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and-mortar to online shopping as the preferred
method of commerce.
Advisory Boardd 2. We have been giving some advice on force majeure
Advisory Boar
clauses. These are clauses in contracts specifying
that a party may be relieved of their obligations
Following is a portion of their responses. The remaining under an agreement if the cause of their default is an
answers will be published in our April 27, 2020 issue. unforeseen event over which they have no control. At
We sincerely thank all Advisory Board members who first blush, COVID-19 fits squarely into that concept,
participated. but it will not necessary give parties relief, as force
majeure clauses are each worded in a different way
Thomas Aronica and may also be given different interpretations under
Biller Genie varying state law. My expectation is that this event
will generate case law that law students will be
1. Prior to COVID-19, SaaS and fintech valuations reading for the next 100 years.
were at an all time high, with positive outlook for
future growth. Given the uncertainty of how our 3. We are putting together a newsletter and web
industry and economy will rebound, it has changed content about force majeure clauses.
how we evaluate potential opportunities, forcing us
to be more selective with our enterprise partnerships. 5. This will hasten online commerce becoming the
2. Fortunately, our entire tech stack is 100 percent center of consumer commerce.
in the cloud, so we were easily able to transition
our staff to work from home with no disruption to Maurice Griefer, CPP
our service levels. Since Biller Genie is uniquely Maverick Payments
positioned to service those businesses that collect
payments through invoices, our portfolio has not
seen the immediate impact caused by the pandemic 1. There's no sugar coating how devastating this
to the restaurant and hospitality industry. pandemic has been to the U.S. economy and the
impact it's going to have in the months and years
3. As always but more so in times of need, we are ahead as we recover. Many payments companies
fully available to help our merchant clients take full are taking a hit, too, but we haven't been as badly
advantage of our powerful automation technology impacted as we initially thought we would be. Our
through direct one-on-one video conferencing company has always had a diverse portfolio of
sessions. This has been our default since day one and merchants both in terms of the industries we serve
we've been able to easily accommodate these sessions and the geographical area in which our merchant
for merchants who may not have previous experience clients are located. Similar to stocks, it's always good
working with platforms such as Zoom. to have a diversified merchant portfolio to minimize
your risks and losses during times like this.
4. We believe that our system in and of itself is an
area of opportunity, changing the dynamic of the Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of our brick-and-
typical payments conversation. We have already seen mortar clients temporarily shut their doors, but a lot
tremendous margin compression and a shift toward of them are getting creative and adapting to continue
technology in the payments industry, and I expect operations, such as shifting to ecommerce and online
the effects of COVID-19 to compound these issues. ordering, starting curbside pick up, etc. Our focus
Merchant service providers will need to adapt to a right now has been to make sure clients can continue
new world, post-corona, where SMBs will need help accepting payments through whatever new channels
with more than just processing a payment. they may need and taking this pandemic day by day,
as so much is changing. We've also really dialed in
5. I think there is a trickle-down effect that is still our support, underwriting and risk teams since some
impossible to measure. staff are working remotely, so it's been a bit of an
adjustment.
Adam Atlas 2. With much of the country under a "stay at home"
Attorney At Law order, it's of course having an impact on our brick-
and-mortar merchants who are not seeing any foot
traffic, as they've been forced to close. As tough as it
1. Our bank and processor clients have reported a is for all of us, these actions are ultimately needed to
surge in online processing. It looks like this event reduce the spread of the virus. I'd rather see extreme
will push the scales even further away from brick- actions taken so this can pass sooner rather than it
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