NCR Atleos, LLC (NATL) Risk Factors

The regulation of cryptocurrency is still an evolving area both domestically and internationally, and we expect that we could become subject to additional regulations and licensing requirements, including as a result of the expansion of our Bitcoin offerings and the increasing number of jurisdictions in which we provide these offerings. The evolving regulatory landscape may require us to make product changes, restrict product offerings in certain jurisdictions, or implement additional and potentially costly controls. If we fail to comply with regulations, requirements, or prohibitions applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions and potential fines and other consequences.

There are a number of vendors providing the services and producing the parts and components that we utilize in or in connection with our products. However, there are some services and components that are licensed or purchased from single sources due to price, quality, technology, functionality or other reasons. For example, we depend on transaction processing services from Accenture, computer chips and microprocessors from Intel and operating systems from Microsoft. Certain parts and components used in the manufacturing of our ATMs and the manufacturing process of ATMs themselves are supplied by single sources. In addition, there are a number of key suppliers for our businesses that provide us with critical products for our solutions. If we were unable to secure the necessary services or maintain current demand, including contract manufacturing, parts, software, components or products from a particular vendor, and we had to find an alternative supplier, our new and existing product shipments and solution deliveries, or the provision of contracted services, could be delayed, adversely impacting our business and operating results. We have, from time to time, formed alliances with third parties that have complementary products, software, services and skills. These alliances represent many different types of relationships, such as outsourcing arrangements to manufacture hardware and subcontract agreements with third parties to perform services and provide products and software to our customers in connection with our solutions. For example, we rely on third parties for cash replenishment services for our ATM products. These alliances introduce risks that we cannot control, such as nonperformance by third parties and difficulties with or delays in integrating elements provided by third parties into our solutions. Lack of information technology infrastructure, shortages in business capitalization, and manual processes and data integrity issues, particularly with smaller suppliers can also create product time delays, inventory and invoicing problems, and staging delays, as well as other operating issues. The failure of third parties to provide high-quality products or services that conform to required specifications or contractual arrangements could impair the delivery of our solutions on a timely basis, create exposure for non-compliance with our contractual commitments to our customers and impact our business and operating results. Also, some of these third parties have access to confidential Atleos and customer data, personal data, and sensitive data, the integrity and security of which are of significant importance to the Company.

Our business is sensitive to the strength of domestic and global economic and credit conditions, particularly as they affect, either directly or indirectly, the financial sector of the economy. Economic and credit conditions are influenced by a number of factors, including political conditions, consumer confidence, unemployment levels, interest rates, tax rates, commodity prices and government actions to stimulate economic growth. The imposition or threat of protectionist trade policies or import or export tariffs, global and regional market conditions and spending trends in the financial and payment industries, new tax legislation across multiple jurisdictions, modified or new global or regional trade agreements, uncertainty over further potential changes in Eurozone participation and fluctuations in oil and commodity prices, among other things, have created a challenging and unpredictable environment in which to market the products and services of our various businesses across our different geographies and industries. A negative or unpredictable economic climate could create uncertainty or financial pressures that impact the ability or willingness of our customers to make capital expenditures, thereby affecting their decision to purchase or roll out our products or services or, especially with respect to smaller customers, to pay accounts receivable owed to Atleos. Additionally, if customers respond to a negative or unpredictable economic climate by consolidation, it could reduce our base of potential customers. Negative or unpredictable global economic conditions also may have an adverse effect on our customers' ability to obtain financing for the purchase of our products and services from third-party financing companies or on the number of payment processing transactions which could adversely impact our operating results. The bank failures, during the first and second quarters of 2023, in addition to other global macroeconomic conditions, have caused a degree of uncertainty in the investor community and among bank customers, and could significantly impact the national, regional and local banking industry and the global business environment in which Atleos operates. The Company does not believe that the circumstances of these bank failures are indicators of broader issues within the banking system. However, if there is a severe or prolonged economic downturn, it could result in a variety of risks to our business, including driving banking customers to tighten budgets and curtail spending, which would negatively impact our sales and business.

For the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, the percentage of our revenue from outside of the United States was 55%, 55% and 59%, respectively, and we expect our percentage of revenue generated outside the United States to continue to be significant. In addition, we continue to seek to further penetrate existing international markets, and to identify opportunities to enter into or expand our presence in developing and emerging markets. While we believe that our geographic diversity may help to mitigate some risks associated with geographic concentrations of operations, our ability to sell our solutions and manufacture internationally, including in new and emerging markets, is subject to risks, which include, among others: - the impact of ongoing and future economic and credit conditions on the stability of national and regional economies and industries within those economies;- political conditions and local regulations that could adversely impact demand for our solutions, our ability to access funds and resources, or our ability to sell products in these markets;- disruptions in transportation and shipping infrastructure;- the impact of natural disasters, catastrophic events, civil unrest, war and terrorist activity on supply chains, the economy or markets in general, or on our ability, or that of our suppliers, to meet commitments and, otherwise, continue to conduct our business in certain countries;- the impact of a downturn in the global economy, or in regional economies, on demand for our products;- competitive labor markets and increasing wages in markets that we operate in;- currency exchange rate fluctuations that could result in lower demand for our products as well as generate currency translation losses;- limited availability of local currencies to pay vendors, employees and third parties and to distribute funds outside of the country;- changes to global or regional trade agreements that could limit our ability to sell products in these markets;- the imposition of import or export tariffs, taxes, trade policies or import and export controls that could increase the expense of, or limit demand for our products;- changes to and compliance with a variety of laws and regulations that may increase our cost of doing business or otherwise prevent us from effectively competing internationally;- government uncertainty or limitations on the ability to enforce legal rights and remedies, including as a result of new, or changes to, laws and regulations;- intellectual property rights of third parties, and our intellectual property rights and scope of protection afforded by it in different countries;- implementing and managing systems, procedures and controls to monitor our operations in foreign markets;- changing competitive requirements and deliverables in developing and emerging markets;- longer collection cycles and the financial viability and reliability of contracting partners and customers; and - managing a geographically dispersed workforce, work stoppages and other labor conditions or issues. In addition, as a result of our revenue generated outside of the United States, the amount of cash and cash equivalents that is held by our foreign subsidiaries continues to be significant. After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, in general we will not be subject to additional United States taxes if cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments held outside the United States are distributed to the United States in the form of dividends or otherwise. However, we may be subject to foreign withholding taxes, which could be significant.

We are a party to a trade receivables facility to allow, among other things, one of our wholly-owned, bankruptcy remote special purposes entities (an "SPE") to sell to PNC Bank, National Association and other participating financial institutions an undivided ownership interest in a portion of the trade receivables owned by such SPE, in an amount not to exceed approximately $166 million at any point in time. The trade receivables facility has a term of two years and contains customary termination events, including termination events that are based on the performance of the pool of receivables, including the pool's satisfaction of certain financial tests relating to the three-month rolling average ratios of defaults, delinquencies, dilution and days' sales outstanding. If in the future we fail to renew our trade receivable facility or if a termination event occurs and we are unable to obtain a waiver or amendment from the applicable purchasers, we would be required to continue remitting collections to the purchasers until the facility was terminated, and we would no longer benefit from the liquidity provided to us by the ability to sell our receivables. Such a result could adversely impact the cash that we have available to use in our financial and business operations. A termination event under the trade receivables facility may also result in an event of default or a termination event under other agreements containing related cross-default provisions.

The development process for our solutions requires high levels of innovation from our product development teams and suppliers of the components embedded or incorporated in our solutions. We expect to continue to spend and may increase our capital expenditures and allocate these expenditures primarily to our strategic growth platforms. In addition, certain of our solutions, including our cloud solutions, may require us to build, lease or expand, and maintain, infrastructure (such as hosting centers) to support them. The development process can be lengthy and costly, and requires us to commit a significant amount of resources to bring our business solutions to market. In addition, our success may be impacted by safety and security technology and industry standards. We may not be able to anticipate our customers' needs and technological and industry trends accurately, or to complete development of new solutions efficiently. In addition, contract terms, market conditions or customer preferences may affect our ability to limit, sunset or end-of-life our older products in a timely or cost-effective fashion. If any of these risks materialize, we may be unable to introduce new solutions into the market on a timely basis, if at all, and our business and operating results could be materially impacted. Likewise, we sometimes make assurances to customers regarding the operability and specifications of new technologies, and our results could be impacted if we are unable to deliver such technologies, or if such technologies do not perform as planned. Once we have developed new solutions, if we cannot successfully market and sell those solutions, our business and operating results could be adversely impacted.

Our continuing ability to be a leading provider in our industry could be adversely impacted if we do not protect our intellectual property. It is critical to our strategy, and the benefits provided by our innovations and technologies, that we protect and can leverage and rely on our intellectual property, including our intellectual property rights. We protect our intellectual property, including our innovations and technologies, through intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secret rights. While we have numerous patents which cover various areas, we are not able to patent all of our innovations and technologies. In addition, it can take multiple years to receive a patent. We primarily rely on our copyrights and trade secret rights, provided under the laws of the U.S. and internationally, to protect our innovations and technologies. Despite our efforts to protect our innovations and technologies through intellectual property rights and our processes and procedures, such laws, processes and procedures may be insufficient, breached or otherwise fail to prevent unauthorized use, infringement, misappropriation or disclosure of our intellectual property, and such laws, processes and procedures may not provide adequate protection or remedies. It is also possible that third parties can independently develop, obtain or use similar innovations and technologies. To the extent we are not successful in protecting our intellectual property or such protection is insufficient, our business could be adversely impacted. Protecting our intellectual property through patents and other intellectual property rights is expensive and time-consuming, which can impact our ability to obtain such protection by certain of those rights, for example, through patents. As such, we may not be able to obtain protection, including through certain such rights, for some of our intellectual property. Where we are successful, it is expensive to maintain certain intellectual property rights, such as in the case of patents, which may impact our ability to maintain them, and they can be more limited than desired. Current and possible future changes to U.S. or foreign intellectual property laws and regulations, or interpretations of them, may harm our ability to obtain protection of our intellectual property, impact, or jeopardize the enforceability, validity or scope of our intellectual property rights. This along with other legal and business reasons could result in our inability to enforce, or impact the enforcement of, our intellectual property rights (including in view of the patent portfolio of third parties). We may be unable to obtain trademark protection, including trademark registrations, for our products or services and associated brands, and our existing and future trademarks may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our products or services from those of our competitors. In addition, our trademarks, including registrations and applications to register them, may be contested or found to be weak, unenforceable or invalid, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from using, infringing or otherwise violating them. We will not always be able to ensure we have sufficient protection for, or sufficiently protect, our intellectual property where, for example, we fail to expect or detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we do business, and the laws and regulations in countries outside of the U.S. where we do business or may do business in the future may not recognize intellectual property rights or protect them as would be done under the laws and regulations of the U.S. Various factors outside our control pose a threat to our intellectual property. We may fail to obtain or be able to maintain effective or sufficient intellectual property protection, and some of our intellectual property rights may be challenged, resulting in reduced protection or being declared unenforceable or invalid. The time and cost required to defend our intellectual property rights can be substantial. There can be no assurance our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to prevent third parties from offering competitive products or services or that unauthorized third parties will not attempt to copy them or our intellectual Property, including our innovations or technologies, or use, misappropriate or disclose information that we consider confidential or proprietary. It is possible for third parties, including our competitors, to obtain patents relating to products, services, innovations and technologies that overlap or compete with ours and for such third parties to assert, and third parties have in the past asserted, that our products, services, innovations and technologies infringe their patents. Even though we may hold patents covering our products, services, innovations and technologies, it is possible for such third-party patents to effectively block the use of our products, services, innovations and technologies. In such cases, those third parties can seek to charge us a licensing fee or preclude the use of our products or services and file suit against us. Additionally, unauthorized third parties may try to copy or reverse engineer our products, services or intellectual property or otherwise obtain, misappropriate or use our intellectual property and other information that we regard as confidential or proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. Failure to obtain or maintain protection of our confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets), for example, through public disclosure (including by third parties), could harm our competitive position and materially and adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. Given the importance and our reliance on our intellectual property and its protection, we also rely in part on non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to our confidential information, including employees, contractors and other third parties, which place restrictions on the disclosure and use of our intellectual property. We also enter into intellectual property assignment agreements with our employees, contractors and consultants. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with all parties necessary to protect our intellectual property or that they will adhere to our confidentiality agreements. Individuals not subject to intellectual property assignments or other agreements assigning intellectual property to us may make adverse ownership claims to our intellectual property. Additionally, these agreements may be insufficient, limited or, even, declared invalid by certain current or future laws or regulations, or breached, or this intellectual property may be disclosed or become known to third parties, including our competitors, which could cause the loss of this intellectual property. We may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such disclosure or breaches. The loss of trade secret and other confidential information protection could make it easier for third parties to compete with our products and services by copying our innovations and technologies, including features and functionality. To the extent our employees, contractors or other third parties with whom we do business use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to our rights in such intellectual property (including our rights to use such intellectual property) or our rights in related or resulting intellectual property, including innovations, technologies and know-how. To address infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property, we may need to file lawsuits, which can be expensive, time consuming and distracting to management and the business. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights in this manner may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the enforceability and validity of our intellectual property rights. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. From time to time, we receive notices and other communications from third parties, including our customers, regarding third-party claims of infringement of patents or other intellectual property rights. In response to those notices, in appropriate situations, we may have to use our patents (or, potentially, other intellectual property rights) in our defense of such claims, subjecting them to the foregoing risks. A large number of patents and other intellectual property rights exist in our industry. As a result, allegations and disputes related to these rights are asserted by, or arise in conjunction with, both practicing and non-practicing entities (often referred to as "patent trolls") and other individuals or entities who claim to own intellectual property rights alleged to cover our products or services. As such, such individuals and entities may bring associated intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits against us. Because we provide specific indemnification to our customers with respect to claims of intellectual property infringement against the products and services we provide to them, we also (i) receive demands by our customers to defend and indemnify them with respect to intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits brought by a third party involving our products or services, and (ii) defend ourselves in connection with such demands from our customers. The frequency of these claims and lawsuits could increase. While we have a significant patent portfolio that might prove effective in deterring intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits brought against us by practicing entities, including competitors, that portfolio may provide little deterrence against intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits brought by non-practicing entities. This risk may be amplified if the frequency of intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits brought by non-practicing entities increases. Whether intellectual property infringement claims, including by customers for indemnification, have merit or not, they may require significant resources and expenses to analyze, address and defend, and can be disruptive to our business. We may not prevail in a dispute or litigation related to an intellectual property infringement claim, and damages in a successful intellectual property infringement case (including resulting from an indemnity claim from one of our customers) can be significant and can be trebled if the infringement is found to be willful. In certain circumstances, we could be subject to an injunction that might adversely impact our business. In particular, an injunction could limit our ability to provide one or more of our products and services to the extent we are unable to develop non-infringing alternatives or obtain, if available at all, a license for them. It could lead us to having to enter into a fee bearing, such as a royalty bearing, licensing agreement that we would not normally find reasonable or acceptable; cause a delay to the development of our products or services; require us to stop selling all or a portion of our products and services; require us to redesign at least certain products or services or components of them using alternative non-infringing technologies, processes or practices, which could require significant effort and expense. Accordingly, an adverse outcome in an intellectual property infringement case (including one resulting from our indemnification of one of our customers) may expose us to a loss of our competitive position or expose us to significant liabilities (including costs and damages). Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. Many of our offerings rely on innovations and technologies developed by third parties. If we are unable to continue to obtain licenses and rights for such innovations and technologies or substitutes for them, our business could be adversely impacted.

Our products and services, including our cloud and hosted solutions as well as our payments and networking solutions, facilitate financial and other transactions for the customers in the industries we serve. As a result, we collect, use, transmit and store certain of the transaction, Bitcoin, cardholder information, private keys, and personal data of our customers and end-users. We also have access to transaction and personal data of our customers and their customers through or in the course of servicing our products or third-party products. Additionally, we collect, use and store personal data of our employees and the personnel of our business partners, such as resellers, suppliers and contractors, in the ordinary course of business. While we have programs and measures in place designed to protect and safeguard this data, and while we have implemented access controls designed to limit the risk of unauthorized use or disclosure by employees and contractors, the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to this data are complex and changing, as are the underlying objectives of the attacker, like targeted business disruption, financial impact, intellectual property theft and unauthorized use, political motives, or sophisticated nation-state sponsored and organized cyber-criminal activity, and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time. An attack, disruption, intrusion, denial of service, theft or other breach, or an inadvertent act by an employee or contractor, could result in unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, this data, resulting in claims, costs and reputational harm that could adversely impact our operating results. We may also detect, or may receive notice from third parties (including governmental agencies) regarding potential vulnerabilities in our information technology systems, our products, or third-party products used in conjunction with our products or our business. In the course of our business activities, Atleos contracts with numerous suppliers, vendors and resellers who may experience a cybersecurity, data protection or privacy issue that could adversely impact our operating results. Even if these potential vulnerabilities do not result in a data breach,their existence can adversely impact marketplace confidence and reputation. To the extent such vulnerabilities require remediation, such remedial measures could require significant resources and may not be implemented before such vulnerabilities are exploited. As the landscape evolves, we may also find it necessary to make significant further investments to protect information and infrastructure. Like most companies, Atleos is regularly the subject of attempted cyberattacks, which may involve personal data. Most such attacks are detected and prevented by the Company's various information technology and data protections, including but not limited to firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, denial of service detection, anomaly based detection, anti-virus/anti-malware, endpoint encryption and detection and response software, Security Information and Event Management system, identity management technology, security analytics, multi-factor authentication and encryption. There can be no assurance that our protections will always be successful and any failure could result in loss, disclosure, theft, destruction or misappropriation of, or access to, our confidential information and cause disruption of our business, damage to our reputation, legal exposure and financial losses. The Company has established relationships with cybersecurity firms and internal cybersecurity experts, which it engages in connection with certain suspected incidents. The costs arising from those engagements, which depending on the incident may include both investigatory and remedial efforts, have not to date been material to the Company. The Company also regularly undergoes evaluation of its protections against incidents, including both self-assessments and expert third-party assessments, and it regularly enhances those protections, both in response to specific threats and as part of the Company's efforts to stay current with advances in cybersecurity defense. When the Company experiences a confirmed cybersecurity incident it generally performs root cause analyses and in appropriate instances will implement additional controls based on those analyses. There can be no assurance that the Company or its cybersecurity consultants will be able to prevent or remediate all future incidents or that the cost associated with responding to any such incident will not be significant. The personal information and other data that we process and store also are subject to data security and data privacy obligations and laws of many jurisdictions, which are growing in complexity and sophistication as data becomes more enriched and technology and the global data protection landscape evolves. These laws may provide a private right of action for individuals alleging a breach of privacy rights, including for example the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA"). These laws may also conflict with one another, and many of them are subject to frequent modification and differing interpretations. The laws impose a significant compliance burden and include, for example, the European Union's ("EU") General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), the California Consumer Privacy Act and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law. Complying with these evolving and varying standards could require significant expense and effort, and could require us to change our business practices or the functionality of our products and services in a manner adverse to our customers and our business. In addition, violations of these laws can result in significant fines, penalties, claims by regulators or other third-party lawsuits alleging significant damages, and damage to our brand and business. The GDPR, for example, includes fines of up to €20 million or up to 4% of the annual global revenues of the infringer for failure to comply, and grants corrective powers to supervisory authorities including the ability to impose a limit on processing of personal data. The laws also cover the transfer of personal, financial and business information, including transfers of employee information between us and our subsidiaries, across international borders. As another example, the Illinois BIPA provides aggrieved plaintiffs the ability to recover $1,000 for each unauthorized scan of biometric data, and $5,000 for each scan found to be in willful disregard of the statute.

We operate in the intensely competitive technology industry. This industry is characterized by rapidly changing technology, disruptive technological innovation, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions, price and cost reductions, and increasingly greater commoditization of products making differentiation difficult. Our competitors include other large companies in the information technology industry, as well as, independent ATM companies and financial institutions, such as Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fiserv, Inc., Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., Infosys Ltd., Diebold Nixdorf, Inc., Hyosung TNS Inc., and ACI Worldwide, Inc., many of which have more financial and technical resources, or more widespread distribution and market penetration for their platforms and service offerings, than we do. Our competitors could prevent us from obtaining or maintaining desirable locations for our ATMs, cause us to reduce the revenue generated by transactions at our ATMs, or cause us to pay higher merchant fees, thereby reducing our profits. In addition to our current competitors, new and less traditional competitors may enter the market, vertically integrated competitors, such as expanded product and service offerings by cash-in-transit providers, may offer comprehensive bundled product and service offerings, or we may face additional competition associated with the creation, integration, and consolidation of competitors through transactions as well as the introduction of alternative payment mechanisms, such as Venmo, Zelle, Square's Cash App, Facebook Messenger Payments, Apple Pay, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and other emerging payment technology. Increased competition could result in reduced usage of our ATMs, transaction fee reductions, reduced gross margins, and loss of market share. In addition, our customers sometimes finance our product sales through third-party financing companies, and in the case of customer default, these financing companies may be forced to resell the equipment at discounted prices, competing with us and impacting our ability to sell incremental units. As a result, the failure to effectively adapt our organization, products, and services to the market, the entrance of new competitors into the market, or the innovation or growth of existing competitors could significantly reduce market share of our offerings, decrease demand for our solutions, significantly reduce our revenue, increase our operating costs, or otherwise adversely impact our business, operations, cash flows, operating profits and financial conditions. Our future competitive performance and market position depend on a number of factors, including our ability to: - execute our ATM as a service strategy to grow our software and services revenue, as well as our recurring revenue;- improve margin expansion while successfully reacting to competitive product and pricing pressures;- mitigate increases in labor costs, component parts, freight, services and interest rates with price increases;- penetrate and meet the changing competitive requirements and deliverables in developing and emerging markets;- retain our existing key customers and add new customer relationships;- cross-sell additional products and service to our existing customer base;- rapidly and continually design, develop and market, to otherwise maintain and introduce innovative solutions and related products and services for our customers that are competitive in the marketplace;- react on a timely basis to shifts in market demands and technological innovations, including shifts toward the desire of banks to provide digital-first experience to their customers in transactions and payments. - reduce costs, including the capital costs of financing ATM deployments and the cash costs of filling them with bailment cash, without creating operating inefficiencies or impairing product or service quality;- maintain competitive operating margins;- improve product and service delivery quality; and - effectively market and sell all of our solutions.

As a part of our overall strategy related to our payments-related business we may be subject to the following risks: The proliferation of payment options and increasingly frictionless methods of payment other than cash, including credit cards, debit cards, stored-value debit cards, contactless, and mobile payments options, could result in a reduced need for cash in the marketplace and a resulting decline in the usage of our ATMs. The continued growth in electronic payment methods, such as mobile phone payments, contactless payments and card only self-service order and payment terminals could result in a reduced need for cash in the marketplace and ultimately, a decline in the usage of ATMs. Payment technologies, such as Venmo, Zelle, Square's Cash App, Facebook Messenger Payments, Apple Pay, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin or other new payment method preferences by consumers could reduce the general population's need or demand for cash and adversely impact our ATM transaction volumes in the future. Atleos derives a significant portion of its revenues from ATM and financial services transaction fees, which could be reduced by a decline in the usage of ATMs, the ability to charge cardholders fees to use ATMs and the level of transaction fees received, or a decline in the number of ATMs that are operated by us, whether as a result of changes in consumer spending preferences, global economic conditions, or otherwise. Additionally, should banks or other ATM operators decrease or eliminate the fees they charge to users of their ATMs or otherwise offer free access to their networks, such action would make transactions at our ATMs comparatively more expensive to consumers and could adversely impact transaction volumes and revenue. The majority of the electronic debit networks over which transactions are conducted require sponsorship by a bank, and the loss of any sponsors and/or the inability to find a replacement may cause disruptions to our operations. In each of the geographic markets, bank sponsorship is required in order to process transactions over certain networks. In all of the markets we serve, ATMs are connected to financial transaction switching networks operated by organizations such as Visa and MasterCard. The rules governing these switching networks require any company sending transactions through these networks to be a bank or a technical service processor that is approved and monitored by a bank. As a result, the operation of the ATM network in all of the markets we serve depends on the ability to secure these "sponsor" arrangements with financial institutions. Non-compliance with established Electronic Funds Transfer ("EFT") network rules and regulations could expose Atleos to fines, penalties or other liabilities and could adversely impact results of operations. Additionally, new EFT network rules and regulations could require significant amounts of capital to remain in compliance with such rules and regulations. Transactions are routed over various EFT networks to obtain authorization for cash disbursements and to provide account balances. These networks primarily include Star, Pulse, NYCE, Cirrus (MasterCard), and Plus (Visa) in the United States, and LINK in the United Kingdom, among other networks. EFT networks set the interchange fees that they charge to the financial institutions, as well as the amounts paid to Atleos. Interchange fees may be lowered in some cases at the discretion of the various EFT networks through which transactions are routed, or through potential regulatory changes, thus reducing future revenues and operating profits. Future changes in interchange rates, some of which we have minimal or no control over, could have a material adverse impact on business operations, cash flows and financial conditions. Additionally, EFT networks, including MasterCard and Visa, establish rules and regulations that ATM providers must comply with in order for member cardholders to use those ATMs. Failure to comply with such rules and regulations could result in penalties and/or fines, which could adversely impact our financial results. The election by our merchant customers not to participate in the surcharge-free network offerings could impact the effectiveness of those offerings, which would adversely impact our financial results. Financial institutions that are members of the Allpoint network pay a fee in exchange for allowing their cardholders to use selected Atleos-owned, managed and/or participating ATMs on a surcharge-free basis. The success of the Allpoint network is dependent upon the participation by our merchant customers in that network. In the event a significant number of our merchants elect not to participate in the Allpoint network, the benefits and effectiveness of the network would be diminished, thus potentially causing some of the participating financial institutions to not renew their agreements, terminate early, and/or trigger financial penalties, thereby having a negative impact on our business. Errors or omissions in the settlement of merchant funds or in the vault cash reconciliations could damage relationships with customers and vault cash providers, respectively, and expose Atleos to liability. Atleos is responsible for maintaining accurate bank account information for certain merchant customers, financial institution customers and vault cash providers and accurate settlements of funds into these accounts based on the underlying transaction activity.