Why is MoneyGram recognizing Ripple's payments as a contra expense?

On Tuesday, MoneyGram announced its 4Q19 financial results. Within the press release, the remittance company stated that it had received $8.9 million in fees from distributed ledger startup Ripple within the quarter, up from the $2.4 million in fees recognized during  3Q19.

“Revenue was $323.7 million, a decline of 6% from the fourth quarter 2018. Revenue excludes $8.9 million of benefit from Ripple, which will be accounted for as a contra expense rather than revenue based on a recent consultation with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” MoneyGram stated in the 4Q19 earnings press release. “[Fees from Ripple] is now accounted for as offset to operating expenses, in Transaction and Operations Support and is no longer included in revenue.”