Fiserv, Inc. (FISV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Fiserv Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would now like to introduce Denis O'Leary, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Thank you, and good morning. Today's meeting is being held online due to the continued risks presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will conduct the business portion of our meeting first. After the formal meeting has adjourned, our Chief Executive Officer, will provide a business update and answer shareholder questions. Please note that the rules of the meeting and information regarding forward-looking statements are available on the meeting website. As noted in the rules of conduct, only shareholders who joined the meeting using a valid control number may submit questions via the meeting website. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question on a matter relevant to this meeting. We may address questions that are not answered during the meeting by responding on an individual basis or by posting answers on the company's website. Please note that this meeting is being recorded, and an archive will be available on our website following the meeting. Before we address the meeting, allow me to introduce my fellow Board members in attendance today: Frank Bisignano, our President and CEO; Alison Davis; Henrique De Castro, Harry DiSimone; Dennis Lynch; Heidi Miller; Scott Nuttall; Doyle Simons; and Kevin Warren. In addition, we're joined by Bob Hau, our Chief Financial Officer; and Shub Mukherjee, our Head of Investor Relations. Also with us today representing Deloitte & Touche is James Stuart, who will be available as needed during the question-and-answer session. It is now shortly after 10:00 a.m. Central Time on May 19, 2021, and I hereby call this meeting to order. The polls are now open for voting. Any shareholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking the voting button on the meeting website and following the instructions. No further action is necessary for shareholders who have sent in proxies or already voted during the Internet or by telephone methods. The Board of Directors has fixed March 22, 2021, as the record date for the determination of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. [ Chris Sundberg ] is acting as our third-party inspector of elections at this meeting. [ Ms. Sundberg ] has informed me that over 91% of the company's outstanding shares as of record date are present and therefore, we have a quorum. Because we have a quorum, this meeting is now legally convened. I will now present the matters to be voted upon, the proposals. The first matter of business is to vote upon the election of the director nominees identified in the proxy statement to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The second matter of business is to vote upon a resolution to approve on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers. The third matter of business is to ratify the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's indirect -- its independent auditor for 2021. The votes authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders are hereby cast as follows: for each of the Board's nominees; for the resolution to approve the compensation of our named executive officers; and for the appointment of Deloitte & Touche. As a reminder, any shareholder who has not yet voted should do so now by clicking the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions. I will pause briefly to allow time for voting. [Voting]

I now declare the polls for the 2021 Annual Shareholder Meeting closed. We have been informed by the inspector of election that the preliminary vote report shows that all of the proposals received at least the majority of the votes cast and that, therefore, the nominees for election to the Board of Directors have been duly elected, the compensation of our named executive officers has been approved and the appointment of Deloitte & Touche is ratified. We will report the final vote results in a Form 8-K after the meeting. The secretary of the company did not receive proper notice of any other business or proposal to come before the meeting as of February 15, 2021, as required by our bylaws. As there's no further business, the formal meeting is now adjourned. Frank will now provide a brief update and handle the Q&A.

Thank you, Denis. Good morning, everyone. In 2020, our financial performance was impacted by the effects of COVID-19 on the global economy. Even so, our results were impressive. And while not reflective of our original expectations, demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business model. As reflected in the meeting materials, for the year, we delivered $13.9 billion in adjusted revenue and achieved flat internal revenue growth. Solid revenue performance, combined with excellent execution on cost synergies and strong productivity gains across the organization enabled us to expand our adjusted operating margin by 170 basis points and drove free cash flow in excess of $3.6 billion. Finally, we grew adjusted earnings per share by 12% to $4.42, thus achieving our 35th consecutive year of double-digit adjusted EPS growth. I'm proud of the collective effort it took on the part of every Fiserv associate around the world to achieve these strong results. Our high-quality integration efforts before and during the pandemic also allowed us to increase and accelerate progress against our merger-related synergy execution targets, and we invested in innovative products and solutions. We raised our client satisfaction scores across all measures in 2020. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis, we continued our focus on innovation with a view to elevating the client experience. In 2020, this approach served us well as it became abundantly clear that a digital-first mindset is a necessity for businesses of all types and sizes to meet their customers' rapidly evolving expectations. Our investments in this regard -- our investments in this regard allowed Fiserv to execute for our clients at world-class speed. Our people are our biggest asset, and we prioritize their health and well-being to ensure their safety, all while ensuring we are supporting our clients in every possible way. We continue to invest in our people platform and in the midst of a changing environment and the ongoing merger integration, we achieved top quartile employee engagement scores among other Fortune 500 companies. For the eighth year in a row, we're honored to be recognized as a Fortune's World's Most Admired Company. COVID-19 is still deeply impacting several parts of the world. However, we're excited about the strong business momentum we have as reflected in the 2021 and medium-term outlooks we've recently provided. As we look ahead, we remain focused on our commitment to excellence for our people and our clients and creating sustainable long-term shareholder value. With that, let's move on to Q&A. Shub, what questions have we received?

Thank you, Frank. We received a few questions wanting to know more about Fiserv's efforts to increase diversity on the Board of Directors and in senior management, including greater female representation.

Our commitment to diversity inclusion starts at the top and recognizing and advancing diverse leadership is one of our top priorities. In 2020, we committed to a Forward Together plan to enhance our existing diversity and inclusion programs and our commitment to cultivating a diverse respectful and inclusive workplace. As part of that Forward Together plan, we developed an inclusive leadership program to strengthen our focus and capabilities and more clearly define expectations around building an inclusive environment. The framework for the inclusive leadership has been built into our new hire orientation, leadership programs and online curriculum. We also continue to support a Leading Women program that is designed to accelerate the growth of top female associates and strengthen the Fiserv pipeline of talent, enabling diversity of thought and innovation throughout the company. We continue to partner with a broader group of organizations to expand our outreach to diverse candidates, including historically black colleges and universities and military and veterans organizations. And finally, the Board of Directors amended our governance guidelines requiring that the initial list of candidates or any new independent Director or outside Chief Executive Officer candidate include qualified female and racially ethnically diverse candidates.

Thank you, Frank. There's another question here asking what Fiserv's position is regarding recent legislative efforts related to access to voting and whether the company will refrain from making contributions to political candidates who support legislation that restricts access to voting.

At Fiserv, we stand for fair and equitable access to voting in every state. We support associates who want to exercise their fundamental right to vote and encourage our associates to take what time they need to vote. Fair and equitable access to voting is at the heart of the U.S. ideals and we support the ability of every citizen to exercise this fundamental right. As described in our proxy statement, the Board of Directors has enhanced our governance regarding political contributions, including charging our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee with oversight responsibility and approving a policy governing the procedures for making contributions and expenditures. We also plan to enhance transparency by providing an annual report of political contributions and expenditures on our website.

The next question requests that you talk about how the company's diversity and corporate social responsibility efforts can benefit our shareholders.

We believe a diverse and inclusive workforce brings new ideas and unique points of view that lead to innovation and the best solutions for our clients, all of which contribute to long-term shareholder value. Developing a diverse supplier base also significantly broadens our access to talented business partners while driving innovation, competition and business value. We invest in the communities where we and our clients live and work. Stronger communities allow our clients to thrive, which in turn creates new opportunities for us. For example, we committed $50 million as part of our Back2Business program to support minority-owned businesses, which have been especially hard-hit during the pandemic. Our Back2Business program is a key part of our focus on strengthening the payments and fintech ecosystem. Through our Fiserv Gives Back program, our company and associates engage in philanthropy and volunteerism. We view this as a natural extension of Fiserv values that underpin our business strategy and success as an organization.

The last question that we will have time for today is whether Fiserv plans to pay a dividend.

We have a long maintained a disciplined capital allocation strategy and a commitment to return value to our shareholders. Our capital deployment philosophy remains to: invest in our business for organic growth, look for M&A opportunities that can add value to our clients and shareholders, maintain a very strong balance sheet, return excess cash to shareholders through a consistent share repurchase program. Those are the questions for which we have time today. If you have any additional questions, please contact our IR team. Thank you for joining us for the annual meeting and for your continued support.

The Fiserv Annual Meeting of Shareholders has ended. You may now leave the virtual meeting. Thank you.