EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1806201
Filing Year: 2022
Filename: 1806201_10-K_2022_0001628280-22-004299.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Item 1. Business
Company
Open Lending Corporation, headquartered in Austin, Texas, provides loan analytics, risk-based loan pricing, risk modeling, and automated decision technology for automotive lenders throughout the United States of America which allows each lending institution to book incremental near-prime and non-prime automotive loans out of their existing business flow. The Company also operates as a third-party administrator that adjudicates insurance claims and premium adjustments on those automotive loans.
Nebula Acquisition Corporation (“Nebula”), our predecessor, was originally incorporated in Delaware on October 2, 2017 as a special purpose acquisition company for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. On June 10, 2020 (the “Closing Date”), Nebula consummated a business combination (the “Business Combination”) pursuant to that certain Business Combination Agreement, dated as of January 5, 2020 (as amended by that certain Amendment No. 1 and Waiver, dated as of March 18, 2020, that certain Amendment No. 2 and Consent, dated as of March 26, 2020, that certain Amendment No. 3, dated as of May 13, 2020, and that certain amendment No. 4, dated as of June 9, 2020, the “Business Combination Agreement”) by and among Nebula, Open Lending, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, BRP Hold 11, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Blocker”), the Blocker’s sole stockholder, Nebula Parent Corp., a Delaware Corporation (“ParentCo”), NBLA Merger Sub LLC, a Texas limited liability company, NBLA Merger Sub Corp., a Delaware corporation, and Shareholder Representative Services LLC, a Colorado limited liability company, as the Securityholder Representative.
Immediately upon the completion of the Business Combination and the other transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement (the “Transactions”, and such completion, the “Closing”), Open Lending, LLC became a wholly-owned subsidiary of ParentCo, and, ParentCo changed its name to Open Lending Corporation. The Company is now listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “LPRO”.
Unless the context otherwise requires, “we,” “us,” “our,” “Open Lending,” and the “Company” refers to Open Lending Corporation, the combined company and its subsidiaries following the Business Combination. Refer to Note 3-Business Combination for further discussion on the Business Combination.
Business Overview
We are a leading provider of lending enablement and risk analytics to credit unions, regional banks, non-bank auto finance companies and the captive finance companies of Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEM Captives”). Our clients, collectively referred to herein as automotive lenders or lenders, make automotive consumer loans to underserved near-prime and non-prime borrowers by harnessing our risk-based pricing models, powered by our proprietary data and real-time underwriting of automotive loan default insurance coverage from insurers. Since our inception in 2000, we have facilitated over $13.5 billion in automotive loans, accumulating over 20 years of proprietary data and developed over two million unique risk profiles. We currently cater to 396 active automotive lenders.
Our Key Product
LPP, our flagship product, is an automotive lending program designed to underwrite default insurance on loans made to near-prime and non-prime borrowers. The program uses risk-based pricing models and links automotive lenders and insurance companies. LPP enables lenders to assess the credit risk of a potential borrower within five seconds using data driven analysis, enabling the lender to generate an all-inclusive interest rate for a loan for the borrower.
Our interest rate pricing is customized to each automotive lender, reflecting the cost of capital, loan servicing costs, loan acquisition costs, expected recovery rates and target return on assets. Using our risk models, we project monthly loan performance results, including expected losses and prepayments for automotive lenders that use LPP. The product of this process is a risk-based interest rate, inclusive of elements to recover all projected costs, program fees and insurance premiums, given the risk of the loan, to return a targeted return on asset goal.
LPP is powered by technology that delivers speed, scalability and decision-making support for automotive lenders. It supports the full transaction lifecycle, including credit application, underwriting, real-time insurance approval, settlement, servicing, invoicing of insurance premiums and fees and advance data analytics of automotive lender’s portfolio under the program. Through electronic system integration, our software technology connects us to all parties in our ecosystem.
A key element of our product is the unique database that drives risk decisioning using data accumulated over the last 20 years. At origination when a loan is insured, all attributes of the transaction are stored in our database. Through the claims management process, we ultimately get loan life performance data on each insured loan. Having granular origination and performance data allows our data scientists and actuaries to constantly evolve and refine risk models, based on actual experience and third-party information sources.
LPP risk models use a score in assessing and pricing risk on automotive loan applications. This score combines credit bureau data and Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) compliant alternative consumer data to more effectively assess risk and determine the appropriate insurance premium for any given loan application.
Our Business Model
We specialize in risk-based pricing and modeling and provide automated decision-technology for automotive lenders throughout the United States. We believe that we address the financing needs of near-prime and non-prime borrowers, or borrowers with a credit bureau score generally between 560 and 699, who are underserved in the automotive finance industry. In addition, we believe traditional lenders focus on prime borrowers, where an efficient market has developed with interest rate competition that benefits borrowers. Independent finance companies focus on sub-prime borrowers. We also believe that borrowers that utilize the near-prime and non-prime automotive lending market have fewer lenders focused on loans with longer terms or higher advance rates. As a result, we believe many near-prime and non-prime borrowers turn to sub-prime lenders, resulting in higher interest rate loan offerings than such borrower’s credit profile often merits or warrants. We seek to make this market more competitive, resulting in more attractive loan terms that benefit the consumer.
Our business model is a Business to Business to Consumer (“B2B2C”) model. Our customers are automotive lenders, who serve millions of borrowers, who in turn are the customers of the automotive lenders. LPP enables lenders to expand their lending guidelines to offer loans to borrowers with lower credit scores, potentially leading to higher loan advance rates and increased loan volumes. LPP is designed to provide a seamless, real-time experience for automotive lenders that is intuitive and easy to use. LPP integrates directly with lenders’ existing loan origination systems (“LOS”), while also allowing the dealers and automotive lenders to electronically receive all-inclusive loan rates in real-time.
We have one-way exclusivity agreements in place with insurance carriers who provide default insurance to automotive lenders on individual automotive loans processed through LPP, which underwrites the risk on each loan application. The insurance carriers issue default insurance to our customers. The lender is listed as the named insured under the policy representing a direct contractual relationship between the lender and the insurer.
The insurance carriers contract with our wholly-owned subsidiary, Insurance Administrative Services LLC (“IAS”), to perform claims administration and in turn pay us administrative fees representing a portion of the insurance premiums paid by the automotive lenders. IAS provides continuity of customer service and allows for a seamless experience between LPP and the automotive lenders.
We refer to loans facilitated through LPP as certified loans based on the date the loan is awarded to the consumer. We generate revenue of approximately 5% of the balance on each certified loan. Revenue is comprised of fees paid by automotive lenders for the use of LPP to underwrite loans; fees paid by insurers for claim administration services; and, profit-sharing with insurers providing insurance protection to automotive lenders. Approximately 70% of the expected revenue is collected in the first 12 months after loan origination, with the balance comprised of administration fees and underwriting profit share that are realized over the remaining life of the loan.
LPP program fees vary as a percentage of the loan amount, averaging approximately $440 per loan in 2021, and are recognized upon receipt of the loan by the consumer. The program fee is either paid in one single payment in the month following loan certification or in equal monthly payments over the 12 months following loan certification. Claims management administration fees are calculated as 3% of monthly insurance earned premium for as long as a loan remains outstanding. The administration fee is recognized monthly as received and decreases over time as the loan amortizes. The profit share represents our participation in the underwriting profit generated through the use of LPP. We receive 72% of the aggregate monthly insurance underwriting profit on each insurer’s portfolio, calculated as the monthly premium earned by the carrier less the carrier’s expenses and incurred losses. The underwriting profit on each loan is earned upfront and received over its life with the majority received in the first 12 months of the loan. For the fiscal year 2021, LPP generated, on average, approximately $1,260 in revenue per loan, inclusive of the program fee, administrative fee and profit share, which also includes the change in estimate associated with historical vintages.
We believe the automotive industry is still seeking solutions to address the near-prime and non-prime borrower market. The near-prime and non-prime automotive loan market is a large, underserved sector with an approximate $12.4 billion revenue
opportunity from an annual $250.0 billion underlying near-prime and non-prime auto loan market in the U.S. We are currently engaged with less than 2% of this market.
Our Ecosystem
We have built a robust ecosystem of automotive lenders and dealers, insurance carriers and sales lead partners that meet the needs of our near prime and non-prime borrower market. LPP enables automotive lenders directly and borrowers indirectly to benefit from enhanced access to each other through our technology, resulting in increased loan generation and access to the automotive market for a larger population.
Lenders and Dealers
Our automotive lenders are credit unions, banks, non-bank auto finance companies and OEM’s that use LPP. Our customers rely on us to assist in insuring against loan defaults by helping pair these customers with highly-rated insurance companies that mitigate the added risk associated with lending to near-prime and non-prime borrowers. LPP enables lenders to expand their lending guidelines to offer loans to borrowers with lower credit scores, potentially leading to higher loan advance rates and increased loan volumes.
We support loans originated through a number of channels, including direct loans where the customer interfaces directly with the lender, indirect loans through networks of auto dealers who work with our lenders, and in targeted refinance programs implemented by our lenders.
Value Proposition to Lenders and Dealers
Increased sales volume. LPP allows automotive lenders to add financing solutions and increase underwriting and credit protection solutions that we believe enable such automotive lenders to make more near-prime and non-prime loans with attractive risk return profiles. We believe LPP also allows dealers to sell more vehicles by enabling them to make loans to borrowers with additional risk profiles. With LPP, automotive lenders and dealers are able to make loans on additional vehicles, including financing on older model vehicles, higher mileage used vehicles and on after-market product sales.
Ability to finance older model year vehicles. LPP underwriting allows automotive lenders to advance loans on used vehicles up to nine model years old, compared to four to seven model years under traditional automotive loan models.
Ability to finance higher mileage vehicles. Many automotive lenders limit mileage on eligible vehicles to 100,000 miles or less. LPP underwriting guidelines allow automotive lenders to underwrite loans for maximum mileage of 150,000 or less, enabling automotive lenders to finance the purchase of vehicles with higher mileage expanding the sales reach of dealers.
Higher allowance for after-market product sales. A material profit center for auto dealers is the profit on sale of after-market products such as Guaranteed Asset Protection insurance, or insurance covering the difference between the loan balance and insurance proceeds when a vehicle is damaged, vehicle warranties and extended service plans. Automotive lenders generally impose a maximum limit on the amount of after-market products that can be included in the loan balance. With LPP, the maximum limit on after-market products that can be included in the loan balance is generally higher, allowing dealers the opportunity to make higher profits. If the automotive lender has a significant flow of direct to consumer auto loans, they also have the ability to sell these products and generate incremental fee income from higher after-market product sales.
Higher risk-adjusted return on assets. In an effort to manage risk, most automotive lenders concentrate their loan portfolios in super prime and prime auto loans. Automotive lenders’ appetite for these loans results in a very efficient market where competition is expressed through interest rates. For automotive lenders that do not have size and scale, the result is a compressed return on assets on their super prime and prime loan portfolios. The near-prime and non-prime segment is much less efficient and consumer behavior is driven more by monthly loan payments than interest rates. We believe LPP enables automotive lenders to generate higher returns on assets and equity than traditional prime and super prime portfolios with a risk profile supported by credit default protection from highly rated insurers. Additionally, many of the loans generated using LPP have already been processed and denied through the automotive lender’s LOS. The automotive lenders already incur costs for processing such loans and LPP enables such lenders to convert the costs of a denied loan into an earning asset.
Loss mitigation on near-prime and non-prime loans. Near-prime and non-prime auto loans carry more risk and higher losses than super prime and prime auto loans. The default insurance coverage offered to our customers transfers the vast majority of the risk and increased losses to the insurers.
Higher loan advance rates. LPP may enable higher loan advances relative to vehicle value on auto loans. This allows automotive dealers and lenders to get internal approvals more often on requested loan structures instead of receiving counter-offers at lower loan advance rates.
Seamless integration. LPP can be easily integrated into the existing LOS of financial institutions and automotive lenders to enable customers to facilitate loans and sales. This frictionless onboarding makes consumer point-of-sale financing available for dealers and automotive lenders of all sizes.
Insurance Carriers
We partner with three insurance carriers to provide auto loan default insurance policies for LPP certified loans. Our carrier partners are required to maintain not less than “A-” Financial Strength Rating by A.M. Best insurance rating company.
Value Proposition to Insurance Carriers
Access to our proprietary technology and merchant network. Over the past two decades, we have built and refined our technology to deliver significant value to automotive lenders and dealers. We believe our insurer partners would require significant time and investment to build such a technology solution and lender network.
No customer acquisition cost and limited operating expenses. LPP alleviates the need for its insurance carriers to bear any marketing, software development or technology infrastructure costs to insure loans. In addition, by providing claims administration services to the carriers, the insurers have far less administrative burden in servicing the policies.
Diversified risk with significant underwriting profitability. Auto loan default coverage is a relatively unique line of insurance for insurers and, historically, our insurers have experienced significant underwriting profitability.
Borrowers
We address the financing needs of borrowers with a credit score generally between 560 and 699. We seek to meet their specific needs by supporting lending opportunities through the use of LPP.
Value Proposition for Borrowers
Lower interest rates. Given the costs and financial goals of our lenders and the specific risk posed by each loan, the goal of LPP is to find the lowest interest rate possible for borrowers.
Lower payments. Near-prime and non-prime borrowers are more sensitive to monthly payment requirements than interest rates. By allowing longer loan terms, LPP may lead to lower monthly payments for consumers. By eliminating or reducing down payments and lower monthly payments, LPP lowers borrowing costs, giving borrowers more disposable income.
Reduction or elimination of loan down payments. We believe that automotive lenders using LPP typically have higher loan advance rates relative to vehicle value than lenders that do not use LPP. We believe this eliminates or reduces the down payment required of borrowers.
Competition
We experience competition to sign and maintain automotive lenders and to facilitate funding of near-prime and non-prime auto loans.
For LPP, which combines lending enablement, risk analytics, near-prime and non-prime auto loan performance data, real-time loan decisioning, risk-based pricing and auto loan default insurance, we have not identified any direct competitors.
We compete with LOS providers that perform custom underwriting rules and loan underwriting, as well as third-party lending-as-a-service companies that provide turn-key LOS systems.
The near-prime and non-prime lending market is highly fragmented and competitive. We face competition from a diverse landscape of consumer lenders, including traditional banks and credit unions, as well as alternative technology-enabled lenders. Many of our competitors are (or are affiliated with) financial institutions with the capacity to hold loans on their balance sheets. These would include money center banks, super-banks, banks, OEM Captives, finance companies and sub-prime lenders. Some of these competitors offer a broader suite of products and services than we do, including retail banking solutions, credit and debit cards and loyalty programs.
Government Regulation
We operate in a heavily regulated industry that is highly focused on consumer protection. Statutes, regulations and practices that have been in place for many years may be changed, and new laws have been, and may continue to be, introduced to address real and perceived problems in the financial services industry in general and automotive lending in particular. These laws and how they are interpreted continue to evolve.
The regulatory framework to which we are subject includes U.S. federal, state and local laws, regulations and rules. U.S. federal, state and local governmental authorities, including state financial services and insurance agencies, have broad oversight and supervisory authority over our business. Federal and state agencies also have broad enforcement powers over us, including powers to investigate our business practices and broad discretion to deem particular practices unfair, deceptive, abusive or otherwise not in accordance with the law.
Our business requires compliance with several regulatory regimes, including some applicable to consumer lending. In particular, the laws which we may be subject to directly or indirectly include:
•state laws and regulations that impose requirements related to loan disclosures and terms, credit discrimination, and unfair or deceptive business practices;
•the Truth-in-Lending Act, and its implementing Regulation Z, and similar state laws, which require certain disclosures to borrowers regarding the terms and conditions of their loans and credit transactions;
•Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, and Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”), which prohibits unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (“UDAAP”), in connection with any consumer financial product or service;
•the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and its implementing Regulation B, which prohibit creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, marital status, the fact that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program or the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act or any applicable state law;
•the FCRA, and its implementing Regulation V, as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which promotes the accuracy, fairness and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies;
•the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), and its implementing Regulation F, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as state debt collection laws, all of which provide guidelines and limitations concerning the conduct of debt collectors in connection with the collection of consumer debts;
•the Bankruptcy Code, which limits the extent to which creditors may seek to enforce debts against parties who have filed for bankruptcy protection;
•the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”), and the California Consumer Protection Act, which include limitations on the disclosure of nonpublic personal information by financial institutions about a consumer to nonaffiliated third- parties, in certain circumstances requires financial institutions to limit the use and further disclosure of nonpublic personal information by nonaffiliated third-parties to whom they disclose such information and requires financial institutions to disclose certain privacy policies and practices with respect to information sharing with affiliated and nonaffiliated entities as well as to safeguard personal customer information, and other privacy laws and regulations;
•the rules and regulations promulgated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, as well as state banking regulators;
•the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which allows active duty military members to suspend or postpone certain civil obligations so that the military member can devote his or her full attention to military duties;
•the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and Regulation E promulgated thereunder, which provide disclosure requirements, guidelines and restrictions on the electronic transfer of funds from consumers’ bank accounts;
•the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, and similar state laws, particularly the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which authorize the creation of legally binding and enforceable agreements utilizing electronic records and signatures; and
•the Bank Secrecy Act, which relates to compliance with anti-money laundering, customer due diligence and record-keeping policies and procedures.
We are subject to state insurance, insurance brokering, insurance agency regulations, third-party administration company statutes and similar statutes.
The number and complexity of these laws, and vagaries in their interpretations, present compliance and litigation risks from inadvertent error and omissions which we may not be able to eliminate from our operation or activities. The laws, regulations and rules described above are subject to legislative, administrative and judicial interpretation, and some of these laws and regulations have been infrequently interpreted or only recently enacted. Infrequent interpretations of these laws and regulations or an insignificant number of interpretations of recently-enacted laws and regulations can result in ambiguity with respect to permitted conduct under these laws and regulations. Any ambiguity under the laws and regulations to which we are subject may lead to regulatory investigations or enforcement actions and private causes of action, such as class-action lawsuits, with respect to our compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Certain states have adopted laws regulating and requiring licensing by parties that engage in certain activity regarding consumer finance and insurance transactions, including facilitating and assisting such transactions in certain circumstances. Furthermore, certain states and localities have also adopted laws requiring licensing for consumer debt collection or servicing. We must comply with state licensing requirements to conduct our business. LPP is licensed as a property and casualty insurance agency and regulated by the insurance regulator in each state in which we operate. All sales personnel are individually licensed as property and casualty insurance agents in each state in which they operate. In those states where it is required, IAS is licensed as a third-party claims administration entity and is regulated by the insurance regulator in each state in which we operate.
We are supervised by regulatory agencies under U.S. law. From time to time, we may receive examination requests that require us to provide records, documents and information relating to our business operations. State attorneys general, state licensing regulators, and state and local consumer protection offices have authority to investigate consumer complaints and to commence investigations and other formal and informal proceedings regarding our operations and activities.
Employees and Human Capital Resources
Our employees are a critical component of our success. As of December 31, 2021, we had 132 employees, primarily located in the greater Austin, Texas area. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good and strive to maintain a mission driven culture with a focus on employee input and well-being. Our core values are integrity, accountability, quality, commitment, perseverance, respect and teamwork.
We encourage and support the growth and development of our employees. Continual learning and career development is advanced through ongoing performance and development conversations with employees, internally developed training programs, customized corporate training engagements and educational reimbursement programs.
The safety, health and wellness of our employees is a top priority. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique challenge with regard to maintaining employee safety while continuing successful operations. Employees were asked to work remotely when they experienced signs or symptoms of a possible COVID-19 illness and have been provided additional paid time off to cover compensation during such absences. On an ongoing basis, we further promote the health and wellness of our employees by strongly encouraging work-life balance, offering flexible work schedules, reimbursing certain childcare costs, keeping the employee portion of health care premiums to a minimum and sponsoring various wellness programs.
Available Information
Our website address is www.openlending.com. Our Annual Report, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available through the investor relations page of our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our website and the information contained therein or connected thereto are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Item 1A. Risk Factors
A description of the material and other risks and uncertainties associated with our business and industry is set forth below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report, including our audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section of this Annual Report before deciding whether to purchase shares of our common stock. If any of the following risks are realized, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the price of our common stock could decline, perhaps
significantly. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operation.
Summary of Risk Factors
Risks Related to Our Business
•Our results of operations and continued growth depend on our ability to retain existing and attract new automotive lenders, and a significant percentage of program fee revenue for us is concentrated with our top ten customers. The loss of one or more significant automotive lenders could have a negative impact on operating results.
•Our results depend, to a significant extent, on the active and effective adoption of LPP by automotive lenders. We are and intend in the future to continue expanding into relationships with new lending partners, and our failure to comply with applicable regulations, or accurately predict demand or growth in those new industries, could have an adverse effect on our business.
•We have partnered with only three major insurance carriers that underwrite and insure the loans generated using LPP, and the loss of one or more of these insurance carriers could have a material adverse effect on our business.
•Our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by the impact of the global outbreak of the coronavirus and its collateral effects, including the ongoing global semiconductor chip supply shortage.
•We have experienced rapid growth, which may be difficult to sustain and which may place significant demands on our operational, administrative and financial resources.
•Privacy concerns, cyber-attacks or security breaches relating to LPP could result in economic loss, damage our reputation, deter users from using our products and expose us to legal penalties and liability. Fraudulent activity could negatively impact our business and could cause automotive lenders or insurance carriers to be less willing to utilize LPP, and negative publicity could cause our business to suffer.
•Our business would suffer if we fail to attract and retain highly skilled employees.
•Our vendor relationships subject us to a variety of risks, and the failure of third parties to comply with regulatory requirements or to provide important services to us could have an adverse effect on our business.
•Disruptions in the operation of our computer systems and third-party data centers could have an adverse effect on our business.
•We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about consumers and any misrepresented information could adversely affect our business.
•Our projections, including guidance, are subject to significant risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties. As a result, our projected revenues, market share, expenses and profitability may differ materially from our expectations. We rely extensively on models in managing many aspects of our business, and any inaccuracies or errors in these models could have an adverse effect on our business. If the underwriting models we use contain errors or are otherwise ineffective, our reputation and relationships with automotive lenders and insurance carriers could be harmed.
•The consumer lending industry is highly competitive and is likely to become more competitive and our inability to compete successfully or maintain or improve our market share and margins could adversely affect our business.
•Our revenue is significantly impacted by the general economy and the financial performance of automotive lenders, and changes in market interest rates could have an adverse effect on our business. Because our business is heavily concentrated on consumer lending in the U.S. automobile industry, our results are more susceptible to fluctuations in the U.S. automobile market than the results of a more diversified company would be.
•We may expand to new industry verticals outside of the automotive industry, and failure to comply with applicable regulations, or accurately predict demand or growth in those new industries, could have an adverse effect on our business.
•The agreement that governs our credit facility contains various covenants that could limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our best long-term interest. The phasing out of LIBOR may affect the value of the financial obligations to be held or issued by us that are linked to LIBOR or our results of operations or financial condition.
•We may be unable to sufficiently protect our proprietary rights and may encounter disputes from time to time relating to our use of the intellectual property of third parties. Also, some aspects of our platform include open-source software and any failure to comply with the terms of these open-source licenses could negatively affect our business.
•Our risk management processes and procedures may not be effective.
•If we seek to grow through future acquisitions, or other strategic investments, we may not be able to do so effectively.
Risks Related to Our Regulatory Environment
•We are subject to some federal and state consumer protection laws. The contours of the Dodd-Frank UDAAP standard remain uncertain and there is a risk that certain features of our business could be deemed to be a UDAAP.
•Our highly regulated industry is undergoing additional regulatory transformation, which results in inherent uncertainty. Changing laws, as well as changing regulatory enforcement policies and priorities, may negatively impact our business through fines, penalties and increased costs. Similarly, if we were found to be operating without having obtained necessary state or local licenses, it could adversely affect our business.
•Regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and adversely affect our business opportunities.
Risks Related to the Business Combination and Integration of Businesses
•We have and may continue to incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, and we may from time to time be subject to litigation and other claims, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, we are no longer an “emerging growth company” and are therefore subject to the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting and certain other increased disclosure and governance requirements.
•Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.
•Our principal stockholders and management control us and their interests may conflict with the interests of our stockholders in the future.
•Our amended and restated bylaws designate specific courts as the exclusive forum for certain claims initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
•An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, which may make it difficult for our stockholders to sell shares of our common stock. The market price of our common stock may be volatile, which could cause the value of our stockholders’ investment to decline. There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of Nasdaq, and if securities and industry analysts publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline. Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could hinder, delay or prevent a change in control of us, which could adversely affect the price of our common stock.
•Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plans or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders, sales of a substantial amount of our common stock could cause the price of our securities to fall, the exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, and future offerings of debt or equity securities by us may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
•Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock, our stockholders may not receive any return on investment unless they sell our common stock for a price greater than that which they paid for it.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our results of operations and continued growth depend on our ability to retain existing, and attract new automotive lenders.
If automotive lenders cease to use LPP to make loans, we will fail to generate future revenues. To attract and retain automotive lenders, we market LPP to automotive lenders on the basis of a number of factors, including loan analytics, risk-based pricing, risk modeling and automated decision-technology, as well as integration, customer service, brand and reputation. Automotive lenders are able to leverage the geographic diversity of the loans they can originate through LPP with the simplicity of our five-second, all-inclusive loan offer generation. Automotive lenders, however, have alternative sources for internal loan generation, and they could elect to originate loans through those alternatives rather than through LPP. There is significant competition for
existing automotive lenders. If we fail to retain automotive lenders, and do not enroll new automotive lenders of similar size and profitability, it will have a material adverse effect on our business and future growth. There has been some turnover in automotive lenders, as well as varying activation rates and volatility in usage of our platform by automotive lenders, and this may continue or increase in the future. Agreements with automotive lenders are cancellable on thirty days’ notice and do not require any minimum monthly level of application submissions. If a significant number of existing automotive lenders were to use other competing platforms, thereby reducing their use of LPP, it would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
A significant percentage of our program fee revenue is concentrated with our top ten automotive lenders, and the loss of one or more significant automotive lenders could have a negative impact on operating results.
Our top ten automotive lenders (including certain groups of affiliated automotive lenders) accounted for a significant percentage of the total program fee revenue in 2021. We expect to have significant concentration in our largest automotive lender relationships for the foreseeable future. In the event that one or more of our significant automotive lenders, or groups of automotive lenders terminate their relationships with us, the number of loans originated through LPP would decline, which would materially and adversely affect our business and, in turn, our revenue.
Our results depend, to a significant extent, on the active and effective adoption of LPP by automotive lenders.
Our success depends on the active and effective adoption of LPP by automotive lenders in originating loans to near-prime and non-prime borrowers. We rely on automotive lenders to utilize LPP within their loan origination systems. Although automotive lenders generally are under no obligation to use LPP in generating their loans, the integrated loan and insurance offering by LPP encourages the use of LPP by automotive lenders. Any adverse accounting determinations concerning loans generated by automotive lenders using LPP could negatively affect further adoption of LPP. The failure by automotive lenders to effectively adopt LPP would have a material adverse effect on the rate at which they can lend to near-prime and non-prime borrowers and in turn, would have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues and financial condition.
We have partnered with only three major insurance carriers that underwrite and insure the loans generated using LPP.
We rely on three insurance carriers to insure the loans generated by the automotive lenders using LPP. We have entered into separate producer and claims service agreements with each of these carriers. The producer and claims service agreements with these insurance carriers generally contain customary termination provisions that allow them to terminate the agreement upon written notice after the occurrence of certain events including, among other things, breach of the producer agreement; changes in regulatory requirements making the agreement unenforceable; or for convenience. If one or more of these insurance carriers were to terminate their agreements with us and we are unable to replace the commitments of the terminating insurance carriers, it would have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial condition.
Our financial condition and results of operations have been and may continue to be adversely affected by the impact of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected workforces, organizations, customers, economies and financial markets globally. In light of the uncertainty relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, we have taken precautionary measures, including offering many employees a work from home option. Although we continue to monitor the situation and may adjust our current policies as more information and public health guidance become available, precautionary measures that have been adopted could negatively affect our customer success efforts, customer retention, sales and marketing efforts, delay and lengthen our sales cycles, affect our revenue growth rate, or create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our business and results of operations.
Additionally, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused and is likely to continue to cause substantial changes in consumer behavior and has caused restrictions on business and individual activities, which have led to and are likely to continue to lead to reduced economic activity. Extraordinary actions taken by international, federal, state, and local public health and governmental authorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in regions throughout the world, including travel bans, quarantines, “stay-at-home” orders, and similar mandates for many individuals and businesses to substantially restrict daily activities could continue to have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a global decrease in vehicle sales in markets around the world. Any sustained decline in vehicle sales would have a substantial adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flow.
Moreover, as a result of the restrictions described above and consumers’ reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, showroom traffic at car dealers dropped significantly and many dealers temporarily ceased operations, thereby reducing the demand for our products and leading dealers to purchase fewer vehicles. To the extent that COVID-19 related developments reduce the earnings of workers, such reduction in earnings may negatively impact the ability of consumers to pay their automotive loans, which may lead to higher loan defaults and increased losses for our insurance company partners. Increased losses would result in lower profit share earnings on our existing insured loan portfolio.
The extent and duration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy remains uncertain at this time. Any continued significant economic impact could have a substantial adverse effect on our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations. If these conditions persist for a prolonged period, they could have a material adverse effect on our future revenue and net income.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.
We have experienced rapid growth, which may be difficult to sustain and which may place significant demands on operational, administrative and financial resources.
Our revenue growth has caused significant demands on operations, marketing, compliance and accounting infrastructure, and has resulted in increased expenses, which we expect to continue as we grow. In addition, we are required to continuously develop and adapt systems and infrastructure in response to the increasing sophistication of the consumer finance market and regulatory developments relating to existing and projected business activities and those of automotive lenders. Our future growth will depend, among other things, on our ability to maintain an operating platform and management system sufficient to address growth and will require us to incur significant additional expenses and to commit additional senior management and operational resources.
As a result of our growth, we face significant challenges in:
•securing commitments from existing and new automotive lenders to provide loans to consumers;
•maintaining existing and developing new relationships with additional automotive lenders;
•maintaining adequate financial, business and risk controls;
•training, managing and appropriately sizing workforce and other components of business on a timely and cost-effective basis;
•navigating complex and evolving regulatory and competitive environments;
•increasing the number of borrowers in, and the volume of loans facilitated through, LPP;
•entering into new markets and introducing new solutions;
•continuing to revise proprietary credit decisioning and scoring models;
•continuing to develop, maintain and scale our platform;
•effectively using limited personnel and technology resources;
•maintaining the security of our platform and the confidentiality of the information (including personally identifiable information) provided and utilized across our platform; and
•attracting, integrating and retaining an appropriate number of qualified employees.
We may not be able to manage expanding operations effectively, and any failure to do so could adversely affect the ability to generate revenue and control expenses.
If we experience negative publicity, we may lose the confidence of automotive lenders and insurance carriers who use or partner with LPP and our business may suffer.
Reputational risk, or the risk of negative publicity or to public opinion, is inherent to our business. Recently, consumer financial services companies have experienced increased reputational harm as consumers and regulators take issue with certain practices and judgments, including, for example, fair lending, credit reporting accuracy, lending to members of the military, state licensing (for lenders, servicers and money transmitters) and debt collection. Given that our primary clients are automotive lenders in the customer financial services space, any reputational risk associated with our clients is in turn attributable to us. Maintaining a positive reputation is critical to our ability to attract and retain existing and new automotive lenders, insurance
carriers, investors and employees. Negative public opinion can arise from many sources, including actual or alleged misconduct, errors or improper business practices by employees, automotive lenders, insurance carriers, automobile dealers, outsourced service providers or other counterparties; litigation or regulatory actions; failure by us, automotive lenders, or automobile dealers to meet minimum standards of service and quality; inadequate protection of consumer information; failure of automotive lenders to adhere to the terms of their LPP agreements or other contractual arrangements or standards; failure of insurance carriers and our subsidiary, IAS, to satisfactorily administer claims; compliance failures; and media coverage, whether accurate or not. Negative public opinion can diminish the value of our brand and adversely affect our ability to attract and retain automotive lenders and insurance carriers as a result of which our operations may be materially harmed and we could be exposed to litigation and regulatory action.
Privacy concerns or security breaches relating to LPP could result in economic loss, damage our reputation, deter users from using our products, and expose us to legal penalties and liability.
Through the use of LPP, we gather and store personally identifiable information on consumers such as social security numbers, names and addresses. A cybersecurity breach where this information is stolen or made public would result in negative publicity and additional costs to mitigate the damage to customers. While we have taken reasonable steps to protect such data, techniques used to gain unauthorized access to data and systems, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems, are constantly evolving, and we may be unable to anticipate such techniques or implement adequate preventative measures to avoid unauthorized access or other adverse impacts to such data or our systems.
LPP is vulnerable to software bugs, computer viruses, internet worms, break-ins, phishing attacks, attempts to overload servers with denial-of-service, or other attacks or similar disruptions, any of which could lead to system interruptions, delays, or shutdowns, causing loss of critical data or the unauthorized access of data. Computer malware, viruses, and computer hacking and phishing attacks have become more prevalent in our industry. Functions that facilitate interactivity with other internet platforms could increase the scope of access of hackers to user accounts. Though it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from any specific interruption or attack, any failure to maintain performance, reliability, security and availability of our products to the satisfaction of our clients and their consumers may harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing clients. Although we have in place systems and processes that are designed to protect data, prevent data loss, disable undesirable accounts and activities and prevent or detect security breaches, we cannot assure that such measures will provide absolute security. If an actual or perceived breach of security occurs to our systems or a third party’s systems, we could also be required to expend significant resources to mitigate the breach of security and to address matters related to any such breach, including notifying users or regulators.
Changes in market interest rates could have an adverse effect on our business.
The fixed interest rates charged on the loans that automotive lenders originate are calculated based upon market benchmarks at the time of origination. Market benchmarks typically rise when the U.S. Federal Reserve raises the federal funds rate, and the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise the federal funds rate in 2022 to combat inflation. Any such increases in the market benchmark would result in increases in the interest rates on new loans. Increased interest rates may adversely impact the spending levels of consumers and their ability and willingness to borrow money. Higher interest rates often lead to higher rates charged to the consumer, which could negatively impact the ability of automotive lenders to generate volume and in turn, our ability to generate revenues on loans originated using LPP. Higher interest rates may also increase the payment obligations of consumers, which may reduce the ability of consumers to remain current on their obligations to automotive lenders and, therefore, lead to increased delinquencies, defaults, consumer bankruptcies and charge-offs, and decreasing recoveries, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business.
Our projections, including guidance, are subject to significant risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties. As a result, our projected revenues, market share, expenses and profitability may differ materially from our expectations.
We operate in a rapidly changing and competitive industry, and our projections will be subject to the risks and assumptions made by management with respect to our industry. Operating results are difficult to forecast because they generally depend on a number of factors, including the competition we face, our ability to attract and retain automotive lenders, the active and effective adoption of LPP by automotive lenders in originating loans to near-prime and non-prime borrowers, our profit share assumptions and general industry trends. Additionally, as described herein, our revenue is impacted, to a significant extent, by the general economy and the financial performance of automotive lenders. Our business may be affected by reductions in consumer spending from time to time as a result of a number of factors which may be difficult to predict. This may result in decreased revenue levels, and we may be unable to adopt measures in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in income. This inability could cause our operating results in a given quarter to be higher or lower than expected. If
actual results differ from our estimates, analysts may negatively react and our stock price could be materially and adversely impacted.
Our vendor relationships subject us to a variety of risks, and the failure of third parties to comply with legal or regulatory requirements or to provide various services that are important to our operations could have an adverse effect on our business.
We have significant vendors that, among other things, provide us with financial, technology, insurance and other services to support our loan protection services, including access to credit reports and information. Under various legal theories and contractual requirements, companies may be held responsible for the actions of their subcontractors. Accordingly, we could be adversely impacted to the extent that our vendors fail to comply with the legal requirements applicable to the particular products or services being offered.
In some cases, third-party vendors, including resellers and aggregators, are the sole source, or one of a limited number of sources, of the services they provide to us. Certain of our vendor agreements are terminable on little or no notice, and if current vendors were to stop providing services to us on acceptable terms, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other vendors in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms (or at all). If any third-party vendor fails to provide the services we require, fails to meet contractual requirements (including compliance with applicable laws and regulations), fails to maintain adequate data privacy and electronic security systems, or suffers a cyber-attack or other security breach, we could be subject to regulatory enforcement actions and suffer economic and reputational harm that could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, we may incur significant costs to resolve any such disruptions in service, which could adversely affect our business.
Litigation, regulatory actions and compliance issues could subject us to significant fines, penalties, judgments, remediation costs and/or requirements resulting in increased expenses.
Our business is subject to increased risks of litigation and regulatory actions as a result of a number of factors and from various sources, including as a result of the highly regulated nature of the financial services industry, insurance carriers and the focus of state and federal enforcement agencies on the financial services industry and insurance carriers.
From time to time, we are also involved in, or the subject of, reviews, requests for information, investigations and proceedings (both formal and informal) by state and federal governmental agencies, including insurance regulators and the Department of Insurance of many states, regarding our business activities and our qualifications to conduct business in certain jurisdictions, which could subject us to significant fines, penalties, obligations to change business practices and other requirements resulting in increased expenses and diminished earnings. Our involvement in any such matter could also cause significant harm to our reputation and divert management attention from business operations, even if the matters are ultimately determined in our favor. Moreover, any settlement, or any consent order or adverse judgment in connection with any formal or informal proceeding or investigation by a government agency, may prompt litigation or additional investigations or proceedings as other litigants or other government agencies begin independent reviews of the same activities.
In addition, a number of participants in the consumer finance industry have been the subject of punitive class action lawsuits; state attorney general actions and other state regulatory actions; federal regulatory enforcement actions, including actions relating to alleged unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices; violations of state licensing and lending laws, including state usury laws; actions alleging discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender or other prohibited bases; and allegations of noncompliance with various state and federal laws and regulations relating to originating and servicing consumer finance loans. The current regulatory environment, increased regulatory compliance efforts and enhanced regulatory enforcement have resulted in significant operational and compliance costs and may prevent us from providing certain products and services. There is no assurance that these regulatory matters or other factors will not, in the future, affect how we conduct business and, in turn, have a material adverse effect on our business. In particular, legal proceedings brought under state consumer protection statutes or under several of the various federal consumer financial services statutes may result in a separate fine for each violation of the statute, which, particularly in the case of class action lawsuits, could result in damages substantially in excess of the amounts we earned from the underlying activities. Similar risks exist for insurance producing and claims administration services, which are highly regulated.
In addition, from time to time, through our operational and compliance controls, we identify compliance issues that require us to make operational changes and, depending on the nature of the issue, result in financial remediation to impacted customers. These self-identified issues and voluntary remediation payments could be significant, depending on the issue and the number of customers impacted, and also could generate litigation or regulatory investigations that subject us to additional risk.
Fraudulent activity could negatively impact our business and could cause automotive lenders to be less willing to originate loans or insurance carriers to be less willing to underwrite policies through the use of LPP.
Fraud is prevalent in the financial services industry and is likely to increase as perpetrators become more sophisticated. We are subject to the risk of fraudulent activity with respect to the underwriting policies of insurance carriers, automotive lenders, their customers and third parties handling customer information. Our resources, technologies and fraud prevention tools may be insufficient to accurately detect and prevent fraud. The level of our fraud charge-offs could increase and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if fraudulent activity were to significantly increase. High profile fraudulent activity could also negatively impact our brand and reputation, which could negatively impact the use of our services and products. In addition, significant increases in fraudulent activity could also lead to regulatory intervention, which could increase our costs and also negatively impact our business.
Cyber-attacks and other security breaches could have an adverse effect on our business.
In the normal course of our business, we collect, process and retain sensitive and confidential information regarding automotive lenders, insurance carriers and consumers. We also have arrangements in place with certain third-party service providers that require us to share consumer information. Although we devote significant resources and management focus to ensuring the integrity of our systems through information security and business continuity programs, our facilities and systems, and those of automotive lenders, insurance carriers and third-party service providers, are vulnerable to external or internal security breaches, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming or human errors, and other similar events. We, automotive lenders, insurance carriers and third-party service providers have experienced all of these events in the past and expect to continue to experience them in the future. We also face security threats from malicious third parties that could obtain unauthorized access to our systems and networks, and we anticipate these threats will continue to grow in scope and complexity over time. These events could interrupt our business or operations, result in significant legal and financial exposure, supervisory liability, damage to our reputation and a loss of confidence in the security of our systems, products and services. Although the impact to date from these events has not had a material adverse effect on us, no assurance is given that this will be the case in the future.
Information security risks in the financial services industry have increased recently, in part because of new technologies, the use of the internet and telecommunications technologies (including mobile devices) to conduct financial and other business transactions and the increased sophistication and activities of organized criminals, perpetrators of fraud, hackers, terrorists and others. In addition to cyber-attacks and other security breaches involving the theft of sensitive and confidential information, hackers recently have engaged in attacks that are designed to disrupt key business services, such as consumer-facing websites. We and automotive lenders may not be able to anticipate or implement effective preventive measures against all security breaches of these types, especially because the techniques used change frequently and because attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources. We employ detection and response mechanisms designed to contain and mitigate security incidents. Nonetheless, early detection efforts may be thwarted by sophisticated attacks and malware designed to avoid detection. We also may fail to detect the existence of a security breach related to the information of automotive lenders, insurance carriers and consumers that we retain as part of our business and may be unable to prevent unauthorized access to that information.
We also face risks related to cyber-attacks and other security breaches that typically involve the transmission of sensitive information regarding borrowers through various third parties, including automotive lenders, insurance carriers and data processors. Some of these parties have in the past been the target of security breaches and cyber-attacks. Because we do not control these third parties or oversee the security of their systems, future security breaches or cyber-attacks affecting any of these third parties could impact us through no fault of our own, and in some cases we may have exposure and suffer losses for breaches or attacks relating to them. While we regularly conduct security assessments of significant third-party service providers, no assurance is given that our third-party information security protocols are sufficient to withstand a cyber-attack or other security breach.
The access by unauthorized persons to, or the improper disclosure by us of, confidential information regarding consumers, LPP customers or our proprietary information, software, methodologies and business secrets could interrupt our business or operations, result in significant legal and financial exposure, supervisory liability, damage to our reputation or a loss of confidence in the security of our systems, products and services, all of which could have a material adverse impact on our business. In addition, there have been a number of well-publicized attacks or breaches affecting companies in the financial services industry that have heightened concern by consumers, which could also intensify regulatory focus, cause users to lose trust in the security of the industry in general and result in reduced use of our services and increased costs, all of which could also have a material adverse effect on our business.
Disruptions in the operation of our computer systems and third-party data centers could have an adverse effect on our business.
Our ability to deliver products and services to automotive lenders, service loans made by automotive lenders and otherwise operate our business and comply with applicable laws depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our computer systems and third-party data centers, as well as those of automotive lenders and third-party service providers.
These computer systems and third-party data centers may encounter service interruptions at any time due to system or software failure, natural disasters, severe weather conditions, pandemics, terrorist attacks, cyber-attacks or other events. Any such catastrophes could have a negative effect on our business and technology infrastructure (including our computer network systems), on automotive lenders and insurance carriers and on consumers. Catastrophic events could also prevent or make it more difficult for consumers to travel to automobile dealers’ locations to shop, thereby negatively impacting consumer spending in the affected regions (or in severe cases, nationally), and could interrupt or disable local or national communication networks, including the payment systems network, which could prevent consumers from making purchases or payments (temporarily or over an extended period). These events also could impair the ability of third parties to provide critical services to us. All of these adverse effects of catastrophic events could result in a decrease in the use of our solution and payments to us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In addition, the implementation of technology changes and upgrades to maintain current and integrate new systems may cause service interruptions, transaction processing errors or system conversion delays and may cause us to fail to comply with applicable laws, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business. We expect that new technologies and business processes applicable to the consumer financial services industry will continue to emerge and that these new technologies and business processes may be better than those we currently use. There is no assurance that we will be able to successfully adopt new technology as critical systems and applications become obsolete and better ones become available. A failure to maintain and/or improve current technology and business processes could cause disruptions in our operations or cause our solution to be less competitive, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
If the underwriting models we use contain errors or are otherwise ineffective, our reputation and relationships with automotive lenders and insurance carriers could be harmed.
Our ability to attract automotive lenders to LPP is significantly dependent on our ability to effectively evaluate a consumer’s credit profile and likelihood of default and potential loss in accordance with automotive lenders’ and insurance carriers’ underwriting policies. Our business depends significantly on the accuracy and success of our underwriting model. To conduct this evaluation, we use proprietary credit decisioning and scoring models. If any of the credit decisioning and scoring models we use contain programming or other errors, is ineffective or the data provided by consumers or third parties is incorrect or stale, or if we are unable to obtain accurate data from consumers or third parties (such as credit reporting agencies), our loan pricing and approval process could be negatively affected, resulting in mispriced or misclassified loans, incorrect approvals or denials of loans. This could damage our reputation and relationships with automotive lenders and insurance carriers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about consumers, and any misrepresented information could adversely affect our business.
In evaluating loan applicants, we rely on information furnished to us by or on behalf of consumers, including credit, identification, employment and other relevant information. Some of the information regarding consumers provided to us is used in our proprietary credit decisioning and scoring models, which we use to determine whether an application meets the applicable underwriting criteria. We rely on the accuracy and completeness of that information.
Not all consumer information is independently verified. As a result, we rely on the accuracy and completeness of the information provided by consumers or indirectly by automotive lenders. If any of the information that is considered in the loan review process is inaccurate, whether intentional or not, and such inaccuracy is not detected prior to loan funding, the loan may have a greater risk of default than expected. Additionally, there is a risk that, following the date of the credit report that we obtain and review, a consumer may have defaulted on, or become delinquent in the payment of, a pre-existing debt obligation, taken on additional debt, lost his or her job or other sources of income, or experienced other adverse financial events. Any significant increase in inaccuracies resulting in losses could adversely affect our business.
We rely extensively on models in managing many aspects of our business. Any inaccuracies or errors in our models could have an adverse effect on our business.
In assisting automotive lenders with the design of the products that are offered on LPP, we make assumptions about various matters, including repayment timing and default rates, and then utilize proprietary underwriting modeling to analyze and forecast the performance and profitability of the loans. Our assumptions may be inaccurate and models may not be as predictive as expected for many reasons, including that they often involve matters that are inherently difficult to predict and beyond our control (e.g., macroeconomic conditions) and that they often involve complex interactions between a number of dependent and independent variables and factors. Any significant inaccuracies or errors in assumptions could impact the profitability of the products to automotive lenders, as well as the profitability of our business, and could result in our underestimating potential losses and overstating potential automotive lender returns.
The consumer lending industry is highly competitive and is likely to become more competitive, and our inability to compete successfully or maintain or improve our market share and margins could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends on our ability to generate usage of LPP. The consumer lending industry is highly competitive and increasingly dynamic as emerging technologies continue to enter the marketplace. Technological advances and heightened e-commerce activities have increased consumers’ accessibility to products and services, which has intensified the desirability of offering loans to consumers through digital-based solutions. We face competition in areas such as compliance capabilities, financing terms, promotional offerings, fees, approval rates, speed and simplicity of loan origination, ease-of-use, marketing expertise, service levels, products and services, technological capabilities and integration, customer service, brand and reputation. Our existing and potential competitors may decide to modify their pricing and business models to compete more directly with our model. Any reduction in usage of LPP, or a reduction in the lifetime profitability of loans under LPP in an effort to attract or retain business, could reduce our revenues and earnings. If we are unable to compete effectively for customer usage, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
Our revenue is impacted, to a significant extent, by the general economy and the financial performance of automotive lenders.
Our business, the consumer financial services industry and automotive lenders’ businesses, are sensitive to macroeconomic conditions. Economic factors such as interest rates, changes in monetary and related policies, market volatility, consumer confidence and unemployment rates are among the most significant factors that impact consumer spending behavior. Weak economic conditions or a significant deterioration in economic conditions reduce the amount of disposable income consumers have, which in turn reduces consumer spending and the willingness of qualified borrowers to take out loans. Such conditions are also likely to affect the ability and willingness of borrowers to pay amounts owed to automotive lenders, each of which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
General economic conditions and the willingness of lenders to deploy capital impacts our performance. The generation of new loans through LPP, as well as the transaction fees and other fee income associated with such loans, is dependent upon sales of automobiles by dealers. Dealers’ sales may decrease or fail to increase as a result of factors outside of their control, such as the macroeconomic conditions referenced above, or business conditions affecting a particular automobile dealer, industry vertical or region. Weak economic conditions also could extend the length of dealers’ sales cycle and cause customers to delay making (or not make) purchases of automobiles. The decline of sales by dealers for any reason will generally result in lower credit sales and, therefore, lower loan volume and associated fee income for automotive lenders, and therefore, for us. This risk is particularly acute with respect to the largest automobile dealers associated with automotive lenders that account for a significant amount of our platform revenue.
In addition, if an automobile dealer or automotive lender closes some or all of its locations or becomes subject to a voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy proceeding (or if there is a perception that it may become subject to a bankruptcy proceeding), LPP borrowers may have less incentive to pay their outstanding balances to automotive lenders, which could result in higher charge-off rates than anticipated.
Weakening economic conditions, in particular increases in unemployment, will lead to increased defaults and insurance claim payments, resulting in higher losses for insurance carriers. Increased claim payments may affect the willingness of insurance carriers to provide default insurance. In the event insurer losses cause one of our insurance carriers to cease providing insurance, it would have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results.
The severity of loss on consumer defaults impacts our profit share revenue. To the extent inflated used car values revert to normalized levels, future decreases in used car values could increase severity of loss, which could have a material adverse impact to our profit share revenue.
Because our business is heavily concentrated on consumer lending in the U.S. automobile industry, our results are more susceptible to fluctuations in that market than the results of a more diversified company would be.
Our business currently is concentrated on supporting consumer lending in the U.S. automobile industry. As a result, we are more susceptible to fluctuations and risks particular to U.S. consumer credit than a more diversified company would be as well as to factors that may drive the demand for automobiles, such as sales levels of new automobiles and the aging of existing inventory. We are also more susceptible to the risks of increased regulations and legal and other regulatory actions that are targeted at consumer credit and the specific consumer credit products that automotive lenders offer (including promotional financing) in the U.S. automobile industry. Our business concentration in the U.S. could have a material, adverse effect on our business.
We are, and intend in the future to continue, expanding into relationships with new lending partners, including the OEM Captive space, and our failure to comply with applicable regulations, or accurately predict demand or growth in those new industries could have an adverse effect on our business.
We believe that all automobile manufacturers have an OEM Captive or related party finance company relationship, and we are attempting to further penetrate the OEM Captive space. One of the primary goals of an OEM Captive is to support automobile sales of the dealers, particularly with respect to new vehicle sales. We make no assurance that we will achieve similar levels of success, if any, with OEM Captives as with other credit unions and regional automotive lenders, and may face unanticipated challenges in our ability to offer LPP to OEM Captives. In addition, the OEM Captive space is highly regulated and we, OEM Captives and other automotive lenders, as applicable, are subject to substantial regulatory requirements, including privacy laws. The costs of compliance and any failure by us, OEM Captives or other automotive lenders, as applicable, to comply with such regulatory requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business. Any failure by us to grow our relationships with these new lending partners could have a materially adverse impact on our business.
We may in the future expand to new industry verticals outside of the automotive industry, and failure to comply with applicable regulations, or accurately predict demand or growth, in those new industries could have an adverse effect on our business.
We may in the future further expand into other industry verticals. There is no assurance that we will be able to successfully develop consumer financing products and services for these new industries. Our investment of resources to develop consumer financing products and services for the new industries we enter may either be insufficient or result in expenses that are excessive in light of loans actually originated by lenders in those industries. Additionally, our over 20 years of experience is in the automotive lending industry and therefore, industry participants in new industry verticals may not be receptive to our financing solutions and we may face competitors with more experience and resources. The borrower profile of consumers in new verticals may not be as attractive, in terms of average FICO scores or other attributes, as in current verticals, which may lead to higher levels of delinquencies or defaults than we have historically experienced. Industries change rapidly, and we make no assurance that we will be able to accurately forecast demand (or the lack thereof) for a solution or that those industries will be receptive to our product offerings. Failure to predict demand or growth accurately in new industries could have a materially adverse impact on our business.
Our business would suffer if we fail to attract and retain highly skilled employees.
Our future success will depend on our ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified personnel for all areas of our organization, particularly information technology and sales. Trained and experienced personnel are in high demand and are in short supply. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than us and may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment. In addition, we invest significant time and expense in training employees, which increases their value to competitors that may seek to recruit them. We may not be able to attract, develop and maintain the skilled workforce necessary to operate our business, and labor expenses may increase as a result of a shortage in the supply of qualified personnel, which will negatively impact our business.
The New Credit Agreement that governs our credit facility contains various covenants that could limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our best long-term interests.
Our New Credit Agreement (as defined hereinafter) provides for credit facilities (“Credit Facilities”) consisting of a senior secured term loan facility of up to $125.0 million along with a senior secured revolving loan facility of up to $50.0 million at any time outstanding. Borrowings under the New Credit Agreement bear interest at a variable rate based on the net secured leverage ratio. Our obligations under the New Credit Agreement are guaranteed by all of our subsidiaries and secured by
substantially all of our assets and substantially all of our subsidiaries’ assets, in each case, subject to certain customary exceptions. The Credit Facilities mature on March 19, 2026.
The New Credit Agreement contains affirmative and negative covenants customarily applicable to senior secured credit facilities, including covenants that, among other things, will limit or restrict the ability of the loan parties, subject to negotiated exceptions, to incur additional indebtedness and additional liens on their assets, engage in mergers or acquisitions or dispose of assets, pay dividends or make other distributions, voluntarily prepay other indebtedness, enter into transactions with affiliated persons, make investments, and change the nature of their businesses.
The New Credit Agreement also contains customary events of default (subject to thresholds and grace periods), including payment default, covenant default, cross default to other material indebtedness, and judgment defaults.
Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, such as market fluctuations impacting net income. Breaches of these covenants will result in a default under the New Credit Agreement, subject to any applicable cure rights, in which case the administrative agent may accelerate the outstanding term loan.
If such acceleration under the New Credit Agreement occurs, our ability to fund operations could be seriously harmed.
We may be unable to sufficiently protect our proprietary rights and may encounter disputes from time to time relating to our use of the intellectual property of third parties.
We rely on a combination of trademarks, service marks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names and agreements with employees and third parties to protect our proprietary rights. We have service mark registrations in the United States. We also own the domain name rights for Openlending.com, Openlending.net, Openlending.us, Dev-openlending.com, Lendersprotection.org, Lendersprotection.us, Lend-pro.org, Lend-pro.us, Lend-pro.net, Lendpro.net, Lendpro.org, Lendpro.us, Lend-pro.com, Lendersprotection.com, Sayyestomoreloans.com, Sayyestomoreloans.net, as well as other words and phrases important to our business. Nonetheless, third parties may challenge, invalidate or circumvent our intellectual property, and our intellectual property may not be sufficient to provide us with a competitive advantage.
Despite our efforts to protect these rights, unauthorized third parties may attempt to duplicate or copy the proprietary aspects of our technology and processes. Our competitors and other third parties independently may design around or develop similar technology or otherwise duplicate our services or products such that we could not assert our intellectual property rights against them. In addition, our contractual arrangements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our intellectual property and confidential and proprietary information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of an unauthorized disclosure. Measures in place may not prevent misappropriation or infringement of our intellectual property or proprietary information and the resulting loss of competitive advantage, and we may be required to litigate to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information from misappropriation or infringement by others, which is expensive and could cause a diversion of resources and may not be successful.
We also may encounter disputes from time to time concerning intellectual property rights of others, and we may not prevail in these disputes. Third parties may raise claims against us alleging that we, our consultants or other third parties retained or indemnified by us, infringed on their intellectual property rights. Some third-party intellectual property rights may be extremely broad, and it may not be possible for us to conduct operations in such a way as to avoid all alleged violations of such intellectual property rights. Given the complex, rapidly changing and competitive technological and business environment in which we operate, and the potential risks and uncertainties of intellectual property-related litigation, an assertion of an infringement claim against us may cause us to spend significant amounts to defend the claim (even if we ultimately prevail), pay significant monetary damages, lose significant revenues, be prohibited from using the relevant systems, processes, technologies or other intellectual property (temporarily or permanently), cease offering certain products or services, or incur significant license, royalty or technology development expenses.
Moreover, it has become common in recent years for individuals and groups to purchase intellectual property assets for the sole purpose of making claims of infringement and attempting to extract settlements from companies such as ours. Even in instances where we believe that claims and allegations of intellectual property infringement against us are without merit, defending against such claims is time consuming and expensive and could result in the diversion of time and attention of our management and employees. In addition, although in some cases a third party may have agreed to indemnify us for such costs, such indemnifying party may refuse or be unable to uphold our contractual obligations. In other cases, insurance may not cover potential claims of this type adequately or at all, and we may be required to pay monetary damages, which may be significant.
Our risk management processes and procedures may not be effective.
Our risk management processes and procedures seek to appropriately balance risk and return and mitigate risks. We have established processes and procedures intended to identify, measure, monitor and control the types of risk to which we and automotive lenders are subject, including credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, strategic risk and operational risk. Credit risk is the risk of loss that arises when an obligor fails to meet the terms of an obligation. Market risk is the risk of loss due to changes in external market factors such as interest rates. Liquidity risk is the risk that financial conditions or overall safety and soundness are adversely affected by an inability, or perceived inability, to meet obligations and support business growth.
Strategic risk is the risk from changes in the business environment, improper implementation of decisions or inadequate responsiveness to changes in the business environment. Operational risk is the risk of loss arising from inadequate or failed processes, people or systems, external events (e.g., natural disasters), compliance, reputational or legal matters and includes those risks as they relate directly to us as well as to third parties with whom we contract or otherwise do business.
Management of our risks depends, in part, upon the use of analytical and forecasting models. If these models are ineffective at predicting future losses or are otherwise inadequate, we may incur unexpected losses or otherwise be adversely affected. In addition, the information we use in managing credit and other risks may be inaccurate or incomplete as a result of error or fraud, both of which may be difficult to detect and avoid. There also may be risks that exist, or that develop in the future, that we have not appropriately anticipated, identified or mitigated, including when processes are changed or new products and services are introduced. If our risk management framework does not effectively identify and control risks, we could suffer unexpected losses or be adversely affected, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Some aspects of our platform include open source software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could negatively affect our business.
Aspects of our platform include software covered by open source licenses. The terms of various open source licenses have not been interpreted by United States courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our platform. If portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, re-engineer all or a portion of our technologies or otherwise be limited in the licensing of technologies, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our technologies and loan products. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Many of the risks associated with the use of open source software cannot be eliminated and could adversely affect our business.
To the extent that we seek to grow through future acquisitions, or other strategic investments or alliances, we may not be able to do so effectively.
We may in the future seek to grow our business by exploring potential acquisitions or other strategic investments or alliances. We may not be successful in identifying businesses or opportunities that meet our acquisition or expansion criteria. In addition, even if a potential acquisition target or other strategic investment is identified, we may not be successful in completing such acquisition or integrating such new business or other investment. We may face significant competition for acquisition and other strategic investment opportunities from other well-capitalized companies, many of which have greater financial resources and greater access to debt and equity capital to secure and complete acquisitions or other strategic investments, than us. As a result of such competition, we may be unable to acquire certain assets or businesses, or take advantage of other strategic investment opportunities that we deem attractive; the purchase price for a given strategic opportunity may be significantly elevated; or certain other terms or circumstances may be substantially more onerous. Any delay or failure on our part to identify, negotiate, finance on favorable terms, consummate and integrate any such acquisition, or other strategic investment opportunity could impede our growth.
There is no assurance that we will be able to manage expanding operations, including from acquisitions, investments or alliances, effectively or that we will be able to continue to grow, and any failure to do so could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and control our expenses. Furthermore, we may be responsible for any legacy liabilities of businesses we acquire or be subject to additional liability in connection with other strategic investments. The existence or amount of these liabilities may not be known at the time of acquisition, or other strategic investment, and may have a material adverse effect on our business.
The phasing out of LIBOR may affect the value of the financial obligations to be held or issued by us that are linked to LIBOR or our results of operations or financial condition.
As of December 31, 2021, borrowings under our New Credit Agreement bear interest based upon various reference rates, including LIBOR. On July 27, 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (the authority that regulates LIBOR) announced that it intends to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. ICE Benchmark Administration (“IBA”), the administrator of LIBOR, has announced plans to cease the publication of certain U.S. dollar LIBOR rates on December 31, 2021 and other U.S. dollar LIBOR rates on June 30, 2023. The U.S. Federal Reserve also concurrently issued a statement advising banks to stop new U.S. dollar LIBOR issuances by the end of 2021. In light of these recent announcements, a transition from the widespread use of LIBOR to alternative benchmark rates is likely to occur over the next few years. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, announced replacement of U.S. dollar LIBOR with a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements, backed by U.S. Treasury securities called the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). The first publication of SOFR was released in April 2018. Whether or not SOFR attains market traction as a LIBOR replacement tool remains in question. As a result, it is not possible to predict the effect of any changes, establishment of alternative references rates or other reforms to LIBOR that may be enacted in the U.K. or elsewhere. The elimination of LIBOR could have an adverse impact on the market for or value of any LIBOR-linked securities, loans, and other financial obligations or extensions of credit held by or due to us or on our overall financial condition or results of operations.
The ongoing global semiconductor chip supply shortage has negatively affected, and may continue to negatively affect, our business.
New vehicle production has declined substantially in 2021 as compared to prior years, due in large part to the global semiconductor chip supply shortage and related supply chain disruptions. As a result, new vehicle inventory in the U.S. as of December 31, 2021 is appreciably lower than it was one year prior. This significantly lower level of new vehicle inventory has harmed, and may continue to harm, our business. The lower level of new vehicle production has diminished the need for automotive loans, which has in turn reduced demand from our lender customers for LPP. Additionally, as chips have become more scarce, auto manufacturers have been more inclined to allocate chips to their most profitable units, which are usually their most expensive vehicles. This has reduced demand for LPP since our lender customers typically utilize LPP to facilitate more auto loans to borrowers in the near-prime and non-prime credit space who do not normally purchase the most expensive vehicles. Further, while the current supply of new vehicles is substantially lower than it was a year ago, the demand for new vehicles has not abated. New vehicle prices have risen accordingly, and these higher prices have pushed many would-be borrowers out of the new car market altogether.
All of these factors, in addition to any other chip shortage-related risks to our business that may develop over time, may affect our ability to generate certified loans through LPP, and therefore pose and may continue to pose material risks to our operating results, financial condition and cash flows, particularly since the duration of the current chip shortage is unknown.
Risks Related to Our Regulatory Environment
We are subject to federal and state consumer protection laws.
In connection with administration of LPP, we must comply with various regulatory regimes, including those applicable to consumer credit transactions, various aspects of which are untested as applied to our business model. Insurance producing and claims administration services subject us to state regulation on a 50-state basis. The complex regulatory environment of the credit and insurance industries are subject to constant change and modification. While changes to statutes and promulgating new regulations may take a substantial amount of time, issuing regulatory guidance with the force of law in the form of opinions, bulletins, and notices can occur quickly. Also, consumer credit and insurance regulators often initiate inquiries into market participants, which can lead to investigations and, ultimately, enforcement actions. As a result, we are subject to a constantly evolving regulatory environment that is difficult to predict, which may affect our business. The laws to which we are subject to directly or indirectly include:
•state laws and regulations that impose requirements related to loan disclosures and terms, credit discrimination, and unfair or deceptive business practices;
•the Truth-in-Lending Act, and its implementing Regulation Z, and similar state laws, which require certain disclosures to borrowers regarding the terms and conditions of their loans and credit transactions;
•Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, and Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which prohibits UDAAP, in connection with any consumer financial product or service;
•the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and its implementing Regulation B, which prohibit creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, marital status, the fact that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program or the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act or any applicable state law;
•the FCRA, and its implementing Regulation V, as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which promotes the accuracy, fairness and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies;
•the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and its implementing Regulation F, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as state debt collection laws, all of which provide guidelines and limitations concerning the conduct of debt collectors in connection with the collection of consumer debts;
•the Bankruptcy Code, which limits the extent to which creditors may seek to enforce debts against parties who have filed for bankruptcy protection;
•the GLBA, and the California Consumer Protection Act, which include limitations on the disclosure of nonpublic personal information by financial institutions about a consumer to nonaffiliated third parties, in certain circumstances requires financial institutions to limit the use and further disclosure of nonpublic personal information by nonaffiliated third parties to whom they disclose such information and requires financial institutions to disclose certain privacy policies and practices with respect to information sharing with affiliated and nonaffiliated entities as well as to safeguard personal customer information, and other privacy laws and regulations;
•the rules and regulations promulgated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, as well as state banking regulators;
•the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which allows active duty military members to suspend or postpone certain civil obligations so that the military member can devote his or her full attention to military duties;
•the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and Regulation E promulgated thereunder, which provide disclosure requirements, guidelines and restrictions on the electronic transfer of funds from consumers’ bank accounts;
•the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, and similar state laws, particularly the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which authorize the creation of legally binding and enforceable agreements utilizing electronic records and signatures; and
•the Bank Secrecy Act, which relates to compliance with anti-money laundering, customer due diligence and record-keeping policies and procedures.
While we have developed policies and procedures designed to assist in compliance with these laws and regulations, no assurance is given that our compliance policies and procedures will be effective. Failure to comply with these laws and with regulatory requirements applicable to our business could subject us to damages, revocation of licenses, class action lawsuits, administrative enforcement actions, and civil and criminal liability, which may harm our business.
Our industry is highly regulated and is undergoing regulatory transformation, which results in inherent uncertainty. Changing federal, state, and local laws, as well as changing regulatory enforcement policies and priorities, may negatively impact our business.
In connection with our administration of LPP, we are subject to extensive regulation, supervision and examination under United States federal and state laws and regulations. We are required to comply with numerous federal, state, and local laws and regulations that regulate, among other things, the manner in which we administer LPP, the terms of the loans that automotive lenders originate, the products of insurance carriers, production of those products, insurance claims administration, and the fees that we may charge. Any failure to comply with any of these laws or regulations could subject us to lawsuits or governmental actions and/or damage our reputation, which could materially and adversely affect our business. Regulators have broad discretion with respect to the interpretation, implementation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations, including through enforcement actions that could subject us to civil money penalties, customer remediation, increased compliance costs, and limits or prohibitions on our ability to offer certain products or services or to engage in certain activities. In addition, to the extent that we undertake actions requiring regulatory approval or non-objection, regulators may make their approval or non-objection subject to conditions or restrictions that could have a material adverse effect on our business. Moreover, any competitors subject to different, or in some cases less restrictive, legislative or regulatory regimes may have or obtain a competitive advantage over us.
Additionally, federal, state, and local governments and regulatory agencies have proposed or enacted numerous new laws, regulations, and rules related to loans. Federal and state consumer credit and insurance regulators are also enforcing existing
laws, regulations, and rules more aggressively and enhancing their supervisory expectations regarding the management of legal and regulatory compliance risks. Consumer finance and insurance regulation is constantly changing, and new laws or regulations, or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations, could have a materially adverse impact on our ability to operate as currently intended.
These regulatory changes and uncertainties make our business planning more difficult and could result in changes to our business model and potentially adversely impact results of operations. New laws or regulations also require us to incur significant expenses to ensure compliance. As compared to our competitors, we could be subject to more stringent state or local regulations or could incur marginally greater compliance costs as a result of regulatory changes. In addition, our failure to comply (or to ensure that our agents and third-party service providers comply) with these laws or regulations may result in costly litigation or enforcement actions, the penalties for which could include: revocation of licenses; fines and other monetary penalties; civil and criminal liability; substantially reduced payments by borrowers; modification of the original terms of loans, permanent forgiveness of debt, or inability to, directly or indirectly, collect all or a part of the principal of or interest on loans; and increased purchases of receivables underlying loans originated by automotive lenders and indemnification claims.
Proposals to change the statutes affecting financial services companies are frequently introduced in Congress and state legislatures that, if enacted, may affect our operating environment in substantial and unpredictable ways. In addition, numerous federal and state regulators have the authority to promulgate or change regulations that could have a similar effect on our operating environment. We cannot determine with any degree of certainty whether any such legislative or regulatory proposals will be enacted and, if enacted, the ultimate impact that any such potential legislation or implementing regulations, or any such potential regulatory actions by federal or state regulators, would have upon our business.
With respect to state regulation, although we seek to comply with applicable state insurance, insurance brokering, insurance agency regulations, third-party administration company statutes and similar statutes in all U.S. jurisdictions, and with licensing and other requirements that we believe may be applicable to us, if we are found to not have complied with applicable laws, we could lose one or more licenses or authorizations or face other sanctions or penalties or be required to obtain a license in one or more such jurisdictions, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to make LPP available to borrowers in particular states and, thus, adversely impact our business.
We are also subject to potential enforcement and other actions that may be brought by state attorneys general or other state enforcement authorities and other governmental agencies. Any such actions could subject us to civil money penalties and fines, customer remediation, and increased compliance costs, damage our reputation and brand and limit or prohibit our ability to offer certain products and services or engage in certain business practices.
New laws, regulations, policy or changes in enforcement of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business, or reexamination of current practices, could adversely impact our profitability, limit our ability to continue existing or pursue new business activities, require us to change certain of our business practices or alter our relationships with LPP customers, affect retention of key personnel, or expose us to additional costs (including increased compliance costs and/or customer remediation). These changes also may require us to invest significant resources, and devote significant management attention, to make any necessary changes and could adversely affect our business.
The highly regulated environment in which automotive lenders and insurance carriers operate could have an adverse effect on our business.
Automotive lenders and insurance carriers are subject to federal and/or state supervision and regulation. Federal regulation of the banking or insurance industries, along with tax and accounting laws, regulations, rules, and standards, may limit their operations significantly and control the methods by which they conduct business. In addition, compliance with laws and regulations can be difficult and costly, and changes to laws and regulations can impose additional compliance requirements. For example, the Dodd-Frank Act imposes significant regulatory and compliance obligations on financial institutions. Regulatory requirements affect automotive lenders’ lending and investment practices and insurance carriers’ offerings, among other aspects of their businesses, and restrict transactions between us and automotive lenders and insurance carriers. These requirements may constrain the operations of automotive lenders and insurance carriers, and the adoption of new laws and changes to, or repeal of, existing laws may have a further impact on our business.
In choosing whether and how to conduct business with us, current and prospective automotive lenders and insurance carriers can be expected to take into account the legal, regulatory, and supervisory regimes that apply to them, including potential changes in the application or interpretation of regulatory standards, licensing requirements, or supervisory expectations. Regulators may elect to alter standards or the interpretation of the standards used to measure regulatory compliance or to determine the adequacy of liquidity, certain risk management or other operational practices for financial services companies in a manner that impacts automotive lenders or insurance carriers. Furthermore, the regulatory agencies have extremely broad discretion in their interpretation of the regulations and laws and their interpretation of the quality of automotive lenders’ loan
portfolios and other assets. If any regulatory agency’s assessment of the quality of automotive lenders’ assets, operations, lending practices, investment practices or other aspects of their business changes, or those with respect to insurance carriers, it may materially reduce automotive lenders’ or insurance carriers’ earnings, capital ratios and share price in such a way that affects our business.
Bank holding companies, credit unions, financial institutions, automobile lenders, and insurance carriers and producers are extensively regulated and currently face an uncertain regulatory environment. Applicable state and federal laws, regulations and interpretations, including licensing laws and regulations, and enforcement policies and accounting principles have been subject to significant changes in recent years, and may be subject to significant future changes. We cannot predict with any degree of certainty the substance or effect of pending or future legislation or regulation or the application of laws and regulations to automotive lenders and insurance carriers. Future changes may have a material adverse effect on automotive lenders or insurance carriers and, therefore, on us.
We are subject to regulatory examinations and investigations and may incur fines, penalties and increased costs that could negatively impact our business.
Federal and state agencies have broad enforcement powers over us, including powers to investigate our business practices and broad discretion to deem particular practices unfair, deceptive, abusive or otherwise not in accordance with the law. The continued focus of regulators on the consumer financial services industry has resulted, and could continue to result, in new enforcement actions that could, directly or indirectly, affect the manner in which we conduct our business and increase the costs of defending and settling any such matters, which could negatively impact our business. In some cases, regardless of fault, it may be less time-consuming or costly to settle these matters, which may require us to implement certain changes to our business practices, provide remediation to certain individuals or make a settlement payment to a given party or regulatory body. There is no assurance that any future settlements will not have a material adverse effect on our business.
In addition, the laws and regulations applicable to us are subject to administrative or judicial interpretation. Some of these laws and regulations have been enacted only recently and may not yet have been interpreted or may be interpreted infrequently. As a result of infrequent or sparse interpretations, ambiguities in these laws and regulations may create uncertainty with respect to what type of conduct is permitted or restricted under such laws and regulations. Any ambiguity under a law or regulation to which we are subject may lead to regulatory investigations, governmental enforcement actions and private causes of action, such as class action lawsuits, with respect to our compliance with such laws or regulations.
The contours of the Dodd-Frank UDAAP standard remain uncertain, and there is a risk that certain features of our business could be deemed to be a UDAAP.
The Dodd-Frank Act prohibits UDAAP and authorizes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) to enforce that prohibition. The CFPB has filed a large number of UDAAP enforcement actions against consumer lenders for practices that do not appear to violate other consumer finance statutes. There is a risk that the CFPB could determine that certain features of automotive lender loans are unfair, deceptive or abusive, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Regulations relating to privacy, information security, and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information, and adversely affect our business opportunities.
We are subject to various privacy, information security and data protection laws, including requirements concerning security breach notification, and our business could be negatively impacted by them. For example, in connection with our administration of LPP, we are subject to the GLBA and implementing regulations and guidance. Among other things, the GLBA (i) imposes certain limitations on the ability to share consumers’ nonpublic personal information with nonaffiliated third parties and (ii) requires certain disclosures to consumers about their information collection, sharing and security practices and their right to “opt out” of the institution’s disclosure of their personal financial information to nonaffiliated third parties (with certain exceptions).
Furthermore, legislators and/or regulators are increasingly adopting or revising privacy, information security and data protection laws that could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection and information security-related practices; our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of consumer and/or employee information; and some of our current or planned business activities. This also could increase our costs of compliance and business operations and could reduce income from certain business initiatives.
Compliance with current or future privacy, information security and data protection laws (including those regarding security breach notification) affecting customer and/or employee data to which we are subject could result in higher compliance and technology costs and could restrict our ability to provide certain products and services (such as products or services that involve
sharing information with third parties or storing sensitive credit card information), which could materially and adversely affect our profitability. Additionally, regulators could attempt to assert authority over our business in the area of privacy, information security and data protection. If our vendors also become subject to laws and regulations in the more stringent and expansive jurisdictions, this could result in increasing costs on our business.
Privacy requirements, including notice and opt-out requirements, under the GLBA and FCRA are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and by the CFPB through UDAAP and are a standard component of CFPB examinations. State entities also may initiate actions for alleged violations of privacy or security requirements under state law. Our failure to comply with privacy, information security and data protection laws could result in potentially significant regulatory investigations and government actions, litigation, fines or sanctions; consumer, automotive lender or merchant actions; and damage to our reputation and brand, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
If we were found to be operating without having obtained necessary state or local licenses, it could adversely affect our business.
Certain states have adopted laws regulating and requiring licensing by parties that engage in certain activity regarding consumer finance and insurance transactions, including facilitating and assisting such transactions in certain circumstances. Furthermore, certain states and localities have also adopted laws requiring licensing for consumer debt collection or servicing. While we believe we have obtained all necessary licenses, the application of some consumer finance or insurance producer and claims administration licensing laws to LPP is unclear. If we were found to be in violation of applicable state licensing requirements by a court or a state, federal, or local enforcement agency, we could be subject to fines, damages, injunctive relief (including required modification or discontinuation of our business in certain areas), criminal penalties and other penalties or consequences, and the loans originated through LPP could be rendered void or unenforceable in whole or in part, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may in the future be subject to federal or state regulatory inquiries regarding our business.
From time to time, in the normal course of our business, we may receive or be subject to, inquiries or investigations by state and federal regulatory agencies and bodies, such as the CFPB, state Attorneys General, state financial regulatory agencies, and other state or federal agencies or bodies regarding LPP, including the origination and servicing of consumer loans, practices by merchants or other third parties, production of insurance policies, administration of insurance claims and licensing, and registration requirements. For example, in the future, we may enter into regulatory agreements with state agencies regarding issues including automotive lender conduct and oversight and loan pricing. We also may receive inquiries from state regulatory agencies regarding requirements to obtain licenses from or register with those states, including in states where we have determined that we are not required to obtain such a license or be registered with the state. Any such inquiries or investigations could involve substantial time and expense to analyze and respond to, could divert management’s attention and other resources from running our business, and could lead to public enforcement actions or lawsuits and fines, penalties, injunctive relief, and the need to obtain additional licenses that we do not currently possess. Our involvement in any such matters, whether tangential or otherwise, even if the matters are ultimately determined in our favor, could also cause significant harm to our reputation, lead to additional investigations and enforcement actions from other agencies or litigants, and further divert management attention and resources from the operation of our business. As a result, the outcome of legal and regulatory actions arising out of any state or federal inquiries we receive could be material to our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Risks Related to the Business Combination and Integration of Businesses
Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.
Our executive officers have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. Our management team may not successfully or effectively manage public company requirements, and the Company is and will continue to be subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under federal securities laws. Our management’s limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities which will result in less time being devoted to the management and growth of the business.
We have and may continue to incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a public company, we will continue to face increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), including the requirements of Section 404, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations promulgated and to be promulgated thereunder, the PCAOB and the securities exchanges, impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with public company requirements will increase costs and make certain activities more time-consuming. A number of those requirements will require us to carry out activities we have not done previously. In addition, additional expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements will be incurred. Furthermore, if any issues in complying with those requirements are identified (for example, if the auditors identify a material weakness or significant deficiency in the internal control over financial reporting), we could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, and the existence of those issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of it. It may also be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance. Risks associated with our status as a public company may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on the Board of Directors or as executive officers. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed by these rules and regulations will increase legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of related legal, accounting and administrative activities. These increased costs will require us to divert a significant amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. Advocacy efforts by stockholders and third parties may also prompt additional changes in governance and reporting requirements, which could further increase costs.
We are no longer an “emerging growth company” and are therefore subject to the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting and certain other increased disclosure and governance requirements.
Effective December 31, 2021, we lost our status as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012. As a result, we are no longer able to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements. We are now subject to certain public company requirements that did not previously apply to us, due to our previous status as an emerging growth company. These requirements include:
•compliance with the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
•compliance with any new rules that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board;
•compliance with any new or revised financial accounting standards applicable to public companies without an extended transition period;
•full disclosure regarding executive compensation required of larger public companies; and
•compliance with the requirement of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and obtaining shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Failure to comply with these requirements could subject us to enforcement actions by the SEC, divert management’s attention, damage our reputation, and adversely affect our business, results of operations, or financial condition. In particular, if our independent registered public accounting firm is not able to render the required attestation, it could result in a loss of investor confidence in the accuracy, reliability, and completeness of our financial reports. We expect that the loss of “emerging growth company” status and compliance with these additional requirements will require management to expend additional time while also condensing the time frame available to comply with certain requirements, which may further increase our legal and financial compliance costs.
We may from time to time be subject to litigation and other claims.
We may from time to time become subject to litigation claims in the operation of our business, including, but not limited to, with respect to employee matters and contract matters. From time to time, we may also face intellectual property infringement, misappropriation, or invalidity/non-infringement claims from third parties, and some of these claims may lead to litigation. We may initiate claims to assert or defend our intellectual property against third parties. Any litigation may be expensive and time-consuming and could divert management’s attention from our business and negatively affect our operating results or financial condition. The outcome of any litigation cannot be guaranteed, and adverse outcomes affect us negatively.
Our principal stockholders and management control us and their interests may conflict with the interests of our stockholders in the future.
Our executive officers and directors and certain affiliated stockholders own a significant portion of the outstanding voting stock of the Company as of the date of this report. Each share of our common stock initially entitles holders to one vote on all matters presented to stockholders generally. Accordingly, those owners, if voting in the same manner, could materially influence the election and removal of our directors and thereby determine corporate and management policies, including potential mergers or acquisitions, payment of dividends, asset sales, amendments of the certificate of incorporation and bylaws and other significant corporate transactions for so long as they retain significant ownership. This concentration of ownership may delay or deter possible changes in control of Open Lending, which may reduce the value of an investment in our common stock. So long as they continue to own a significant amount of the combined voting power, even if such amount is less than 50%, they will continue to be able to strongly influence decisions of the Company.
Our amended and restated bylaws designate specific courts as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.
Pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for any state law claim for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (2) any action asserting a claim of or based on a breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee of ours to us or our stockholders; (3) any action asserting a claim pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; or (4) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine, or the Delaware Forum Provision. The Delaware Forum Provision will not apply to any causes of action arising under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. Our amended and restated bylaws further provide that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas shall be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the Federal Forum Provision. In addition, our amended and restated bylaws provide that any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our common stock is deemed to have notice of and consented to the Delaware Forum Provision and the Federal Forum Provision; provided, however, that stockholders cannot and will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
We recognize that the Delaware Forum Provision and the Federal Forum Provision in our amended and restated bylaws may impose additional litigation costs on stockholders in pursuing any such claims, particularly if the stockholders do not reside in or near the State of Delaware or the State of Texas. Additionally, the forum selection clauses in our amended and restated bylaws may limit our stockholders’ ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that they find favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees, which may discourage the filing of lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees, even though an action, if successful, might benefit our stockholders. In addition, while the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in March 2020 that federal forum selection provisions purporting to require claims under the Securities Act be brought in federal court were “facially valid” under Delaware law, there is uncertainty as to whether other courts will enforce our Federal Forum Provision. If the Federal Forum Provision is found to be unenforceable, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters. The Federal Forum Provision may also impose additional litigation costs on stockholders who assert that the provision is not enforceable or invalid. The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas may also reach different judgments or results than would other courts, including courts where a stockholder considering an action may be located or would otherwise choose to bring the action, and such judgments may be more or less favorable to us than our stockholders.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, which may make it difficult to sell the shares of our common stock purchased by our stockholders.
An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, which would make it difficult for stockholders to sell their shares of our common stock at an attractive price (or at all). The market price of our common stock may decline below our stockholders’ purchase price.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of Nasdaq.
If Nasdaq delists our shares of common stock from trading on its exchange for failure to meet Nasdaq’s listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•reduced liquidity for our securities;
•a determination that our common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
•a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile, which could cause the value of our stockholders’ investment to decline.
Even if a trading market develops, the market price of our common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. In addition, the trading volume in our common stock may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. Securities markets worldwide experience significant price and volume fluctuations. This market volatility, as well as general economic, market and political conditions, could reduce the market price of shares of our common stock in spite of our operating performance. In addition, our results of operations could be below the expectations of public market analysts and investors due to a number of potential factors, including variations in our quarterly or annual results of operations, additions or departures of key management personnel, the loss of key automotive lenders, changes in our earnings estimates (if provided) or failure to meet analysts’ earnings estimates, publication of research reports about our industry, litigation and government investigations, changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations or differing interpretations or enforcement thereof affecting our business, adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or securities we may issue in the future, changes in market valuations of similar companies or speculation in the press or the investment community with respect to us or our industry, adverse announcements by us or others and developments affecting us, announcements by our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, dispositions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments, actions by institutional stockholders, and increases in market interest rates that may lead investors in our shares to demand a higher yield, and in response the market price of shares of our common stock could decrease significantly.
These broad market and industry factors may decrease the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The stock market in general has, from time to time, experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.
Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plans or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.
We expect to issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. We expect to grant equity awards to employees, directors, and consultants under our stock incentive plans. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in complementary companies, products, or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our common stock to decline.
Sales of a substantial amount of our common stock could cause the price of our securities to fall.
As of December 31, 2021, a significant portion of the outstanding shares of our common stock is held by entities affiliated with us and our executive officers and directors. Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales will occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and make it difficult for us to raise funds through securities offerings in the future.
The exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
In connection with the consummation of the Business Combination, Open Lending, LLC, Open Lending Corporation, Nebula, certain persons and entities holding membership units of Open Lending and certain persons and entities holding Founder Shares (collectively, the “Holders”) entered into the Investor Rights Agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement, we are obligated to file a registration statement to register the resale of certain of our securities held by the Holders. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement and subject to certain requirements and customary conditions, including with regard to the number of demand rights that may be exercised, the Holders may demand at any time
or from time to time, that we file a registration statement on Form S-1, or any similar long-form registration statement, or if available, on Form S-3 to register the shares of our common stock held by such Holders. The Investor Rights Agreement also provides the Holders with “piggy-back” registration rights, subject to certain requirements and customary conditions. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock, our stockholders may not receive any return on investment unless our common stock can be sold for a price greater than the purchase price.
We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends 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 operating results, our available cash, 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 subsidiary to us and such other factors as our Board of Directors may deem relevant. In addition, the terms of our existing financing arrangements restrict or limit our ability to pay cash dividends. Accordingly, we may not pay any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.
Future offerings of debt or equity securities by us may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
In the future, we may attempt to obtain financing or to further increase our capital resources by issuing additional shares of our common stock or offering debt or other equity securities, including commercial paper, medium-term notes, senior or subordinated notes, debt securities convertible into equity or shares of preferred stock. Future acquisitions could require substantial additional capital in excess of cash from operations. We would expect to obtain the capital required for acquisitions through a combination of additional issuances of equity, corporate indebtedness and/or cash from operations.
Issuing additional shares of our common stock or other equity securities or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of our existing stockholders or reduce the market price of our common stock or both. Upon liquidation, holders of such debt securities and preferred shares, if issued, and lenders with respect to other borrowings would receive a distribution of our available assets prior to the holders of our common stock. Debt securities convertible into equity could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred shares, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our common stock. Our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, which may adversely affect the amount, timing and nature of our future offerings.
Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could hinder, delay or prevent a change in control, which could adversely affect the price of our common stock.
Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our Board of Directors. Among other things, these provisions:
•authorize the issuance of undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and the shares of which may be issued without stockholder approval, and which may include super voting, special approval, dividend, or other rights or preferences superior to the rights of the holders of our common stock;
•prohibit stockholder action by written consent, requiring all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
•provide that the Board of Directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws;
•establish advance notice requirements for nominations for elections to our Board of Directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings; and
•establish a classified Board of Directors, as a result of which our Board of Directors will be divided into three classes, with each class serving for staggered three-year terms, which prevents stockholders from electing an entirely new Board of Directors at an annual meeting.
In addition, these provisions may make it difficult and expensive for a third party to pursue a tender offer, change in control or takeover attempt that is opposed by our management or our Board of Directors. Stockholders who might desire to participate in these types of transactions may not have an opportunity to do so, even if the transaction is favorable to them. These anti-takeover provisions could substantially impede stockholders’ ability to benefit from a change in control or change our
management and board of directors and, as a result, may adversely affect the market price of our common stock and stockholders’ ability to realize any potential change of control premium.
If securities and industry analysts publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend, in part, on the research and reports that securities and industry analysts publish about us and our business. If one or more of the securities or industry analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of the Company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Item 2. Properties
We lease our office space, located at 1501 South MoPac Expressway, Austin, TX 78746 (Suite 450). We believe our current office space is sufficient to meet our needs until the expiration of our lease.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
As of the date of this Annual Report, we were not a party to any material legal proceedings. In the future, we may become party to legal matters and claims arising in the ordinary course of business, the resolution of which we do not anticipate would have a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
None.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “LPRO.” As of February 24, 2022, there were 28 registered stockholders of record. The actual number of stockholders is significantly greater than this number of record holders, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.
Dividends
We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends 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 operating results, our available cash, 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 subsidiary 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 in our existing indebtedness and may be limited by the agreements governing other indebtedness that we incur in the future. Accordingly, we may not pay any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
The following table sets forth information with respect to our repurchases of shares of common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2021.
Period Total number of shares purchased (1) Average price paid per share Total number of shares purchased as part of publicly announced plans or programs Approximate dollar value of shares that may yet be purchased under the plans or programs
10/1/2021-10/31/2021 - - - -
11/1/2021-11/30/2021 7,592 $ 33.94 - -
12/1/2021-12/31/2021 - - - -
Total 7,592 $ 33.94 - -
(1) Consists of shares purchased from employees in order for the employees to satisfy tax withholding obligations related to share-based awards that vested during the period.
Equity Compensation Plan Information
The information concerning our equity compensation plans is incorporated by reference herein to the section in our definitive Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (“2022 Proxy Statement”) entitled “Equity Compensation Plan Information.”
Performance Graph
The graph below shows the cumulative total stockholder return of an investment of $100 at the market close on June 10, 2020, which was the Closing Date of the Business Combination, in (i) our common stock, (ii) the S&P 500 Index, and (iii) common stock of a selected group of peer issuers (the “Peer Group”). The peer group has changed from the prior year to replace PayPal Holdings, Inc., and Square, Inc with other more comparable peer companies in the same industry. The current Peer Group tracks the weighted average stock price performance of equity securities of nine companies in our industry, including Equifax Inc., FleetCor Technologies, Inc., Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., Q2 Holdings, Inc., Repay Holdings Corporation, Upstart Holdings, Inc., TransUnion, Verisk Analytics, Inc. and WEX Inc. Data for the S&P 500 Index and the Peer Group assumes reinvestment of dividends. Our common stock had a closing stock price of $13.75 on June 10, 2020, and the stock price performance shown in the graph below is based on historical data and is not indicative of, nor intended to forecast, future stock price performance of our stock.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Item 6. [Reserved]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” This section of our Annual Report generally discusses 2021 and 2020 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020. Discussions of 2019 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019 that are not included in this Annual Report can be found in “Part II, Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our future plans, estimates, beliefs and expected performance. The forward-looking statements are dependent upon events, risks and uncertainties that may be outside our control. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to those factors discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report, particularly in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” all of which are difficult to predict. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed may not occur. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.
Business Overview
We are a leading provider of lending enablement and risk analytics to credit unions, regional banks, non-bank auto finance companies and OEM Captives. Our clients, collectively referred to herein as automotive lenders or lenders, make automotive consumer loans to underserved near-prime and non-prime borrowers by harnessing our risk-based pricing models, powered by our proprietary data and real-time underwriting of automotive loan default insurance coverage from insurers. Since our inception in 2000, we have facilitated over $13.5 billion in automotive loans, accumulating over 20 years of proprietary data and developed over two million unique risk profiles. We currently cater to 396 active automotive lenders.
We specialize in risk-based pricing and modeling and provide automated decision-technology for automotive lenders throughout the United States. We believe that we address the financing needs of near-prime and non-prime borrowers, or borrowers with a credit bureau score between 560 and 699, who are underserved in the automotive finance industry. Traditional lenders focus on prime borrowers, where an efficient market has developed with interest rate competition that benefits borrowers. Independent finance companies focus on sub-prime borrowers. Borrowers that utilize the near-prime and non-prime automotive lending market have fewer lenders focused on loans with longer terms or higher advance rates. As a result, many near-prime and non-prime borrowers turn to sub-prime lenders, resulting in higher interest rate loan offerings than such borrower's credit profile often merits or warrants. We seek to make this market more competitive, resulting in more attractive loan terms.
Our flagship product, LPP, enables automotive lenders to make loans that are largely insured against losses from defaults. We have been developing and advancing the proprietary underwriting models used by LPP for over 20 years. We believe LPP provides significant benefits to our growing ecosystem of automotive lenders, automobile dealers, borrowers and insurers.
A key element of LPP is the ability to facilitate risk-based interest rates that are appropriate for each loan and lender and electronically submitted to our automotive lenders within approximately five seconds after we receive a loan application. Our interest rate pricing is customized to each automotive lender, reflecting the cost of capital, loan servicing costs, loan acquisition costs, expected recovery rates and target return on assets of each automotive lender. Using our risk models, we project monthly loan performance results, including expected losses and prepayments for automotive lenders that use LPP. The product of this process is a risk-based interest rate, inclusive of elements to recover all projected costs, program fees and insurance premiums, given the risk of the loan, to return a targeted return on asset goal.
We believe that our market opportunity is significant. The near-prime and non-prime automotive loan market is $250 billion annually, resulting in an approximately $12.4 billion annual revenue opportunity. We are currently serving less than 2% of this market, providing a significant growth opportunity.
Executive Overview
We facilitate certified loans, as described below, and have achieved financial success by increasing our penetration of the near-prime and non-prime automotive loan market and refining our data analysis capabilities.
We facilitated 171,697 and 94,226 certified loans during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Total revenue was $215.7 million and $108.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Operating income was $150.3 million and $56.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Net income (loss) was $146.1 million and $(97.6) million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA was $155.0 million and $69.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Information regarding use of Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most comparable GAAP measure, is included in “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”
Highlights
The table below summarizes the total dollar-value of insured loans we facilitated, the number of new contracts we signed with automotive lenders for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:
Years ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands, except number of contracts)
Value of insured loans facilitated (1) $ 4,331,508 $ 2,126,327
Number of contracts signed with automotive lenders 71 55
(1) Value of insured loans are calculated as the total original loan amount with active institutions as of the end of each reporting period.
Key Performance Measures
We review several key performance measures, discussed below, to evaluate business and results, measure performance, identify trends, formulate plans and make strategic decisions. We believe that the presentation of such metrics is useful to our investors and counterparties because such metrics are used to measure and model the performance of companies such as us, with recurring revenue streams.
Certified Automotive Loans
We refer to “certified loans” as the number of loans facilitated through LPP during a given period. Additionally, we refer to loans with a one-time upfront program fee payment as “single-pay” loans. For certain loans, the program fee is paid to us over 12 monthly installments and we refer to these loans as “monthly-pay” loans.
Average Program Fee
We define “average program fee” as the total program fee revenue recognized for a period divided by the number of certified loans in that period.
Insurers’ Aggregate Underwriting Profit
We define “insurers’ aggregate underwriting profit” as the total underwriting profit expected to be received by insurers over the expected life of the insured loans.
Insurers’ Earned Premium
We define “insurers’ earned premium” as the total insurance premium earned by insurers in a given period. Earned premiums were $223.3 million and $148.6 million, respectively, for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Recent Developments
Term Loan due 2027
On March 11, 2020, we entered into a credit agreement with UBS A.G. as the administrative agent and the lenders from time to time party thereto (the “Credit Agreement”). Pursuant to the Credit Agreement, the lenders thereto funded a term loan (the “Term Loan due 2027”) in a principal amount of $170.0 million bearing an interest rate per annum of LIBOR plus 6.5% (subject to a LIBOR floor of 1%), with a maturity date in March 2027. The Term Loan due 2027 was retired by paying off our outstanding principal and interest with proceeds from issuance of the Term Loan due 2026 and the Revolving Facility (both as defined below) in March 2021. The transaction was deemed as a debt extinguishment under ASC Topic 405-20, “Liabilities-
Extinguishments of Liabilities,” and, accordingly, we recognized a non-cash debt extinguishment loss of $8.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2021, and is recorded under the caption loss on extinguishment of debt in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss). The loss on debt extinguishment was calculated as the difference between the carrying amount of the debt and the price paid to retire the debt, which primarily consisted of the write off of the unamortized deferred financing costs related to the Term Loan due 2027.
New Credit Agreement-Term Loan due 2026 and Revolving Credit Facility
On March 19, 2021, we entered into a credit agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as the administrative agent (the “New Credit Agreement”), pursuant to which the lenders thereto (i) funded a senior secured term loan in an aggregate principal amount of $125.0 million maturing in March 2026 (the “Term Loan due 2026”) and (ii) committed to provide a $50.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility, including a $10.0 million letter of credit sub-facility, maturing in March 2026 (the “Revolving Facility”). Our obligations under the Term Loan due 2026 and the Revolving Facility are guaranteed by all of our U.S. subsidiaries and are secured by substantially all of the assets of the Company and our U.S. subsidiaries, subject to customary exceptions.
Interest under the Term Loan due 2026 and the Revolving Facility are, at the option of the Company, either at an Alternate Base rate (“ABR”) plus a spread ranging from 0.75% to 1.50%, or LIBOR plus a spread ranging from 1.75% to 2.50%. With respect to the ABR loans, interest will be payable at the end of each calendar quarter. With respect to LIBOR loans, interest will be payable at the end of the selected interest period. Additionally, there is a commitment fee payable at the end of each quarter at a rate per annum ranging from 0.200% to 0.275% based on the average daily unused portion of the Revolving Facility, and other customary letter of credit fees. Pursuant to the New Credit Agreement, the interest rate spreads and commitment fees increase or decrease in increments as our Funded Secured Debt/EBITDA ratio increase or decreases. As of December 31, 2021, both the Term Loan due 2026 and the Revolving Facility are subject to LIBOR of 0.099% plus a spread of 1.75% per annum. In June 2021, we made a payment of $25.0 million to the outstanding balance of the Revolving Facility and have an unused commitment balance of $25.0 million under the Revolving Facility at December 31, 2021. Commitment fees were accrued at a weighted average of 0.200% on the unused commitment balance and is recorded under the caption accrued expenses in the consolidated balance sheets.
In connection with the issuance of the Term Loan due 2026 and the Revolving Facility, we incurred total deferred financing costs of $1.7 million, of which $1.2 million was allocated to the Term Loan due 2026 and $0.5 million was allocated to the Revolving Facility. The deferred financing costs were capitalized as a contra-liability against the principal balance of the loans and are amortized as interest expense using the effective interest method. As of December 31, 2021, we had outstanding amounts of $122.7 million under the Term Loan due 2026 and $25.0 million under the Revolving Facility with an average weighted average effective interest rate of outstanding borrowings was 2.15%.
The New Credit Agreement contains a maximum total net leverage ratio financial covenant and a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio financial covenant that are tested quarterly. The maximum total net leverage ratio is 3.5 to 1.0 for periods on or prior to December 31, 2022, and then decreases to 3.0 to 1.0 after December 31, 2022. The minimum fixed charge coverage ratio is 1.25 to 1.0. As of December 31, 2021, we were in compliance with all required covenants under the New Credit Agreement.
Underwritten Public Offering
On April 6, 2021, we completed an underwritten public offering of 9,000,000 shares of our common stock at a public offering price of $34.00 per share. All shares were sold by existing stockholders, including Nebula Holdings, LLC and its affiliates, Bregal Sagemount and certain of our executive officers. The selling stockholders also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,350,000 additional shares of common stock. We did not issue any shares and did not receive any of the proceeds of the offering.
Share Repurchase
Pursuant to a Stock Repurchase Agreement, dated as of March 29, 2021, between us and the selling stockholders, we repurchased from the selling stockholders on April 6, 2021 an aggregate number of 612,745 shares of our common stock totaling $20.0 million at the same per share price paid by the underwriters to the selling stockholders in the offering. The $20.0 million stock repurchase was recorded in treasury stock at cost.
Tax Receivable Agreement
In connection with the Business Combination, we entered into the Tax Receivable Agreement (“TRA”). The TRA generally provides for the payment by us to the Open Lending LLC unitholders and Blocker’s sole shareholder (the “TRA holders”), as applicable, of 85% of the net cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local income tax that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in certain circumstances) in periods after the Closing as a result of: (i) certain tax attributes of Blocker and/or Open Lending, LLC that existed prior to the Business Combination and were attributable to the Blocker; (ii) certain increases in the tax basis of Open Lending, LLC’s assets resulting from the Transactions; (iii) imputed interest deemed to be paid by us as a result of payments we make under the TRA; and (iv) certain increases in tax basis resulting from payments we make under the TRA. We retain the benefit of the remaining 15% of these cash savings.
We entered into Amendment No. 1 (the “Amendment”) to the TRA effective April 9, 2021. The Amendment provides that in lieu of early termination payments, the TRA Holders will instead be entitled to payments equal to 40% of all Tax Benefit Payments (all definitions used here in and otherwise not defined here in shall have the meanings set forth in the Amendment) other than any Actual Interest Amounts that would be required to be paid by the us under the TRA, using certain valuation. The Amendment provides us with the right to terminate and settle all present and future obligations under the TRA with a single payment by us to the TRA Holders of $36.9 million (the “Early Termination Right”). Absent the Amendment and the exercise of the Early Termination Right, we anticipated making TRA payments totaling $92.4 million, undiscounted, over the life of the TRA.
On April 12, 2021, an independent committee of disinterested members of the Board of Directors approved our decision to exercise the Early Termination Right. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we paid $36.9 million to terminate and settle the TRA liability and recognized a gain of $55.4 million, which is included in gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).
Third Insurance Carrier Partner
On June 24, 2021, we signed a producer agreement with American National Lloyds Insurance Company and ANPAC Louisiana Insurance Company, collectively referred to as American National. American National is an additional provider of credit default insurance policies for LPP, from which we earn profit share revenue and claims administration fees.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create uncertainty regarding the U.S. and global economies and our operating results, financial condition and cash flows. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance depends on certain developments, including the duration and continued spread of variants of COVID-19; the impact on our revenues, which are generated with automobile lenders and insurance company partners and driven by consumer demand for automobiles and automotive loans; any impacts related to the slowdown in the supply chain for automobiles; extended closures of businesses, the effectiveness of the vaccine distribution program and the vaccines themselves; unemployment levels and the overall impact on our customer behavior, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. We are diligently working to ensure that we can continue to operate with minimal disruption, mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our employees’ health and safety, and address potential business interruptions on ourselves and our customers. We believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, the mitigation efforts and the resulting economic impact have had, and may continue to have, an overall adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We saw a reduction in loan applications and certified loans throughout the majority of 2020. As consumers and lenders have adjusted to the pandemic, application and certification levels have increased in 2021. Lenders’ forbearance programs, government stimulus packages, extended unemployment benefits and other government assistance have resulted in a reduction in expected defaults since the onset of the pandemic. As these programs end, defaults may increase. The potential increase in defaults may impact our revenues and subsequent recovery as the automotive finance industry and overall economy recover. We continue to closely monitor the current macro environment, particularly monetary and fiscal policies.
Key Factors Affecting Operating Results
Our future operating results and cash flows are dependent upon a number of opportunities, challenges and other factors, including the growth in the number of financial institutions and transaction volume, competition, profit share assumptions and industry trends and general economic conditions.
Key factors affecting our operating results include the following:
Growth in the Number of Financial Institutions
The growth trend in active automotive lenders using LPP is a critical variable directly affecting revenue and financial results. It influences the number of loans funded on LPP and, therefore, the fees that we earn and the cost of the services that we provide. Growth in our active automotive lender relationships will depend on our ability to retain existing automotive lenders, add new automotive lenders and expand to new goods and services specific to our industry (“verticals”).
Competition
We face competition to acquire and maintain automotive lenders as customers, as well as competition to facilitate the funding of near-prime and non-prime auto loans. For LPP, which combines lending enablement, risk analytics, near-prime and non-prime auto loan performance data, real-time loan decisioning, risk-based pricing and auto loan default insurance, we do not believe there are any direct competitors. The emergence of direct competitors, providing risk, analytics and loss mitigation, which are core elements of our business, could materially impact our ability to acquire and maintain automotive lenders customers. The near-prime and non-prime lending market is highly fragmented and competitive. We face competition from a diverse landscape of consumer lenders, including traditional banks and credit unions, as well as alternative technology-enabled lenders. The emergence of other insurers, in competition with our insurers, could materially impact our business.
Profit Share Assumptions
We rely on assumptions to calculate the value of profit share revenue, which is our share of insurance partners’ underwriting profit. To the extent these assumptions change, our profit share revenue will be adjusted. For example, positive change in estimates associated with historical vintages generate an increase in our contract asset, additional revenues and future expected cash flows, while negative change in estimates generate a decrease in our contract asset, a reduction in revenues and future expected cash flows. Please refer to “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” for more information on these assumptions.
Industry Trends and General Economic Conditions
Our results of operations have in the past been fairly resilient to economic downturns but in the future may be impacted by the relative strength of the overall economy and its effect on unemployment, consumer spending and consumer demand for automotive products. As general economic conditions improve or deteriorate, the amount of disposable income consumers have tends to fluctuate, which in turn impacts consumer spending levels and the willingness of consumers to take out loans to finance purchases. Specific economic factors such as interest rate levels, changes in monetary and related policies, market volatility, supply chain disruptions, consumer confidence, the impact of the pandemic and, particularly, the unemployment rate also influence consumer spending and borrowing patterns.
Concentration
Our two largest insurance partners accounted for 41% and 22% and 40% and 19% of our total revenue during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Termination or disruption of these relationships could materially and adversely impact our revenue.
Basis of Presentation
We conduct business through one operating segment and we operate in one geographic region, the United States. See Note 2-Summary of Significant Accounting and Reporting Policies of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for more information.
Components of Results of Operations
Total Revenues
Our revenue is generated through three streams: (i) program fees paid to us by lenders, (ii) profit share and (iii) claims administration service fees paid to us by insurance partners.
Program fees. Program fees are paid by automotive lenders for use of our LPP and analytics solutions and automated issuance of credit default insurance with third-party insurance providers. These fees are based on a percentage of each certified loan’s
original principal balance and are recognized as revenue upfront upon receipt of the loan by the consumer. The fee percentage rate varies by type of loan. For loans with a one-time upfront payment, there is a sliding scale of rates representing volume discounts to the lender with fees generally capped at $600 per loan. This cap may vary for certain large volume lenders. For monthly pay loans, the fee paid by the lender is a flat 3% of the total amount of the loan and is not capped.
Profit share. Profit share represents our participation in the underwriting profit of third-party insurance partners who provide lenders with credit default insurance on loans the lenders make using LPP. We receive a percentage of the aggregate monthly insurance underwriting profit. Monthly insurance underwriting profit is calculated as the monthly earned premium less expenses and losses (including reserves for incurred but not reported losses), with losses accrued and carried forward for future profit share calculations.
Claims administration service fees. Claims administration service fees are paid to us by third-party insurers for credit default insurance claims adjudication services performed by our subsidiary IAS on its insured servicing portfolio. The administration fee is equal to 3% of the monthly insurance earned premium for as long as the loan remains outstanding.
Cost of Services and Operating Expenses
Cost of services. Cost of services primarily consists of fees paid to third party partners for lead-generation efforts, compensation and benefits expenses relating to employees engaged in lenders’ services and claims administration activities, fees paid for actuarial services related to the development of the monthly premium program and fees for integration with loan origination systems of automotive lenders. We generally expect cost of services to increase in absolute dollars as the total number of certified loans continues to grow; however, we expect the cost of services to remain relatively constant in the near to immediate term as a percentage of our program fee revenue.
General and administrative expenses. General and administrative expenses are comprised primarily of expenses relating to employee compensation and benefits, non-cash share-based compensation, travel, meals and entertainment expenses, data and software expenses and professional and consulting fees. In the near to intermediate term, we expect general and administrative expenses to remain relatively constant.
Selling and marketing expenses. Selling and marketing expenses consist primarily of compensation and benefits of employees engaged in selling and marketing activities. We generally expect selling and marketing expenses to increase in absolute dollars as the total number of certified loans continues to grow in the long term; however, we expect selling and marketing expenses to remain relatively constant in the near to intermediate term as a percentage of program fee revenue.
Research and development expenses. Research and development expenses primarily consist of employee compensation and benefits expenses for employees engaged in ongoing research and development of our software technology platform. We generally expect our research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars as our business continues to grow.
Other Income (Expense)
Interest expense. Interest expense primarily includes interest payments and the amortization of deferred financing costs in connection with the issuance of the debt.
Gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement. Gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement is related to the early termination and settlement of the TRA to the TRA holders.
Loss on extinguishment of debt. Loss on extinguishment of debt primarily reflects unamortized deferred financing costs which were written off in connection with the refinancing of our Term Loan due 2027 on March 19, 2021.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020 % Change
($ in thousands)
Revenue
Profit share $ 133,215 $ 60,392 121%
Program fees 75,630 43,995 72%
Claims administration and other service fees 6,810 4,505 51%
Total revenue 215,655 108,892 98%
Cost of services 18,621 9,786 90%
Gross profit 197,034 99,106 99%
Operating expenses
General and administrative 30,393 32,584 (7)%
Selling and marketing 12,000 7,841 53%
Research and development 4,352 1,964 122%
Operating income 150,289 56,717 165%
Interest expense (5,859) (11,601) 49%
Interest income 213 202 5%
Gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement 55,422 - 100%
Loss on extinguishment of debt (8,778) - (100)%
Change in fair value of contingent consideration - (131,932) 100%
Other expense (119) (4,377) 97%
Income (loss) before income taxes 191,168 (90,991) (310)%
Income tax expense 45,086 6,573 586%
Net income (loss) and comprehensive income (loss) $ 146,082 $ (97,564) 250%
Key Performance Measures
The following table sets forth key performance measures for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020 % Change
Certified loans 171,697 94,226 82 %
Single-pay 152,629 76,031 101 %
Monthly-pay 19,068 18,195 5 %
Average program fees $ 440 $ 467 (6) %
Single-pay $ 412 $ 430 (4) %
Monthly-pay $ 670 $ 623 7 %
Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020
Revenue
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
($ in thousands)
Profit share
New certified loan originations $ 102,324 $ 62,032
Change in estimated future revenues 30,891 (1,640)
Total profit share 133,215 60,392
Program fees 75,630 43,995
Claims administration and other service fees 6,810 4,505
Total revenue $ 215,655 $ 108,892
Total revenue increased by $106.8 million, or 98%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, driven by an increase in anticipated profit share, program fees and claims administration and other service fee revenues on new originations and the change in estimated future revenues on historical vintages. As the loan default rate, default severity and prepayment rate continued to improve during the year ended December 31, 2021, our anticipated profit share on historical business increased.
Profit share revenue increased by $72.8 million, or 121%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. During 2021, we recorded $102.3 million in anticipated profit share, associated with 171,697 new certified loans, for an average of $596 per new certified loan, as compared to $62.0 million in anticipated profit share, associated with 94,226 new certified loans, for an average of $658 per new certified loan during the year ended December 31, 2020. In addition, during 2021, we recorded $30.9 million in estimated future profit share on business written in historic periods, as compared to a decrease of $1.6 million in estimated future profit share on historical vintages, during 2020.
Program fees revenue increased by $31.6 million, or 72%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase was driven by an 82% increase in certified loan volumes as compared to the prior year.
Revenue from claims administration and other service fees which primarily represents 3% of our insurance partners’ annual earned premium, increased by $2.3 million, or 51%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to 2020 due to a 50% increase in total earned premiums and a 82% increase in new loan certifications.
Cost of Services, Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands)
Revenue $ 215,655 $ 108,892
Cost of services 18,621 9,786
Gross profit $ 197,034 $ 99,106
Gross margin 91 % 91 %
Gross profit increased by $97.9 million, or 99%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, driven by an increase in anticipated profit share, program fees, and claims administration and other service fees revenues on new originations and change in estimated future revenues based on historical vintages as discussed above.
Operating Expenses, Operating Income and Operating Margin
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands)
Revenue $ 215,655 $ 108,892
Gross profit 197,034 99,106
Operating expenses
General and administrative 30,393 32,584
Selling and marketing 12,000 7,841
Research and development 4,352 1,964
Operating income $ 150,289 $ 56,717
Operating margin 70 % 52 %
General and administrative expenses decreased by $2.2 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 when compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. The year ended December 31, 2020 includes $9.1 million in transaction bonuses awarded to key employees and directors of Open Lending, LLC and $2.2 million of non-cash charges incurred in connection with the accelerated vesting of share-based awards, which were incurred during 2020, as a result of the Business Combination. Excluding the impact of these one-time charges associated with the Business Combination in the prior year, we experienced a year over year increase of $9.1 million in general and administrative expenses in 2021, which is primarily attributable to $3.1 million in employee compensation and benefits, including share-based compensation, $3.0 million in professional and consulting fees associated with continuing efforts to enhance internal controls, financial reporting and compliance functions, $1.6 million in insurance expense and $0.7 million in software and data expenses.
Selling and marketing expenses increased by $4.2 million, or 53%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, primarily due to an increase in employee compensation and commissions costs, driven by both increased headcounts in sales and account management as well as increased sales.
Research and development expenses increased by $2.4 million, or 122%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 due to an increase in headcount costs.
Operating income for the year ended December 31, 2021, increased by $93.6 million, or 165%, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, driven by increases in program fees and anticipated profit share from new originations and estimated future underwriting profits on historic business.
Contingent Consideration
During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded $131.9 million in non-cash charges for the change in the fair value of contingent consideration from June 10, 2020 through the settling of the contingent consideration.
Interest Expense
Interest expense decreased $5.7 million or 49% for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, as a result of lower borrowing costs and lower outstanding debt balance during 2021.
Other Expense
Other expense decreased by $4.3 million or 97% for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized a non-cash charge related to the change in the measurement of our TRA liability as a result of changes in our blended state tax rate.
Income Taxes
During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we recognized income tax expense of $45.1 million and $6.6 million, respectively. The effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2021 was 23.6%, as compared to an effective tax rate of (7.2)% for the year ended December 31, 2020. The effective tax rate for December 31, 2020 was primarily impacted by the
change in fair value of contingent consideration that resulted from the Business Combination that was consummated on June 10, 2020. The Company’s contingent consideration was settled in July and August of 2020.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash Flow and Liquidity Analysis
We assess liquidity primarily in terms of our ability to generate cash to fund operating and investing activities. A significant portion of our cash from operating activities is derived from our profit share arrangements with our insurance partners, which are subject to judgments and assumptions and is, therefore, subject to variability. We believe that our existing cash resources and revolving credit facility will provide sufficient liquidity to fund our near-term working capital needs. We regularly evaluate alternatives for managing our capital structure and liquidity profile in consideration of expected cash flows, growth and operating capital requirements and capital market conditions. Refer to “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” and “Risk Factors” for a full description of the related estimates, assumptions, and judgments.
Based on our assessment of the underlying provisions and circumstances of our contractual obligations, other than the risks that we and other similarly situated companies face with respect to the condition of the capital markets (as described in “Risk Factors”), there is no known trend, demand, commitment, event, or uncertainty that is reasonably likely to occur that would have a material adverse effect on our consolidated results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity.
The following table provides a summary of cash flow data:
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 95,156 $ 24,640
Net cash used in investing activities $ (1,987) $ (1,196)
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities $ (77,808) $ 70,806
Cash Flows from Operating Activities
Our cash flows provided by operating activities reflect net income adjusted for certain non-cash items and changes in operating assets and liabilities.
The following table summarizes the non-cash adjustments in the operating activities in the statement of cash flows:
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands)
Net income (loss) $ 146,082 $ (97,564)
Deferred income taxes and other non-cash expenses 25,536 9,330
Non-cash (gains) losses and changes in fair value of contingent consideration (46,644) 131,932
Change in contract assets (23,763) (26,391)
Change in other assets and liabilities (6,055) 7,333
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 95,156 $ 24,640
Net cash from operating activities increased by $70.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to increased cash inflows from program fees and higher profit share payments from our insurance carriers, primarily as a result of increased certified loan volume and our carriers releasing reserves established due to uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic last year and the continued improved performance of our portfolio.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, net cash provided by operating activities was primarily attributable to income excluding the impact of fair value adjustment of contingent consideration as well as increased payments collected from customers on account receivables.
Cash Flows from Investing Activities
For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, net cash used in investing activities was $2.0 million and $1.2 million, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2021, the investments primarily related to computer software developed for internal use. For the year ended December 31, 2020, the investments primarily consisted of purchases of furniture and equipment.
Cash Flows from Financing Activities.
Our cash flows used in and provided by financing activities primarily consist of payments of debt and deferred financing costs, member distributions, early termination and settlement of the TRA, share repurchases, proceeds from debt, proceeds from stock warrant exercise transactions and equity recapitalization transactions.
For the year ended December 31, 2021, net cash used in financing activities was $77.8 million. The cash used primarily consisted of $36.9 million in early termination and settlement of the TRA, $20.0 million related to our repurchase of 612,745 shares of our common stock held in treasury stock and debt principal payments of $169.2 million, primarily related to the payment in full of the Term Loan due 2027. In addition, we paid down our revolving facility by $25.0 million. The cash inflow includes $175.0 million in proceeds associated with our New Credit Agreement entered into March 19, 2021, which refinanced our existing debt, less $1.7 million in deferred financing costs associated with this facility.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, net cash provided by financing activities was $70.8 million. The cash inflow consisted of $170.0 million in proceeds associated with the Credit Agreement entered into March 1, 2020 less $10.1 million in deferred financing costs and $105.3 million in proceeds received in connection with stock warrant exercise transactions. The cash used primarily consisted of a $135.6 million distribution to Open Lending, LLC’s unitholders, $37.5 million related to our repurchase of 1,395,089 shares of our common stock held in treasury stock on December 14, 2020, $14.9 million in connection with our recapitalization, net of transaction costs, and $6.5 million of debt principal repayments.
Debt
As of December 31, 2021, we had outstanding amounts of $122.7 million under the Term Loan due in 2026 and $25.0 million under the Revolving Facility under the New Credit Agreement that we entered into on March 19, 2021, proceeds from which were used primarily to pay the Term Loan due 2027 in full and provide cash for general corporate purposes.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure used by management to evaluate its operating performance, generate future operating plans, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of internal resources. Accordingly, we believe these measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and Board of Directors. In addition, they provide useful measures for period-to-period comparisons of our business, as they remove the effect of certain non-cash items and certain variable charges. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as GAAP net income (loss) excluding interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, share-based compensation expense, gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement, loss on extinguishment of debt, change in fair value of contingent consideration, change in measurement - tax receivable agreement and transaction bonuses. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as Adjusted EBITDA expressed as a percentage of total revenue.
The following table presents a reconciliation of GAAP net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
(in thousands)
Net income (loss) $ 146,082 $ (97,564)
Non-GAAP adjustments:
Interest expense 5,859 11,601
Income tax expense 45,086 6,573
Depreciation and amortization expense 792 752
Share-based compensation 3,815 2,828
Gain on extinguishment of tax receivable agreement (55,422) -
Loss on extinguishment of debt 8,778 -
Change in fair value of contingent consideration - 131,932
Change in measurement - tax receivable agreement - 4,292
Transaction bonuses - 9,112
Total adjustments 8,908 167,090
Adjusted EBITDA 154,990 69,526
Total revenue $ 215,655 $ 108,892
Adjusted EBITDA margin 72 % 64 %
For the year ended December 31, 2021, Adjusted EBITDA increased by $85.5 million, or 123%, as compared to year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA during the year ended December 31, 2021 reflects our revenue growth, partially offset by an increase in the cost of sales and operating expenses during the current year. Our current year margin was also affected by an increase in general and administrative expenses as we implement the internal control and compliance procedures required of public companies.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
In preparing our consolidated financial statements, we make assumptions, judgments and estimates that can have a significant impact on our revenue, income (loss) from operations and net income (loss), as well as on the value of certain assets and liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. We base our assumptions, judgments and estimates on historical experience and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. To prepare these financial statements, we make estimates, assumption, and judgments that affect what we report as our assets and liabilities, what we disclose as contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the periods presented.
In accordance with our policies, we regularly evaluate our estimates, assumptions, and judgments, including, but not limited to, those concerning revenue recognition, depreciation and amortization, contingencies, share-based compensation, and income taxes, and base our estimates, assumptions, and judgments on historical experience and on factors we believe reasonable under the circumstances. The results involve judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities not readily apparent from other sources. If our assumptions or conditions change, the actual results we report may differ from these estimates. We believe the following critical accounting policies affect the more significant estimates, assumptions, and judgments we use to prepare these consolidated financial statements. See Note 2-Summary of Significant Accounting and Reporting Policies in the notes accompanying our consolidated financial statements for a summary of our significant accounting policies, and discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.
Profit Share Revenue Recognition
We recognize revenue in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board, Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. Application of ASC 606 requires us to make judgments and estimates related to the classification, measurement and recognition of revenue. Our revenue primarily consists of profit share, program fees
derived from contracts with lending institutions and claims administration service fees from contracts with insurance carriers, and is recognized when the contractual performance obligation is satisfied.
The primary judgment relating to the recognition of revenue is the estimation of our profit share with our insurance partners, which relies on market rate assumptions and our proprietary database, which has been accumulated over the last 20 years. To determine the profit share revenue, we use forecasts of loan-level earned premium and insurance claim payments. These forecasts are driven by the projection of loan defaults, prepayments and severity rates. These assumptions are based on our observations of the historical behavior for loans with similar risk characteristics. The assumptions also take consideration of forecast adjustments under various macroeconomic conditions and the current mix of the underlying portfolio of our insurance partners. To the extent these assumptions change, our profit share revenue will be adjusted.
For profit share revenue recognition purposes, particularly to measure the profit share variable consideration, we update our forecast of loan default and prepayment assumptions on a quarterly basis. The loan default rate also incorporates multiple macro-economic scenarios with conservatism embedded in a stressed scenario to ensure a representation of an economic recession.
We back-test the major estimate assumptions to ensure the accuracy of the revenue recognition model. We also benchmark back-testing results of our forecasted default rates against those reported by auto lenders. We update our profit-share forecasting model on an annual basis, resulting in a forecasted prepayment rate consistent with actual prepayment rates.
The impact on profit share revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 resulting from our sensitivity analysis is summarized below:
Assumptions Defaults Prepayments Severity
Stress size 10 % (10) % 10 % (10) % 10 % (10) %
Impact on revenue (5) % 6 % (3) % 3 % (5) % 5 %
Income Taxes
Prior to closing of the Business Combination, Open Lending, LLC, the sole owner of Lenders Protection, LLC and Open Lending Services, Inc., was treated as a partnership for income tax purposes. Therefore, no provision had historically been made for income tax purposes prior to the closing.
Subsequent to closing, Open Lending, LLC became a disregarded entity, wholly owned by us through its wholly owned subsidiaries. As of the close of the Business Combination, we are subject to income tax on a consolidated basis.
Our effective tax rate is based on income at statutory tax rates, adjusted for non-taxable and non-deductible items and tax credits. Management’s best estimate of future events and their impact is included in our effective tax rate. Certain changes or future events, such as changes in tax legislation, could have an impact on our estimates and effective tax rate. Audit periods remain open for review until the statute of limitations has passed.
The calculation of income taxes involves estimating the actual current tax liability together with assessing temporary differences in recognition of income (loss) for tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included in our consolidated balance sheets. We record a valuation allowance when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. In assessing the need for a valuation allowance, we are required to develop estimates of the anticipated timing of the reversal of existing deferred tax liabilities, as well as estimates of future taxable income in some instances. Judgment is inherent in this process and differences between the estimated and actual amounts could result in a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
We recognize liabilities for uncertain tax positions based on a two-step process. The first step requires us to determine whether the weight of available evidence indicates that the tax position has met the threshold for recognition. Therefore, we must evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. The second step requires us to measure the tax benefit of the tax position taken, or expected to be taken, in an income tax return as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement. This measurement step is inherently complex and requires subjective estimations of such amounts to determine the probability of various possible outcomes. We re-evaluate the uncertain tax positions each quarter based on factors including, but not limited to, changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law, expirations of statutes of limitation, effectively settled issues under audit, and new audit activity. Such a change in recognition or measurement would result in the recognition of a tax benefit or an additional charge to the tax provision in the period.
Although we believe we have no material uncertain tax positions as of December 31, 2021, 2020 or 2019, no assurance can be given that the final outcome of these matters will align with the positions reflected within these financial statements.
Share-Based Compensation Awards
We measure and recognize compensation expense for all share-based awards made to employees and non-employee directors based on estimated fair values on the date of grant. The compensation expense is recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service or performance period. Performance-based restricted units (“PSUs”) are evaluated on a quarterly basis for probability of meeting performance metrics and any adjustments to share-based compensation expense are then made in the quarter of evaluation. Forfeitures are recognized as occurred. To determine the fair value of the share-based awards, we use the closing price of our common stock publicly traded on Nasdaq on the date of grant for time-based and performance-based restricted stock awards, and we utilize the Black-Scholes option pricing model to value stock options, which involves inputs for the share value of Open Lending, expected share volatility, expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rate and expected dividend. The expected volatility was based on the average of implied and observed historical volatility of comparable companies as we do not have enough history as a public company
This determination of fair value is affected by assumptions regarding a number of highly complex and subjective variables. Changes in the subjective assumptions can materially affect the estimate of their fair value. See Note 8-Share-Based Compensation of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for more information.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2-Summary of Significant Accounting and Reporting Policies to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for our discussion about new accounting pronouncements adopted and those pending.
Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2021, our estimated future obligations include both current and long term obligations. For our debt as noted in Note 5-Debt, we have a current obligation of $3.1 million and a long-term obligation of $144.6 million. Under our operating lease as noted in Note 11-Commitments and Contingencies, we have a current obligation of $0.9 million and a long-term obligation of $5.8 million.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Our operations include activities in the United States. These operations expose us to a variety of market risks, including the effects of changes in interest rates and changes in consumer attitudes toward vehicle ownership. We monitor and manage these financial exposures as an integral part of our overall risk management program.
Market Risk
In the normal course of business we are exposed to market risk and have established policies designed to protect against the adverse effects of this exposure. We are exposed to risks associated with general economic conditions and the impact of the economic environment on the willingness of consumers to finance auto purchases. Specifically, economic factors such as interest rate levels, changes in monetary and related policies, market volatility, consumer confidence and unemployment rates in particular also influence consumer spending and borrowing patterns. We also face risk from competition to acquire, maintain and develop new relationships with auto lenders as well as competition from a wide variety of auto lenders who are (or are affiliated) with financial institutions and have capacity to hold loans on their balance sheets.
Concentration Risk
We rely on our two largest insurance partners for a significant portion of our profit share and claims administration service fee revenue. Termination or disruption of this relationship could materially and adversely impact our revenue.
Interest Rate Risk
As of December 31, 2021, we had outstanding amounts of $122.7 million under the Term Loan due 2026 and $25.0 million under the Revolving Facility, both of which are scheduled to mature on March 19, 2026. Borrowings under the New Credit Facility bear interest at a rate equal to either the ABR or LIBOR plus a spread that is based upon our total net leverage ratio. The spread ranges from 1.75% to 2.50% for LIBOR loans and 0.75% to 1.50% for ABR loans. We are also charged an unused commitment fee that ranges from 0.200% to 0.275% per annum on the average daily unused portion of the Revolving Facility, which is paid quarterly in arrears and is based on our total net leverage ratio.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Our consolidated financial statements and supplementary data are included in this Annual Report beginning on page.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Item 9A. Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.
(a) Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our chief executive officer and chief financial officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
(b) Management’s Report on the Effectiveness of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over our financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, our principal executive and principal financial and accounting officers and effected by our Board of Directors, management and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:
•pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect our transactions and dispositions of our assets;
•provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and
•provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on our financial statements.
Management, with the participation of our principal executive and principal financial and accounting officers, assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in its 2013 Internal Control - Integrated Framework. Based on this assessment, our management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2021, our internal control over financial reporting is effective based on those criteria.
Ernst & Young LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm who audited the Company’s consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K, has issued an attestation report on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, which is included herein.
(c) Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended December 31, 2021 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 9B. Other Information.
None.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
The information required by this item is set forth under the captions “Election of Directors,” “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” and “Board Matters” in the 2022 Proxy Statement.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
The information required by this item is set forth under the captions “Election of Directors,” “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” and “Board Matters” in the 2022 Proxy Statement.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.
The information required by this item is set forth under the captions “Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans” and “Voting Securities and Principal Stockholders” in the 2022 Proxy Statement.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
The information required by this item is set forth under the captions “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions” and “Board Matters” in the 2022 Proxy Statement.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services.
The information required by this item is set forth under the caption “Proposal to Ratify the Selection of Ernst & Young as our Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” in the 2022 Proxy Statement.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15. Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules.
(a) The following documents are filed as part of this report.
(1) Financial Statements
Our consolidated financial statements are included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report.
(2) Financial Statement Schedules
All financial statement schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or the required information is included in the consolidated financial statements or notes thereto.
(3) Exhibits
The exhibits listed in (b) are filed or incorporated by reference as part of this Annual Report.
(b) Exhibits
Number Description
2.1 Business Combination Agreement, dated as of January 5, 2020, by and among Nebula, Blocker, Blocker Holder, ParentCo, Merger Sub LLC, Merger Sub Corp, Open Lending, and Shareholder Representative Services LLC, as the Securityholder Representative (incorporated by reference to Annex A of ParentCo’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 (Reg. No. 333-237264), filed with the SEC on May 20, 2020).
2.2 Amendment No. 1 and Waiver, dated as of March 18, 2020, to the Business Combination Agreement, by and among Nebula, Blocker, Blocker Holder, ParentCo, Merger Sub LLC, Merger Sub Corp, Open Lending, and Shareholder Representative Services LLC, as the Securityholder Representative (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 2.2 to ParentCo’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 (Reg. No. 333-237264), filed with the SEC on March 18, 2020).
2.3 Amendment No. 2 and Consent, dated as of March 26, 2020, to the Business Combination Agreement by and among Nebula, Blocker, Blocker Holder, ParentCo, Merger Sub LLC, Merger Sub Corp, Open Lending, and Shareholder Representative Services LLC, as the Securityholder Representative (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 2.3 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed March 27, 2020).
2.4 Amendment No. 3 and Consent, dated as of May 13, 2020, to the Business Combination Agreement by and among Nebula, Blocker, Blocker Holder, ParentCo, Merger Sub LLC, Merger Sub Corp, Open Lending, and Shareholder Representative Services LLC, as the Securityholder Representative (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 2.4 to ParentCo’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 (Reg. No. 333-237264), filed with the SEC on May 13, 2020).
3.1 Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Open Lending Corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
3.2 Amended and Restated Bylaws of Open Lending Corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
4.1 Form of Warrant Certificate (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed July 1, 2020).
4.2 Form of Warrant Agreement between American Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Registrant (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed July 1, 2020).
4.3 Assignment, Assumption and Amendment of Warrant Agreement dated June 10, 2020, by and among Nebula Acquisition Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Nebula Parent Corp., a Delaware Corporation, and American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, a New York limited liability trust company, as warrant agent (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.3 to the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed July 1, 2020).
4.4 Description of Registrant’s Securities (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.4 to Open Lending Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 16, 2021).
10.1 Founder Support Agreement, dated as of January 5, 2020, by and among Nebula, ParentCo, Open Lending, the Sponsor, Adam H. Clammer, James H. Greene, Jr., Rufina Adams, David Kerko, Frank Kern, James C. Hale and Ronald Lamb (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed January 6, 2020).
10.2 Amendment No. 1, dated as of March 18, 2020, to the Founder Support Agreement, by and among Nebula, ParentCo, Open Lending, the Sponsor, Adam H. Clammer, James H. Greene, Jr., Rufina Adams, David Kerko, James C. Hale and Ronald Lamb (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed March 18, 2020).
10.3 Amendment No. 2, dated May 13, 2020, to the Founder Support Agreement, by and among Nebula, ParentCo, Open Lending, the Sponsor, Adam H. Clammer, James H. Greene, Jr., Rufina Adams, David Kerko, James C. Hale and Ronald Lamb (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed May 13, 2020).
10.4 Form of Investor Support Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed January 6, 2020).
10.5 Company Support Agreement, dated as of January 5, 2020, by and among Nebula, Bregal Investments, Inc., BRP Hold 11, Inc., Bee Cave Capital, LLC, Richard Watkins, Open Lending Opportunity Partners, Ryan Collins, Kurt Wilkin, Scott Gordon, Keith Jezek and Steve Letbetter (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed January 6, 2020).
10.6 Form of Subscription Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to Nebula’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed January 6, 2020).
10.7 Tax Receivable Agreement, dated June 10, 2020, by and among Nebula Acquisition Corp., BRP Hold 11, Inc. the Blocker named herein, Nebula Parent Corp., Open Lending, LLC and the undersigned beneficiaries (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.7 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
10.8 Amendment No. 1 to the Tax Receivable Agreement, dated April 9, 2021 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed April 12, 2021).
10.9 Investor Rights Agreement, dated June 10, 2020, by and among Nebula Parent Corp., the parties listed as Investors herein, Bregal Sagemount I, L.P., solely for the purposes of Section 8.1, and Open Lending, LLC (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.8 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
10.10 Credit Agreement, dated as of March 11, 2020, among Open Lending, LLC, the guarantors party thereto, UBS AG Stamford Branch, and the lenders party thereto (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.9 of Nebula Acquisition Corp.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 (Reg. No. 333-237264), filed with the SEC on May 13, 2020).
10.11 Credit Agreement, dated as of March 19, 2021, by and among Open Lending Corporation, the Administrative Agent and the financial institutions party thereto as lenders (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed March 25, 2021).
10.12 2020 Stock Option and Incentive Plan. (Incorporated by reference to Annex E of Nebula Acquisition Corp.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 (Reg. No. 333-237264), filed with the SEC on May 20, 2020)
10.13 Form of Director Indemnification Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.12 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
10.14 Form of Officer Indemnification Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.11 to Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 15, 2020).
10.15 Employment Agreement by and between the Company and Ross M. Jessup, dated August 28, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed August 31, 2020)
10.16 Employment Agreement by and between the Company and John J. Flynn, dated August 28, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed August 31, 2020)
10.17 Employment Agreement by and between the Company and Charles D. Jehl, dated August 28, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed August 31, 2020)
10.18 First Amendment to Employment Agreement by and between the Company and John J. Flynn, dated November 5, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K filed November 12, 2020)
10.19 First Amendment to Employment Agreement by and between the Company and Ross Jessup, dated November 5, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the Open Lending Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K filed November 12, 2020)
10.20 First Amendment to Employment Agreement by and between the Company and Charles D. Jehl, dated November 5, 2020 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the Open Lending Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K filed November 12, 2020)
10.21 Senior Executive Cash Incentive Bonus Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to the Open Lending Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K filed November 12, 2020)
10.22 Non-Employee Director Compensation Policy (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.5 to the Open Lending Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K filed November 12, 2020)
10.23 Second Amendment to Credit Agreement, dated as of December 7, 2020, by and among Open Lending, LLC and the financial institutions party thereto as lender (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed December 10, 2020).
10.24 Stock Repurchase Agreement, dated as of December 7, 2020, by and between Open Lending Corporation and the stockholders listed therein (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.21 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed December 7, 2020).
10.25 Stock Repurchase Agreement by and between the Company and the selling stockholders named therein, dated March 29, 2021 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.24 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed March 29, 2021).
10.26 Producer Agreement dated June 24, 2021, as amended, by and between American National Lloyds Insurance Company, ANPAC Louisiana Insurance Company, American National Property And Casualty Company and Lenders Protection LLC (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Open Lending Corporation’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed August 12, 2021).
21.1* List of Significant Subsidiaries.
23.1* Consent of Ernst & Young, LLP
31.1* Certification of the Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
31.2* Certification of the Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
32.1** Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (18 U.S.C. § 1350)
32.2** Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (18 U.S.C. § 1350)
101* The following materials from Open Lending Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, formatted in iXBRL (Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language):
(i) Consolidated Balance Sheets
(ii) Consolidated Statements of Operations
(iii) Consolidated Statements of Stockholder’s Equity (Deficit)
(iv) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(v) Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document).
* Filed herewith.
** Furnished herewith.