Latest news with #Fiserv
Business Wire
21 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Small Business Sales Growth Inches Higher in May Despite Lingering Uncertainty
MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, has published the Fiserv Small Business Index for May 2025, with the seasonally-adjusted Index remaining flat at 151. Despite shifting spending patterns as consumers navigate near-term economic uncertainty, small businesses maintained solid year-over-year sales growth of (+3.3%) and total transactions rose (+3.8%). "Small businesses continue to show resilience, with May marking another month of year-over-year growth," said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer, Fiserv. "Small businesses continue to show resilience, with May marking another month of year-over-year growth," said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer, Fiserv. "The continued shift toward essential spending is now a defining trend—growing at double the rate of discretionary purchases as consumers are more intentional with their spending.' Month-over-month sales (+0.2%) also grew while declining transactions (-2.7%) reflected lower consumer foot traffic. This is the first decline of this magnitude since February 2023, when transactions fell (-2.5%) compared to the month prior. The May average ticket size increased by (+2.9%) compared to April, reflecting a shifting mix of consumer spend, changing demand patterns, and potentially higher pricing for some goods and/or services. For contrast, in the 12 months prior to May, average ticket sizes declined at a modest average rate of (-0.3%) month-over-month. Service-Based Small Businesses Drive Growth Compared to May 2024, sales of Services (+3.9%) outperformed Goods (+1.9%), a continuing trend for 2025. Growth drivers on a month-over-month basis included the Transportation and Warehousing sectors. On an annualized basis, Manufacturing and Professional Services showed the most momentum. Compared to April 2025, Services (+0.4%) showed modest growth while Goods (-0.3%) declined month-over-month, highlighting the continued consumer preference for experiences and essential services over material purchases. Despite Declining Foot Traffic, Small Business Restaurant Sales Hold Steady Small business restaurant sales grew modestly year-over-year (+1.8%). On a monthly basis, sales (+0.6%) grew while foot traffic (-5.6%) declined compared to April, with full-service restaurants experiencing the most significant drop. Consumers Continue to Be Selective in Retail Purchases Compared to 2024, small business retail sales (+0.9%) grew modestly while transactions (+2.9%) remained positive. The average ticket size declined nearly (2.0%) year-over-year, suggesting consumers are shopping more frequently but spending less per visit. This trend is likely driven by promotional shopping and deal-seeking as households continue to navigate inflationary pressures. Growth was led by Food and Beverage Retailers (+3.9%) and Clothing Retailers (+5.2%). Gasoline Stations (-5.4%) declined year over year due to significantly lower fuel prices while Health and Personal Care Retailers (-1.7%) also fell. On a monthly basis, small business retail sales (-1.0%) declined as consumers became more selective in their purchases. Regional Trends Highlight Broad-Based Small Business Strength Compared to April, small business sales grew in 30 of 50 states, indicating broad, but not universal, growth. The most aggressive month-over-month sales growth was concentrated among smaller states, led by New Mexico (+5.9%), Maryland (+3.2%), and Rhode Island (+3.1%). Year-over-year sales growth was strongest in Washington (+13.3%), South Carolina (+11.3%), and Maryland (+10.1%). Among major metropolitan areas, San Francisco (+10.0%) and Atlanta (+9.5%) were the strongest-performing large cities for small business sales growth year-over-year. Month-over-month sales growth was strongest in Dallas (+2.0%) and Chicago (+1.7%), indicating healthy momentum in key urban markets despite broader consumer caution. About the Fiserv Small Business Index ® The Fiserv Small Business Index is published during the first week of every month and differentiated by its direct aggregation of consumer spending activity within the U.S. small business ecosystem. Rather than relying on survey or sentiment data, the Fiserv Small Business Index is derived from point-of-sale transaction data, including card, cash, and check transactions in-store and online across approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses, including hundreds of thousands leveraging the Clover point-of-sale and business management platform. Benchmarked to 2019, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a numeric value measuring consumer spending, with an accompanying transaction index measuring customer traffic. Through a simple interface, users can access data by region, state, and/or across business types categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Computing a monthly index for 16 sectors and 34 sub-sectors, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a timely, reliable and consistent measure of small business performance even in industries where large businesses dominate. To access the full Fiserv Small Business Index, visit About Fiserv Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI), a Fortune 500 company, moves more than money. As a global leader in payments and financial technology, the company helps clients achieve best-in-class results through a commitment to innovation and excellence in areas including account processing and digital banking solutions; card issuer processing and network services; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing; and Clover ®, the world's smartest point-of-sale system and business management platform. Fiserv is a member of the S&P 500 ® Index and one of Fortune ® World's Most Admired Companies™. Visit and follow on social media for more information and the latest company news. FI-G
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Deep Dive: Inside the Fiserv Flywheel: By Sam Boboev
Fiserv might not grab fintech headlines like flashier startups, but this Fortune 500 financial technology provider is in the midst of a significant evolution. The company has transformed from a traditional back-office tech vendor for banks into a powerhouse of merchant payments and commerce enablement. Today, Fiserv handles over $20 billion in annual revenue and has delivered double-digit growth for decades. With a leadership transition underway and ambitious plans for its flagship platforms – Clover for small businesses and Carat for large enterprises – Fiserv's strategy and performance warrant a closer look. Why does Fiserv's evolution matter now? Because it shows how a legacy player can leverage scale, product innovation, and strategic focus to thrive in a fast-changing fintech landscape. In this deep dive, we'll unpack Fiserv's business and product strategy, zoom in on Clover and Carat (including key growth metrics), examine its push into international markets, review recent financial performance and outlook, and discuss the implications of the CEO handoff from Frank Bisignano to Mike Lyons. The picture that emerges is of a company doubling down on an integrated vision of payments and banking – and executing on that vision with notable success. Let's start with how Fiserv frames its game plan. Business and Product Strategy Overview Fiserv's overarching strategy revolves around integrating its merchant payments capabilities with its financial institution tech. After years of acquisitions (most notably its 2019 First Data merger) and internal development, Fiserv now sits 'at the intersection of commerce and banking,' according to new CEO-elect Mike Lyons. This unique model – housing merchant acquiring, point-of-sale technology, core banking systems, and digital payment networks under one roof – creates cross-selling opportunities that Fiserv is eager to exploit. Lyons observes that having the Merchant and Financial Institution businesses together allows Fiserv to 'discover new ways for these client segments to work together,' unlocking long-term growth opportunities for all parties. In practical terms, this means enabling merchants to bundle financial services (for example, offering point-of-sale lending or deposit products in conjunction with payments) and helping banks regain wallet share with small business clients by equipping them with modern payment tools. Fiserv is pushing into embedded finance as well – Lyons notes that merchants like Walmart are using multiple Fiserv solutions spanning merchant acquiring and banking technology, a trend the company plans to grow. A recent example is Fiserv's acquisition of Payfare, which brings in capabilities to embed financial services (like payouts and digital wallets) into commercial client offerings. Another core pillar of Fiserv's strategy is expanding Value-Added Services (VAS) across its client base. Rather than competing on price alone, Fiserv is deepening relationships by offering more software and services on top of payment processing. In 2024 the company introduced multiple new vertical software solutions on Clover, its small-business platform, and launched CashFlow Central℠, a new accounts payable/accounts receivable solution for business clients. Fiserv even struck partnerships like one with ADP® to sell payroll services through Clover – with ADP in turn reselling Clover and CashFlow Central – all aimed at broadening the suite of services merchants get through Fiserv. This focus on VAS not only creates new revenue streams, but also 'deepens client relationships and drives value-based (versus price-based) conversations,' Lyons explains. Fiserv's distribution strategy also sets it apart. The company has long led in bank partnerships for merchant acquiring, and it's now leveraging those ties to spread Clover and related solutions. Banks increasingly see Clover as a way to win in the SMB space against fintech challengers, Lyons notes. To capitalize on this, Fiserv rolled out an SMB Integrated Suite that bundles payment acceptance (Clover), cash management (CashFlow Central), expense management (SpendTrack), and more – and crucially, embedded this suite into Fiserv's new digital banking platform (called Experience Digital or 'XD'). In other words, a small business owner using a bank that partners with Fiserv can log into their bank's digital portal and find a one-stop dashboard for their bank accounts and their Clover-powered business applications. This tight integration makes Fiserv's offerings stickier for bank partners and SMB clients alike, and it underscores the company's vision of converging banking and commerce tech. Sources: Fiserv 2024 Annual Report and 10-K Wrap; Fiserv Investor Day 2023 Presentation; Fiserv Q1 2025 Earnings Presentation . (All data and quotations are drawn from Fiserv's official reports and presentations.) Disclaimer: Fintech Wrap Up aggregates publicly available information for informational purposes only. Portions of the content may be reproduced verbatim from the original source, and full credit is provided with a "Source: [Name]" attribution. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Fintech Wrap Up does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the aggregated content; these are the responsibility of the original source providers. Links to the original sources may not always be included. For questions or concerns, please contact us at
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Fiserv exec Gelb sells 5,652 common shares
In a regulatory filing, Fiserv (FI) executive Andrew Gelb disclosed the sale of 5,652 common shares of the company on May 28 at a price of $160 per share. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Fiserv reaffirms Clover revenue goal
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Fiserv still expects its Clover point-of-sale unit to take in $3.5 billion in revenue this year, despite disclosures during the first-quarter earnings call that suggested the fast-growing business was plateauing, Chief Financial Officer Bob Hau said at an investor conference last week. 'That's our expectation to deliver that $3.5 billion dollars, and we feel good about our ability to do that,' Hau said. 'I certainly recognize that the reported (Clover gross payment volumes) for the first quarter, and our outlook for the second quarter at 8% was a surprise, or a disappointment,' Hau acknowledged at the Barclays Emerging Payments and Fintech Forum on May 20. The volume growth flat-lining over the two quarters was due at least partly to the company focusing on 'quality' volume from small businesses that are large enough to buy additional services offered by Fiserv, with the company less interested in 'micro-merchant,' he said. 'We could get lots more volume, but that would not be the quality volume,' Hau said. Following Fiserv's first-quarter earnings report on April 24, analysts and investors wondered what the slowdown in Clover's volume might mean. For instance, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods suggested it might be a sign that Fiserv, which had developed a payments reputation similar to the 'gold standard' names Visa and Mastercard, was slipping. The Milwaukee-based company reported specifically that Clover's revenue climbed 27% over the year-earlier quarter despite the slowdown in payments volume growth. Restaurants and other merchants use the POS to take consumer payments. Hau noted in his comments last week that the first-quarter growth this year was in addition to 30% revenue growth for the first quarter of 2024, over 2023. 'Clover's rapid growth fueled optimistic valuation cases but in the most recent quarter, a sharp slowdown in Clover's payment volume growth — not revenue — sent the stock tumbling (~18%),' the Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analysts wrote in a May 17 note to their clients. 'While revenue growth remains solid (+27% in 1Q), many fear this volume inflection is the first derivative, raising concerns that the second derivative—revenue growth—could eventually follow suit.' Hau's comments came after the price of Fiserv's stock plunged following the first-quarter earnings report and the outlook provided afterward in a webcast with analysts. He delivered a preamble at the Barclays conference meant to address those investor concerns. 'Clearly, it's been a difficult stretch for all of us investors,' Hau said in those initial remarks. The challenge for the Clover service, which has been expanding at a rapid rate across geographies, comes as the company has had a change in leadership. Earlier this month, Mike Lyons became Fiserv's CEO after Frank Bisignano was confirmed as the Trump administration's new commissioner overseeing the Social Security Administration. Clover's volume slowdown could have something to do with reports earlier this month that consumer sentiment was slumping, despite a rebound reported this week. Fiserv's chief operating officer, Takis Georgakopoulos, told the Barclays audience that the economy wasn't affecting the company's outlook. 'When you look at the actual spending data, you see a modest slowdown, not a decline,' Georgakopoulos said, noting a drop in the average tab amount for some sectors, like restaurants. 'So, I would say slower growth, but still growth.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's New Social Security Chief Had to Google His Own Job
It looks like Donald Trump's streak of hiring wildly unqualified people remains undefeated. Frank Bisignano, the new Social Security Administration commissioner, revealed Wednesday that he'd needed to google what the position actually entailed after being tapped to lead the benefits agency servicing more than 70 million Americans, according to the Federal News Network. In a largely unscripted address Wednesday, the former chairman and CEO of banking technology company Fiserv remarked that he wasn't totally familiar with his new presidentially appointed role. 'I don't think the commissioner of Social Security is like a globally known title. It is to you, right? But, like, it wasn't to me,' Bisignano said. 'I'm like, 'Well, what am I gonna do?' So I'm googling 'Social Security.' That's one of my great skills, I'm one of the great googlers on the East Coast.' 'I'm like, 'What the heck's the commissioner of Social Security?'' The best 'googler on the East Coast' said that he hoped to oversee a 'digital-first' agency. 'We're never going to be client-first if we're not digital-first in this era,' Bisignano said. 'That's the only way we're going to win. You're competing with experiences that people have with Amazon. If I can get something done at Amazon, why can't I get something done the same way with Social Security? That's how people think.' Bisignano has no experience working in government, serving as a staunch defender of corporate interests, and was previously one of the highest-paid CEOs in the country. In agreeing to serve as SSA commissioner, Bisignano also agreed to sell his shares in Fiserv, which were worth roughly $484 million. But because of a loophole in the tax code for government officials that defers his capital gains tax on divestment, he won't be forced to pay tens of millions of dollars in potential taxes on the massive windfall. The Trump administration is in the process of a massive overhaul at the SSA, after announcing that it plans to reduce the workforce by 7,000 federal workers, offering buyouts, and reassigning many employees from regional offices to field offices, according to FNN. Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have alleged 'extreme levels of fraud' at the SSA but have only uncovered two likely fraudulent claims out of over 110,000. Some other desperately unqualified Trump hires include former Fox & Friends co-host turned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and surgeon general nominee Casey Means, a wellness influencer and author who has no active medical license and never completed her physician residency.
