Item 1. BUSINESS
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Item 1. BUSINESS
Introduction
FLEETCOR is a global payments company that helps businesses and consumers better manager their expenses. FLEETCOR's suite of modern payment solutions help customers better manage vehicle-related expenses (e.g. fueling, tolls and parking), lodging expenses (e.g. hotel bookings) and corporate payments (e.g. domestic and international vendors). This results in our customers saving time and ultimately spending less. Since its incorporation in 2000, FLEETCOR’s smarter payment and spend management solutions have been delivered in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the customer. From physical payment cards to software that includes customizable controls and robust payment capabilities, we provide our customers with a better way to pay.
FLEETCOR has been a member of the S&P 500 since 2018 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FLT. We expect to rebrand FLEETCOR to Corpay, Inc. in March 2024, including changing our New York Stock Exchange ticker from FLT to CPAY.
Businesses spend an estimated $135 trillion each year in transactions with other businesses. In many instances, businesses lack the proper tools to monitor what is being purchased, and employ manual, paper-based, disparate processes and methods to both approve and make payments for their business-to-business purchases. This often results in wasted time and money due to unnecessary or unauthorized spending, fraud, receipt collection, data input and consolidation, report generation, reimbursement processing, account reconciliations, employee disciplinary actions, and more.
Digital payments are faster and more secure than paper-based methods such as checks, and provide timely and detailed data that can be utilized to effectively reduce unauthorized purchases and fraud, automate data entry and reporting, and eliminate reimbursement processes. Combining this payment data with analytical tools delivers powerful insights, which managers can use to better run their businesses.
FLEETCOR’s vision is that every payment is digital, every purchase is controlled, and every related decision is informed. Our wide range of modern, digitized solutions provide control, reporting, and automation benefits superior to many of the payment methods businesses often use such as cash, paper checks, general purpose credit cards, as well as employee pay and reclaim processes. In addition to delivering meaningful value to our customers, our solutions also share several important and attractive business model characteristics such as:
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the majority of revenue is derived primarily from business customers, which tend to have relatively predictable, consistent volumes;
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recurring revenue models driven by recurring volume, resulting in predictable revenue;
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similar selling systems with common sales approaches, management and reporting;
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specialized technology platforms and proprietary payment acceptance networks, which create competitive advantages and barriers to entry; and
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high EBITDA margins and cash flow translation with limited infrastructure investment requirements.
We actively market and sell to current and prospective customers leveraging a multi-channel, go-to-market approach, which includes comprehensive digital channels, direct sales forces and strategic partner relationships. We sell stand-alone products and services, and are currently organizing and establishing platforms where a single customer can use multiple products from one user interface. It is important to note that we compete mostly with legacy payment methods and traditional ways of paying, such as cash and checks. We supplement our organic growth strategy and sales efforts by pursuing attractive acquisition opportunities, which serve to strengthen and extend our market positions and create value faster. With a long, proven operating history, FLEETCOR now serves hundreds of thousands of customers with millions of cardholders making payments to millions of vendors around the world.
FLEETCOR has the following reportable segments: Vehicle Payments, Corporate Payments, Lodging Payments and Other. We report these segments as they reflect how we organize and manage our global employee base, manage operating performance, execute on strategic initiatives and contemplate the differing regulatory environments across geographies and solutions. Our Vehicle Payments solutions help control and monitor employee spending while in the field or in a vehicle and include fuel, tolls and other complementary products. Our Corporate Payments solutions simplify and automate vendor payments and include accounts payable (AP) automation, virtual cards, cross-border, and purchasing and travel and entertainment (T&E) card products. Our Lodging Payments solutions help businesses manage their lodging costs, while simplifying the management offerings from hotels, to longer term housing arrangements, while also providing traveler and end customer support.
Vehicle Payments
Our Vehicle Payments solutions are purpose-built to enable our customers to pay for vehicle related expenses. For our business customers, we also provide greater control and visibility of spending when compared with less specialized payment methods, such as cash or general-purpose credit cards. Our digital enabled solutions provide customers with significant control capabilities such as, customizable user-level controls, programmable alerts, and detailed transaction reporting. Furthermore, our business customers can use the data, controls and tools to combat employee misuse and fraud, streamline expense administration and potentially lower their operating costs, accessible through sophisticated web portals and mobile applications. For our consumer customers, our Vehicle Payment solutions provide seamless, mobile first digital experience when paying for certain vehicle related expenses, removing the friction associated with alternative payment methods and having to use multiple service providers.
We utilize both proprietary and third-party payment acceptance networks to deliver our Vehicle Payments solutions. In our proprietary networks, which tend to be geographically distinct and unique to the markets we serve, transactions are processed on applications and operating systems owned and operated by us, and only at select participating merchants with whom we have contracted directly for acceptance. These proprietary networks generally provide us with better economics, as we control more of the transaction, and richer data because of how the networks and point of sale software are configured. Third-party networks are operated by independent parties, and tend to be more broadly accepted, which is the primary benefit compared with our proprietary networks. Mastercard and VISA are our primary third-party network partners.
Fuel – Our fuel solutions are used by customers to pay and control spending for fuel for vehicles and fleets, Our fuel solutions are fuel type agnostic, regardless of fuel type (fossil fuel, electricity, etc.). We offer fuel solutions to businesses and government entities who operate vehicle fleets, as well as to consumers primarily in Brazil, Mexico and Europe. At the most basic level, we provide the measurement of fuel used and facilitate the payment for that fuel to the merchant, whether that fuel be diesel, gasoline, compressed natural gas, or electricity, while also providing online control, reporting and tracking capabilities to fleet operators. In many cases we can also deliver fuel price savings to our business customers when compared to the retail (board) price of fuel, and in Europe especially, we also enable fleets to significantly streamline the VAT reclaim process by digitizing and itemizing fuel receipts in a way that is compliant with tax authority requirements.
The measurement, control and payment needs of our customers operating electric vehicles (EV) are similar to those operating traditional, internal combustion vehicles, just centered around electricity usage instead of gas or diesel usage. As we help our customers manage through the transition to EVs, many will operate mixed fleets for a long period of time, and will need access to all modalities of fueling, including networks of fuel stations, electric charging stations both on the road and at the office, in addition to at-home charging options. Considering the increased complexity of managing a mixed or an all EV fleet, our product sets are positioned to remain valuable and capture transaction economics, regardless of the vehicle type or propulsion method. We have also enhanced our customer platforms and reporting capabilities to ensure a fully integrated mixed fleet experience for our customers, so they can capture and review all the relevant fleet insights in one place, eliminating the need to select alternative providers for different fuel types or manage disparate systems.
Many of our solutions also have additional capabilities, where we can enable the fuel card to allow customers to purchase a limited set of non-fuel items, such as oil, tolls, parking and vehicle maintenance supplies. Our proprietary EV networks in the U.K. and western Europe, combined with our Mastercard network in the U.S., offer access to hundreds of thousands of charge points and the management of at-home charging, while also delivering additional value-added services through a mobile app, including the ability to locate and route to a charge-point, charge-point speed, functionality and whether in use. Our EV home-charging software solution is aimed at fleets that need to accurately reimburse drivers for charging that takes place at home for business purposes, capturing, measuring and accurately pricing relevant charging sessions and is directly integrated with energy companies to facilitate direct payment, thus bypassing the home energy account. We are actively expanding our EV footprint to accommodate charging in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
We also provide program management services to major oil companies, leasing companies and fuel marketers, which allow these partners to outsource the sales, marketing, credit, service, and system operations of their branded fuel card portfolios. Our fuel partners include British Petroleum (BP), Arco, Speedway, Casey's and over 640 fuel marketers of all sizes. On the EV side, we also provide similar modular solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who wish to distribute on-road EV charging solutions to consumers buying an EV. We would typically either white-label our charging app or integrate directly via application programming interface (API) with vehicle OEMs to deliver access to our products. Our vehicle OEM partners include Renault, Nissan, Polestar and Jaguar-Land Rover.
Tolls – Operated primarily in Brazil, we are the leading electronic toll payments provider to businesses and consumers in the form of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags affixed to vehicle windshields. Our tolls solution primarily operates on our proprietary Sem PararTM network, which processes transactions for more than 6.7 million tagholders on 100% of the toll roads that accept RFID across Brazil. We provide convenience and faster travel for customers, while also reducing manual labor and cash handling at merchants’ toll booths. Our tolls solution also provides commercial customers with driver routing controls and fare auditing, mostly in the form of vehicle type and axle count configuration.
Our tags may also be used at approximately 6,400 participating merchant locations to purchase goods and services while in the vehicle, such as parking, fuel, car washes, and meals at drive-through restaurants. At merchant locations, payment via electronic
tags is faster, safer and more secure for customers, which in turn increases loyalty and throughput for merchants and eliminates the handling of cash.
Parking – Our parking app for mobile devices allows millions of consumers and fleets to pay for parking in seconds, replacing the use of coins or cash for parking. Our solution also allows business fleets the ability to manage their vehicles from anywhere, add and remove authorized drivers and pay in a secured and approved modality. Given the high frequency nature of use and the millions of monthly active users on the app, parking lends itself well to further extension into the other services we offer, namely EV charging, maintenance and fueling, amongst others. Our parking solutions are available in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K. and Brazil.
Fleet Maintenance – We provide a SaaS-based vehicle lifecycle management solution that helps major leasing companies, as well as fleet operators of all sizes, to predominately manage their vehicle maintenance, service, and repair needs primarily in the U.K., but also in France, Denmark, Ireland and Australia. This solution is provided through our proprietary maintenance and repair network, which, in the U.K., processes transactions for fleet customers at over 9,000 service centers. The same platform also provides leasing companies with the capability to manage the re-marketing of leased vehicles and any ad-hoc vehicle rental needs. In addition, we offer compliance service to the U.K.’s heavy goods (truck) operators, workshops and drivers. Finally, we are increasingly extending the platform for use in the small fleet and B2B2C space, enabling consumers to access our proprietary maintenance network at advantaged economics to them.
Long-Haul Transportation Services – In addition to, and often in conjunction with our fuel solutions, we provide trucking companies in North America with various solutions and services relevant to their industry including road tax compliance analysis and reporting, permit procurement and cash movement and disbursement.
Benefits – In Mexico and Brazil, we offer prepaid food vouchers or cards that may be used as a form of payment in restaurants and grocery stores. Additionally, in Brazil, we offer prepaid transportation cards and vouchers that may be used by commuting employees as a form of payment on public transportation.
Corporate Payments
Our Corporate Payments solutions are designed to help businesses streamline the back-office operations associated with making outgoing payments to vendors. Companies can save time, cut costs, and manage B2B payment processing more efficiently with our suite of Corporate Payment solutions, including AP automation, virtual cards, cross-border, and purchasing and T&E cards.
AP Automation – We offer AP Automation solutions with options that are purpose-built for the simplest small business to the most complex large enterprise. We initiate, manage and guarantee payment of all company-approved bills to all domestic and international vendors through whichever payment modalities the vendors allow, such as automated clearing house (ACH), wire, check or payment card. Our mid-market/enterprise option meets the needs of the most complex global enterprises with multiple organizational hierarchies, approval workflows, locations, bank accounts, robust on-demand reporting and seamless integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. We also provide rich data on the remittance to the vendor, regardless of payment modality, which facilitates invoice reconciliations and payment posting. By automating the process of paying vendors, businesses of all sizes can reduce the time, costs and fraud risks associated with their payment processes, and focus on operating their businesses.
Virtual Card – Our Virtual Card solution provides a single-use card number for a specific amount, usable within a defined timeframe. Virtual Cards provide enhanced security relative to checks while reducing total payment costs for our customers. Full remittance data accompanies each Virtual Card payment, providing significant reconciliation advantages to ACH payments. We have integrated our Virtual Card offering into most leading ERP systems, providing a seamless experience for AP personnel.
We have built a proprietary merchant acceptance network that accepts our Virtual Card payments. Our merchant acceptance network is unique due to the nature of commercial Virtual Card acceptance. Each issuer negotiates directly with the merchant for acceptance, so other issuers’ virtual cards are not interchangeable. This network is managed with proprietary technology that allows us to continuously expand Virtual Card acceptance and optimize the amount of spend we can capture. The scale of this network, coupled with an in-house vendor enrollment service, is a competitive advantage. Our ERP integrations, API capabilities, strategic vendor enrollment, and transaction management tools enable us to optimize our customers’ electronic payables programs.
Our Virtual Card solution operates solely on the Mastercard network. Our customers’ ERP systems are directly integrated with our issuing system, and merchants must be enrolled in our proprietary vendor network to accept our Virtual Card solution. This two-sided transaction, where both payor and receiver are in our network, provides substantial payment security relative to paper checks or ACH.
Cross-Border – Our Cross-Border solution is used by our customers to pay international vendors, foreign office and personnel expenses and for profit repatriation and dividends. We also offer hedging and risk management services to customers, which helps them manage the impact of volatile exchange rates in the course of doing business internationally. This solution may be sold in conjunction with our AP Automation and Virtual Card solutions.
Trade settlement and payment delivery is facilitated through a global network of correspondent banks, in-country payment gateways and technology providers, enabling us to send payments to recipients in over 200 countries and 145 currencies. Our customers rely on us to deliver personalized service and customer solutions. We offer a proprietary trading and payments platform that we can "white label" for financial institutions looking to expand their cross-border payment capability, as well as a suite of API products that enables us to embed our full capability directly within the technology of both customers and partners. By utilizing transaction monitoring and watch list screening systems, we ensure payments are safe, secure, and meet all applicable regulatory requirements.
Purchasing and T&E Cards – We also offer purchasing cards and travel & entertainment (T&E) solutions to our customers. These solutions are generally sold in conjunction with our Virtual Card or AP Automation offerings. Additionally, we provide technology, which combines and leverages transaction data captured from our virtual, purchasing, and T&E card products, to help our customers analyze and manage their corporate spending.
Lodging Payments
Our Lodging Payments solutions help businesses manage and control their lodging costs while simplifying the management offerings from hotels or longer term housing arrangements and also providing traveler and end customer support. We serve lodging customers through three primary verticals: workforce, airlines and insurance. We offer lodging solutions to businesses primarily in North America and the U.K. that have employees who travel overnight for work purposes, to airlines and cruise lines globally to accommodate both their traveling crews and stranded passengers and to policyholders displaced from their homes due to damage or catastrophe on behalf of property insurance carriers.
The size, scale, and nature of our lodging customer base enables us to negotiate lodging nightly rates lower than the rates most companies could negotiate directly and far below the rates available to the general public. We utilize both proprietary and third-party networks where we provide access to deeply discounted hotel rooms with streamlined travel management programs, providing enhanced controls and reporting, audit and tax management services. We also can secure hotel rooms outside our proprietary networks in each of our solutions, or private homes in our insurance vertical. We use proprietary data management and payment processing systems to manage customer billings and reports, which, combined with our discounted hotel network, provide customers with potential savings and increased visibility into their lodging costs.
Workforce – Our Workforce Lodging solutions provide a comprehensive solution for business travel programs of any size and business profile, with the ability to scale to the needs of the customer. Our solution allows customers to find and book lodging in minutes online, via app, directly with the hotel or by calling us. We provide full-service lodging management for project-based travelers and long-term stay programs. Our solution provides customers options, controls and insights they need to streamline their corporate lodging program and optimize their investment in travel.
Airlines **–**The integration of our processing systems with airline logistics and crew management systems enables us to deliver incremental enhanced services to the airline travel industry. We offer end-to-end automation of the crew layover process, providing cost-saving hotel and transport bookings. We also have a proactive disruption system managing flight rebookings, hotels, meals, compensation, and transportation for distressed passengers, which delivers a notification directly to the affected passenger to self-service based on their individual requirements. With an all-in-one platform, airlines can access automated web-based billing and continual transaction auditing that's tied to their operational data to increase billing accuracy.
Insurance – We provide temporary housing solutions for displaced policyholders of insurance carriers and catastrophe teams, serving at the request and approval of the insurance adjuster, delivering a seamless housing experience. We partner with claims adjusters to determine the best housing solution for policyholders, including extended stay hotels and long-term housing, providing policyholders a mobile app to manage their temporary housing and receipts.
Other
FLEETCOR provides other payments solutions that are not considered within our Vehicle Payments, Corporate Payments, or Lodging Payments segments.
Gift – We provide fully integrated gift card program management and processing services to retailers in 64 countries, in both plastic and digital form. The gift cards are issued specifically for each customer under their specific brands and are generally accepted exclusively within their retail network, digitally or in-person.
Our Gift solutions include card design, production and packaging, delivery and fulfillment, card and account management, transaction processing, promotion development and management, website design and hosting, program analytics and card distribution channel management. Our turnkey solution benefits our customers in the form of brand promotion, cardholder loyalty, increased sales, interest on prepaid balances and breakage on abandoned card balances.
Payroll Card – We offer a Payroll Card solution in North America in the form of a reloadable stored value card, that can be used instead of a paper payroll check. Our solution operates on the Mastercard payment network and the Allpoint ATM network. The payroll cards are issued to our customers’ employees and funded by the employees’ wages. As cardholders, the employees may present the payroll card as a form of payment for personal purchases, transfer funds to their bank account or withdraw funds from participating ATMs.
Sales and Distribution
We actively market and sell our solutions to current and prospective customers leveraging a multi-channel approach. This go-to-market strategy includes comprehensive digital channels, direct sales forces and strategic partner relationships. We continue to expand online, end-to-end capability where the customers can buy, onboard and manage their accounts on their own. In addition, we leverage an omni-channel approach that enables our sales people to be more efficient by improving their prospecting efforts through digitally sourced leads. In our direct sales force channel, we acquire and manage the customer relationship, which has historically been either in-person or via telesales. Our capabilities are also offered through indirect sales channels (e.g., major oil companies and fuel marketers for fuel, and retail establishments for tolls) and on a branded or “white label” basis, indirectly through a broad range of resellers and partners across most of our solutions. In doing so, we leverage their sales networks to expand our reach into new customer segments, new industry verticals, and new geographies faster and at a significantly lower cost.
With respect to our tolls solution, we also place proprietary manned kiosks and unmanned vending machines in areas with high consumer foot traffic, such as shopping malls, to reach consumers. With respect to our gift solutions, third-party distribution is generally provided by other companies, who are reliant on access to our systems to meet their distribution obligations.
We capitalize on our products’ specialization by deploying product-dedicated sales forces to target specific customer segments. As our solution set has expanded, we are also facilitating cross-selling and bundled product offerings to fully leverage our distribution capabilities, capture more spend and revenue from our existing customer base, and deliver more value to customers which should improve customer loyalty and retention.
Credit Underwriting and Collections
We perform a detailed application review of all new applications for credit, evaluating the applications for fraud as well as credit risk. With both the fraud and credit review we leverage third-party data sources, including device data, fraud scores and credit bureau data to name a few. The credit review includes a combination of Machine Learning models, as well as judgmental underwriting based on customer financials. We employ a variety of tools to manage risk in our portfolio, including billing frequency, payment terms, spending limits, payment methods, delinquency suspension and security. Further, we use fraud detection programs, including proprietary and third-party solutions, to monitor transactions and prevent misuse. We monitor the credit quality of our portfolio periodically utilizing external credit scores and internal behavior data to identify high risk or deteriorating credit quality accounts and control our risk through various strategies. We conduct targeted strategies to minimize exposure to high-risk accounts, including reducing spending limits and payment terms or requiring additional security deposits.
Competition
Our primary competition is from financial institutions providing a full suite of financial products, including general purpose cards, AP payments (i.e. check and ACH), and foreign exchange (FX) solutions. We also compete with specialized competitive offerings from other companies that vary by product solution.
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Vehicle Payments: Our fuel solutions compete with similar offerings such as, WEX, U.S. Bank Voyager Fleet Systems, Edenred, Sodexo, Alelo, Radius Payment Solutions and DKV. Our toll solutions compete with similar offerings such as, ConectCar, Veloe (Alelo), and Repom (Edenred). Our parking solutions compete with similar offerings such as ParkMobile, ParkHub, Parking BOXX and FLASH.
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Corporate Payments: Our corporate payments solutions compete with similar offerings from financial institutions, such as, American Express, Coupa, AvidXchange, Bill.com and Convera.
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Lodging Payments: Our lodging solutions compete with similar offerings from traditional travel management companies such as, American Express Global Business Travel, as well as in-house travel solutions at large corporations and airlines.
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Other; Our gift and payroll card solutions compete with similar offerings from Fiserv, other special-purpose card issuers, and payroll companies.
Competitive Advantage
In executing our strategy, we are advantaged by leveraging our competitive strengths:
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Global Scale – We have strong market positions across four continents. This enables us to provide new offerings with better cost economics, sell complementary products, acquire attractive assets that can leverage existing infrastructure and cost synergies, and introduce successful products and practices from other markets.
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Compounding Growth Model – Our growth model historically benefits from strong revenue retention, organic growth from new customer acquisitions and selling more value-added products to current customers, via developed and acquired payment solutions.
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Proprietary Networks – Our specialized proprietary networks allow for unique data capture at the point of sale, providing an incremental value proposition to our customers. These proprietary networks also provide us with advantageous economics by providing attractive, captive spend to the merchant base.
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Scalable Technology – Our easy-to-use platforms provide control and functionality for our customers, and we can on-board incremental customer volume with very limited need for additional infrastructure. We own and control all the critical components to our offering, creating improved speed to market and proprietary feature functionality in the marketplace.
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Diversification – Our solutions and geographic diversification are designed to provide stability through the “portfolio effect” when one geography or business is underperforming relative to the others. This allows FLEETCOR to deliver more consistent financial performance relative to competitors, continue to invest throughout business cycles and reallocate resources to higher performing businesses.
Technology
Our technology provides continuous authorization of transactions, processing of critical account and customer information, and settlement between merchants, issuing companies, and individual commercial entities. We recognize the importance of state-of-the-art, secure, efficient, and reliable technology in our business and have made significant investments in our applications and infrastructure. In 2023, we spent approximately $370 million in capital and operating expenses to operate, protect, and enhance our technology.
We operate several proprietary processing systems that provide features and functionality to run our card programs and solutions, including our card issuing, processing, and information services. Our processing systems also integrate with our proprietary networks, which provide brand awareness and connectivity to our acceptance locations that enables the “end-to-end” card acceptance, data capture, and transaction authorization capabilities of our card programs. Our proprietary processing systems and aggregation software are tailored to meet the unique needs of the individual markets they serve and enable us to create and deliver solutions that serve each of our industry verticals and geographies. Our technology platforms are comprised of four key components, which were primarily developed and are maintained in-house: (1) a core processing platform; (2) specialized software; (3) integrated network capabilities; and (4) a cloud-based architecture with proprietary APIs.
Our technology function is based in the U.S., Europe and Brazil and has expertise in the management of applications, transaction networks and infrastructure. We operate application development centers in the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, Czech Republic, Brazil and New Zealand. Our distributed application architecture allows us to maintain, administer and innovate our solutions in a cost-effective and flexible manner. Our purpose-built solutions contain significant intellectual property that differentiates us from our competition.
We continually seek to modernize and evolve our technology solutions through our core IT transformation initiatives. Our IT transformation initiatives are focused on three main pillars: (1) digital strategy; (2) core systems modernization; and (3) data. Our digital strategy is focused on streamlining a digital customer experience across all of our solutions, providing a seamless experience. Additionally, we are investing in modernizing our core transactional systems to make them more resilient, secure, and scalable. Our technology infrastructure is supported by highly-secure data centers, with redundant locations. We operate our primary data centers, located in Atlanta, Georgia; Studley, United Kingdom; Prague, Czech Republic; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky; São Paulo, Brazil; and Toronto, Canada.
Additionally, as we develop new solutions and modernize legacy assets, we increasingly leverage cloud services. Through the use of cloud technology and microservices, we are able to modernize our platforms with no disruption to our customers. Finally, data is becoming an ever-increasing part of how the Company and its customers do business. We are focused on investing in our data assets to deliver value for our customers through improved insights to help them to better control expenses and mitigate fraud. The use of cloud services provides us with increased flexibility and agility. We use only proven technology and expect no foreseeable capacity limitations.
We maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which benefited us during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to benefit us. Our telecommunications and internet systems have multiple levels of redundancy to ensure the reliability of network service. In 2023, we achieved over 99.9% up-time for authorizations globally.
Safeguarding Our Business
To provide our services, we may collect, use and store sensitive business information and personal information. Some of this information is also processed and stored by financial institutions, merchants, and other entities, as well as third-party service providers to whom we outsource certain functions and other agents, which we refer to collectively as, our associated third parties. We may have responsibility to the card networks, financial institutions, and in some instances, our customers, and/or individuals, for our failure or the failure of our associated third parties (as applicable) to protect this information.
Our systems align with industry standards for security, with multiple industry certifications. Our network is configured with multiple layers of security to isolate our core systems from unauthorized access. We use secure communication among applications, and our employees access critical components strictly on a "need-to-know" basis. We may not be able to adequately protect our systems or the data we collect from continually evolving cybersecurity risks or other technological risks, which could subject us to liability and damage our reputation. See also, "Risks related to information technology and security" under Item 1A for further discussion of the risks we face in connection with our technology systems and potential data breach and cybersecurity risks facing the Company. Also, see Item 1C Cybersecurity for further discussion of the Company's risk management strategy and governance.
Regulatory
A substantial number of laws and regulations, both in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions, apply to businesses offering payment products to customers, processing payments and servicing related accounts, or operating payment networks. These laws and regulations are often evolving and sometimes ambiguous or inconsistent, and the extent to which they apply to us is at times unclear. Failure to comply with regulations may result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension, or termination of services or relationships with our bank partners and sponsors and business and sales partners, and/or the imposition of civil and criminal penalties, including fines. Certain of our solutions are also subject to rules set by various payment networks, such as Mastercard, as more fully described below.
The following, while not exhaustive, is a description of several federal and state laws and regulations in the U.S., as well as foreign laws and regulations, that are applicable to our business, and therefore can materially affect our capital expenditures, earnings, and competitive position. In addition, the legal and regulatory framework governing our business is subject to ongoing revision, and changes in that framework could have a significant effect on us.
Money Transmission and Payment Instrument Licensing Regulations
We are subject to various U.S. laws and regulations governing money transmission and the issuance and sale of payment instruments. In the U.S., most states license money transmitters and issuers of payment instruments. Through our subsidiaries, we are licensed in all states where required for business. Many states exercise authority over the operations related to money transmission and payment instruments and, as part of this authority, subject us to periodic examinations, which may include a review of our compliance practices, policies and procedures, financial position and related records, privacy and data security policies and procedures, and other matters related to our business. As a result of these periodic examinations, state agencies sometimes issue us findings and recommendations, prompting us to make changes to our operations, and procedures.
As a licensee, we are subject to certain restrictions and requirements, including net worth and surety bond requirements, record keeping and reporting requirements, requirements for regulatory approval of controlling stockholders or direct and indirect changes of control of the licensee and certain other corporate events, and requirements to maintain certain levels of permissible investments in an amount equal to our outstanding payment obligations. Many states as well as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (FinCEN) also require money transmitters and issuers of payment instruments to comply with federal and state anti-money laundering laws (AML) and regulations. See “Anti-Money Laundering, Counter Terrorist, and Sanctions Regulations.”
Recently, a number of state legislatures have adopted all or parts of a new money transmission and sales of payment instruments model law, the Money Transmission Modernization Act. State laws regarding money transmission and sales of payment instruments requirements may continue to change in the future. Additionally, government agencies may impose new or additional requirements on money transmission and sales of payment instruments. We expect that compliance costs will increase in the future for our regulated subsidiaries.
Privacy and Information Security Laws and Regulations
We provide services that are subject to various state, federal, and foreign privacy and information security laws and regulations including, among others, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive, the U.K.'s GDPR and NIS Regulations, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Brazil’s General Data Protection Law, and China's Personal Information Protection Law. In the U.S., we are now subject to several comprehensive data privacy laws at the state level, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act (effective July 1, 2023), the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (effective July 1, 2023), and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (effective December 31, 2023). We are also subject to the separate security breach notification laws of each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia. Some non-U.S. data protection laws, including in the U.K., EU., and China, impose restrictions on the international transfer of personal data absent lawfully recognized transfer mechanisms or, in some cases, prohibit such transfer completely. Going forward, we will likely be subject to new and evolving data privacy laws in the U.S. and abroad, which could result in additional costs of compliance, enforcement actions, regulatory investigations and fines, individual or class action litigation, or reputational harm.
These and similar laws and their related regulations collectively restrict certain collection, processing, storage, use, and disclosure of personal information, require notice to individuals of privacy practices, and provide individuals with certain rights to prevent use and disclosure of protected information. Some also impose requirements for the safeguarding and proper destruction of personal information through the issuance of data security standards or guidelines. In many cases they impose obligations to notify affected individuals, state officers or other governmental authorities, the media, and consumer reporting agencies, as well as businesses and governmental agencies, of security breaches affecting personal information. In addition, some restrict the ability to collect and utilize certain types of information such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers. These laws and regulations are complex and evolving, and can provide for significant penalties for non-compliance. We incur and expect to continue to incur significant and ongoing operating costs as part of our efforts to comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding personal information. These efforts also may divert management and employee attention from other business initiatives.
Certain of our products that access payment networks require compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards. See “Payment Card Industry Rules.”
Email and Text Marketing Laws and Regulations
We use email marketing and text-messaging to reach out to current or potential customers and therefore are subject to various statutes, regulations, and rulings, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) and related Federal Communication Commission (FCC) orders. Several states have enacted additional, more restrictive and punitive laws regulating telemarketing and commercial email. Foreign legislation exists as well, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation and the European laws that have been enacted pursuant to European Union Directive 2002/58/EC and its amendments. Although we believe that our telemarketing and email practices comply with the relevant regulatory requirements, violations could result in enforcement actions, statutory fines and penalties, class action litigation and reputational harm.
Unfair or Deceptive Business Practices
All persons engaged in commerce, including, but not limited to, us and our bank sponsors and customers, are subject to regulatory enforcement by the FTC, under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, and state attorneys general, under various consumer-protection statutes, prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and certain products also are subject to the jurisdiction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding the prohibition of unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices. As a service provider to certain of our bank sponsors, we may further be subject to direct supervision and examination by federal banking regulators in connection with certain of our products and services, which may increase our compliance costs. If we are accused of violating any of these laws, rules and regulations, we may be subject to enforcement actions and as a result, may incur losses and liabilities that may impact our business.
Lending Regulations
We are subject to several laws and related regulations governing the provision and administration of credit. The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) was enacted as a consumer protection measure to increase consumer awareness of the cost of credit and to protect consumers from unauthorized charges or billing errors, and is implemented by the CFPB’s Regulation Z. Most provisions of TILA and Regulation Z apply only to the extension of consumer credit, but a limited number of provisions apply to commercial cards as well. One example where TILA and Regulation Z are generally applicable is a limitation on liability for unauthorized use, although a business that acquires 10 or more credit cards for its personnel can agree to more expansive liability. Our cardholder agreements generally provide that these business customers waive, to the fullest extent possible, all limitations on liability for unauthorized card use. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) together with Regulation B prohibit creditors from discriminating on certain prohibited bases, such as an applicant’s sex, race, nationality, age and marital status, and further requires that creditors disclose the reasons for taking any adverse action against an applicant or a customer seeking credit. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulates consumer reporting agencies and the disclosure and use of consumer reports. We obtain consumer reports with respect to an individual who guarantees or otherwise is obligated on a commercial card. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 amended FCRA and requires creditors to adopt identity theft prevention programs to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft in connection with covered accounts, which can include business accounts for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft.
Anti-Money Laundering, Counter Terrorist, and Sanctions Regulations
The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, which is also known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and which has been amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, contains a variety of provisions aimed at fighting terrorism and money laundering. Among other things, the BSA and related regulations issued by FinCEN require financial-services providers to establish AML programs, to prohibit the financing of terrorism, to report suspicious activity, and to maintain a number of related records. We are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with specified countries, their governments and, in certain circumstances, their nationals, narcotics traffickers, and terrorists or terrorist organizations. In addition to economic sanctions programs, we are also subject to a number of international laws and regulations focused on fighting terrorism and money laundering, including primarily:
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in Canada, Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA);
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in Australia, as a registered remittance dealer with AUSTRAC, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act);
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in the U.K., as a registered Electronic Money Institution with the Financial Conduct Authority, the Proceeds of Crime Act, 2002, and the Terrorism Act 2000;
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in Ireland, the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, as amended by Part 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 2013 and by the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Act 2018; and
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in the EU, AML requirements promulgated under the 4th, 5th and 6th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directives.
Numerous other countries have also enacted or proposed new or enhanced AML legislation and regulations applicable to us.
Non-banks that provide certain financial services are required to register with FinCEN as “money services businesses” (MSB). Certain of our subsidiaries are registered as MSBs.
In addition, provisions of the BSA known as the Prepaid Access Rule issued by FinCEN impose certain obligations, such as registration and collection of consumer information, on “providers” of certain prepaid access programs, including the stored value products issued by our sponsor banks for which we serve as program manager. FinCEN has taken the position that, where the issuing bank has principal oversight and control of such prepaid access programs, no other participant in the distribution chain would be required to register as a provider under the Prepaid Access Rule. Despite this position, we have opted to register as a provider of prepaid access through our subsidiary, Comdata Inc.
Interchange Fees
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) effected comprehensive revisions to a wide array of federal laws governing financial institutions, financial services, and financial markets. The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act provided that interchange fees that a card issuer or payment network receives or charges for debit transactions must be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred by the card issuer in authorizing, clearing and settling the transaction. Payment network fees may not be used directly or indirectly to compensate card issuers in circumvention of the interchange transaction fee restrictions. The Federal Reserve has capped debit interchange fees and may reduce the cap in the future, however the cap has not had a material direct impact on our results of operations because we operate under an exemption to the cap for the majority of our debit transactions.
Anti-Bribery Regulations
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign government officials and political figures and includes anti-bribery provisions enforced by the Department of Justice and accounting provisions enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The statute has a broad reach, covering all U.S. companies and citizens doing business abroad, among others, and defining a foreign official to include not only those holding public office but also local citizens affiliated with foreign government-run or -owned organizations. The statute also requires maintenance of appropriate books and records and maintenance of adequate internal controls to prevent and detect possible FCPA violations. We are subject to similar statutes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we operate, such as the U.K. Bribery Act.
Payment Card Industry Rules
In connection with certain services we provide for payment cards bearing the Mastercard brand, and to those acting as merchants accepting those cards, we must comply with the bylaws, regulations and requirements that are promulgated by Mastercard and other applicable payment-card organizations, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Mastercard Site Data Protection Program (SDP) and other applicable data-security program requirements. A breach of such payment card network rules could subject us to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by the payment networks for certain acts or omissions. The payment networks routinely update and modify their requirements. Our failure to comply with the networks’ requirements or to pay the fines they impose could cause the termination of our registration and require us to stop processing transactions on their networks. Our subsidiary, Comdata Inc., is PCI DSS 3.2 compliant.
We are also subject to network operating rules promulgated by the National ACH Association relating to payment transactions processed by us using the ACH Network.
Escheat Regulations
We may be subject to unclaimed or abandoned property (escheat) laws in the U.S. that require us to turn over to certain government authorities the property of others that we hold that has been unclaimed for a specified period of time, such as payment instruments that have not been presented for payment and account balances that are due to a customer following discontinuation of our relationship. We may be subject to audit by individual U.S. states with regard to our escheatment practices.
Prepaid Card Regulations
Prepaid card programs that we manage may be subject to various federal and state laws and regulations, such as the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act) and the CFPB’s Regulation E, which impose requirements on general-use prepaid cards, store gift cards and electronic gift certificates.
State Usury Laws
Extensions of credit under many of our card products may be treated as commercial loans and may require state licensing. In some states, usury laws limit the interest rates that can be charged not only on consumer loans but on commercial loans as well. To the extent that these usury laws apply, we are limited in the amount of interest that we can charge and collect from our customers. Because we have substantial operations in multiple jurisdictions, we utilize choice of law provisions in our cardholder agreements as to the laws of which jurisdiction to apply. With respect to card products where we work with a partner
or issuing bank, the partner bank may utilize the law of the jurisdiction applicable to the bank and “export” the usury limit of that state in connection with cards issued to residents of other states or we may use our choice of law provisions.
Derivatives Regulations
Rules adopted under the Dodd-Frank Act by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), provisions of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and its technical standards, as well as derivative reporting in Canada and the U.S., have subjected certain of the foreign exchange derivative contracts we offer to our customers as part of our cross-border payments business to reporting, recordkeeping, and other requirements. Additionally, certain foreign exchange derivatives transactions we may enter into in the future may be subject to centralized clearing requirements, or may be subject to margin requirements in the U.S., U.K., and European Union. Other jurisdictions outside the U.S., U.K., and the European Union are considering, have implemented, or are implementing regulations similar to those described above.
Other
We must contractually comply with certain regulations to which our sponsor banks are subject, as applicable. We may be examined by our sponsor banks’ regulators and be subject to audits by certain sponsor banks relative to such regulations.
The Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 requires information returns to be made for each calendar year by merchants, acquiring entities, and third-party settlement organizations with respect to payments made in settlement of electronic payment transactions and third-party payment network transactions occurring in that calendar year. Reportable transactions are also subject to backup withholding requirements. We are required to comply with these requirements for the merchants in our Comdata network. We could be liable for penalties if our information return is not in compliance with these regulations.
Human Capital
As of December 31, 2023, FLEETCOR employed approximately 10,500 associates located in more than 21 countries around the world, with approximately 4,100 of those associates based in the U.S. At FLEETCOR, we strongly believe that talent is a strong determinant of the Company’s performance and success. Our values-driven people programs, practices and policies have been developed to ensure we are able to attract, retain and develop the quality of talent necessary to advance our key initiatives and achieve our strategic objectives. We are firmly committed to delivering a strong employee value proposition and unique employment experience to our associates which, in turn, should lead to better customer experiences and business outcomes.
Culture
Our culture has evolved through time, as the Company has grown considerably both organically and through acquisitions. Despite FLEETCOR’s expansive size and geographic scope, we seek to retain a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and share a common vision, mission and set of values, which together serve as cornerstones to our “One FLEETCOR” culture. Our values, listed below, are infused in all aspects of FLEETCOR, and guide our employee selection, behavior and interactions with both internal and external stakeholders:
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Innovation – figure out a better way
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Execution – get it done; outputs matter
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Integrity – do the right thing
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People – we make the difference
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Collaboration – accomplish more together
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
Our focus on diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB) is part of our successful “One FLEETCOR” culture. As of December 31, 2023, females represented approximately 52% of our global workforce and approximately 17% of our senior leadership team, while minorities comprised approximately 36% of our domestic workforce and approximately 17% of our senior leadership team.
Fostering a culturally diverse and inclusive environment and creating a true sense of belonging are among our top priorities. Our global diversity council, three regional councils and nine employee resource groups (ERGs) are dedicated to building diversity, inclusion and belonging into all aspects of our global operations. Sponsored by the Chairman of the Board and CEO, the councils and ERGs are vital to creating an environment where all employees are able to prosper. Our ERGs allow a safe space for traditionally underrepresented employees to connect and discuss experiences. The ERGs also provide FLEETCOR with perspectives on the unique needs and lived experiences of those who are traditionally underrepresented.
Employee Wellness
FLEETCOR’s benefits programs are designed to meet the evolving needs of a diverse workforce across the globe. Because we want our employees and their families to thrive, in additional to our regular benefit offerings, we focused on physical and mental well-being in 2023. During the year, we offered free, online fitness classes, sponsored the FLEETCOR Wellbeing
Challenge, provided access to employee assistance programs in all regions, and celebrated Mental Health Awareness programs globally.
Talent Development
FLEETCOR offers a variety of high-quality learning opportunities, designed to support employee development and organizational effectiveness. Learning opportunities are available in all geographies at all levels, and incorporate personal, business and leadership skills development with the goal of empowering our organization, creating avenues for closing skill gaps, and enhancing the capabilities of our workforce. Leadership, teamwork, communication, and many other soft skills are vital to our success. We offer a wide variety of career opportunities and paths to advancement through on-the-job coaching, training, and education. We are proud to be a company where an associate can start as an intern and turn it into a successful career.
The Voice of the Employee
We continue to develop and refine our people programs based on feedback we receive directly from our workforce, which we gather through a survey of all employees globally. The participation rate for our 2023 survey was approximately 70%. Our employee engagement score in 2023 remained consistent with previous years’ results. We believe our employee proposition remains strong and we continue to attract and retain top talent. We continue to share the detailed engagement scores across the organization, and analyze the results to understand differences by geography, demographics, job level, and leader, and to identify opportunities for further improvement. Throughout 2023, we conducted several additional pulse surveys and focus groups to assess the ongoing engagement of our workforce.
In October 2020, FLEETCOR published its inaugural Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report (CRS Report), in which we provided detailed information about the Company’s views and approaches regarding environmental, social and governance issues. We published a 2021 CRS Report in January 2022, which contains information incremental to our inaugural report and is therefore intended to be read in conjunction with that report. Our 2021 CRS Report includes further details related to our global talent strategy, DIB metrics, employee wellness and talent development. We are currently preparing our third CRS Report for publication later this year. Our CRS Reports may be accessed electronically at https://investor.fleetcor.com, in the governance section.
Additional Information
The Company maintains a website at www.fleetcor.com. The information on the Company’s website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available on or through our website certain reports and amendments to those reports that we file with or furnish the SEC in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act). These include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. We make this information available on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the information with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
In addition, the SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically at https://www.sec.gov.
ITEM X. EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT
The following table sets forth certain information regarding our executive officers, with their respective ages as of December 31, 2023. Our officers serve at the discretion of our board of directors. There are no family relationships between any of our directors or executive officers.
| Name | Age | Position(s) | ||||||||||||
| Ronald F. Clarke | 68 | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors | ||||||||||||
| Tom Panther | 55 | Chief Financial Officer | ||||||||||||
| Alan King | 47 | Group President—Vehicle Payments | ||||||||||||
| Armando L. Netto | 55 | Group President—Vehicle Payments | ||||||||||||
| Alissa B. Vickery | 46 | Chief Accounting Officer |
Ronald F. Clarke has been our Chief Executive Officer since August 2000 and was appointed Chairman of our Board of Directors in March 2003. From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Clarke served as President and Chief Operating Officer of AHL Services, Inc., a staffing firm. From 1990 to 1998, Mr. Clarke served as Chief Marketing Officer and later as a Division President with Automatic Data Processing, Inc., a human resources software and services company. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. Clarke was a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management consulting firm. Earlier in his career, Mr. Clarke was a marketing manager for General Electric Company, a diversified technology, media, and financial services corporation.
Tom Panther has been our Chief Financial Officer since May 2023. Prior to joining FLEETCOR, Mr. Panther served as the CFO at EVO Payments, Inc. (“EVO”) from November 2019 until March 2023, where he was instrumental in EVO delivering strong revenue growth and significant margin expansion, as well as executing a number of key initiatives, including international M&A, debt and capital financings, and serving as a key advisor to the Board. Prior to joining EVO, Mr. Panther worked at SunTrust Banks, Inc. for nearly 20 years serving in numerous leadership roles. Mr. Panther began his career at Arthur Andersen.
Alan King has served as our Group President — Vehicle Payments since December 2023 and prior to that was our Group President of Global Fleet since May 2022. Mr. King joined FLEETCOR in August 2016 and served as our President - U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, based in London, until June 2019. From July 2019 to April 2022, Mr. King was Group President of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand Fuel. Prior to joining us, Mr. King worked at Mastercard where he was most recently Managing Director, MasterCard Prepaid Management Services. During his 11 year career at Mastercard, Mr. King held the roles of Group Head, Global Prepaid Solutions, Group General Manager for Market and Business Development in the U.K. & Ireland, and General Manager, Global Accounts. Prior to Mastercard, Mr. King held leadership positions at VISA in the CEMEA region from 2003 to 2005 and at Citibank from 1998 to 2003, largely across commercial payments in international markets. Mr. King spent the early part of his career in the telecom and automotive industries, in various sales and marketing roles covering Europe.
Armando L. Netto has served as our Group President — Vehicle Payments since December 2023 and prior to that was our Group President – Brazil since June 2014. Prior to joining us, Mr. Netto led IT Services for TIVIT, an IT and BPO services company, from 2006 to 2014, where he led the integration of functional areas into the business unit, focused on onboarding new clients and ensuring service quality. Prior to TIVIT, Mr. Netto held various leadership roles with Unisys and McKinsey, where he gained international experience in Europe supporting clients in the U.K., France, Austria, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
Alissa B. Vickery has been our Chief Accounting Officer since September 2020 and also served as our interim Chief Financial Officer from October 2022 through May 2023. Mrs. Vickery joined FLEETCOR in 2011 and served as Senior Vice President of Accounting and Controls, with oversight of external reporting, technical accounting and internal audit until her appointment as interim Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining us, Mrs. Vickery held a Senior Director position at Worldpay and spent more than nine years in public accounting at Deloitte LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP, as a senior manager in the audit and assurance practice.
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