Company: WTFCN
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001015328-25-000093
Chunk: 230

Company: WINTRUST FINANCIAL CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 230
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 regulations, litigation exposure, regulatory fines, penalties or intervention, remediation costs, loss of confidence in our security measures, reputational damage, reimbursement or other compensatory costs, remediation costs, additional compliance costs, and could adversely impact our results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

41

Our business could be adversely affected by fraud.

As a financial institution, we are inherently and consistently exposed to a wide variety of fraudulent activity, including but not limited to check fraud, card fraud, electronic and digital fraud, wire fraud, ATM machine compromise, person-to-person payment fraud, social engineering and phishing attacks.  Fraudulent activity is becoming increasingly sophisticated and may evade the systems and controls that we have in place to monitor our operations.  We have experienced, and could experience in the future, losses incurred due to third-party, customer or employee fraud and theft.  Additionally, certain of our banking clients have experienced, and could experience in the future, financial fraud and related losses, often requiring our involvement and assistance.  Losses in the future could be material, negatively affect our results of operations, financial condition, prospects or reputation.  

Our vendors may be responsible for failures that adversely affect our operations.

We use and rely upon many external vendors to provide us with day-to-day products and services essential to our operations. We are thus exposed to risk that such vendors will not perform as contracted or at agreed-upon service levels. The failure of our vendors to perform as contracted or at necessary service levels for any reason could disrupt our operations, which could adversely affect our business. In addition, if any of our vendors experience insolvency or other business failure, such failure could affect our ability to obtain necessary products or services from a substitute vendor in a timely and cost-effective manner or prevent us from effectively pursuing certain business objectives entirely. Our failure to implement business objectives due to vendor nonperformance could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information we receive about our customers and counterparties to make credit decisions.

We rely on information furnished by or on behalf of customers and counterparties in deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions. This information could include financial statements, credit reports, and other financial information. We also rely on representations of those customers, counterparties, or other third parties, such as independent auditors, as to the accuracy and completeness of that information. Reliance on inaccurate or misleading financial statements, credit reports, or other financial information could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition