BR, §1A diff (2018 → 2019)

ITEM 1A. Risk Factors You should carefully consider each of the following risks and all of the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or incorporated by reference herein. Based on the information currently known to us, we believe that the following information identifies the material risk factors affecting our company. However, additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks and uncertainties develop into actual events, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Consolidation in the financial services industry could adversely affect our revenues by eliminating some of our existing and potential clients and could make us increasingly dependent on a more limited number of clients. Mergers or consolidations of financial institutions could reduce the number of our clients and potential clients. If our clients merge with or are acquired by other firms that are not our clients, or firms that use fewer of our services, they may discontinue or reduce the use of our services. In addition, it is possible that the larger financial institutions resulting from mergers or consolidations could decide to perform in-house some or all of the services that we currently provide or could provide. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. A large percentage of our revenues are derived from a small number of clients in the financial services industry. In fiscal year 2019, we derived approximately 22% of our consolidated revenues from our five largest clients and approximately 55% of the revenues of our Global Technology and Operations segment from the 15 largest clients in that segment. Our largest single client accounted for approximately 6% of our consolidated revenues in fiscal year 2019. While these clients generally work with multiple business segments, the loss of business from any of these clients due to merger or consolidation, financial difficulties or bankruptcy, or the termination or non-renewal of contracts could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations. Also, in the event a client experiences financial difficulties or bankruptcy resulting in a reduction in their demand for our services or loss of the client’s business, in addition to losing the revenue from that client, the Company would be required to write-off any investments made by the Company in connection with that client, including costs incurred to set up or convert a client’s systems to function with our technology. Such costs for all clients represented approximately 7% of the Company’s total assets as of June 30, 2019. Under a number of our contracts, our clients have the opportunity to renegotiate their contracts with us and to consider whether to renew their contracts or engage one of our competitors to provide services. If we are not successful in achieving high renewal rates with favorable terms, particularly with these clients, our revenues from such renewals and the associated earnings could be negatively impacted. Security breaches or cybersecurity attacks could adversely affect our ability to operate, could result in personal, confidential or proprietary information being misappropriated, and may cause us to be held liable or suffer harm to our reputation. We process and transfer sensitive data, including personal information, valuable intellectual property and other proprietary or confidential data provided to us by our clients, which include financial institutions, public companies, mutual funds, and healthcare providers. We also handle personal information of our employees in connection with their employment. We maintain systems and procedures including encryption, authentication technology, data loss prevention technology, entitlement management, access control and anti-malware software, and transmission of data over private networks to protect against unauthorized access to physical and electronic information, including by cyber-attacks. In certain circumstances, our third-party vendors may have access to sensitive data including personal information. It is also possible that a third-party vendor could intentionally or inadvertently disclose sensitive data including personal information. We require our third-party vendors to have appropriate security controls if they have access to the personal information of our clients’ customers. However, despite those safeguards, it is possible that unauthorized individuals could improperly access our systems or those of our vendors, or improperly obtain or disclose the sensitive data including personal information that we or our vendors process or handle. Many of our services are provided through the Internet which increases our exposure to potential cybersecurity attacks. We have experienced cybersecurity threats to our information technology infrastructure and have experienced non-material cyber-attacks, attempts to breach our systems and other similar incidents. Future threats could cause harm to our business and our reputation and challenge our ability to provide reliable service, as well as negatively impact our results of operations materially. Our insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover all the costs related to cybersecurity attacks or disruptions resulting from such events. Any security breach resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of certain personal information could put individuals at risk of identity theft and financial or other harm and result in costs to the Company in investigation, remediation, legal defense and in liability to parties who are financially harmed. We may incur significant costs to protect against the threat of information security breaches or to respond to or alleviate problems caused by such breaches. For example, laws may require notification to regulators, clients or employees and enlisting credit monitoring or identity theft protection in the event of a privacy breach. A cybersecurity attack could also be directed at our systems and result in interruptions in our operations or delivery of services to our clients and their customers. Furthermore, a material security breach could cause us to lose revenues, lose clients or cause damage to our reputation. Our clients are subject to complex laws and regulations, and new laws or regulations and/or changes to existing laws or regulations could impact our clients and, in turn, adversely impact our business or may reduce our profitability. We provide technology solutions to financial services firms that are generally subject to extensive regulation in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions. As a provider of services to financial institutions and issuers of securities, our services are provided in a manner designed to assist our clients in complying with the laws and regulations to which they are subject. Therefore, our services, such as our proxy and shareholder report distribution and processing and customer communications services, are particularly sensitive to changes in laws and regulations governing the financial services industry and the securities markets. Our services and the fees we charge our clients for certain services are subject to change if applicable SEC or exchange laws or regulations are amended, or new laws or regulations are adopted, which could result in a negative impact on our business and financial results. In addition, new regulations governing our clients could result in significant expenditures that could cause them to reduce their use of our services, seek to renegotiate existing agreements, or cease or curtail their operations, all of which could adversely impact our business. Further, an adverse regulatory action that changes a client’s business or adversely affects its financial condition, could decrease their ability to purchase, or their demand for, our products and services. The loss of business from our larger clients could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations. Our business and results of operations may be adversely affected if we do not comply with legal and regulatory requirements that apply to our services or businesses, and new laws or regulations and/or changes to existing laws or regulations to which we are subject may adversely affect our ability to conduct our business or may reduce our profitability. The legislative and regulatory environment of the financial services industry is continuously changing. The SEC, FINRA, various stock exchanges, and other U.S. and foreign governmental or regulatory authorities continuously review legislative and regulatory initiatives and may adopt new or revised laws and regulations. These legislative and regulatory initiatives may adversely affect the way in which we conduct our business and may make our business less profitable. Also, changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and regulations by those entities may adversely affect our business. As a provider of technology services to financial institutions, certain aspects of our U.S. operations are subject to regulatory oversight and examination by the FFIEC. Periodic examinations by the FFIEC generally include areas such as data privacy, disaster recovery, information security, and third-party vendor management to identify potential risks related to our services that could adversely affect our banking and financial services clients. A sufficiently unfavorable review from the FFIEC could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, our business process outsourcing, mutual fund processing and transfer agency solutions as well as the entities providing those services are subject to regulatory oversight. Our provision of these services must comply with applicable rules and regulations of the SEC, FINRA, DOL and various stock exchanges, and other regulatory bodies charged with safeguarding the integrity of the securities markets and other financial markets and protecting the interests of investors participating in these markets. If we fail to comply with any applicable regulations in performing those services, we could lose our clients, be subject to suits for breach of contract or to governmental proceedings, censures and fines, our reputation could be harmed, and we could be limited in our ability to obtain new clients. Our business process outsourcing and mutual fund processing services are performed by BBPO, an SEC registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA. BBPO is subject to regulations concerning many aspects of its business, including trade practices, capital requirements, record retention, money laundering prevention, the protection of customer funds and customer securities, and the supervision of the conduct of directors, officers and employees. A failure to comply with any of these laws, rules or regulations could result in censures, fines, the issuance of cease-and-desist orders, or the suspension or revocation of SEC or FINRA authorization granted to allow the operation of its business or disqualification of its directors, officers or employees. Our transfer agency business is subject to SEC, NYSE, and other federal and state laws and regulations. As a provider of data and business processing solutions, our systems contain a significant amount of sensitive data, including personal information, related to our clients, customers of our clients, and our employees. We are, therefore, subject to compliance obligations under federal, state and foreign privacy and information security laws, including in the U.S., the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and we are subject to penalties for failure to comply with such regulations. Such penalties could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows. There has been increased public attention regarding the use of personal information, accompanied by legislation and regulations intended to strengthen data protection, information security and consumer and personal privacy. The law in these areas continues to develop, the number of jurisdictions adopting such laws continues to increase and these laws may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Furthermore, the changing nature of privacy laws in the U.S., the European Union and elsewhere could impact our processing of personal information of our employees and on behalf of our clients. For example, the European Union Parliament adopted the GDPR which is a comprehensive data privacy regulation that became effective in May 2018. The GDPR imposes additional obligations and risks upon our businesses, including the risk of substantially increased penalties for non-compliance. While we believe that Broadridge is compliant with its regulatory responsibilities, information security threats continue to evolve resulting in increased risk and exposure and increased costs to protect against the threat of information security breaches or to respond to or alleviate problems caused by such breaches. Our ability to comply with regulations depends largely upon the maintenance of an effective compliance system which can be time consuming and costly, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified compliance personnel. Our revenues may decrease due to declines in the levels of participation and activity in the securities markets. We generate significant revenues from the transaction processing fees we earn from our services. These revenue sources are substantially dependent on the levels of participation and activity in the securities markets. The number of unique securities positions held by investors through our clients and our clients’ customer trading volumes reflect the levels of participation and activity in the markets, which are impacted by market prices, and the liquidity of the securities markets, among other factors. Volatility in the securities markets and sudden sharp or gradual but sustained declines in market participation and activity can result in reduced investor communications activity, including reduced proxy and event-driven communications processing such as mutual fund proxy, mergers and acquisitions and other special corporate event communications processing, and reduced trading volumes. In addition, our event-driven fee revenues are based on the number of special events and corporate transactions we process. Event-driven activity is impacted by financial market conditions and changes in regulatory compliance requirements, resulting in fluctuations in the timing and levels of event-driven fee revenues. As such, the timing and level of event-driven activity and its potential impact on our revenues and earnings are difficult to forecast. The occurrence of any of these events would likely result in reduced revenues and decreased profitability from our business operations. We may be adversely impacted by a failure of third-party service providers to perform their functions. We rely on relationships with third parties, including our service providers and other vendors for certain functions. If we are unable to effectively manage our third-party relationships and the agreements under which our third-party vendors operate, our financial results or reputation could suffer. We rely on these third parties, including our data center and cloud services providers, to provide services in a timely and accurate manner and to adequately address their own cybersecurity risks. Failure by these third parties to adequately perform their services as expected could result in material interruptions in our operations, and negatively impact our services resulting in a material adverse effect on our business and financial results. Certain of the Company’s businesses rely on a single or a limited number of service providers or vendors. Changes in the business condition (financial or otherwise) of these service providers or vendors could impact their provision of services to us or they may no longer be able to provide services to us at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results. In such circumstances, we cannot be certain that we will be able to replace our key third-party vendors in a timely manner or on terms commercially reasonable to us given, among other reasons, the scope of responsibilities undertaken by some of our providers, the depth of their experience and their familiarity with our operations generally. If we change a significant vendor, an existing provider makes significant changes to the way it conducts its operations, or is acquired, or we seek to bring in-house certain services performed today by third parties, we may experience unexpected disruptions in the provision of our solutions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results. Furthermore, certain third-party services providers or vendors may have access to sensitive data including personal information, valuable intellectual property and other proprietary or confidential data provided to us by our clients. It is possible that a third-party vendor could intentionally or inadvertently disclose sensitive data including personal information, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results and damage our reputation. We rely on the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) and other third-party carriers to deliver communications and changes in our relationships with these carriers or an increase in postal rates or shipping costs may adversely impact demand for our products and services and could have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations. We rely upon the USPS and third-party carriers, including UPS, for timely delivery of communications on behalf of our clients. As a result, we are subject to carrier disruptions due to factors that are beyond our control, including employee strikes, inclement weather and increased fuel costs. Any failure to deliver communications to our clients in a timely and accurate manner may damage our reputation and brand and could cause us to lose clients. In addition, the USPS has incurred significant financial losses in recent years and may, as a result, implement significant changes to the breadth or frequency of its mail delivery. If our relationship with any of these third-party carriers is terminated or impaired, or if any of these third parties are unable to distribute communications, we would be required to use alternative, and possibly more expensive, carriers to complete our distributions on behalf of our clients. We may be unable to engage alternative carriers on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, if at all, which could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, future increases in postal rates or shipping costs, as well as changes in customer preferences, may result in decreased demand for our traditional printed and mailed communications resulting in an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In the event of a disaster, our disaster recovery and business continuity plans may fail, which could result in the loss of client data and adversely interrupt operations. Our operations are dependent on our ability to protect our infrastructure against damage from catastrophe, natural disaster, or severe weather including events resulting from unauthorized security breach, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorist attack, or other events that could have a significant disruptive effect on our operations. We have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place in the event of system failure due to any of these events and we test our plans regularly. In addition, our data center services provider also has disaster recovery plans and procedures in place. However, we cannot be certain that our plans, or those of our data center services provider, will be successful in the event of a disaster. If our disaster recovery or business continuity plans are unsuccessful in a disaster recovery scenario, we could potentially lose client data or experience material adverse interruptions to our operations or delivery of services to our clients, and we could be liable to parties who are financially harmed by those failures. In addition, such failures could cause us to lose revenues, lose clients or damage our reputation. Any slowdown or failure of our computer or communications systems could impact our ability to provide services to our clients and support our internal operations and could subject us to liability for losses suffered by our clients or their customers. Our services depend on our ability to store, retrieve, process, and manage significant databases, and to receive and process transactions and investor communications through a variety of electronic systems. Our systems, those of our data center and cloud services providers, or any other systems with which our systems interact could slow down significantly or fail for a variety of reasons, including: • computer viruses or undetected errors in internal software programs or computer systems; • direct or indirect hacking or denial of service cybersecurity attacks; • inability to rapidly monitor all system activity; • inability to effectively resolve any errors in internal software programs or computer systems once they are detected; • heavy stress placed on systems during peak times; or • power or telecommunications failure, fire, flood or any other disaster. While we monitor system loads and performance and implement system upgrades to handle predicted increases in trading volume and volatility, we may not be able to predict future volume increases or volatility accurately or that our systems and those of our data center services and cloud services providers will be able to accommodate these volume increases or volatility without failure or degradation. In addition, we may not be able to prevent cybersecurity attacks on our systems. Moreover, because we have outsourced our data center operations and use third-party cloud services for storage of certain data, the operation, performance and security functions of the data center and the cloud system involve factors beyond our control. Any significant degradation or failure of our computer systems, communications systems or any other systems in the performance of our services could cause our clients or their customers to suffer delays in their receipt of our services. These delays could cause substantial losses for our clients or their customers, and we could be liable to parties who are financially harmed by those failures. In addition, such failures could cause us to lose revenues, lose clients or damage our reputation. Operational errors in the performance of our services could lead to liability for claims, client loss and result in reputational damage. The failure to properly perform our services could result in our clients and/or certain of our subsidiaries that operate regulated businesses being subjected to losses including censures, fines, or other sanctions by applicable regulatory authorities, and we could be liable to parties who are financially harmed by those errors. In addition, such errors could cause us to incur expenses, lose revenues, lose clients or damage our reputation. General economic and political conditions and broad trends in business and finance that are beyond our control may contribute to reduced levels of activity in the securities markets, which could result in lower revenues from our business operations. The number of unique securities positions held by investors through our clients, the level of investor communications activity we process on behalf of our clients, trading volumes, market prices, and liquidity of the securities markets are affected by general national and international economic and political conditions, and broad trends in business and finance that result in changes in participation and activity in the securities markets. These factors include: • economic, political and market conditions; • legislative and regulatory changes; • the availability of short-term and long-term funding and capital; • the level and volatility of interest rates; • currency values and inflation; and • national, state, and local taxation levels affecting securities transactions. These factors are beyond our control and may contribute to reduced levels of participation and activity in the securities markets. Our revenues have historically been largely driven by transaction processing based on levels of participation and activity in the securities markets. Accordingly, any significant reduction in participation and activity in the securities markets would likely result in lower revenues from our business operations. If the operational systems and infrastructure that we depend on fail to keep pace with our growth, we may experience operating inefficiencies, client dissatisfaction and lost revenue opportunities. The growth of our business and expansion of our client base may place a strain on our management and operations. We believe that our current and anticipated future growth will require the implementation of new and enhanced communications and information systems, the training of personnel to operate these systems, and the expansion and upgrade of core technologies. While many of our systems are designed to accommodate additional growth without redesign or replacement, we may nevertheless need to make significant investments in additional hardware and software to accommodate growth. In addition, we cannot assure you that we will be able to predict the timing or rate of this growth accurately or expand and upgrade our systems and infrastructure on a timely basis. Our growth has required and will continue to require increased investments in management personnel and systems, financial systems and controls, and office facilities. We cannot assure you that we will be able to manage or continue to manage our future growth successfully. If we fail to manage our growth, we may experience operating inefficiencies, dissatisfaction among our client base, and lost revenue opportunities. If we are unable to respond to the demands of our existing and new clients, or adapt to technological changes or advances, our business and future growth could be impacted. The global financial services industry is characterized by increasingly complex and integrated infrastructures and products, new and changing business models and rapid technological and regulatory changes. Our clients’ needs and demands for our products and services evolve with these changes. Our future success will depend, in part, on our ability to respond to our clients’ demands for new services, capabilities and technologies on a timely and cost-effective basis. We also need to adapt to technological advancements such as digital and distributed ledger or blockchain technologies and cloud computing and keep pace with changing regulatory standards to address our clients’ increasingly sophisticated requirements. Transitioning to these new technologies may be disruptive to our resources and the services we provide and may increase our reliance on third-party service providers such as our cloud services provider. In addition, we run the risk of disintermediation due to emerging technologies, including distributed ledger or blockchain technologies. If we fail to adapt or keep pace with new technologies in a timely manner, it could harm our ability to compete, decrease the value of our products and services to our clients, and harm our business and impact our future growth. Intense competition could negatively affect our ability to maintain or increase our market share and profitability. The markets for our products and services continue to evolve and are highly competitive. We compete with a number of firms that provide similar products and services. In addition, our securities processing solutions compete with our clients’ in-house capabilities to perform competitive functions. Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or changing opportunities, technologies, and client requirements and may be able to undertake more extensive promotional activities, offer more attractive terms to clients and adopt more aggressive pricing policies than we will be able to offer or adopt. In addition, we expect that the markets in which we compete will continue to attract new competitors and new technologies, including international providers of similar products and services to ours. There can be no assurances that we will be able to compete effectively with current or future competitors. If we fail to compete effectively, our market share could decrease and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially harmed. Our business, financial position, and results of operations could be harmed by adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies. If the credit ratings of our outstanding indebtedness are downgraded, or if rating agencies indicate that a downgrade may occur, our business, financial position, and results of operations could be adversely affected and perceptions of our financial strength could be damaged. A downgrade would have the effect of increasing our borrowing costs and could decrease the availability of funds we are able to borrow, adversely affecting our business, financial position, and results of operations. In addition, a downgrade could adversely affect our relationships with our clients. For further information with respect to our borrowing costs, see Note 12, “Borrowings” to our Consolidated Financial Statements under Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We may be unable to attract and retain key personnel. Our continued success depends on our ability to attract and retain key personnel such as our senior management and other qualified personnel including highly skilled technical employees to conduct our business. Skilled and experienced personnel in the areas where we compete are in high demand, and competition for their talents is intense. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in our efforts to recruit and retain the required key personnel. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified individuals or our recruiting and retention costs increase significantly, our operations and financial results could be materially adversely affected. The inability to identify, obtain and retain important intellectual property rights to technology could harm our business. Our success depends in part upon the development, licensing, and acquisition of systems and applications to conduct our business. Our success will increasingly depend in part on our ability to identify, obtain and retain intellectual property rights to technology, both for internal use as well as for use in providing services to our clients, through internal development, acquisition, licensing from others, or alliances with others. Our inability to identify, obtain and retain rights to certain technology on favorable terms and conditions would make it difficult to conduct business, or to timely introduce new and innovative products and services, which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our products and services, and the products and services provided to us by third parties, may infringe upon intellectual property rights of third parties, and any infringement claims could require us to incur substantial costs, distract our management, or prevent us from conducting our business. Although we attempt to avoid infringing upon known proprietary rights of third parties, we are subject to the risk of claims alleging infringement of third-party proprietary rights. If in response to a third-party infringement allegation, we were to determine that we require a license to such third-party’s proprietary rights, then we may be unable to obtain such license on commercially reasonable terms. Additionally, third parties that provide us with products or services that are integral to the conduct of our business may also be subject to similar infringement allegations from others, which could prevent such third parties from continuing to provide these products or services to us. In either of these events, we may need to undertake substantial reengineering of our products or services in order to continue offering them, and we may not succeed in doing so. In addition, any claim of infringement could cause us to incur substantial costs defending such claim, even if the claim is baseless, and could distract our management from our business. Furthermore, a party asserting such an infringement claim could secure a judgment against us that requires us to pay substantial damages, grants such party injunctive relief, or grants other court ordered remedies that could prevent us from conducting our business. Acquisitions and integrating such acquisitions create certain risks and may affect operating results. As part of our overall business strategy, we may make acquisitions and strategic investments in companies, technologies or products, or enter joint ventures. These transactions and the integration of acquisitions involve a number of risks. The core risks are in the areas of: • valuation: finding suitable businesses to acquire at affordable valuations or on other acceptable terms; competition for acquisitions from other potential acquirors, and negotiating a fair price for the business based on inherently limited due diligence reviews; • integration: managing the complex process of integrating the acquired company’s people, products, technology, and other assets, and converting their financial, information security, privacy and other systems and controls to meet our standards, so as to realize the projected value of the acquired company and the synergies projected to be realized in connection with the acquisition; and • legacy issues: protecting against actions, claims, regulatory investigations, losses, and other liabilities related to the predecessor business. Also, the process of integrating these businesses may disrupt our business and divert our resources. These risks may arise for a number of reasons including, for example: • finding suitable businesses to acquire at affordable valuations or on other acceptable terms; • competition for acquisitions from other potential acquirors; • incurring unforeseen obligations or liabilities in connection with such acquisitions; • devoting unanticipated financial and management resources to an acquired business; • borrowing money from lenders or selling equity or debt securities to the public to finance future acquisitions on terms that may be adverse to us; • loss of clients of the acquired business; • entering markets where we have minimal prior experience; and • experiencing decreases in earnings as a result of non-cash impairment charges. In addition, international acquisitions often involve additional or increased risks including, for example: • geographically separated organizations, systems, and facilities; • integrating personnel with diverse business backgrounds and organizational cultures; • complying with non-U.S. regulatory requirements; • enforcing intellectual property rights in some non-U.S. countries; and • general economic and political conditions. We may incur non-cash goodwill impairment charges in the future. As a result of past acquisitions, we carry a significant goodwill balance on our balance sheet. Goodwill accounted for approximately 39% of the total assets on our balance sheet as of June 30, 2019. We expect to engage in additional acquisitions, which will likely result in our recognition of additional goodwill. We test goodwill for impairment annually as of March 31st and at other times if events have occurred or circumstances exist that indicate the carrying value of goodwill may no longer be recoverable. Although no indications of a goodwill impairment have been identified, there can be no assurance that we will not incur impairment charges in the future, particularly in the event of a prolonged economic slowdown. A significant non-cash goodwill impairment could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We operate internationally and our operations could be adversely impacted by local legal, economic, political and other conditions. A portion of our revenue is generated outside the U.S. and in recent years, we have expanded our operations, entered strategic alliances, and acquired businesses outside the U.S. Also, our business is highly dependent on the global financial services industry and exchanges and market centers around the world. Compliance with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable to our international operations could cause us to incur higher than anticipated costs, and inadequate enforcement of laws or policies such as those protecting intellectual property, could affect our business and the Company’s overall results of operations. Our operations also could be affected by economic and political changes in those countries, particularly in those with developing economies, and by macroeconomic changes, including recessions, inflation and currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and non-U.S. currencies. For example, the United Kingdom’s potential withdrawal from the European Union (“Brexit”), and the continued uncertainty surrounding the potential timing of such withdrawal, has caused, and may continue to cause, economic uncertainty including volatility in global stock markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations, resulting in a decline in the value of the British pound relative to the U.S. dollar. Brexit may also negatively impact our clients with operations in the United Kingdom, which may cause them to reduce their spending on our solutions and services. In addition, our operations and our ability to deliver our services to our clients could be adversely impacted if there is instability, disruption or destruction in certain geographic regions including as a result of natural or man-made disasters, wars, terrorist activities, or any widespread outbreak of an illness, pandemic or other local or global health issue. Certain of our services may be exposed to risk from our counterparties and third parties. Our mutual fund and exchange traded fund processing services and our transfer agency services involve the settlement of transactions on behalf of our clients and third parties. With these activities, we may be exposed to risk in the event our clients, or broker-dealers, banks, clearing organizations, or depositories are unable to fulfill contractual obligations. Failure to settle a transaction may affect our ability to conduct these services or may reduce their profitability as a result of the reputational risk associated with failure to settle. Our revenues are subject to seasonal variations because we process and distribute the greatest number of proxy materials and annual reports in our third and fourth fiscal quarters. Processing and distributing proxy materials and annual reports to investors comprises a large portion of our Investor Communication Solutions business. We process and distribute the greatest number of proxy materials and annual reports during our third and fourth fiscal quarters. The recurring periodic activity of this business is linked to significant filing deadlines imposed by law on public reporting companies. Historically, this has caused our revenues, operating income, net earnings, and cash flows from operating activities to be higher in our fourth fiscal quarter than in any other fiscal quarter. Beginning on July 1, 2019, the Company adopted ASU No. 2014-09 resulting in the majority of our revenues from equity proxy services being recognized in the third and fourth fiscal quarters. Notwithstanding the impact of ASU No. 2014-09, the seasonality of our revenues makes it difficult to estimate future operating results based on the results of any specific fiscal quarter and could affect an investor’s ability to compare our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows on a fiscal quarter-by-quarter basis. ITEM 1B.