delays in our processing of electronic transactions could result in additional development costs, diversion of technical and other resources from our other development efforts, loss of credibility with current or potential distribution partners and merchants, harm to our reputation, fines imposed by card networks, or exposure to liability claims. Any delay in the delivery of new products or services or the failure to differentiate our products and services could render them less desirable, or possibly even obsolete, to our merchants. Additionally, the market for alternative payment processing products and services is evolving, and we may develop too rapidly or not rapidly enough for us to recover the costs we have incurred in developing new products and services.

We may not be able to continue to expand our share of the existing electronic payments industry or expand into new markets, which would inhibit our ability to grow and increase our profitability.

Our future growth and profitability depend, in part, upon our continued expansion within the markets in which we currently operate, the emergence of other markets for electronic payments and our ability to penetrate these markets and our current distribution partners’ merchant base. Future growth and profitability of our business may depend upon our ability to penetrate new industries and markets for electronic payments.

Our ability to expand into new industries and markets also depends upon our ability to adapt our existing technology or to develop new technologies to meet the particular needs of each new industry or market. We may not have adequate financial or technological resources to develop effective and secure services or distribution channels that will satisfy the demands of these new industries or markets. Penetrating these new industries or markets may also prove to be more challenging or costly or take longer than we may anticipate. If we fail to expand into new and existing electronic payments industries and markets, we may not be able to continue to grow our revenues and earnings.

Our acquisitions subject us to a variety of risks that could harm our business.

We review and complete selective acquisition opportunities as part of our growth strategy. There can be no assurances that we will be able to complete suitable acquisitions for a variety of reasons, including the identification of and competition for acquisition targets, the need for regulatory approvals, the inability of the parties to agree to the structure or purchase price of the transaction and our inability to finance the transaction on commercially acceptable terms. In addition, any potential acquisition will subject us to a variety of other risks:

Additionally, we may be unable to maintain uniform standards, controls, procedures and policies as we attempt to integrate the acquired businesses, and this may lead to operational inefficiencies. These factors related to our acquisition strategy, among others, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Potential changes in the competitive landscape, including disintermediation from other participants in the payments value chain, could harm our business.

We expect that the competitive landscape will continue to change, including the following developments:

Failure to compete effectively against any of these competitive threats could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to successfully manage our intellectual property and may be subject to infringement claims.

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

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

We are subject to economic and political risk, the business cycles of our merchants and distribution partners and the overall level of consumer and commercial spending, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

Global economic, political and market conditions affecting the U.S. markets may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, including our revenue growth and profitability.

The current worldwide financial market situation, as well as various social and political tensions in the United States and around the world, may contribute to increased market volatility, may have long-term effects on the United States and may cause economic uncertainties or deterioration in the United States. The U.S. markets experienced extreme volatility and disruption during the economic downturn that began in mid-2007, and the U.S. economy was in a recession for several consecutive calendar quarters during the same period. In addition, the fiscal and monetary policies of foreign nations, such as Russia and China, may have a severe impact on U.S. financial markets.

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

A substantial portion of all of our merchants are small- and medium-sized businesses, which may increase the impact of economic fluctuations and merchant attrition on it.

We market and sell our solutions primarily to SMB merchants. SMB merchants are typically more susceptible to the adverse effects of economic fluctuations than larger businesses. We experience attrition in merchants and merchant charge volume in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, including business closures, transfers of merchants’ accounts to our competitors and account closures that we initiate due to heightened credit risks relating to, or contract breaches by, a merchant. Adverse changes in the economic environment or business failures of our SMB merchants may have a greater impact on us than on our competitors who do not focus on SMB merchants to the extent that we do. We cannot accurately predict the level of SMB merchant attrition in the future. If we are unable to establish accounts with new merchants or otherwise increase our payment processing volume in order to counter the effect of this attrition, our revenues will decline.

Our systems and our third-party providers’ systems may fail due to factors beyond our control, which could interrupt our service, resulting in our inability to process, cause us to lose business, increase our costs and expose us to liability.

We depend on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of numerous systems, including our computer network systems, software, data centers and telecommunication networks, as well as the systems and services of our bank sponsors, the payment networks, third-party providers of processing services and other third parties. Our systems and operations or those of our third-party providers, such as our provider of dial-up authorization services, or the payment networks themselves, could be exposed to damage or interruption from, among other things, fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, unauthorized entry, computer viruses, denial-of-service attacks, acts of terrorism, human error or sabotage, financial insolvency and similar events. Our property and business interruption insurance may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses or failures that may occur. At present, our critical operational systems, such as our payment gateway, are fully redundant, while certain of our less critical systems are not. Therefore, certain aspects of our operations may be subject to interruption. Also, while we have disaster recovery policies and arrangements in place, they have not been tested under actual disasters or similar events.

Defects in our systems or those of third parties, errors or delays in the processing of payment transactions, telecommunications failures or other difficulties could result in failure to process transactions, additional operating and development costs, diversion of technical and other resources, loss of revenue, merchants and distribution partners, loss of merchant and cardholder data, harm to our business or reputation, exposure to fraud losses or other liabilities and fines and other sanctions imposed by payment networks.

We rely on other service and technology providers. If they fail or discontinue providing their services or technology generally or to us specifically, our ability to provide services to merchants may be interrupted, and, as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

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

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

Fraud by merchants or others could cause us to incur losses.

We face potential liability for fraudulent electronic payment transactions initiated by merchants or others. Merchant fraud occurs when a merchant opens a fraudulent merchant account and conducts fraudulent transactions or when a merchant, rather than a customer (though sometimes working together with a customer engaged in fraudulent activities), knowingly uses a stolen or counterfeit card or card number to record a false sales transaction, or intentionally fails to deliver the merchandise or services sold in an otherwise valid transaction. Any time a merchant is unable to fund a chargeback, we have a number of contractual arrangements and other means of recourse to mitigate those risks. Nonetheless, there still is loss exposure in the event a merchant is unable to fund a chargeback. Additionally, merchant fraud occurs when employees of merchants change the merchant demand deposit accounts to their personal bank account numbers, so that payments are improperly credited to the employee’s personal account. We have established systems and procedures to detect and reduce the impact of merchant fraud, but we cannot be sure that these measures are or will be effective. Failure to effectively manage risk and prevent fraud could increase our chargeback or other liability.

We also have potential liability for losses caused by fraudulent card-based payment transactions. Card fraud occurs when a merchant’s customer uses a stolen card (or a stolen card number in a card-not-present transaction) to purchase merchandise or services. In a card-present transaction, where a merchant has an EMV, or “chip reader”, compliant machine, if the merchant swipes the card and receives authorization for the transaction from the issuer, the issuer remains liable for any loss. In a card-not-present transaction, or where a merchant lacks an EMV-capable machine even if the merchant receives authorization for the transaction, the merchant is liable for any loss arising from the transaction. Many of the merchants that we serve transact a substantial percentage of their sales in card-not-present transactions over the internet or in response to telephone or mail orders, which makes these merchants more vulnerable to fraud than merchants whose transactions are conducted largely in card-present transactions.

We incur liability when our merchants refuse or cannot reimburse us for chargebacks resolved in favor of their customers.

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

We rely on bank sponsors, which have substantial discretion with respect to certain elements of our business practices, in order to process electronic payment transactions. If these sponsorships are terminated and we are not able to secure new bank sponsors, we will not be able to conduct our business.

Because we are not a bank, we are not eligible for membership in the Visa, MasterCard and other payment networks. These networks’ operating regulations require us to be sponsored by a member bank in order to process Electronic Payment transactions. We are currently registered with Visa and MasterCard through Citizens Bank, Wells Fargo and Synovus Bank. We are also subject to network operating rules promulgated by the National Automated Clearing House Association relating to payment transactions processed by us using the Automated Clearing House Network. For ACH payments, our ACH network (ACH.com) is sponsored by Atlantic Capital Bank, BB&T Bank and MB Financial Bank. From time to time, we may enter into other sponsorship relationships as well.

Our bank sponsors may terminate their agreements with us if we materially breach the agreements and do not cure the breach within an established cure period, if our membership with Visa and/or MasterCard terminates, 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 bank sponsor within the applicable wind down period, we will not be able to process electronic payment transactions.

Furthermore, our agreements with our bank sponsors provide the bank sponsors 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 bank sponsors’ actions under these agreements will not be detrimental to it, nor can we provide assurance that any of our bank sponsors will not terminate their sponsorship of us in the future. Our bank sponsors have broad discretion to impose new business or operational requirements on us, which may materially adversely affect our business. If our sponsorship agreements are terminated and we are unable to secure another bank sponsor, we will not be able to offer Visa or MasterCard transactions or settle transactions which would likely cause us to terminate our operations.

Our bank sponsors 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 bank sponsor, we will not be able to process Visa and MasterCard transactions which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In July 2018, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) announced that it will begin accepting special purpose national bank charter applications from financial technology companies (“FinTech Charter”). No applications for a FinTech Charter have been submitted to date, and we cannot predict which, if any, of our current or future competitors would take advantage of the charter. However, such a development could increase the competitive risks discussed above or create new competitive risks, such as our nonbank competitors being able to more easily access the payment networks without the requirement of a bank sponsor, which could provide them with a competitive advantage.

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.

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

Legal proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

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

Our Executive Chairman and future President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Priore, is presently subject to an SEC civil order pertaining to his prior involvement with a registered investment adviser, which could heighten the regulatory scrutiny on us.

On June 21, 2010, the SEC filed a civil lawsuit against ICP Asset Management (“ICP”) and Thomas Priore in his role as majority owner, President and Chief Investment Officer of ICP’s registered investment advisor. The SEC principally alleged that portfolio rebalancing trades executed by ICP at the height of the credit crisis, in connection with its management of the assets of four collateralized debt obligation vehicles (the Triaxx “CDOs”), violated certain fiduciary duties and obligations under the CDOs’ trust indentures. The SEC contended that certain trades executed by ICP at purchase prices between the CDO trusts, should have been executed at then prevailing market prices and on an arms’ length basis, and, by failing to do so, ICP caused the CDOs to overpay for securities in violation of its fiduciary duty. The SEC further alleged that the nature of certain trades were mischaracterized to investors and executed without requisite approvals from the CDOs’ trustee. On August 14, 2012, Mr. Priore and ICP agreed to a civil settlement with regulators without admitting or denying the allegations, consenting to the entry of a civil order by the SEC. On March 11, 2015 the administrative settlement was entered pertaining to the SEC Order that barred Mr. Priore from associating with any broker, dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer or transfer agent, and from participating in any offering involving a penny stock, for a minimum of five years from the date of the SEC Order with the right to apply to the applicable regulatory body for reentry thereafter. The SEC Order does not, nor has it ever, prohibited Thomas Priore’s involvement with us, or his service as Executive Chairman and future President and Chief Executive Officer. During such time that the SEC bar remains in effect, we will be required to monitor if any future offerings of our stock might be considered an offering of “penny stock” which would be prohibited under the bar. In addition, while the SEC bar remains in effect, Mr. Priore is prohibited from owning a controlling equity stake in or operating a securities broker dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer or transfer agent. The SEC bar does not, however, impact our current business.

The loss of, for example, key personnel or of our ability to attract, recruit, retain and develop qualified employees could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

In addition, we rely heavily on several senior key directors and executive officers, including Thomas Priore, who is currently our Executive Chairman and will become our President and Chief Executive Officer on December 1, 2018 and who helped found Priority. Our future success will continue to depend on the diligence, skill, network of business contacts and continued service of Thomas Priore, together with members of our senior management team. We cannot assure you that unforeseen business, medical, personal or other circumstances would not lead any such individual to terminate his relationship with us. The loss of Thomas Priore, or any of the members of our senior management team, could have a material adverse effect on our ability to achieve our growth strategy as well as on our future financial condition and results of operations. Failure to retain or attract key personnel could impede our ability to grow and could result in our inability to operate our business profitably. In addition, contractual obligations related to confidentiality, assignment of intellectual property rights, and non-solicitation may be ineffective or unenforceable and departing employees may share our proprietary information with competitors in ways that could adversely impact us or seek to solicit our distribution partners or merchants or recruit our key personnel to competing businesses.

Our business and operations could be negatively affected if we become subject to any securities litigation or stockholder activism, which could cause us to incur significant expense, hinder execution of business and growth strategy and impact our stock price.

In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. Stockholder activism, which could take many forms or arise in a variety of situations, has been increasing recently. Volatility in our stock price or other reasons may in the future cause us to become the target of securities litigation or stockholder activism. Securities litigation and stockholder activism, including potential proxy contests, could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s and the board of directors’ attention and resources from our business. Additionally, such securities litigation and stockholder activism could give rise to perceived uncertainties as to our future, adversely affect our relationships with service providers and make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel. Also, we may be required to incur significant legal fees and other expenses related to any securities litigation and activist stockholder matters. Further, our stock price could be subject to significant fluctuation or otherwise be adversely affected by the events, risks and uncertainties of any securities litigation and stockholder activism.

Changes in tax laws and regulations could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows from operations.

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

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in U.S. GAAP.

U.S. GAAP is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations, including changes related to revenue recognition, could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

We are an “emerging growth company” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our securities less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. We may remain an “emerging growth company” until the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. However, if our non-convertible debt issued within a three-year period or revenues exceeds $1.07 billion, or the market value of our Common Stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million on the last day of the second fiscal quarter of any given fiscal year, we would cease to be an emerging growth company as of the following fiscal year. As an emerging growth company, we are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, has reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and is exempt from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Additionally, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until those standards apply to private companies. As such, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates. We cannot predict if investors will find our Common Stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Common Stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active market for our Common Stock, our share price may be more volatile and the price at which our securities trade could be less than if we did not use these exemptions.

Risk Factors Related to our Indebtedness

We will face risks related to our substantial indebtedness.

As of September 30, 2018, we had outstanding long-term debt of $352.2 million (compared to $283.1 million at December 31, 2017), an increase of $69.1 million, consisting of outstanding debt of $263.5 million under a credit facility with SunTrust Bank (including $2.7 million in current portion of long-term debt) and $88.7 million under a subordinated term loan (including accrued payment-in-kind (“PIK”) interest through September 30, 2018). We have a $25.0 million revolving credit facility with SunTrust Bank, which was undrawn as of September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017. In October 2018, we drew $8.0 million of the $25.0 million revolving credit facility with SunTrust Bank to partially finance a merchant portfolio acquisition. Our total interest expense was $23.8 million, $4.1 million and $3.5 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In the future, we may elect to use additional forms of indebtedness, including publicly or privately offered notes, which may further increase our levels of indebtedness. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources” for a description of our existing credit facilities.

Our current and future levels of indebtedness could have important consequences to us, including, but not limited to:

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

We will be able to incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future. Although the agreements governing our existing indebtedness contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to several significant qualifications and exceptions and, under certain circumstances, the amount of indebtedness that could be incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial.

Upon the occurrence of an event of default under the credit agreements relating to our credit facilities or any future debt instruments we may issue, the lenders thereunder could elect to accelerate payments due and terminate all commitments to extend further credit. Consequently, we may not have sufficient assets to repay amounts then outstanding under any such indebtedness.

Under the terms of our existing credit facilities, upon the occurrence of an event of default, the lenders will be able to elect to declare all amounts outstanding under such credit facilities to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to lend additional funds. Among other reasons, an event of default could be declared by the lenders in the event we fail to pay when due the interest, principal of or premium on any loan, we fail to comply with certain financial and operational covenants or any negative covenant, or event of default with respect to certain other credit facilities or debt instruments we may issue in the future.

Any future credit facilities or debt instruments we may issue will likely contain similar, or potentially more expansive, events of default as compared to those set forth in the terms of our existing credit facilities, including those breach or defaults with respect to any of our other outstanding debt instruments. Our existing credit facilities are secured by a pledge of substantially all of our assets and any indebtedness we incur in the future may also be secured.

The credit agreements governing our existing credit facilities and any other debt instruments we may issue in the future will contain restrictive covenants that may impair our ability to conduct business.

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

In addition, we will be required to comply with certain restrictions on the ratio of our indebtedness to our Earnout Adjusted EBITDA (as defined in the credit agreements governing our existing credit facilities). As a result of these covenants and restrictions, we will be limited in our ability to pay dividends or buy back stock and how we conduct our business, and we may be unable to raise additional debt or other financings to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could also include even more restrictive covenants. Failure to comply with such restrictive covenants may lead to default and acceleration and may impair our ability to conduct business. We may not 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 and/or amend the covenants, which may result in foreclosure on our assets and our Common Stock becoming worthless. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources” for a description of our existing credit facilities.

Risks Factors Related to Our Common Stock

Our stock price may change significantly following the exchange, and you may not be able to resell shares of our Common Stock at or above the price you paid or at all, and you could lose all or part of your investment as a result.

The trading price of our Common Stock is likely to be volatile. The stock market recently has experienced volatility. This volatility often has been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial price you paid due to a number of factors such as those listed in “—Risks Factors Related to our Business” and the following:

These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of our Common Stock is low.

In the past, following periods of market volatility, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation. If we were involved in securities litigation, it could have a substantial cost and divert resources and the attention of executive management from our business regardless of the outcome of such litigation.

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

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

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade our Common Stock or our sector, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Common Stock will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who do cover us downgrades our Common Stock or our industry, or the stock of any of our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our Common Stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of the combined company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Anti-takeover provisions in our organizational documents could delay or prevent a change of control.

Certain provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, defer, or prevent a merger, acquisition, tender offer, takeover attempt, or other change of control transaction that a stockholder might consider in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares held by our stockholders.

These provisions provide for, among other things:

The provisions requiring 66 2⁄3% approval if the Priority Holders hold less than 40% of our outstanding shares of Common Stock gives the Priority Holders significant influence over the vote on these items even after the Priority Holders own less than a majority of our outstanding shares of Common Stock.

In addition, these anti-takeover provisions could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us, even if the third-party’s offer may be considered beneficial by many of our stockholders. As a result, our stockholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation will designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or stockholders.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that, subject to limited exceptions, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for any (i) derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of our Company, (ii) action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or stockholders to us or our stockholders, (iii) action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or stockholders arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) or our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation or our Amended and Restated Bylaws, or (iv) action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or stockholders governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation described above. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

We believe that our stockholders will benefit from having any such disputes litigated in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. Although some plaintiffs might prefer to litigate matters in a forum outside of Delaware because another court may be more convenient or because they believe another court would be more favorable to their claims, we believe that the benefits us and our stockholders outweigh these concerns. Delaware offers a system of specialized courts to deal with corporate law questions, with streamlined procedures and processes which help provide relatively quick decisions. These courts have developed considerable expertise in dealing with corporate law issues, as well as a substantial and influential body of case law construing Delaware’s corporate law and long-standing precedent regarding corporate governance. In addition, the adoption of this provision would reduce the risk that we could be involved in duplicative litigation in more than one forum, as well as the risk that the outcome of cases in multiple forums could be inconsistent, even though each forum purports to follow Delaware law. The enforceability of similar exclusive jurisdiction provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that, in connection with any action, a court could find the exclusive jurisdiction provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in such action. However, given the decisions of the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware in 2013 upholding similar provisions in Boilermakers Local 154 Retirement Fund v. Chevron Corp., et al. and IClub Investment Partnership v. FedEx Corp., et al. , we believe that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware would find our exclusive forum provisions to be enforceable as well.

Thomas Priore, our Executive Chairman and future President and Chief Executive Officer, controls the Company, and his interests may conflict with ours or yours in the future.

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

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

We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of NASDAQ rules and, as a result, qualify for, and rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements. You will not have the same protections as those afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to such governance requirements.

Thomas Priore controls a majority of the voting power of our outstanding Common Stock. As a result, we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of NASDAQ. Under these rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including:

We utilize and intend to continue to utilize these exemptions. As a result, we will not have a majority of independent directors and our Compensation Committee and Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee does not consist entirely of independent directors. Accordingly, our stockholders do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of NASDAQ.

Risk Factors Related to Our Warrants and the Offer to Exchange and Consent Solicitation

We may redeem your unexpired Warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your Warrants worthless.

We have the ability to redeem outstanding Warrants (other than the private Warrants) at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at $0.01 per warrant, if the last reported sales price (or the closing bid price of our Common Stock in the event the Common Stock is not traded on any specific trading day) of the Common Stock equals or exceeds $16.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third business day prior to the date we send proper notice of such redemption, provided that on the date we give notice of redemption and during the entire period thereafter until the time we redeem the Warrants, we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the Warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available or cashless exercise is exempt from the registration requirements under the Securities Act. If and when the Warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding Warrants could force a warrant holder: (i) to exercise Warrants and pay the exercise price therefore at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) to sell Warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your Warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding Warrants are called for redemption, may be substantially less than the market value of your Warrants.

The Warrant Amendment, if approved, will allow us to require that all outstanding Warrants be exchanged for shares of Common Stock at a ratio 10% lower than the ratio applicable to the Offer.

If we complete the Offer and Consent Solicitation and obtain the requisite approval of the Warrant Amendment by holders of the Warrants, we will have the right to require holders of all Warrants that remain outstanding after the expiration of the Offer to exchange each of their Warrants for 0.1728 shares of Common Stock. This represents a ratio of shares per Warrant that is 10% less than the ratio applicable to the Offer. Although we intend to require an exchange of all remaining outstanding Warrants as a result of the approval of the Warrant Amendment, we would not be required to effect such an exchange and may defer doing so, if ever, until most economically advantageous to us.

Pursuant to the terms of the Warrant Agreement, the consent of holders of at least the majority of the outstanding Warrants is required to approve the Warrant Amendment. Therefore, one of the conditions to the adoption of the Warrant Amendment is the receipt of the consent of holders of at least the majority of the outstanding Warrants. See the section of this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange entitled “The Offer and Consent Solicitation—Transactions and Agreements Concerning Our Securities.” If adopted, we currently intend to require the conversion of all outstanding Warrants to shares of Common Stock as provided in the Warrant Amendment, which would result in the holders of any remaining outstanding Warrants receiving approximately 10% fewer shares than if they had tendered their Warrants in the Offer.

Our Warrants may be exchanged for shares of Common Stock pursuant to the Offer, which will increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to our stockholders.

The exchange of the Warrants will result in the issuance of additional shares of Common Stock, although there can be no assurance that such warrant exchange will be completed or that all of the holders of the Warrants will elect to participate in the Offer. Any Warrants remaining outstanding after the exchange likely will be exercised only if the $11.50 per share exercise price is below the market price of our Common Stock. We also intend to require an exchange of all remaining outstanding Warrants assuming the approval of the Warrant Amendment. To the extent such Warrants are exchanged following the approval of the Warrant Amendment or exercised, additional shares of Common Stock will be issued. These issuances of Common Stock will result in dilution to our stockholders and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market.

We have not obtained a third-party determination that the Offer or the Consent Solicitation is fair to Warrant holders.

None of us, our affiliates, the dealer managers, the exchange agent or the information agent makes any recommendation as to whether you should exchange some or all of your Warrants or consent to the Warrant Amendment. We have not retained, and do not intend to retain, any unaffiliated representative to act on behalf of the Warrant holders for purposes of negotiating the Offer or Consent Solicitation or preparing a report concerning the fairness of the Offer or the Consent Solicitation. You must make your own independent decision regarding your participation in the Offer and the Consent Solicitation.

There is no guarantee that tendering your Warrants in the offer will put you in a better future economic position.

We can give no assurance as to the market price of our Common Stock in the future. If you choose to tender some or all of your Warrants in the Offer, future events may cause an increase in the market price of our Common Stock and Warrants, which may result in a lower value realized by participating in the Offer than you might have realized if you did not exchange your Warrants. Similarly, if you do not tender your Warrants in the Offer, there can be no assurance that you can sell your Warrants (or exercise them for Common Stock) in the future at a higher value than would have been obtained by participating in the Offer. In addition, if the Warrant Amendment is adopted, you may receive fewer shares than if you had tendered your Warrants in the Offer. See “—The Warrant Amendment, if approved, will allow us to require that all outstanding Warrants be exchanged for Common Stock at a ratio 10% lower than the ratio applicable to the Offer.” You should consult your own individual tax and/or financial advisor for assistance on how this may affect your individual situation.

The number of shares of Common Stock offered in the Offer is fixed and will not be adjusted. The market price of our Common Stock may fluctuate, and the market price of Common Stock when we deliver the shares of Common Stock in exchange for your Warrants could be less than the market price at the time you tender your Warrants.

The number of shares of Common Stock for each Warrant accepted for exchange is fixed at the number of shares specified on the cover of this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange and will fluctuate in value if there is any increase or decrease in the market price of our Common Stock or the Warrants after the date of this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange. Therefore, the market price of our Common Stock when we deliver shares in exchange for your Warrants could be less than the market price at the time you tender your Warrants. The market price of our Common Stock could continue to fluctuate and be subject to volatility during the period of time between when we accept Warrants for exchange in the Offer and when we deliver shares in exchange for Warrants, or during any extension of the Offer Period.

The liquidity of the Warrants that are not exchanged may be reduced.

If the Warrant Amendment is approved, it is unlikely that any Warrants will remain outstanding following the completion of the Offer and Consent Solicitation. See “—The Warrant Amendment, if approved, will allow us to require that all outstanding Warrants be exchanged for shares of Common Stock at a ratio 10% lower than the ratio applicable to the Offer.” However, if any unexchanged Warrants remain outstanding, then the ability to sell such Warrants may become more limited due to the reduction in the number of Warrants outstanding upon completion of the Offer and Consent Solicitation. A more limited trading market might adversely affect the liquidity, market price and price volatility of unexchanged Warrants. In addition, as discussed below, our Public Warrants may be removed from quotation on NASDAQ. As a result, investors in our Public Warrants may find it more difficult to dispose of or obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of our Warrants, and the ability of our stockholders to sell our Public Warrants in the secondary market may be materially limited. If there continues to be a market for our unexchanged Warrants, these securities may trade at a discount to the price at which the securities would trade if the number outstanding were not reduced, depending on the market for similar securities and other factors.

NASDAQ may delist our Warrants from trading on its exchange, which could limit Warrant holders’ ability to make transactions in our Warrants.

If the Warrant Amendment is approved, it is unlikely that any Warrants will remain outstanding. See “—The Warrant Amendment, if approved, will allow us to require that all outstanding Warrants be exchanged for shares of Common Stock at a ratio that is 10% lower than the ratio applicable to the Offer.” However, if any unexchanged Warrants remain outstanding following the completion of the Offer and Consent Solicitation, we cannot assure you that our Warrants will continue to be listed on NASDAQ in the future. NASDAQ has informed us that it intends to delist the Warrants if any Warrants remain outstanding after February 27, 2019 because the Warrants do not have a sufficient number of round-lot holders.

If NASDAQ delists our Warrants from trading on NASDAQ and we are not able to list the Warrants on another national securities exchange, our Warrants could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. However, if the Warrants are delisted, whether or not they are quoted on an over-the-counter market, holders of Warrants could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

Material weaknesses have been identified in our internal control over financial reporting.

We have identified material weaknesses in internal controls over our financial reporting that remain unremediated. A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses identified were (1) lack of sufficient resources with appropriate depth and experience to interpret complex accounting guidance and prepare financial statements and related disclosures in accordance with U.S. GAAP and (2) deficiencies in certain aspects of the financial statement close process and specifically lacks processes and procedures to ensure critical evaluation and review of various account reconciliations, analyses and journal entries.

We were not required to perform an evaluation of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as we were a private company prior to July 2018. Had such an evaluation been performed, additional control deficiencies may have been identified by our management, and those control deficiencies could have also represented one or more material weaknesses.

We have taken steps to enhance our internal control environment and plans to take additional steps to remediate the material weaknesses. Although we plan to complete this remediation process as quickly as possible, we cannot at this time estimate how long it will take.

THE OFFER AND CONSENT SOLICITATION

Participation in the Offer and Consent Solicitation involves a number of risks, including, but not limited to, the risks identified in the section entitled “ Risk Factors. ” Warrant holders should carefully consider these risks and are urged to speak with their personal legal, financial, investment and/or tax advisor as necessary before deciding whether or not to participate in the Offer and Consent Solicitation. In addition, we strongly encourage you to read this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange in its entirety, and the publicly-filed information about us, before making a decision regarding the Offer and Consent Solicitation.

General Terms

Until the Expiration Date, we are offering to holders of our Warrants the opportunity to receive 0.1920 shares of Common Stock in exchange for each Warrant they hold. Holders of the Warrants tendered for exchange will not have to pay any of the exercise price for the tendered Warrants in order to receive Common Stock in the exchange. Our obligation to complete the Offer is not conditioned on the receipt of a minimum number of tendered Warrants.

No fractional shares will be issued pursuant to the Offer. In lieu of issuing fractional shares, any holder of Warrants who would otherwise have been entitled to receive fractional shares pursuant to the Offer will, after aggregating all such fractional shares of such holder, be paid cash (without interest) in an amount equal to such fractional part of a share multiplied by the last sale price of our Common Stock on NASDAQ on the last trading day of the Offer Period.

As part of the Offer, we are also soliciting from the holders of the Warrants their consent to the amendment of the Warrant Agreement. If approved, the Warrant Amendment would permit the Company to require that all outstanding Warrants be converted into shares of Common Stock at a ratio of 0.1728 shares of Common Stock per Warrant, which is a ratio 10% less than the ratio applicable to the Offer, which would permit us to eliminate all of the Warrants that remain outstanding after the Offer expires. A copy of the Warrant Amendment is attached hereto as Annex A. We urge that you carefully read the Warrant Amendment in its entirety. Pursuant to the terms of the Warrant Agreement, the consent of holders of at least a majority of the outstanding Warrants is required to approve the Warrant Amendment.

Holders who tender Warrants in the Offer will automatically be deemed, without any further action, to have given their consent to approval of the Warrant Amendment (effective upon our acceptance of the Warrants tendered). The consent to the Warrant Amendment is a part of the Letter of Transmittal and Consent relating to the Warrants.

You cannot tender any Warrants in the Offer without giving your consent to the Warrant Amendment. Thus, before deciding whether to tender any Warrants, you should be aware that a tender of Warrants may result in the approval of the Warrant Amendment.

The Offer and Consent Solicitation is subject to the terms and conditions contained in this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange and the Letter of Transmittal and Consent.

You may tender some or all of your Warrants into the Offer. If you elect to tender Warrants in response to the Offer and Consent Solicitation, please follow the instructions in this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange and the related documents, including the Letter of Transmittal and Consent.

If you tender Warrants, you may withdraw your tendered Warrants at any time before the Expiration Date and retain them on their current terms or amended terms if the Warrant Amendment is approved, by following the instructions herein. In addition, Warrants that are not accepted by us for exchange by           , 2019 may thereafter be withdrawn by you until such time as the Warrants are accepted by us for exchange.

Corporate Information

The Company was incorporated on April 23, 2015 under the laws of the state of Delaware. On July 25, 2018, the Company completed its acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding equity securities of Priority Holdings, LLC, which resulted in Priority Holdings, LLC becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. On July 25, 2018, the Company changed its name to Priority Technology Holdings, Inc.

Our principal executive offices are located at 2001 Westside Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30004, and our telephone number is (800) 935-5961. Our website address is www.prth.com . We had approximately 553 employees as of September 30, 2018. Information contained on our website is not a part of this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange. Our Common Stock is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “PRTH,” and our Public Warrants are listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “PRTHW.” Units, each consisting of one share of Common Stock and one Public Warrant, are listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “PRTHU.”

Warrants Subject to the Offer

The Public Warrants were issued in connection with the M I IPO. Each Public Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of Common Stock for a purchase price of $11.50, subject to adjustments pursuant to the Warrant Agreement. The Public Warrants are listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “PRTHW.” As of November 29, 2018, 5,310,109 Public Warrants were outstanding. Pursuant to the Offer, we are offering up to an aggregate of 1,019,541 shares of our Common Stock in exchange for the Public Warrants.

The Private Warrants were issued concurrently with the M I IPO. Each Private Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of Common Stock for a purchase price of $11.50, subject to adjustments pursuant to the Warrant Agreement. As of November 29, 2018, 421,107 Private Warrants were outstanding. Pursuant to the Offer, we are offering up to an aggregate of 72,767 shares of our Common Stock in exchange for the Private Warrants.

The terms of the Private Warrants are identical to the Public Warrants, except that such Private Warrants are exercisable on a cashless basis and are not redeemable by us, in each case so long as they are still held by the initial holders or their affiliates.

Offer Period

The Offer and Consent Solicitation will expire on the Expiration Date, which is 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on              , 2019, or such later time and date to which we may extend. We expressly reserve the right, in our sole discretion, at any time or from time to time, to extend the period of time during which the Offer and Consent Solicitation is open. There can be no assurance that we will exercise our right to extend the Offer Period. During any extension, all Warrant holders who previously tendered Warrants will have a right to withdraw such previously tendered Warrants until the Expiration Date, as extended. If we extend the Offer Period, we will make a public announcement of such extension by no later than 9:00 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, on the next business day following the Expiration Date as in effect immediately prior to such extension.

We may withdraw the Offer and Consent Solicitation only if the conditions to the Offer and Consent Solicitation are not satisfied or waived prior to the Expiration Date. Upon any such withdrawal, we are required by Rule 13e-4(f)(5) under the Exchange Act to promptly return the tendered Warrants. We will announce our decision to withdraw the Offer and Consent Solicitation by disseminating notice by public announcement or otherwise as permitted by applicable law.

At the expiration of the Offer Period, the current terms of the Warrants will continue to apply to any unexchanged Warrants, or the amended terms if the Warrant Amendment is approved, until the Warrants expire by their terms on September 19, 2021.

Amendments to the Offer and Consent Solicitation

We reserve the right at any time or from time to time, to amend the Offer and Consent Solicitation, including by increasing or (if the conditions to the Offer are not satisfied) decreasing the exchange ratio of Common Stock issued for every Warrant exchanged or by changing the terms of the Warrant Amendment.

If we make a material change in the terms of the Offer and Consent Solicitation or the information concerning the Offer and Consent Solicitation, or if we waive a material condition of the Offer and Consent Solicitation, we will extend the Offer and Consent Solicitation to the extent required by Rules 13e-4(d)(2) and 13e-4(e)(3) under the Exchange Act. These rules require that the minimum period during which an offer must remain open after material changes in the terms of the offer or information concerning the offer, other than a change in price or a change in percentage of securities sought, will depend upon the facts and circumstances, including the relative materiality of the changed terms or information.

If we increase or decrease the exchange ratio of the Common Stock issuable upon exchange of a Warrant, the amount of Warrants sought for tender or the dealer manager’s soliciting fee, and the Offer and Consent Solicitation is scheduled to expire at any time earlier than the end of the tenth business day from the date that we first publish, send or give notice of such an increase or decrease, then we will extend the Offer and Consent Solicitation until the expiration of that ten business day period.

Other material amendments to the Offer and Consent Solicitation may require us to extend the Offer and Consent Solicitation for a minimum of five business days, and we will need to amend this Registration Statement on Form S-4 of which this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange forms a part for any material changes in the facts set forth in this Registration Statement on Form S-4.

Partial Exchange Permitted

Our obligation to complete the Offer is not conditioned on the receipt of a minimum number of tendered Warrants. If you choose to participate in the Offer, you may tender less than all of your Warrants pursuant to the terms of the Offer. No fractional shares will be issued pursuant to the Offer. In lieu of issuing fractional shares, any holder of Warrants who would otherwise have been entitled to receive fractional shares pursuant to the Offer will, after aggregating all such fractional shares of such holder, be paid cash (without interest) in an amount equal to such fractional part of a share multiplied by the last sale price of our Common Stock on NASDAQ on the last trading day of the Offer Period.

Conditions to the Offer and Consent Solicitation

The Offer and Consent Solicitation are conditioned upon the following:

The Consent Solicitation is conditioned on our receiving the consent of holders of at least a majority of the outstanding Warrants (which is the minimum number required to amend the Warrant Agreement).

We will not complete the Offer and Consent Solicitation unless and until the registration statement described above is declared effective by the SEC. If the registration statement is not effective at the Expiration Date, we may, in our discretion, extend, suspend or cancel the Offer and Consent Solicitation, and will inform Warrant holders of such event. If we extend the Offer Period, we will make a public announcement of such extension and the new Expiration Date by no later than 9:00 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, on the next business day following the Expiration Date as in effect immediately prior to such extension.

In addition, as to any Warrant holder, the Offer and Consent Solicitation is conditioned upon such Warrant holder desiring to tender Warrants in the Offer delivering to the exchange agent in a timely manner the holder’s Warrants to be tendered and any other required paperwork, all in accordance with the applicable procedures described in this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange and set forth in the Letter of Transmittal and Consent.

The foregoing conditions are solely for our benefit, and we may assert one or more of the conditions regardless of the circumstances giving rise to any such conditions. We may also, in our sole and absolute discretion, waive these conditions in whole or in part, subject to the potential requirement to disseminate additional information and extend the Offer Period. The determination by us as to whether any condition has been satisfied shall be conclusive and binding on all parties. The failure by us at any time to exercise any of the foregoing rights shall not be deemed a waiver of any such right, and each such right shall be deemed a continuing right which may be asserted at any time and from time to time prior to the Expiration Date.

We may withdraw the Offer and Consent Solicitation only if the conditions of the Offer and Consent Solicitation are not satisfied or waived prior to the Expiration Date. Promptly upon any such withdrawal, we will return the tendered Warrants (and the related consent to the Warrant Amendment will be revoked). We will announce our decision to withdraw the Offer and Consent Solicitation by disseminating notice by public announcement or otherwise as permitted by applicable law.

No Recommendation; Warrant Holder’s Own Decision

None of Priority, our affiliates, directors, officers or employees, or the information agent, the exchange agent or the dealer manager for the Offer and Consent Solicitation, is making any recommendations to any Warrant holder as to whether to exchange their Warrants and deliver their consent to the Warrant Amendment. Each Warrant holder must make its own decision as to whether to tender Warrants for exchange pursuant to the Offer and consent to the amendment of the Warrant Agreement pursuant to the Consent Solicitation.

Procedure for Tendering Warrants for Exchange and Consenting to the Warrant Amendment

Issuance of Common Stock upon exchange of Warrants pursuant to the Offer and acceptance by us of Warrants for exchange pursuant to the Offer and providing your consent to the Warrant Amendment will be made only if Warrants are properly tendered pursuant to the procedures described below and set forth in the Letter of Transmittal and Consent. A tender of Warrants pursuant to such procedures, if and when accepted by us, will constitute a binding agreement between the tendering holder of Warrants and us upon the terms and subject to the conditions of the Offer and Consent Solicitation. The proper tender of your Warrants will constitute a consent to the Warrant Amendment with respect to each Warrant tendered.

A tender of Warrants made pursuant to any method of delivery set forth herein will also constitute an agreement and acknowledgement by the tendering Warrant holder that, among other things: (i) the Warrant holder agrees to exchange the tendered Warrants on the terms and conditions set forth in this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange and Letter of Transmittal and Consent, in each case as may be amended or supplemented prior to the Expiration Date; (ii) the Warrant holder consents to the Warrant Agreement; (iii) the Offer is discretionary and may be extended, modified, suspended or terminated by us as provided herein; (iv) such Warrant holder is voluntarily participating in the Offer; (v) the future value of our Warrants is unknown and cannot be predicted with certainty; and (vi) such Warrant holder has read this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange, Letter of Transmittal and Consent and Warrant Amendment.

Registered Holders of Warrants; Beneficial Owners of Warrants

For purposes of the tender procedures set forth below, the term “registered holder” means any person in whose name Warrants are registered on our books or who is listed as a participant in a clearing agency’s security position listing with respect to the Warrants.

Persons whose Warrants are held through a direct or indirect participant of The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”), such as a broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other financial intermediary, are not considered registered holders of those Warrants but are “beneficial owners.” Beneficial owners cannot directly tender Warrants for exchange pursuant to the Offer. Instead, a beneficial owner must instruct its broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other financial intermediary to tender Warrants for exchange on behalf of the beneficial owner. See “—Required Communications by Beneficial Owners.”

Tendering Warrants Using Letter of Transmittal and Consent

A registered holder of Warrants may tender Warrants for exchange using a Letter of Transmittal and Consent in the form provided by us with this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange. A Letter of Transmittal is to be used only if delivery of Warrants is to be made by book-entry transfer to the exchange agent’s account at DTC pursuant to the procedures set forth in “—Tendering Warrants Using Book-Entry Transfer;” provided, however, that it is not necessary to execute and deliver a Letter of Transmittal and Consent if instructions with respect to the tender of such Warrants are transmitted through DTC’s Automated Tender Offer Program (“ATOP”). If you are a registered holder of Warrants, unless you intend to tender those Warrants through ATOP, you should complete, execute and deliver a Letter of Transmittal and Consent to indicate the action you desire to take with respect to the Offer and Consent Solicitation.

In order for Warrants to be properly tendered for exchange pursuant to the Offer using a Letter of Transmittal and Consent, the registered holder of the Warrants being tendered must ensure that the exchange agent receives the following: (i) a properly completed and duly executed Letter of Transmittal and Consent, in accordance with the instructions of the Letter of Transmittal and Consent (including any required signature guarantees); (ii) delivery of the Warrants by book-entry transfer to the exchange agent’s account at DTC; and (iii) any other documents required by the Letter of Transmittal and Consent.

In the Letter of Transmittal and Consent, the tendering registered Warrant holder must set forth: (i) its name and address; (ii) the number of Warrants being tendered by the holder for exchange; and (iii) certain other information specified in the form of Letter of Transmittal and Consent.

In certain cases, all signatures on the Letter of Transmittal and Consent must be guaranteed by an “Eligible Institution.” See “—Signature Guarantees.”

If the Letter of Transmittal and Consent is signed by someone other than the registered holder of the tendered Warrants (for example, if the registered holder has assigned the Warrants to a third party), or if the Common Stock to be issued upon exchange of the tendered Warrants are to be issued in a name other than that of the registered holder of the tendered Warrants, the tendered Warrants must be properly accompanied by appropriate assignment documents, in either case signed exactly as the name(s) of the registered holder(s) appear on the Warrants, with the signature(s) on the Warrants or assignment documents guaranteed by an Eligible Institution.

Any Warrants duly tendered and delivered as described above shall be automatically cancelled upon the issuance of Common Stock in exchange for such Warrants as part of the completion of the Offer.

Signature Guarantees

In certain cases, all signatures on the Letter of Transmittal and Consent must be guaranteed by an “Eligible Institution.” An “Eligible Institution” is a bank, broker-dealer, credit union, savings association or other entity that is a member in good standing of the Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program or a bank, broker, dealer, credit union, savings association or other entity which is an “eligible guarantor institution,” as that term is defined in Rule 17Ad-15 promulgated under the Exchange Act.

Signatures on the Letter of Transmittal and Consent need not be guaranteed by an Eligible Institution if (i) the Letter of Transmittal and Consent is signed by the registered holder of the Warrants tendered therewith exactly as the name of the registered holder appears on such Warrants and such holder has not completed the box entitled “Special Issuance Instructions” or the box entitled “Special Delivery Instructions” in the Letter of Transmittal and Consent; or (ii) such Warrants are tendered for the account of an Eligible Institution.

In all other cases, an Eligible Institution must guarantee all signatures on the Letter of Transmittal and Consent by completing and signing the table in the Letter of Transmittal and Consent entitled “Guarantee of Signature(s).”

Required Communications by Beneficial Owners

Persons whose Warrants are held through a direct or indirect DTC participant, such as a broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other financial intermediary, are not considered registered holders of those Warrants, but are “beneficial owners,” and must instruct the broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other financial intermediary to tender Warrants on their behalf. Your broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other financial intermediary should have provided you with an “Instructions Form” with this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange. The Instructions Form is included with the Letter to Clients of Brokers, Dealers, Commercial Banks, Trust Companies and Other Nominees, which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange forms a part. The Instructions Form may be used by you to instruct your broker or other custodian to tender and deliver Warrants on your behalf.

Tendering Warrants Using Book-Entry Transfer

The exchange agent has established an account for the Warrants at DTC for purposes of the Offer and Consent Solicitation. Any financial institution that is a participant in DTC’s system may make book-entry delivery of Warrants by causing DTC to transfer such Warrants into the exchange agent’s account in accordance with ATOP. However, even though delivery of Warrants may be effected through book-entry transfer into the exchange agent’s account at DTC, a properly completed and duly executed Letter of Transmittal and Consent (with any required signature guarantees), or an “Agent’s Message” as described in the next paragraph, and any other required documentation, must in any case also be transmitted to and received by the exchange agent at its address set forth in this Prospectus/Offer to Exchange prior to the Expiration Date, or the guaranteed delivery procedures described under “—Guaranteed Delivery Procedures” must be followed.

DTC participants desiring to tender Warrants for exchange pursuant to the Offer may do so through ATOP, and in that case the participant need not complete, execute and deliver a Letter of Transmittal and Consent. DTC will verify the acceptance and execute a book-entry delivery of the tendered Warrants to the exchange agent’s account at DTC. DTC will then send an “Agent’s Message” to the exchange agent for acceptance. Delivery of the Agent’s Message by DTC will satisfy the terms of the Offer and Consent Solicitation as to execution and delivery of a Letter of Transmittal and Consent by the DTC participant identified in the Agent’s Message. The term “Agent’s Message” means a message, transmitted by DTC to, and received by, the exchange agent and forming a part of a Book-Entry Confirmation, which states that DTC has received an express acknowledgment from the participant in DTC tendering the Warrants for exchange that such participant has received and agrees to be bound by the terms of the Letter of Transmittal and Consent and that our company may enforce such agreement against the participant. Any DTC participant tendering by book-entry transfer must expressly acknowledge that it has received and agrees to be bound by the Letter of Transmittal and Consent and that the Letter of Transmittal and Consent may be enforced against it.

Any Warrants duly tendered and delivered as described above shall be automatically cancelled upon the issuance of shares of Common Stock in exchange for such Warrants as part of the completion of the Offer.

Delivery of a Letter of Transmittal and Consent or any other required documentation to DTC does not constitute delivery to the exchange agent. See “—Timing and Manner of Deliveries.”

Guaranteed Delivery Procedures

If a registered holder of Warrants desires to tender its Warrants for exchange pursuant to the Offer, but (i) the procedure for book-entry transfer cannot be completed on a timely basis, or (ii) time will not permit all required documents to reach the exchange agent prior to the Expiration Date, the holder can still tender its Warrants if all the following conditions are met:

In any case where the guaranteed delivery procedure is utilized for the tender of Warrants pursuant to the Offer, the issuance of Common Stock for those Warrants tendered for exchange pursuant to the Offer and accepted pursuant to the Offer will be made only if the exchange agent has timely received the applicable foregoing items.

Timing and Manner of Deliveries

* Less than 1%.

Our affiliates who own Private Warrants are under no contractual obligation to tender such Private Warrants, and there can be no assurance that they will do so.