EZCORP and Texas Attorney General Reach Settlement
June 23 2008 - 4:47PM
PR Newswire (US)
AUSTIN, Texas, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EZCORP, Inc.
(NASDAQ:EZPW), the parent company of EZPAWN and EZMONEY Loan
Services, announced today that in cooperation with the Texas
Attorney General's office, the parties reached a settlement of the
lawsuit brought by the Attorney General regarding his claim that
the Company failed to adequately protect customers' private
information. The Company disputed and vigorously challenged the
Attorney General's claims. Joe Rotunda, President & CEO of
EZCORP, stated, "After an extended period of factual and legal
debate and negotiations, it became clear that it is in the best
interests of both parties to settle this matter rather than pursue
costly litigation. We mutually agreed to mediate the case and
reached a settlement of $600,000." Rotunda continued, "Despite the
Attorney General's allegations, we are pleased that no customer was
harmed. EZCORP had strong identity protection policies in place,
including a state-of-the-art 'paperless' document system, written
document retention policies, and regular audits prior to the
Attorney General's lawsuit. We invested additional resources in
technology and information security and continue to do so in an
ongoing manner to enhance identity protection and security for our
customers. We regularly evaluate our operations and look for new
ways to protect our customers against identity theft." Rotunda
concluded, "Our public guidance for the June ending quarter is 21
cents in diluted earnings per share versus 16 cents last year. Even
with this charge as well as the charge associated with the closing
of the eleven EZMONEY stores in Florida previously announced, we're
confident that we will achieve at least our public guidance for the
quarter." EZCORP is primarily a lender or provider of credit
services to individuals who do not have cash resources or access to
credit to meet their short-term cash needs. In 294 U.S. EZPAWN and
26 Mexico Empeno Facil locations open on March 31, 2008, the
Company offers non-recourse loans collateralized by tangible
personal property, commonly known as pawn loans. At these
locations, the Company also sells merchandise, primarily collateral
forfeited from its pawn lending operations, to consumers looking
for good value. In 462 EZMONEY locations and 73 EZPAWN locations
open on March 31, 2008, the Company offers short-term
non-collateralized loans, often referred to as payday loans, or fee
based credit services to customers seeking loans. This announcement
contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the Company's
expected performance for future periods including, but not limited
to, the expected impact of the settlement and expected future
earnings. Actual results for these periods may materially differ
from these statements. Such forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties such as changing market conditions in the
overall economy and the industry, consumer demand for the Company's
services and merchandise, changes in the regulatory environment,
and other factors periodically discussed in the Company's annual,
quarterly and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. For additional information, contact Dan Tonissen (512)
314-2289. DATASOURCE: EZCORP, Inc. CONTACT: Dan Tonissen of EZCORP,
Inc., +1-512-314-2289 Web site: http://www.ezcorp.com/
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