Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. Thank you, Stephanie, for agreeing to do that. We've known each other for a long time. So I'm very pleased to have Stephanie Ferris here, CEO of FIS. Stephanie Ferris is CEO of FIS and President as well as a member of the Board of Directors. She formerly served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of FIS. She's an experienced global business executive with expertise in the repayment and technology platform businesses as well as driving digital transformation, frontline customer engagement and inclusive growth. Stephanie is also a multiple award-winning finance leader who has led through a range of roles with experience in transforming underperforming businesses into high-growth portfolios. I agree with that. She was the Chief Financial Officer of Payments Processing division of Fifth Third Corp, which then later spun out to become Vantiv and then Worldpay and she also held multiple other progressive financial leadership roles at Fifth Third. So we're very honored to have you today, Stephanie, thank you for being here.

Thank you. Happy to be here. I need to lighten up my bio. It seems a little long.

And -- but successful.

Thank you. Thank you.

Long but successful. And yes, what a huge turnaround of the business over the last few years. So we have some questions that we prepared. And I guess, at the end, if there are any questions from the audience, that would be great. So maybe what are you seeing in terms of the macro environment and the sales cycle? You sounded very confident on client implementations and revenue acceleration in banking for the year. Where is that confidence coming from?

Yes. Let me start broadly about market and how we're seeing sales activities. There's a difference between headlines and trend lines. And so what I would say is there's lots of things happening in the headlines. But overall, what we see generally is people really focused on, even with the amount of uncertainty growing their business. And when you think about where FIS serves, whether it's our banking business or our corporates or our capital markets business, we really run the technology that runs -- we run the software that runs their businesses. And so the actual sales pipelines continue to be very robust, even with all the uncertainty that you see around the globe with respect to post Liberation Day. So I'd say that first and foremost. The second thing I would say and with respect to banking, we spent a little bit of time in the fourth quarter talking about a couple of implementations, not sales but implementations that had moved from 2024 into 2025. And I'm thrilled to report that all those implementations are live and the subsequent revenues are rolling through. So feel really good about that. Don't have any concerns around implementations or implementations in general. And overall, the banking sales pipeline continues to be strong because remember, where we serve in the banking business is around how to grow, protect and run your business. So in banking, that really means digital banking, payments, core banking and technology that's really critical for you to either grow the bank or run the bank. And so it's not discretionary. And so in that scenario, the pipelines continue to be very robust.

Great. And I know that ever since you spun off Worldpay, you don't have much exposure to the consumer. But just wondered if you've seen any change recently in spending across your debit processing business.

Yes. So you're exactly right. So we did sell the rest of our Worldpay business. So the merchant acquiring side of our business were due to close in sometime next year. But we do have a pretty significant debit card processing business where the majority of our revenues are made of transactions, not of sales volume. Consumer spend is consistent with what you've heard from all my competitors and what you're hearing from Visa, Mastercard and generally in the market consumers are hanging in there. Transactions continue to grow at what I would say, pretty consistent paces. You had your normal leap year in the first quarter and Easter in April and so you have ups and downs there. But consumer spend is fine. Everything is still looking good. I don't see any ups or downs or any inconsistencies or trends and very consistent in our portfolio is what you're hearing from the rest of the industry, which I think is really good, albeit again with a lot of concerns around inflation and unemployment. But for right now, it's hanging in there.

It's good news.

It is good news.

And maybe shift gears a little bit to AI. So AI is a huge focus of this conference. Can you maybe update us on how FIS is approaching AI and any initiatives you have in place?

Yes. So I think that -- it's super interesting having been around fintech for a long time. AI is probably the only technology I've ever seen financial services jump to adopt as fast as the rest of the industry, which is a lot of opportunity for us. No matter if I'm talking about banks outside the U.S. or inside the U.S., everybody is looking at how to change their operations, either drive more revenue growth or become more efficient and effective in their back office. So that's very exciting for us as obviously a partner to the financial services industry because usually, we're -- we like to be slow adopters. With respect to GenAI at FIS, very consistent with what I said previously. The first thing we're doing is, in particular, looking at how we embed GenAI in our products to make them better. Most recently, we announced a, for example, Treasury ChatGPT product which helps the treasury services become much more knowledgeable quicker in that product. We have all kinds of other products we have been announcing that have GenAI enabled in them. So the first thing we're doing is really focusing on which products we think are going to drive a better outcome faster and putting them in market for our customers to consume. We're spending our own engineering time on that. The second is more in the back office part of the world where probably like others, you've heard, we are -- have implemented GenAI technologies through our development organizations, driving productivity there. We have implemented GenAI capabilities through our contact centers, making sure that those not only deliver a lower cost but probably more importantly, a better customer outcome. We continue to deploy GenAI capabilities throughout the firm. And it's been really interesting in terms of the way people are using them and we do see increases in productivity. I think there's a lot of opportunity here as we continue to evolve, probably just like everybody else. But we're really focusing from my chair on those 3. One, how do we drive GenAI into our products; two, how do we really help our technology organizations develop and deliver faster and how do we help our operational functions serve the clients better and become more efficient.

And I don't know if anyone's noticed but there's been some volatility in the markets recently.

Really? I didn't know.

And yes -- and so I'm here to deliver the news, as always.

Oh, thank you.

And what does volatility mean for your capital markets business? And are you exposed to asset flows and AUM trading volatility as well?

Yes, it's a great question because we serve -- our software does transact the majority of -- a lot of the markets. We don't get paid based on AUM. We don't get paid on number of trades. It really is generally Software-as-a-Service So we don't go up and down with levels of trading activity. I will say, and we didn't have to wait for you to tell us, Dan, we have seen record-breaking transactions flowing across the platform. And we've been really happy with the resiliency that we've had across our technology as well as our customers. I think we should be really proud of the financial services industry and frankly, the financial technology industry because regardless of all the volatility, it's really performing as we expected. And so really proud of that. But in terms of impact on our revenue, that's not how we make money. And so it doesn't have a big impact on our financial model.

Understood. And maybe last question on capital markets and banking. So how are you seeing -- let's talk a little bit about pricing. How are you thinking about the pricing environment across both banking and capital markets? And is this still a big opportunity for FIS going forward?

Yes. So pricing has been an interesting category since I've taken over as CEO. I think the capital market side of the business has been able to use pricing in terms of delivering better products and getting a better pricing uplift. And it's been a net revenue grower for them, not as much so on the banking side, especially as you think about the inflation we've had. So we had let a lot of those CPI escalators go. I still think banking is a net opportunity for us. We really, though, need to make sure that we're delivering a great set of products and services to make that net pricing impact go up. But I do think there's still an opportunity to drive revenue growth in banking. The challenge in banking is they are 5- to 10-year contracts. So we've been working and putting a lot of new sales and new contractual terms into our contracts but those net benefits come through as those contracts renew and we see those revenues.

Makes sense. And maybe let's shift gears to TSYS Issuer Solutions business and the sale of the Worldpay payment processing business. So maybe just to kind of highlight what does the issuer solution, i.e., TSYS bring to the table for the banking business and maybe something that you didn't have before? And also, why are you potentially the better owner for this asset than the former owner, Global Payments?

Yes. So we're very excited about the transaction where we are selling the remaining 45% of the Worldpay business to Global Payments. It will make them a very large merchant acquirer and allows them to really focus on what they do best, which is merchant acquiring for all sizes of merchants up and down the scale. At the same time, we're buying their TSYS or issuer processing business, which is primarily focused on doing credit card processing for the largest banks really in the U.S. But they also have a big international presence, which much more aligns with where we are focused as FIS, which is serving financial institutions and corporates all around the world but generally of large size. So what I'd say is, the 2 companies, to answer your last question probably, are now focused more specifically in the areas where they have the majority of their business. Our -- majority of our business is in financial institutions. The majority of Global Payments, Worldpay combination will be in merchant acquiring. So I think generally, we think that makes a lot of sense and we're both probably the better homes for those. In terms of what TSYS or the issuer processing business brings to FIS. So FIS has a very, very large and successful payments business. And our core banking business is also very large and serves the larger set of financial institutions. We've been talking about payments as a growth vector for us and needing to not only grow debit but also grow credit, grow money movement, grow loyalty, premium payback as ways that we will continue to drive the banking revenue growth from 3% to 4% to 5%. So when you think about that, we looked across our portfolio of products, we have credit card processing for small financial institutions. We did not have capabilities for credit card processing for large financial institutions. And these are our customers today on the core banking and debit card side. We just didn't have the product set and capability to be able to serve them on the credit side. And so when you think about the TSYS or the issuer processing acquisition for us, it's a complementary product capability that builds out the entire product landscape for our large financial institutions. So it's -- we don't compete with TSYS today at all. We do credit card processing for small banks. They do not. And so we think it's a perfect combination, whereby we have a lot of the same customers but we never competed because the products are completely different. So we're very excited, as you can imagine, about adding this into our product suite. And our customers are also very excited because when you're a large financial institution, you're pretty keen to make sure that you are having a partner on the other side that is scaled, resilient, has a lot of cybersecurity. And most importantly, they're looking to have less partners versus more. And so to the extent that we can provide more product capability, depth and breadth to our existing customers, that's a great opportunity for us.

And maybe kind of touching a little bit more on M&A. As you think about your portfolio of businesses in banking, is there anything else missing that you think you need to acquire? And overall, how does the M&A pipeline looking for '25? We've seen some IPOs but we haven't seen much activity in M&A yet.

You mean TSYS wasn't big enough for you?

Well, we knew this was coming. I'm talking about surprises.

Okay. You want to get surprised.

We predicted the TSYS.

Oh, you predicted it. You knew it. You knew it. So in terms of -- let me take a step back. So we obviously are excited about the 3-way transaction that we think is really a great outcome for our clients and our investors and our colleagues. But generally, what we've said prior to the closing of that transaction and then after the subsequent debt paydown is, we are running the business consistent and the capital allocation very consistently with what we've already said, which is to do M&A acquisitions in the $1 billion range, share repurchases for our commitments and dividends. So our capital allocation strategy has not changed even with the ultimate closing of TSYS. And in fact, we think it's -- provides us an even more -- it's a better outcome because selling the Worldpay business was really noncash generating and a minority investment and acquiring the TSYS acquisition enables us to get a cash-generating asset with complementary product that ultimately lets us deploy more capital in the future. All to say, we expect this year to deploy about $1 billion worth of M&A capital. You can probably assume that will be consistent with what we've been doing over the last 18 months, which is generally small product add-ons within our capabilities and where we're trying to grow. So if you think about some of the transactions we've done, we bought a digital capability to help our banking business continue to grow in the digital side of the bank -- in the commercial side of the bank. We bought some asset management servicing capabilities that were nicely synergistic with our trading, processing and asset services business and capital markets. And so you can expect to continue to see us spend about $1 billion more in the small M&A category prior to us closing on TSYS and then after we get that debt paid down.

And in terms of post that acquisition, banking is now about 3/4 or 75% of your revenue. Is capital markets still as strategic to you as it was before the deal?

Even more so. So if you think about capital markets, the majority of those customers are large financial institutions and large corporates. Those large financial institutions -- and this is why the capital markets and banking business, we think, are so synergistic together. If you're a large financial institution, you're typically doing trading and processing and wealth and lending and credit card processing and debit card processing. So it's even more relevant. It's not a business that's completely separate. The majority of our customers, especially the capital markets that are large, are the same customers on the banking side. So I think it continues to fortify and solidify that large financial institution global landscape for us and excited about TSYS because, like I said, it brings in large financial institutions in the U.S.. But also expands our international revenues a bit more because they are -- they have a very big footprint for issuer processing outside the U.S. that we do not either.

Got it. And in terms of the regulatory environment, like what are the regulatory milestones that we need to think about going forward for these deals to close? And what happens if, God forbid, 1 of the 2 transactions is not approved?

Yes. So there's 2 different transactions going through regulatory. They have to go through all the same regulatory approvals. The first one is Global Payments buying Worldpay. And then the next one is FIS buying the issuer business. We're in the process of applying to all the regulatory bodies, have to obviously go through -- both of these businesses are global. So we'll go through all the global regulatory bodies, U.S., U.K., Canada, et cetera. We don't expect there to be any issue. We think the timing is what will take a bit longer just because of the complexity of the current environment and the complexity of the 2 transactions together. But other than time, we don't expect there to be any issue and are working together to make sure that happens. We also don't -- on our side of the business, again, we don't compete with TSYS in any way. So we don't see any of that holding up anything with respect to a competitive issue. And we have the right amount of contractual language that will continue to work through whatever issue arises and get through the regulatory approval process.

And you talked about the benefits of the Issuer Solutions acquisition and why it makes strategic sense. But doesn't this also make you more sensitive to consumer spending given the leverage you have to credit card spending right now?

Yes, that's a great question. For those of you who don't follow the issuer processing business that Global Payments does break out in a separate segment, the majority of their revenue comes off transactions. It's not off a dollar volume activity. And so whether consumer spend goes up and down, they're not generally aligned and have that volatility going through their P&L. It's around transactions. Now obviously, in economic booms and busts, there's obviously, we all have more credit or less credit or more debit and less credit or less debit. So there is some volatility depending upon how big the growth areas and how low the recession is. But even if you look back at their historical growth rates during the Great Recession, they still grew. People still used credit. So I think it's a little bit more exposure than debit transparently. But given that they don't really price on volume, I think it's less sensitive than you would expect.

Got it. And maybe let's talk a little bit about the synergies. Can you give us some examples of the revenue synergies that you're expecting to benefit post transaction close? And more specifically, are there any big difference between the 3-year revenue synergies of $45 million and $125 million long term? And why is there such a wide range between those 2 synergy targets?

Yes. So we were -- we tried to be fairly conservative when we gave the $45 million and even the $125 million. Again, if you recall, their business is the top 10 or 15 financial institutions in the U.S. These are long-term contractual arrangements. And so we think there's a big opportunity to cross-sell our loyalty products, which are premium payback products, our debit products into their base and vice versa. But we also were very cognizant of the fact that these are long-term clients. They have contracts that come up over a natural retention period. And so we didn't want to get over our skis in terms of the expectations of getting that in because it will come with a natural renewal cycle. So we're very, very excited about the opportunities on revenue. We think they're obviously conservatively more than what we talked about externally but we also wanted to be very conservative given how long the contract cycles are with these customers.

And I had one more question left. And so are your long-term capital allocation priorities different now -- having -- after the deal? And how should we be thinking about your openness to larger acquisitions?

Yes. They have not changed. What I would say and I think we were really clear with the agencies about this as well, we expect to close the TSYS transaction and then we will do no M&A from the time we close it until which point we can get our debt paid down to something below 3x, in the 2.8x range, which is consistent with where we've been. We do expect that to happen pretty quickly. As I mentioned, the issuer acquisition is about $2 billion of revenue, $1 billion EBITDA. It's a nice cash flow piece of business. So we think we'll be able to get our debt paid down pretty quickly. And then once we do that, we will go back to our normally committed capital allocation activities. So no change other than the period we think we'll need to get the debt paid down. And again, we think the share repurchase activity is right on target for this year and will be post getting debt paid down. The dividends are on track. And then we do expect to close on our $1 billion worth of M&A. So kind of business as usual.

Got it. Well, these were all my questions. Any other questions? Okay.

Can you hear me? Good. Perfect. Thank you, Stephanie. So you've mentioned M&A a number of times. You talked about the $1 billion number a couple of times, talked about the leverage just now. I'm just curious, are there particular sectors within fintech that you are most attracted? Are there sectors that you don't want to go near? And are there financial profiles of companies having just mentioned EBITDA that are particularly attractive and those that you won't consider?

Yes, it's a great question. All -- everything that we're looking at is aligned to the places that we said we were going to grow in our Investor Day, which are payments, digital, lending. And if you look at even the items that we've done over the last 18 months, they've been aligned there. So we bought a company called Demica, which is asset finance, right in the sweet spot in the lending space, a company called Dragonfly, which allows us to continue our digital capabilities in the banking space upmarket. And well, TSYS is a little bit of payments. But I'd say we're sticking to our knitting really around what can help us advance those growth verticals. What you're not seeing us do is just general consolidation, which is EBITDA delivering. We're really wanting to make sure that we are focused on delivering what we committed in the Investor Day, which is driving the overall revenue growth of the company up while also at the same time, making sure we deliver the margins and straight to the bottom line. So it's always a balance in terms of buying those product sets and making sure that the values make sense. There's absolutely a return profile, 100%, there's a return profile. I mean we look at everything in terms of it needs to return much better than share repurchase. Otherwise, we wouldn't that. It has to have strategic value. It has to be pinned to our Investor Day commitments that we made to all of you. And then there's a cultural part of every acquisition, which is we need to make sure that we can integrate it very quickly. And generally, what we're buying is, we put it on our platform, we can drive as much margin as possible given they're small and take out the costs and then add it into our distribution channel and really try to drive revenue growth through the distribution channel. And I would say that's really worked pretty effectively. I think that we've gotten the flywheel going in that scenario and we feel really confident about being able to repeat that play over and over.

Well. So on behalf of Mizuho, thank you so much for attending our tech conference and we look forward to having you again next year.

Great. Thanks for coming. Thanks, everybody.