JKHY, §1A diff (2017 → 2018)

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS The Company's business and the results of its operations are affected by numerous factors and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. The following is a description of some of the important risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results of operations in future periods to differ materially from those expected or desired. Security problems could damage our reputation and business. We rely on industry-standard encryption, network and Internet security systems, most of which we license from third parties, to provide the security and authentication necessary to effect secure transmission of data and to prevent unauthorized access to our computer networks, systems, and data. Our services and infrastructure are increasingly reliant on the Internet. Computer networks and the Internet are vulnerable to unauthorized access, computer viruses and other disruptive problems such as denial of service attacks. Other potential attacks include attempts to obtain unauthorized access to confidential information or destroy data, often through the introduction of computer viruses, ransomware or malware, cyber-attacks and other means. To date, none of these types of attacks have had a material effect on our business or operations. Such security attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources, including persons who are involved with organized crime or who may be linked to terrorist organizations or hostile foreign governments. Those same parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees, customers or other users of our systems to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our data or that of our customers or clients. We are also subject to the risk that our employees may intercept and transmit unauthorized confidential or proprietary information. An interception, misuse or mishandling of personal, confidential or proprietary information being sent to or received from a customer or third party could result in legal liability, remediation costs, regulatory action and reputational harm, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Individual personal computers can be stolen, and customer data media can be lost in shipment. Under state, federal, and foreign laws requiring consumer notification of security breaches, the costs to remediate security breaches can be substantial. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other events or developments may render our security measures inadequate. Security risks may result in liability to our customers or other third parties, damage to our reputation, and may deter financial institutions from purchasing our products. We will continue to expend significant capital and other resources protecting against the threat of security breaches, and, in the event of a breach, we may need to expend resources alleviating problems caused by such breach. Addressing security problems may result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service to users, any of which could harm our business. Operational failure in our outsourcing facilities could expose us to damage claims, increase regulatory scrutiny and cause us to lose customers. Damage or destruction that interrupts our outsourcing operations could cause delays and failures in customer processing which could hurt our relationship with customers, damage our reputation, expose us to damage claims, and cause us to incur substantial additional expense to relocate operations and repair or replace damaged equipment. Our back-up systems and procedures may not prevent disruption, such as a prolonged interruption of our transaction processing services. In the event that an interruption extends for more than several hours, we may experience data loss or a reduction in revenues by reason of such interruption. Any significant interruption of service could reduce revenue, have a negative impact on our reputation, result in damage claims, lead our present and potential customers to choose other service providers, and lead to increased regulatory scrutiny of the critical services we provide to financial institutions, with resulting increases in compliance burdens and costs. Failures associated with payment transactions could result in financial loss. The volume and dollar amount of payment transactions that we process is significant and continues to grow. We settle funds on behalf of financial institutions, other businesses and consumers and receive funds from clients, card issuers, payment networks and consumers on a daily basis for a variety of transaction types. Transactions facilitated by us include debit card, credit card, electronic bill payment transactions, Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) payments and check clearing that support consumers, financial institutions and other businesses. If the continuity of operations, integrity of processing, or ability to detect or prevent fraudulent payments were compromised in connection with payments transactions, this could result in financial as well as reputational loss to us. In addition, we rely on various third parties to process transactions and provide services in support of the processing of transactions and funds settlement for certain of our products and services. If we are unable to obtain such services in the future, that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations. In addition, we may issue credit to consumers, financial institutions or other businesses as part of the funds settlement. A default on this credit by a counterparty could result in a financial loss to us. Failures of third party service providers we rely upon could lead to financial loss. JHA relies on third party service providers to support key portions of its operations. JHA also relies on third party service providers to provide part or all of certain services it delivers to customers. While we have selected these third party vendors carefully, we do not control their actions. A failure of these services by a third party could have a material impact upon JHA’s delivery of its services to customers. Such a failure could lead to damages claims, loss of customers, and reputational harm, depending on the duration and severity of the failure. Third parties perform significant operational services on our behalf. These third-party vendors are subject to similar risks as us relating to cybersecurity, breakdowns or failures of their own systems or employees. One or more of our vendors may experience a cybersecurity event or operational disruption and, if any such event does occur, it may not be adequately addressed, either operationally or financially, by the third party vendor. Certain of our vendors may have limited indemnification obligations or may not have the financial capacity to satisfy their indemnification obligations. If a critical vendor is unable to meet our needs in a timely manner or if the services or products provided by such a vendor are terminated or otherwise delayed and if we are not able to develop alternative sources for these services and products quickly and cost-effectively, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. The services we provide to our customers are subject to government regulation that could hinder the development of our business, increase costs, or impose constraints on the way we conduct our operations. The financial services industry is subject to extensive and complex federal and state regulation. As a supplier of services to financial institutions, portions of our operations are examined by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Association, among other regulatory agencies. These agencies regulate services we provide and the manner in which we operate, and we are required to comply with a broad range of applicable laws and regulations. In addition, existing laws, regulations, and policies could be amended or interpreted differently by regulators in a manner that imposes additional costs and has a negative impact on our existing operations or that limits our future growth or expansion. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in 2010, significantly changed the regulation of the financial services industry, producing new regulatory agencies and voluminous new regulations, some of which are still being written. The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection ("CFPB") was established, which is implementing numerous new regulations applicable to “supervised service providers” such as the Company. These new regulations may require additional programming or other costly changes in our processes or personnel. Our customers are also regulated entities, and actions by regulatory authorities could determine both the decisions they make concerning the purchase of data processing and other services and the timing and implementation of these decisions. Concerns are growing with respect to the use, confidentiality, and security of private customer information. Regulatory agencies, Congress and state legislatures are considering numerous regulatory and statutory proposals to protect the interests of consumers and to require compliance with standards and policies that have not been defined. This includes rules enacted by the New York Department of Financial Services that require covered financial institutions to have a cyber security program along with other compliance requirements. The unique data protection regulations issued by multiple agencies has created a fragmented series of requirements that makes it increasingly complex to comply with all of the mandates in an efficient manner. The software we provide to our customers is also affected by government regulation. We are generally obligated to our customers to provide software solutions that comply with applicable federal and state regulations. In particular, numerous new regulations have been proposed and are still being written to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Substantial software research and development and other corporate resources have been and will continue to be applied to adapt our software products to this evolving, complex and often unpredictable regulatory environment. Our failure to provide compliant solutions could result in significant fines or consumer liability on our customers, for which we may bear ultimate liability. Our business may be adversely impacted by U.S. and global market and economic conditions. We derive most of our revenue from products and services we provide to the financial services industry. If the economic environment worsens, we could face a reduction in demand from current and potential clients for our products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, a growing portion of our revenue is derived from transaction processing fees, which depend heavily on levels of consumer and business spending. Deterioration in general economic conditions could reduce transaction volumes and the Company's related revenues. Changes in the banking and credit union industry could reduce demand for our products. Cyclical fluctuations in economic conditions affect profitability and revenue growth at commercial banks and credit unions. Because our business is concentrated in financial institutions, unfavorable economic conditions negatively affect the spending of banks and credit unions, including spending on computer software and hardware. Such conditions could reduce both our sales to new customers and upgrade/complementary product sales to existing customers. The Company could also experience the loss of customers due to their acquisition or financial failure. Competition or general economic conditions may result in decreased demand or require price reductions or other concessions to customers which could result in lower margins and reduce income. We vigorously compete with a variety of software vendors and service providers in all of our major product lines. We compete on the basis of product quality, reliability, performance, ease of use, quality of support and services, integration with other products and pricing. Some of our competitors may have advantages over us due to their size, product lines, greater marketing resources, or exclusive intellectual property rights. New competitors regularly appear with new products, services and technology for financial institutions. If competitors offer more favorable pricing, payment or other contractual terms, warranties, or functionality, or if general economic conditions decline such that customers are less willing or able to pay the cost of our products and services, we may need to lower prices or offer favorable terms in order to successfully compete. Our failure to comply with regulations or to meet regulatory expectations could adversely affect our business and results of operations. While much of our operations are not directly subject to regulations applicable to financial institutions, as a provider of processing services to such institutions, we are examined on a regular basis by various regulatory authorities. If we fail to comply with applicable regulations or guidelines, we could be subject to regulatory actions or rating changes and suffer harm to our customer relationships and reputation. Such failures could require significant expenditures to correct and could negatively affect our ability to retain customers and obtain new customers. A material weakness in our internal controls could have a material adverse effect on us. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reasonable assurance with respect to our financial reports and to mitigate risk of fraud. If additional material weaknesses in our internal control are discovered or occur in the future, our consolidated financial statements may contain material misstatements and we could be required to restate our financial results, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations or financial condition, restrict our ability to access the capital markets, require us to expend significant resources to correct the weaknesses or deficiencies, subject us to fines, penalties or judgments, harm our reputation or otherwise cause a decline in investor confidence. Failure to achieve favorable renewals of service contracts could negatively affect our outsourcing business. Our contracts with our customers for outsourced data processing services generally run for a period of five or more years. We will continue to experience greater numbers of these contracts coming up for renewal each year. Renewal time presents our customers with the opportunity to consider other providers or to renegotiate their contracts with us. If we are not successful in achieving high renewal rates upon favorable terms, our outsourcing revenues and profit margins will suffer. The loss of key employees could adversely affect our business. We depend on the contributions and abilities of our senior management and other key employees. Our Company has grown significantly in recent years and our management remains concentrated in a small number of highly qualified individuals. If we lose one or more of our key employees, we could suffer a loss of managerial experience, and management resources would have to be diverted from other activities to compensate for this loss. We do not have employment agreements with any of our executive officers. Our failure to comply with the rules of the payment card networks could adversely affect our business. We are subject to card association and network rules governing Visa, MasterCard and similar organizations, including the Payment Card Data Security Standards. If we fail to comply with these rules we could be fined or our certifications could be suspended or terminated, which could limit our ability to service our customers and result in reductions in revenues and increased costs of operations. If we fail to adapt our products and services to changes in technology and the markets we serve, we could lose existing customers and be unable to attract new business. The markets for our software and hardware products and services are characterized by changing customer and regulatory requirements and rapid technological changes. These factors and new product introductions by our existing competitors or by new market entrants could reduce the demand for our existing products and services and we may be required to develop or acquire new products and services. Our future success is dependent on our ability to enhance our existing products and services in a timely manner and to develop or acquire new products and services. If we are unable to develop or acquire new products and services as planned, or if we fail to sell our new or enhanced products and services, we may incur unanticipated expenses or fail to achieve anticipated revenues, as well as lose prospective sales. Our growth may be affected if we are unable to find or complete suitable acquisitions. We have augmented the growth of our business with a number of acquisitions and we plan to continue to acquire appropriate businesses, products and services. This strategy depends on our ability to identify, negotiate and finance suitable acquisitions. Merger and acquisition activity in our industry has affected the availability and pricing of such acquisitions. If we are unable to acquire suitable acquisition candidates, we may experience slower growth. If others claim that we have infringed their intellectual property rights, we could be liable for significant damages or could be required to change our processes. We have agreed to indemnify many of our customers against claims that our products and services infringe on the proprietary rights of others. Infringement claims have been and will in the future be asserted with regard to our software solutions and services. Such claims, whether with or without merit, are time-consuming, may result in costly litigation and may not be resolved on terms favorable to us. If our defense of such claims is not successful, we could be forced to pay damages or could be subject to injunctions that would cause us to cease making or selling certain applications or force us to redesign applications. Unfavorable future tax law changes could adversely affect our tax expense. The U.S. recently enacted significant tax reform and certain provisions of the new law could have an adverse impact to us. Unfavorable future tax law changes could also result in these negative impacts. Although we cannot predict whether or in what form such legislation will pass, if enacted it could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results. Consolidation and failures of financial institutions will continue to reduce the number of our customers and potential customers. Our primary market consists of approximately 5,630 commercial and savings banks and more than 5,680 credit unions. The number of commercial banks and credit unions has decreased because of failures and mergers and acquisitions and is expected to continue to decrease as more consolidation occurs. Acquisitions may be costly and difficult to integrate. We have acquired a number of businesses in the past, including the acquisition of Ensenta Corporation in December 2017, and will continue to explore acquisitions in the future. We may not be able to successfully integrate acquired companies. We may encounter problems with the integration of new businesses including: financial control and computer system compatibility; unanticipated costs; unanticipated quality or customer problems with acquired products or services; differing regulatory and industry standards; diversion of management's attention; adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers and customers; loss of key employees; and significant amortization expenses related to acquired assets. To finance future acquisitions, we may have to increase our borrowing or sell equity or debt securities to the public. If we fail to integrate our acquisitions, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Failed acquisitions could also produce material and unpredictable impairment charges as we periodically review our acquired assets. Expansion of services to non-traditional customers could expose us to new risks. We have expanded our services to business lines that are marketed outside our traditional, regulated, and litigation-averse base of financial institution customers. These non-regulated customers may entail greater operational, credit and litigation risks than we have faced before and could result in increases in bad debts and litigation costs. The impairment of a significant portion of our goodwill and intangible assets would adversely affect our results of operations. Our balance sheet includes goodwill and intangible assets that represent a significant portion of our total assets at June 30, 2018. On an annual basis, and whenever circumstances require, we review our intangible assets for impairment. If the carrying value of a material asset is determined to be impaired, it will be written down to fair value by a charge to operating earnings. An impairment of a significant portion of these intangible assets could have a material negative effect on our operating results. ITEM 1B.