FirstCash Holdings is the world’s largest operator of pawn stores, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker FCFS. Founded in 1988, the company runs more than 3,300 locations across the United States, Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia) and, more recently, the United Kingdom, where it acquired a network of pawnshops in England, Scotland and Wales. Its core business is pawn lending secured by personal property – jewellery, electronics, tools and sporting goods – alongside retail sales of merchandise that customers either forfeited or sold directly over the counter. The second pillar is its subsidiary American First Finance (AFF), which provides retailers with point-of-sale payment solutions, mainly lease-to-own products aimed at consumers with limited access to traditional credit. FirstCash thus serves cash- and credit-constrained customers and benefits from demand for its services that tends to hold up even during periods of economic slowdown.