We are a Georgia corporation formed in 2009, as successor to an entity that
commenced operations in 1996. We provide various credit and related financial
services and products primarily to or associated with the financially underserved
consumer credit market. We utilize proprietary analytics and a flexible technology
platform to provide various credit and related financial services and products
to or associated with the financially underserved consumer credit market. Currently,
within our Credit and Other Investments segment, we are applying the experiences
gained and infrastructure built from funding over $25 billion in consumer loans
over our 19-year operating history to originate a range of consumer loan products
through our primary consumer brand, Fortiva.
As part of this brand, we market Fortiva Retail Credit, Fortiva Personal Loans
and Fortiva Credit Cards through multiple channels, including retail point-of-sale,
direct mail solicitation, Internet-based marketing and partnerships with third
parties who have relationships with our core customers. In our point-of-sale
channel, we partner with retailers and service providers in various industries
across the U.S. to offer Fortiva Retail Credit to their customers for the purchase
of a variety of goods and services including consumer electronics, furniture,
elective medical procedures, educational services and home-improvements. Our
flexible technology platform allows us to integrate our paperless process and
instant decision-making capabilities with our partners technology infrastructure.
These products are often extended to customers who may have been declined under
traditional financing options. We specialize in providing this "second-look"
credit service. Additionally, we are able to market our general purpose Fortiva
Personal Loans and Fortiva Credit Cards directly to consumers through additional
channels, which enables us to reach consumers through a diverse origination
platform that includes direct mail, Internet-based marketing and through partnerships.
Our technology platform and proprietary analytics enable us to make instant
credit decisions utilizing hundreds of inputs, from multiple sources and thereby
offer credit to consumers overlooked by traditional providers of credit. By
offering a range of products through a multitude of channels, we seek to provide
the right type of credit, whenever and wherever the consumer has a need.
Using our infrastructure and technology platform, we also provide loan servicing,
including underwriting, marketing, customer service and collections operations
for third parties. Also through our Credit and Other Investments segment, we
engage in testing and limited investment in consumer finance technology platforms
as we seek to capitalize on our expertise and infrastructure.
Beyond these activities within our Credit and Other Investments segment, we
continue to collect on portfolios of credit card receivables. These receivables
include both receivables we originated through third-party financial institutions
and portfolios of receivables we purchased from third-party financial institutions.
One of our portfolios of credit card receivables is encumbered by non-recourse
structured financing, and for this portfolio our principal remaining economic
interest is the servicing compensation we receive as an offset against our servicing
costs given that the likely future collections on the portfolio are insufficient
to allow for full repayment of the financing.
Additionally, we report within our Credit and Other Investments segment the
income earned from an investment in an equity-method investee that holds credit
card receivables for which we are the servicer.
Lastly, we report within our Credit and Other Investments segment, gains associated
with investments previously made in consumer finance technology platforms. These
include investments in companies engaged in mobile technologies, marketplace
lending and other financial technologies. Some of these investees have raised,
and continue to seek, capital at valuations substantially in excess of our associated
book value. However, none of these companies are publicly-traded, there are
no pending liquidity events, and ascribing value to these investments at this
time would be speculative. Based on the performance and/or marketability of
these investments in future periods, we could have material gains for our remaining
ownership in these or other investment assets.
The recurring cash flows we receive within our Credit and Other Investments
segment principally include those associated with (1) our point-of-sale and
direct-to-consumer finance activities, (2) servicing compensation and (3) credit
card receivables portfolios that are unencumbered or where we own a portion
of the underlying structured financing facility.
We historically financed most of our credit card receivables through the asset-backed
securitization markets. These markets deteriorated significantly in 2008, and
the level of “advance rates,” or leverage against credit card receivable
assets, in the current asset-backed securitization markets is below pre-2008
levels. We do believe, however, that our point-of-sale and direct-to-consumer
finance activities are generating and will continue to generate attractive returns
on assets, thereby allowing us to secure debt financing under terms and conditions
(including advance rates and pricing) that will allow us to achieve our desired
returns on equity, and we continue to pursue growth in this area.
Within our Auto Finance segment, our CAR subsidiary operations principally
purchase and/or service loans secured by automobiles from or for, and also provide
floor plan financing for, a pre-qualified network of independent automotive
dealers and automotive finance companies in the buy-here, pay-here, used car
business. We purchase auto loans at a discount and with dealer retentions or
holdbacks that provide risk protection. Also within our Auto Finance segment,
we are providing certain installment lending products in addition to our traditional
loans secured by automobiles.
We closely monitor and manage our expenses based on current product offerings
(and in recent years have significantly reduced our overhead infrastructure
which was built to accommodate higher account originations and managed receivables
levels). As such, we are maintaining our infrastructure and incurring increased
overhead and other costs in order to expand point-of-sale and direct-to-consumer
finance solutions and new product offerings that we believe have the potential
to grow into our infrastructure and allow for long-term shareholder returns.
Subject to the availability of capital at attractive terms and pricing, we
plan to continue to evaluate and pursue a variety of activities, including:
(1) the expansion of our point-of-sale and direct-to-consumer finance products;
(2) the acquisition of additional financial assets associated with our point-of-sale
finance activities as well as the acquisition of receivables portfolios; (3)
investments in other assets or businesses that are not necessarily financial
services assets or businesses; (4) the repurchase of our convertible senior
notes and other debt or our outstanding common stock; and (5) the servicing
of receivables and related financial assets for third parties (and in which
we have limited or no equity interests) to allow us to leverage our expertise
and infrastructure.