Overview
Fidelity Information Services (FIS) is firmly in the retail payments space, with a long-standing pedigree, much of it in the US, and a wide suite of applications. To a large degree, this has come via acquisitions, particularly those of Certegy and eFunds. When FIS merged with Metavante in 2009, this brought additional systems, particularly the Nomad-derived debit card solution, Cortex, which now has a central role in FIS's overall payments product strategy.
The suite clearly comprises a mix of applications with different roots and of different ages and technology. FIS is seeking to apply web services and a common look and feel through a 'wrapper' approach, with Cortex contributing to this. FIS also has core banking systems (including the mainframe-based Systematics, Sanchez-derived Profile, German-specific Kordoba, trade
finance/low-end universal-oriented AllProfits, and Danish rural bank-derived Corebank plus syndicated lending offering, ACBS, and delivery channels solution, Touchpoint). In the US, it is a major provider of outsource processing, often with its payments offerings as part of the overall solution.
Payments products:
Fidelity Information Services (FIS) is firmly in the retail payments space, with a long-standing pedigree, much of it in the US, and a wide suite of applications. To a large degree, this has come via acquisitions, particularly those of Certegy and eFunds. When FIS merged with Metavante in 2009, this brought additional systems, particularly the Nomad-derived debit card solution, Cortex, which now has a central role in FIS's overall payments product strategy.
The suite clearly comprises a mix of applications with different roots and of different ages and technology. FIS is seeking to apply web services and a common look and feel through a 'wrapper' approach, with Cortex contributing to this. FIS also has core banking systems (including the mainframe-based Systematics, Sanchez-derived Profile, German-specific Kordoba, trade
finance/low-end universal-oriented AllProfits, and Danish rural bank-derived Corebank plus syndicated lending offering, ACBS, and delivery channels solution, Touchpoint). In the US, it is a major provider of outsource processing, often with its payments offerings as part of the overall solution.
Payments products:
- Connex,
- IST/Switch,
- Data Navigator,
- IST/Clearing,
- IST/MAS,
- Fraud Navigator,
- Liability Manager,
- EnterpriseView,
- Cortex,
- CSF
Categories:
- Retail payments processing,
- Card management (credit, debit, smartcard, prepaid),
- Fraud management,
- Cheque image processing
Summary History
February 2003: Fidelity National Financial (FNF) buys Alltel Information Services for $1.05 billion to create Fidelity Information Services (FIS). Alltel brought mortgage servicing and retail banking operations, commercial lending, online banking and wholesale banking offerings, and community and regional bank divisions. For the first time, it gave FNF an international business.
September 2004: FNF drops plans to file for a $500 million IPO, citing 'a weak and unpredictable equity market' and its recent acquisition of Intercept, which provided outsourced and in-house banking solutions for 425 community banks, plus item processing and cheque imaging services for 720 customers.
January 2005: FNF undertakes a $500 million recapitalisation programme, selling a 25 per cent stake to equity firms Thomas H Lee Partners and Texas Pacific Group.
September 2005: FIS merges with Florida-based card and cheque processing vendor, Certegy. The arrangement is based on a stock-for-stock deal, and gives FIS majority control of the new combined public company, to be known as Fidelity National Information Services (FNIS). FIS gains a 67.5 per cent stake, while Certegy shareholders pick up 32.5 per cent. FNF owns half of the new company.
The merger finally lay to rest FIS's long-running search for a way to go public. Although FIS was the acquirer from an ownership perspective, the company merges into Certegy as a public company.
February 2006: From 1st February, FNIS becomes operational as a spun-off company from FNF Inc., with estimated revenues of $4 billion, 19,000 employees and over 60,000 customers. While much of the focus was on organic growth, it was stated that FNIS would have 'its own currency' – its stock – and would actively pursue other opportunities. A little under half of the ownership of FNIS remained with FNF. The aim was to turn FNF more or less into a holding company, with the other
businesses also being turned into separate companies. One key aim would be to take some of the applications and processes in the US and move them out into the international market.
July 2007: FNIS acquires payments processor EFD/eFunds Corporation of Arizona. The all-cash transaction was valued at $1.8 billion. EFD had been spun off by US paper cheque printer Deluxe Corporation in 2000. The company had total revenues of $552 million in 2006.
Fidelity gained three lines of business: US payments, US risk management, and international. EFD's US payments line gave Fidelity a strong ATM, debit, prepaid, and gift card processing business, as well as smaller operations that processed ACH and electronic government benefits transactions. EFD's processing platforms utilised the vendor's own technology, including the
Connex and IST electronic funds transfer software packages.EFD's international business line marketed its software and provided ATM and debit card processing, with an emphasis on
Central and Eastern Europe and south Asia. Thirteen per cent of EFD's revenues came from its international business, 34 per cent from US risk management, and 53 per cent from US payments. EFD had a customer base of about 4400 community banks and credit unions, around double that of FIS.
EFD also had a prepaid card platform, which FIS was lacking. Fidelity also lacked ATM and debit card processing services outside of the US. The acquisition also brought together EFD's large outsourcing operation in India with Fidelity's recently expanded offshore presence there, having acquired a company called Second Foundation in India earlier in the year.
January 2008: Metavante buys UK-based prepaid cards and debit card processing specialist, Nomad Software, for $58 million.
1st April 2009: FNIS acquires Metavante, creating a colossus in the US payment and financial core processing sector, bringing together 8000 customers from the former and 14,000 from the latter. On the payments side, Metavante Payment Solutions had offerings for fraud prevention/monitoring and risk management. Metavante also had an ATM/PIN-debit network, NYCE, mobile financial services, online bill pay, government payments, credit and debit payment cards, merchant-issued and networkbranded prepaid cards (derived from Nomad), as well as ACH and check image processing. Metavante also offered consumer healthcare payment solutions for patients, providers, plan administrators and financial institutions. And it had core banking, ebanking and AML solutions, among others outside its Payment Solutions business.
February 2011: FIS acquires Gifts Software. The latter had been around since 1996. The deal added wire transfer, Swift interface and AML offerings. While the latter product has an international user base, users of the rest of the Gifts' suite are largely in the US (domestic banks and international operations of foreign banks). There was already a partnership between FIS and Gifts. The back office wire transfer space was seen as a gap in the offerings of FIS and Metavante. FIS has started to offer
the Gifts solutions on an ASP basis. The wire transfer product, which includes Chips and Fedwire support, has also been linked to a range of FIS core systems, initially those that are US-centric, as well as to its e-banking offerings. Gail Angel, FIS’s head of commercial treasury solutions, indicated in November 2011 that the company was also considering setting up a Swift service
bureau.
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