FIS is planning to follow the integration of its Worldpay acquisition by adding hundreds of new sales people to bring the combined companies' technology to a wider market.
FIS reported it had 76% growth in new sales in the merchant solutions category in the first quarter, while also completing final client migrations to its new acquiring platform, or NAP, which is built in part on technology obtained from the company's
This new platform "absolutely allows us to lean forward on the balls of our feet more," Gary Norcross, the company's chairman and CEO, said Thursday during an earnings call.
In the first quarter of 2021, NAP processed more than 1.8 billion transactions, a figure FIS expects to grow now that it is aggressively selling the platform in the marketplace. FIS plans to add 300 new salespeople in the merchant solutions category alone, Norcross said.
Transaction volume grew quickly through the Simple API Gateway, a single point of access, ending the first quarter at more than 4 million transactions per day moving through the gateway, Norcross added.
FIS's introduction of the RealNet payments connectivity platform also will help FIS clients connect to real-time payments rails across the globe, while increasing use cases for faster payments options, Norcross noted.
FIS added nine new countries into its market mix since the Worldpay acquisition in late 2019, with South Africa, Nigeria and Malaysia added in the first quarter of 2021.
In the merchant segment, FIS reported first quarter revenue at $966 million, a 3% increase year-over-year, citing pandemic rebounds in North America and growth in e-commerce clients.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based company cited the COVID-19 impact on travel and airlines, as well as continued lockdowns in the U.K. during the quarter as creating a headwind of approximately 5% in the quarter.
Other key merchant developments for FIS included gaining Didi, a ride-share company in China similar to Uber, as a platform client, while also adding 20 new independent software vendor partners in the U.K. across retail, hospitality, salon, event management and other verticals.
During the pandemic, FIS centered its focus on
"The merchant space, over the course of history, has always been a very competitive space," Bruce Lowthers, president of FIS, said during the call. "The pandemic has created an accelerant to the marketplace and as we look at it, we see subsegments that have emerged within the merchant vertical."
FIS operates well in the enterprise commerce space, with the "large scale and complex stuff" with multicountry transactions, while the sub-segments are areas in which FIS can now engage."
The banking solutions segment remained strong with $1.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter, a 7% bump from $1.4 billion the prior year.
FIS landed BMO Harris as a client, adding the major bank to its cloud-based banking platform designed to work with or begin replacing legacy systems. It also added BIDV, one of the largest banks in Vietnam, to modernize its services and speed up product to market through the FIS platform.
The company's crypto banking solution has become more ingrained as part of the core FIS platform, helping clients use cryptocurrency services through advanced digital functions.
FIS said first-quarter revenue rose 5% from a year earlier to $3.2 billion. Operating income was $99 million, versus $108 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose 5% from a year earlier to $1.3 billion.
