Cash America 2014 Annual Report Download - page 17

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BUSINESS
Overview
General
The Company provides specialty financial services to individuals through its storefront lending and
franchised check cashing locations. The Company was incorporated in Texas in 1984 and has been providing
specialty financial services to its customers for over 30 years. The Company believes it was one of the largest
providers of pawn loans in the world in 2014 based on the amount of loans outstanding to its customers. A general
overview of the Company’s products and services is included below. See “Services Offered by the Company” for
additional details regarding these products and services.
Pawn Lending
The Company offers secured non-recourse loans, commonly referred to as pawn loans, as its primary line of
business. The Company also offered pawn loans in Mexico through August 2014, when it sold its Mexico-based
pawn operations. Pawn loans are short-term loans made on the pledge of tangible personal property. Pawn loan fees
and service charges are generated from the Company’s pawn loan portfolio. A related activity of the pawn lending
operations is the disposition of collateral from forfeited pawn loans and the liquidation of a smaller volume of
merchandise purchased directly from customers or from third parties.
Consumer Loan Activities
Another component of the Company's business is originating, arranging, guaranteeing or purchasing
consumer loans in some of its locations. Consumer loans provide customers with cash, typically in exchange for an
obligation to repay the amount advanced plus fees and any applicable interest. Consumer loans include short-term
loans (commonly referred to as payday loans) and installment loans.
Short-term consumer loans include unsecured short-term loans written by the Company or by a third-party
lender through the Company’s CSO programs that the Company guarantees. Installment consumer loans are longer-
term, multi-payment loans that generally require the pay-down of portions of the outstanding principal balance in
multiple installments. Installment loans include unsecured loans and loans secured by a customer’s vehicle written
by the Company or by a third-party lender through the CSO programs that the Company guarantees. See “Services
offered by the Company—Consumer Loan Activities” for further discussion of the CSO programs.
Check Cashing and Other Financial Services
Another small component of the Company's business includes the offering of check cashing and other
ancillary products and services through some of its Company-owned lending locations. The ancillary products and
services include money orders, wire transfers, prepaid debit cards and auto insurance. Most of these ancillary
products and services offered are provided through third-party vendors. In addition, the Company’s franchised
check cashing business offers check cashing services through its franchised check cashing centers.
Segment and Geographic Information
The Company has one reportable operating segment through which it offers the services described above.
The Company previously had two segments: retail services and e-commerce. The retail services segment included
all of the operations of the Company's Retail Services Division, which was composed of both domestic and foreign
storefront locations. The e-commerce segment was comprised of all of the operations of Enova. In the fourth
quarter of 2014, following the Enova Spin-off in November 2014 and the sale of the Company’s Mexico-based
pawn operations in August 2014, the Company re-assessed its segment structure and determined that the retail
services segment is the only reportable segment and includes all of the Company's operations. Information
previously reported separately in corporate operations, which represents corporate expenses and other