SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Usio, Inc. ("Usio" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:USIO), a leading FinTech company that operates a full stack of integrated, cloud-based electronic payment and embedded financial solutions, today announced that Linda Loof has joined the Company as Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.

Loof’s appointment adds a highly experienced payments executive to Usio’s leadership team at a pivotal time in the Company’s growth strategy. She will be responsible for expanding and deepening relationships with financial institutions, fintechs, technology providers and other strategic partners, with a focus on creating new distribution channels, increasing platform utilization and identifying opportunities that can translate Usio’s payments infrastructure into incremental revenue and long-term shareholder value.

"Linda is exactly the type of strategic leader we want on the Usio team as we enter our next phase of growth," said Louis Hoch, Chief Executive Officer of Usio. "She has spent her career building partnerships across banking, payments and fintech, and she understands how to turn those relationships into real business opportunities. Her network, industry credibility and experience with bank-fintech partnerships gives Usio another powerful avenue to expand our reach, accelerate adoption of our platform and create new sources of recurring revenue. We are extremely pleased to have Linda join us."

Loof brings more than two decades of payments and financial-services experience, with a career focused on strategic partnership management, business development and the commercialization of payment and banking technologies. Her background includes senior leadership roles at Pathward Financial (fka MetaBank, dba Meta Payment Systems) and TransPecos Banks, where she worked with financial institutions, fintech companies, payment networks and technology providers.

At Meta Payment Systems, Loof served as SVP of Strategic Accounts, where her work included strategic relationships within the prepaid and payments ecosystem. She is well known within the payments industry as an innovator and holds the respect not only within the payments industry but also with financial regulators and card associations.

At TransPecos Banks, Loof served in senior partnership and business-development roles, including Head of Card Programs and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development. In that capacity, she was involved in helping fintech and payments companies connect with regulated banking infrastructure. She also represented TransPecos Banks in the launch of The Clearing House’s RTP® Network, to leverage the broader evolution toward faster, API-driven money movement.

"Usio has an impressive combination of payment acceptance, card issuing, ACH processing, a payment facilitation platform-as-a-service model, electronic bill presentment and payment,and print and mail capabilities," said Loof. "I see significant opportunity to leverage those capabilities through stronger strategic partnerships. I am excited to work with the Usio team to build relationships that expand distribution, create new use cases and help more financial institutions, fintechs, governments and businesses access modern payment infrastructure."

The Company believes the addition of Loof can strengthen Usio’s ability to pursue partnership-led growth across multiple areas of its business. Her experience working with banks and fintechs is particularly relevant as financial institutions increasingly seek technology partners that can help them deliver modern payment experiences without having to build and maintain the underlying infrastructure themselves.

The Company’s payment facilitation platform-as-a-service model is designed to allow partners to incorporate payment capabilities into their own products and customer experiences.

"Our objective is not simply to add more partners," Hoch added. "We want to build partnerships that increase transaction volume, expand our addressable market and make Usio more deeply embedded in the financial workflows of our customers and partners. Linda’s experience aligns directly with that strategy. We believe her appointment can help us move faster and be more deliberate about where we deploy our technology, our people and our capital."

Loof’s appointment also reinforces Usio’s broader strategy of leveraging its technology infrastructure through partnership channels rather than relying solely on direct customer acquisition. The Company expects strategic partnerships to remain an important component of its efforts to increase transaction volumes, diversify revenue opportunities and improve operating leverage as its platform scales.

About Usio, Inc.

Usio, Inc. (NASDAQ:USIO), a leading, cloud-based, integrated FinTech electronic payment solutions provider, offers a wide range of payment solutions to merchants, billers, banks, service bureaus, integrated software vendors and card issuers. The Company operates credit, debit/prepaid, and ACH payment processing platforms to deliver convenient, world-class payment solutions and services to clients through its unique payment facilitation platform as a service. The Company, through its Usio Output Solutions division, offers services relating to electronic bill presentment, document composition, document decomposition and printing and mailing services. The strength of the Company lies in its ability to provide tailored solutions for card issuance, payment acceptance, and bill payments as well as its unique technology in the card issuing sector.

Usio is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and has offices in Austin, Texas. Websites: www.usio.com and www.akimbocard.com.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS DISCLAIMER

Except for the historical information contained herein, this release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding management’s intentions, beliefs, expectations, and strategies for the future, including statements regarding the Company’s operating and growth strategies. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "intend," "look forward," "anticipate," "schedule," "expect," and similar expressions.

These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties inherent in the Company’s business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, risk relating to economic conditions; the realization of anticipated benefits from the PostCredit acquisition; the Company’s ability to manage growth; the loss of key resellers; relationships with the Automated Clearing House network, bank sponsors, third-party card processing providers, and merchants; the security of the Company’s software, hardware, and information systems; volatility in the Company’s stock price; the need for additional financing; risks associated with new tax legislation; and compliance with complex federal, state, and local laws and regulations, as well as other risks described from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025.

One or more of these factors have affected, and in the future, could affect, the Company’s businesses and financial results and could cause actual results to differ materially from management’s plans and projections. Although the Company believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such statements which speak as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward‑looking statements, except as required by law.

Contact:

Usio Investor Relations

ir@usio.com

210-249-4055