Company: FCFS
Filing Date: 2025-02-03
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000840489-25-000032
Chunk: 93

Company: FirstCash Holdings, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-03
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 93
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, including its proprietary, internally developed POS and loan management system that is in use in its pawn stores and its proprietary application and decisioning technology that is used by the AFF business. The Company relies on a combination of trademarks, trade dress, trade secrets, proprietary software, website domain names and other rights, including confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, to protect its proprietary technology, processes and other intellectual property. While the Company intends to vigorously protect its trademarks and proprietary systems against infringement, it may not be successful. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. The costs required to protect the Company’s intellectual property rights and trademarks could be substantial.

The Company’s businesses are typically subject to seasonality, which causes the Company’s revenues and operating cash flows to fluctuate and may adversely affect the Company’s ability to borrow on its unsecured credit facilities, service its debt obligations and fund its operations.

The Company’s U.S. pawn business typically experiences reduced demand in the first and second quarters as a result of its customers’ receipt of federal tax refund checks, typically in February of each year, while demand typically increases during the third and fourth quarters. The Company’s pawn business usually experiences seasonal growth of service fees in the third and fourth quarter of each year due to loan balance growth. Service fees generally decline in the first and second quarter of each year due to the typical repayment of pawn loans associated with statutory bonuses received by customers in the fourth quarter in Mexico and with tax refund proceeds typically received by customers in the first quarter in the U.S. The AFF business experiences significantly higher originations in the fourth quarter associated with holiday shopping, which shopping also generally positively impacts retail sales in the Company’s pawn stores in the fourth quarter, and reduced demand in the first and second quarters as retail expenditures are generally lower in these quarters. 

This seasonality requires the Company to manage its cash flows over the course of the year. If a governmental authority were to pursue economic stimulus actions or issue additional tax refunds, tax credits or other transfer payments at other times during the year, such actions could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition during these periods. If the Company’s revenues were to fall substantially below what it would normally expect during certain periods, the Company’s annual financial results, its ability to borrow on its unsecured credit facilities, and its ability to service its debt obligations or fund its operations, including originations for the AFF business, could