fisv-20201231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

FORM 10-K


☑	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
	For the fiscal year ended:	December 31, 2020


☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the transition period from to

Commission file number: 1-38962

Fiserv, Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)


Wisconsin						39-1506125
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)						(I. R. S. Employer Identification No.)


255 Fiserv Drive	Brookfield,	WI	53045
(Address of Principal Executive Offices and zip code)

(262) 879-5000

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

Trading Symbol(s)

Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share

FISV

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

0.375% Senior Notes due 2023

FISV23

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

1.125% Senior Notes due 2027

FISV27

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

1.625% Senior Notes due 2030

FISV30

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

2.250% Senior Notes due 2025

FISV25

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

3.000% Senior Notes due 2031

FISV31

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer

☑

Accelerated filer

☐

Non-accelerated filer

☐

Smaller reporting company

☐

Emerging growth company

☐

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☑

The aggregate market value of the common stock of the registrant held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2020 (the last trading day of the second fiscal quarter) was $65,119,434,315 based on the closing price of the registrant’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on that date. The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock, $0.01 par value per share, outstanding at February 19, 2021 was 669,459,877.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III of this report incorporates information by reference to the registrant’s proxy statement for its 2021 annual meeting of shareholders, which proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS


		Page
PART I

Item 1.	Business	2

Item 1A.	Risk Factors	12

Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	24

Item 2.	Properties	24

Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	25

Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	25

	Information About Our Executive Officers	26

PART II

Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	28

Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	30

Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	31

Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	50

Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	52

Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	109

Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	109

Item 9B.	Other Information	111

PART III

Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	111

Item 11.	Executive Compensation	111

Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	111

Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	112

Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	112

PART IV

Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	113

Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	117

	Signatures	118

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include those that express a plan, belief, expectation, estimation, anticipation, intent, contingency, future development or similar expression, and can generally be identified as forward-looking because they include words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “could,” “should” or words of similar meaning. Statements that describe our future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this report involve significant risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors, both foreseen and unforeseen, could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. The factors that may affect our results include, among others, the following, many of which are, and will be, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic: the duration and intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic including how quickly the global economy recovers from the impact of the pandemic; governmental and private sector responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of such responses on us; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our employees, clients, vendors, operations and sales; the possibility that we may be unable to achieve expected synergies and operating efficiencies from the acquisition of First Data Corporation (“First Data”) within the expected time frames; the integration of First Data may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected; profitability following the transaction may be lower than expected, including due to unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the transaction; operating costs, customer loss and business disruption (including, without limitation, difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees, customers, clients or suppliers) may be greater than expected following the transaction; unforeseen risks relating to our liabilities or those of First Data may exist; our ability to meet expectations regarding the accounting and tax treatments of the transaction; our ability to compete effectively against new and existing competitors and to continue to introduce competitive new products and services on a timely, cost-effective basis; changes in customer demand for our products and services; the ability of our technology to keep pace with a rapidly evolving marketplace; the successful management of our merchant alliance program which involves several alliances not under our sole control; the impact of a security breach or operational failure on our business including disruptions caused by other participants in the global financial system; the failure of our vendors and merchants to satisfy their obligations; the successful management of credit and fraud risks in our business and merchant alliances; changes in local, regional, national and international economic or political conditions and the impact they may have on us and our customers; the effect of proposed and enacted legislative and regulatory actions affecting us or the financial services industry as a whole; our ability to comply with government regulations and applicable card association and network rules; the protection and validity of intellectual property rights; the outcome of pending and future litigation and governmental proceedings; our ability to successfully identify, complete and integrate acquisitions, and to realize the anticipated benefits associated with the same; the impact of our strategic initiatives; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; volatility and disruptions in financial markets that may impact our ability to access preferred sources of financing and the terms on which we are able to obtain financing or increase our cost of borrowing; adverse impacts from currency exchange rates or currency controls; changes in corporate tax and interest rates; and other factors identified in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and in other documents that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors carefully in evaluating forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements, which speak only as of the date of this report. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this report. We are not including the information provided on the websites referenced herein as part of, or incorporating such information by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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PART I

In this report, all references to “we,” “us,” “our” and “Fiserv” refer to Fiserv, Inc. (“Fiserv”), and, unless the context otherwise requires, its consolidated subsidiaries.

Item 1. Business

Overview

Fiserv, Inc. is a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions. We are publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and part of the S&P 500 Index. We serve clients around the globe, including banks, credit unions, other financial institutions, corporate clients and merchants. We help 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 the Clover® cloud-based point-of-sale (“POS”) solution. Most of the services we provide are necessary for our clients to operate their businesses and are, therefore, non-discretionary in nature. We service our global client base by working among our geographic teams across various regions: the United States and Canada; Europe, Middle East and Africa; Latin America; and Asia Pacific.

In 2020, we had $14.9 billion in total revenue, $1.9 billion in operating income and $4.1 billion of net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations. Processing and services revenue, which in 2020 represented 82% of our total revenue, is primarily generated from account- and transaction-based fees under multi-year contracts that generally have high renewal rates. We have operations and offices located both within the United States (the “U.S.” or “domestic”) and outside of the U.S. (“international”) with revenues from domestic and international products and services as a percentage of total revenue as follows for the years ended December 31:



(In millions)	2020			2019			2018
Total revenue	$	14,852		$	10,187		$	5,823
Domestic	87		%	88		%	94		%
International	13		%	12		%	6		%

We have grown our business by signing new clients, expanding the products and services we provide to existing clients, offering new and enhanced products and services developed through innovation and acquisition, and extending our capabilities geographically, all of which have enabled us to deliver a wide range of integrated products and services and created new opportunities for growth.

Our headquarters are located at 255 Fiserv Drive, Brookfield, Wisconsin 53045, and our telephone number is (262) 879-5000.

Effective in the first quarter of 2020, we realigned our reportable segments to reflect our new management structure and organizational responsibilities (“Segment Realignment”) following the July 2019 acquisition of First Data. Our operations are comprised of the Merchant Acceptance (“Acceptance”) segment, the Financial Technology (“Fintech”) segment and the Payments and Network (“Payments”) segment.

Acceptance

The businesses in our Acceptance segment provide a wide range of commerce-enabling solutions and serve merchants of all sizes around the world. These services include POS merchant acquiring and digital commerce services; mobile payment services; security and fraud protection products; CaratSM, our omnichannel commerce solution; and our cloud-based Clover POS platform. We distribute the products and services in the global Acceptance businesses through a variety of channels, including direct sales teams, strategic partnerships with agent sales forces, independent software vendors (“ISVs”), financial institutions, and other strategic partners in the form of joint venture alliances, revenue sharing alliances (“RSAs”), and referral agreements. Merchants, financial institutions and distribution partners in the Acceptance segment are frequently clients of our other segments.

Acceptance solutions enable businesses to securely accept consumers’ electronic payment transactions online or in-person. Payment transactions represent credit, debit, stored-value and loyalty payments, whether at a physical POS device, a mobile device such as a smart-phone or tablet, or an e-commerce transaction over the internet. Services include payment authorization; settlement; charge-back management; and solutions that secure payment data from end-to-end, including TransArmor®, our encryption, tokenization, and PCI compliance solution for data in-transit.

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Omnichannel Commerce Solutions

Our Carat solution is designed to enable large merchants to offer a simple and secure payment experience to their customers across multiple channels, including accepting e-commerce payments online or in-store and enabling consumer purchasing experiences such as curbside and in-store pickup (sometimes referred to as “omnichannel”). Through a single interface with the merchant, a variety of our solutions can be integrated, including omnichannel gateway, global payments acceptance, open foreign exchange multi-currency, advanced artificial intelligence-powered authorization optimization, fraud detection, and digital payouts. By offering a variety of payment and related services via a single interface, Carat enhances the payment experience for a customer, optimizes the value and quality of transactions for the merchant, and enables pioneering payment transactions such as voice-enabled commerce and payments via the connected car.

Clover from Fiserv

Built for small and mid-sized businesses (“SMBs”), our cloud-based Clover POS platform is a comprehensive business-management solution that enables businesses to maximize their operating efficiencies, while allowing their customers to pay using a debit or credit card or via mobile payment options. The Clover platform includes hardware and software technology necessary to enable SMB merchants to accept payments, process transactions, provide online ordering, have an e-commerce presence, and generate consumer loyalty through Clover’s customer engagement tools. Clover is one of the largest open architecture platforms of commerce-enabling solutions and applications in the world. By integrating next-generation hardware and software applications, Clover has also become a leader in enabling omnichannel commerce solutions for SMBs, with touchless commerce through QR code-based payments, online ordering solutions, or a virtual terminal. Clover solutions also help small business owners gain faster access to capital through advanced access to receivables.

Distribution Channels and Partnerships

Acceptance businesses distribute solutions and services through direct sales teams, as well as partnerships with hundreds of indirect non-bank sales forces, including independent sales agents, independent sales organizations (“ISOs”), ISVs, value-added retailers (“VARs”), and payment services providers (“PSPs”). Partnerships with ISOs, ISVs, VARs and PSPs provide specialized sales capabilities and integrated merchant technology solutions to support our partners, help them grow their business and manage their portfolios. Partner technology tools enable real-time access to portfolio activity and pricing management. We also provide marketing services, data analytics and other tools that enable partners to further expand their businesses through local communities, e-commerce channels, and specific industry verticals.

In addition, the businesses in our Acceptance segment leverage powerful sales capabilities for hundreds of financial institution and non-financial institution partners to distribute their products and solutions through strategic arrangements including joint venture alliances (merchant alliances), RSAs, and referral agreements. These strategic alliances combine our commerce-enabling technology, processing capabilities and management expertise with the distribution channels, footprint and customer relationships of our partners.

Fintech

The businesses in our Fintech segment provide financial institutions around the world with the technology solutions they need to run their operations, including products and services that enable financial institutions to process customer deposit and loan accounts and manage an institution’s general ledger and central information files. As a complement to the core account processing functionality, the businesses in the global Fintech segment also provide digital banking, financial and risk management, cash management, professional services and consulting, item processing and source capture, and other products and services that support numerous types of financial transactions. Some of the businesses in the Fintech segment provide products or services to corporate clients to facilitate the management of financial processes and transactions. Many of the products and services offered in the Fintech segment are integrated with products and services provided by our other segments.

Account Processing

We provide account servicing and management technology products and services to our depository institution clients, as well as a range of integrated, value-added banking products and services. Account processing solutions enable a financial institution to operate systems that process customer deposit and loan accounts, an institution’s general ledger, central information files and other financial information. These solutions also include security, report generation and other features that financial institutions need to process transactions for their customers, as well as to facilitate compliance with applicable regulations. Although many of our clients obtain a majority of their processing requirements from us, our software design allows clients to start with one application and, as needed, add applications and features developed by us or by third parties. We support a broad range of client-owned peripheral devices manufactured by a variety of vendors, which reduce a new client’s initial conversion expenses, enhance existing clients’ ability to change technology and broaden our market opportunity.

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The principal account processing solutions used by our bank clients are Cleartouch®, DNA®, Precision®, Premier® and Signature®. The principal account processing solutions primarily used by our credit union clients are CharlotteSM, CubicsPlus®, CUnify™, CUSA®, DataSafe®, DNA, Galaxy®, OnCU®, Portico®, Reliance®, Spectrum® and XP2®. The Signature and DNA solutions are available both domestically and internationally. Account processing solutions are offered primarily as an outsourced service or can be installed on client-owned computer systems or those hosted by third parties.

Our account processing business also provides consulting services, business operations services and related software products that enable the transition of check capture from branch and teller channels to digital self-service deposit channels, including mobile, merchant and ATM. Through the Fiserv® Clearing Network, we provide check clearing and image exchange services. Other products and services include image archive with online retrieval, in-clearings, exceptions and returns, statements and fraud detection.

Financial and Risk Management Solutions

Our Financial and Risk Management Solutions business provides products and services that deliver operating efficiencies and management insight that enable our clients to protect, manage and grow their businesses. Our Digital Efficiency Solutions include Frontier™ (a reconciliation product), Nautilus® (a content management product) and Prologue™ Financials, which combines enterprise performance management and financial control offerings to deliver budgeting and planning, financial accounting, and automated reconciliation and account certification tools to facilitate a robust assessment environment and efficient processes for our clients. These solutions are further complemented by fraud detection and mitigation through our Fraud and Financial Crimes Risk Management Solutions. Our Deposit Liquidity Solutions enable our clients to retain, monetize and grow their deposit account base while analyzing customer demand and providing for customer short-term liquidity. Our Commercial Payments Solutions provide financial institutions with the infrastructure they need to process, route and settle non-card-based electronic payments, including Automated Clearing House (“ACH”), wire and instant payments, and to efficiently manage associated information flows. Clients may use payment platform applications on a licensed or hosted basis, and as an add-on to existing legacy technology or as a stand-alone comprehensive modern payments platform.

Digital Channels

Our principal digital consumer and business banking products are Architect™, Corillian Online®, Corillian® Business Online, Mobiliti™, Mobiliti Business™, and SecureNow™. Our Corillian product suite supports multiple lines of banking businesses and has been designed to be highly scalable to meet the evolving needs of our clients. This structure enables our clients to deploy new services by adding and integrating applications, such as electronic bill payment, person-to-person payments and personal financial management tools, to any internet-connected point-of-presence. Our Mobiliti product suite provides a variety of mobile banking and payments services to our clients and their customers via mobile browser, downloadable application for smartphones and tablets, text message, and Amazon® Alexa® voice banking. Our Architect product suite supports online, mobile and tablet banking for retail and small business customers on a single platform. Each of these suites enables customers to complete balance inquiries, view their transaction history, make bill payments, and transfer funds between accounts and to other people. Our SecureNow product delivers real-time cybersecurity defense capability, integrates industry-leading controls into a single platform, and is pre-integrated with key Fiserv digital assets, including Corillian Online, Architect and other Fiserv platforms, for rapid deployment.

Payments

The businesses in our Payments segment provide financial institutions and corporate clients around the world with the products and services required to process digital payment transactions. This includes card transactions such as debit, credit and prepaid card processing and services; a range of network services, security and fraud protection products; card production and print services. In addition, the Payments segment businesses offer non-card digital payment software and services, including bill payment, account-to-account transfers, person-to-person payments, electronic billing, and security and fraud protection products. Clients of the global Payments segment businesses reflect a wide range of industries, including merchants, distribution partners and financial institution customers in our other segments.

Network and Debit Processing

Our network and debit processing business is a leader in electronic funds transfer services and provides a total payments solution through a variety of products and services. We provide financial institution clients with a full range of debit processing services, including ATM managed services; tokenization, loyalty and reward programs; customized authorization processing; gateway processing to payment networks; and risk management products. We own and operate the Accel®, STAR® and MoneyPass® networks, which serve financial institutions, providing access to funds at the point-of-sale and via ATMs, inclusive of CardFree CashSM access as well as via EMV® chip and traditional magnetic stripe cards. Our debit processing also provides a range of security, risk and fraud management solutions, which incorporate machine-learning-based predictive

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technology, that help financial institutions securely operate and grow their business by preventing fraud. Our networks’ POS support delivers comprehensive coverage of PIN and PIN-less authentication support at physical and e-commerce merchants domestically. Our digital enablement capability provides our clients’ customers with mobile-based, customizable card management and alert tools that drive engagement and revenue for card issuers, and our risk management tools and portfolio management services are integrated with real-time fraud decisioning.

Output Solutions

Our output solutions business provides business communication products and services to clients across a wide variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, retail, utilities, and travel and entertainment. We provide various channels for clients to communicate, build relationships and maximize customer engagement and loyalty, while limiting costs of a personalized and integrated consumer experience. Our products and services include electronic document management through our electronic document delivery products and services; card manufacturing, personalization and mailing; statement production and mailing; design and fulfillment of direct mail services; forms distribution; laser printing and mailing; and branded merchandise.

Electronic Payments

Our electronic payments business is comprised of electronic bill payment and presentment services and other electronic payment services for businesses and consumers, such as person-to-person payments, account-to-account transfers, and account opening and funding. Our principal electronic bill payment and presentment product, CheckFree® RXP®, allows our clients’ customers to: manage household bills via an easy-to-use, online tool; view billing and payment information; pay and manage all of their bills in one place; and complete same-day or next-day bill payments to a wide range of billers and others.

Our person-to-person payments and account-to-account transfer services allow consumers a convenient way to send and receive money while offering financial institutions the opportunity to generate new transaction-based revenue, attract new accounts and increase loyalty among existing customers. In addition to Popmoney®, a solution owned by Fiserv, we partner with Early Warning Services, LLC to offer a turnkey implementation of its Zelle® real-time person-to-person payments service. Our turnkey solution simplifies the implementation of Zelle by providing interface, risk management, alerting, settlement and other services to clients.

Credit Processing

Our credit processing business provides solutions to financial institutions and other issuers of credit, such as banks, group service providers, retailers and consumer finance companies, to enable them to process transactions on behalf of their customers. Depending on the market and our clients’ needs, we deliver these solutions through our proprietary outsourced services platforms, software application licenses, or software-as-a-service hosted in the cloud. Our solutions in North America use our proprietary OptisSM platform to provide transaction authorization and posting, account maintenance and settlement. Our VisionPLUSTM software is used globally as both a processing solution and a licensed software solution that enables clients to process their own transactions, depending on the market. We also provide financial institutions with professional services and customer servicing, including call center solutions and back-office processing.

Biller Solutions

Our biller business provides electronic billing and payment services to companies that deliver bills to their customers, such as utilities, telephone and cable companies, lending institutions, and insurance providers, enabling our biller clients to reduce costs, collect payments faster through multiple channels, increase customer satisfaction, and provide customers flexible, easy-to-use ways to view and pay their bills. Our clients’ customers access our electronic billing and payment systems by viewing or paying a bill through a financial institution’s bill payment application, using a biller’s website, mobile application, automated phone system or customer service representative, through www.mycheckfree.com, or by paying in-person at one of more than 30,000 nationwide walk-in payment locations operated by our agents. These diverse options allow our clients’ customers to view and pay bills wherever, whenever and however they feel most comfortable. Furthermore, because our biller clients are able to receive all of these services from us, we can eliminate the operational complexity and expense of supporting multiple vendor systems or in-house developed systems.

Prepaid Solutions

Our prepaid solutions include stored value cards offered by our Gift Solutions and Money Network® businesses. Gift Solutions provides end-to-end, omnichannel solutions to securely implement and manage gift card programs that help clients drive revenue, engagement and loyalty. These solutions include physical and digital gift card fulfillment, program management, e-commerce gift card storefronts, security and fraud protection, transaction processing services, incentive and rebate cards as well

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as reloadable and non-reloadable prepaid cards that may be used with a variety of mobile applications. The Money Network service simplifies payment distribution for organizations while reducing or eliminating expenses associated with issuing traditional paper checks. This service also provides consumers without bank accounts with fast, digital access to manage their money, including wages. Money Network solutions include Electronic Payroll Delivery, digital disbursements and corporate incentives as well as single-load and reloadable prepaid account options. Accountholders of the Money Network Electronic Payroll Delivery Service have access to a Money Network Card, Money Network Checks and a robust mobile app to manage their account anytime, anywhere.

Other

Investment Services

In 2020, we sold a majority interest of our Investment Services business, subsequently renamed as Tegra118 Wealth Solutions, Inc. (“Tegra118”), which is reported within Corporate and Other following the Segment Realignment. Our remaining minority ownership interest in Tegra118 is accounted for as an equity method investment. Tegra118 provides technology products and services to financial service organizations, including broker dealers, registered investment advisors, banks, asset managers and insurance companies that deliver financial advice and managed account products to U.S. retail investors. The business’ primary product, the Unified Wealth Platform, is a real-time portfolio management, trading and reporting system used by some of the largest brokerage firms and asset managers in the U.S. offering managed accounts.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was identified and has since continued to spread. In March 2020, the World Health Organization recognized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of many countries, states, cities and other geographic regions have taken actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as imposing travel restrictions and bans, quarantines, social distancing guidelines, shelter-in-place or lock-down orders and other similar limitations which adversely impacted the global economy in 2020. Additional information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business can be found under the section titled “Recent Market Conditions” included within Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be found under Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our Strategy

Our aspiration is to move money and information in a way that moves the world. Our purpose is to deliver superior value for our clients through leading technology, targeted innovation and excellence in everything we do. We are focused on operating businesses where we have: deep industry expertise that enables us to serve the market with high effectiveness; a strong competitive position, currently or via a clear path in the foreseeable future; long-term, trusted client relationships that are based on recurring services and transactions; differentiated solutions that deliver value to our clients through integration and innovation; and strong management to execute strategies in a disciplined manner. Consistent with this focus, we continue to operate our business in accordance with the following strategic framework:

•Client Relationship Value. We plan to increase the number and breadth of our client relationships by, among other actions: continuing to integrate our products and services; introducing new products and services that are aligned with market needs; combining products and services to deliver enhanced, integrated value propositions; and improving the quality of our client service and support.

•Innovation. We seek to be an innovation leader, utilizing our assets and capabilities to be at the forefront of our industry and enable our clients to deliver best-in-class results.

•Operational Effectiveness and Integration of First Data. We believe we can further improve the quality of our client delivery while reducing our costs by using the opportunities created by our size and scale and by effectively integrating the operations of First Data. By streamlining our overall cost structure, including the rationalization of duplicate costs, we expect to meet or exceed planned cost synergies and improve the quality of products and services that we provide to our clients.

•Portfolio Management. We expect to acquire businesses when we identify: a compelling strategic need, such as a product, service or technology that helps meet client demand; an opportunity to change industry dynamics; a way to achieve business scale; or similar considerations. We expect to divest businesses that are not in line with our market, product or financial strategies.

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•Capital Discipline. We intend to make capital allocation decisions that offer the best prospects for our long-term growth and profitability, which may include, among other matters, internal investment, repayment of debt, repurchases of our own shares or acquisitions.

Servicing the Market

The financial technology industry is highly dynamic, with new innovations entering the market and driving the expectations of our clients globally. The markets for our solutions have specific needs and requirements, with strong emphasis placed by clients on quality, security, service reliability, timely introduction of new capabilities and features, flexibility and value. This requires us to continue our strong emphasis on solution development to meet and exceed the specific needs of our clients. We believe that our financial strength and decades of specialized market knowledge enable us to support our clients to meet their changing preferences. In addition, we believe that our focus on quality, innovation, client service and our commitment of substantial resources to training and technical support helps us to identify and fulfill the needs of our clients.

Product Development

To meet the changing technology needs of our clients, we continually develop, maintain and enhance our products and systems. Our development and technology operations apply the expertise of multiple teams to design, develop and maintain specialized processing systems. Our products and solutions are designed to meet the preferences and diverse requirements of the international, national, regional or local market-specific merchant and financial services environments of our clients. In developing our products, we use current software development principles, such as service-oriented architecture, to create efficiencies, and we stress interaction with and responsiveness to the needs of our clients.

Resources

Our business depends on a variety of resources to operate including products and services provided to us by third parties. For example, we rely on our human capital resources for product development (including product design and coding), sales, operations (including customer service, technology support, security and compliance) and management; access to financial and telecommunication networks; computers, servers, mainframes and other data processing equipment; and Clover POS devices. We periodically review our resource requirements and sources, as well as our relationships with key vendors, to best meet the needs of our business including global sourcing efforts and alternate supplier resourcing. More information regarding our human capital resources can be found below under “Human Capital.” We believe we have access to the resources necessary for our current business needs.

Intellectual Property

We regard our software, transaction processing services and related products as proprietary, and we use a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, internal security practices, employee confidentiality and assignment agreements, and third-party non-disclosure agreements to protect our intellectual property assets. Our patents cover innovations relating to numerous financial software and hardware products and services, and we continue, where appropriate, to seek and secure patents with respect to our ongoing innovations. We believe that we possess all proprietary rights necessary to conduct our business.

Competition

The market for technology products and services in the industries we serve is fragmented, highly competitive, and served by a multitude of large and small firms. Our principal competitors include other vendors and providers of financial services technology and payment systems, data processing affiliates of large companies, processing centers owned or operated as user cooperatives, financial institutions, merchant acquirers, ISOs, ISVs, payments companies and payment network operators. Our competitors also include global and local IT product and services companies and payment service providers and processors. We expect competition to continue to increase as new companies enter our markets and existing competitors expand or consolidate their product lines and services. Some of these competitors possess substantial financial, sales and marketing resources and can compete with us in various ways, including through the use of integrated product offerings and through pricing and long-standing relationships. Depending on the product or service, competitive factors may include quality, security, innovation, breadth or novelty of features and functionality, client satisfaction, market opportunity, integration, agility, global reach, multiple distribution channels, service reliability and performance standards, timely introduction of new products and features, platform scalability and flexibility, and value. We believe that we compete favorably in each of these categories. Additional information about competition in our segments is provided below.

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Acceptance

Our Acceptance segment competes with merchant acquirers, including Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (“FIS”), Global Payments Inc. (“Global Payments”), Nexi Payments S.p.A. and Wordline SA (“Worldline”), as well as with financial institutions that provide acquiring and processing services to businesses on their own, such as Paymentech, LLC, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Elavon Inc., a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp; Barclaycard, a division of Barclays bank; and Bank of America Corporation. In many cases, our alliance and commercial partners, such as ISOs and ISVs, compete against each other. We also compete with merchant services providers like Square, Inc., Adyen N.V. and Stripe, Inc., and in Europe, our Acceptance segment also competes with a growing number of local providers who offer their services in multiple markets in the region. In addition, payment networks, such as Visa Inc. (“Visa”), Mastercard Incorporated (“Mastercard”) and American Express Company, and large technology, media and other providers are increasingly offering products and services that compete with our suite of merchant acquiring solutions.

Fintech

Our products and services in the Fintech segment compete with large, diversified software and service companies and independent suppliers of software products. Existing and potential financial institution clients could also develop and use their own in-house systems. In addition, we compete with vendors that offer similar transaction processing products and services to financial institutions, including Computer Services, Inc., Finastra Limited, FIS, Infosys Ltd., International Business Machines Corporation, Jack Henry and Associates Inc. (“Jack Henry”), NCR Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Global Payments, Temenos AG, Q2 Holdings, Inc. (“Q2”) and nCino, Inc.

Payments

The businesses in our Payments segment primarily compete with businesses that offer consumer payment solutions and a number of payment and card issuer processors, including ACI Worldwide, Inc., FIS, Jack Henry, Mastercard, Paymentus Corporation, PayPal Holdings, Inc., Q2, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Global Payments, Visa, The Western Union Company and Wordline. In addition to traditional payments competitors, large technology, media and other emerging financial technology providers are increasingly seeking to provide alternative payment and financing solutions. Existing and potential financial institution and other corporate clients could also develop and use their own in-house systems or custom-designed solutions instead of our products and services.

Government Regulation

Our operations, and the products and services that we offer, are subject to various U.S. federal, state and local regulation, as well as regulation outside the U.S., and to other rules, such as those promulgated by various payment networks and banking authorities. Failure to comply with these rules and regulations may result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of service and/or the imposition of civil and criminal penalties, including fines. In addition, we may be required, among other things, to make significant additional investments to comply with such rules and regulations, to modify our products or services or the manner in which they are provided, or to limit or change the amount or types of revenue we are able to generate.

The Dodd-Frank Act. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”) in the U.S. resulted in significant changes to the regulation of the financial services industry. Among other things, the Dodd-Frank Act established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) which is empowered to conduct rule-making and supervision related to, and enforcement of, “federal consumer financial laws,” some of which apply to products and services offered by our clients. The CFPB conducts direct examinations of, and has issued guidance that applies to, “supervised banks and nonbanks” as well as “supervised service providers” like us. The Dodd-Frank Act also: caps debit interchange rates for certain card issuers; prohibits debit payment card networks from restricting card issuers from contracting with other payment card networks; prohibits card issuers and payment networks from restricting the ability of merchants to direct the routing of debit card transactions; requires all debit card issuers in the U.S. to participate in at least two unaffiliated debit payment card networks; and generally prohibits network exclusivity arrangements for prepaid card and healthcare debit card issuers. These regulations impact our card processing businesses and our clients’ ability to generate revenue.

Financial Institution Regulations. Because a number of our businesses provide data processing services for financial institutions, we are subject to examination by the U.S. Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (“FFIEC”), which is a formal interagency body empowered to examine significant service providers to financial institutions. The member agencies of the FFIEC include the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, and the CFPB. We are also subject to examination by the first three of these agencies which refer to themselves as the Federal Banking Agencies when acting together. A subsidiary that engages in

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certain trust activities is subject to regulation, examination, and oversight by the Division of Banking of the Colorado Department.

Under the Second Payment Services Directive (2015/2366/EC) in the European Union (“E.U.”) (PSD2), a number of our subsidiaries hold either payment institution licenses or electronic money licenses in the E.U. member states in which such subsidiaries do business. As payment institutions or electronic money institutions, those subsidiaries are subject to regulation and oversight in the applicable E.U. member states, which includes, among other obligations, a requirement to maintain specified regulatory capital. In addition, several subsidiaries outside of the U.S. provide services such as merchant terminal leasing, debit processing, acquiring, issuing, factoring and/or settlement that make them subject to regulation by financial services supervisory agencies, including the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), the Federal Financial Supervision Agency in Germany, the National Bank of Poland, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Association and Network Rules. We are subject to rules of Mastercard, Visa, INTERAC, PULSE and other payment networks. In order to provide processing services, a number of our subsidiaries are registered with Visa and/or Mastercard as service providers for member institutions. A number of our subsidiaries outside the U.S. are direct members or associate members of Visa and Mastercard for purposes of conducting merchant acquiring. Various subsidiaries are also processor level members of numerous debit and electronic benefits transaction networks or are otherwise subject to various network rules in connection with processing services and other services we provide. As such, we are subject to applicable card association, network and national scheme rules that could subject us to fines or penalties. We are subject to network operating rules promulgated by Nacha relating to payment transactions processed by us using the ACH network and to various federal and state laws regarding such operations, including laws pertaining to electronic benefits transactions.

Privacy and Information Security Regulations. We provide services that are subject to various federal, state and foreign privacy laws and regulations, as well as association and network privacy rules, which govern, among other things, the collection, processing, storage, deletion, use and disclosure of personal information. These laws and rules contain a variety of obligations including the safeguarding of personal information, the provision of notices and use and disclosure rights. The regulations and rules are complex and evolving and can provide for significant penalties or the suspension or termination of our member registrations or certifications for non-compliance.

In the U.S., we are subject to various federal and state privacy and security laws. The U.S. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) requires financial institutions to explain their information sharing practices to their customers and to safeguard sensitive data. We are subject to the GLBA and have privacy and security obligations to our clients who are regulated by the GLBA. The U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), together with the HIPAA Privacy Rule, governs the use and disclosure of protected health information in healthcare treatment, payment and operations by covered entities. We have obligations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”), which gives California consumers more control over the personal information businesses hold about them, as both a “business” and as a “service provider.” We are also subject to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Act, which empowers the FTC to prohibit unfair and deceptive privacy practices. In addition to the FTC Act, the FTC is also responsible for overseeing and enforcing the privacy provisions over certain aspects of the GLBA and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), each of which is applicable to our businesses in certain circumstances. We are also subject to the separate security breach notification laws of each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In the E.U., we are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), a comprehensive approach to personal data protection with enforcement that can lead to penalties of up to the greater of twenty million Euro or four percent of a company’s global revenue. With the U.K.’s exit from the E.U. Single Market and Customs Union on December 31, 2020, there is uncertainty surrounding transfers of personal data from the E.U. to the U.K. There are currently transitional provisions in place stating that transfers of personal data from the E.U. to the U.K. will not be considered transfers of personal data to a third country for a transitional period of up to six months from January 1, 2021. If the transitional period ends without an appropriate resolution, transfers of personal data to the U.K. may be impacted. There are numerous additional privacy laws and regulations that apply to our businesses around the world which can provide for significant penalties. Some of these data protection laws, including the GDPR, restrict the international transfer of personal data absent lawfully recognized transfer mechanisms which can differ depending on the countries to which the data is being transferred.

Money Transmission and Payment Instrument Licensing and Regulations. We are subject to various U.S. federal, state and foreign laws and regulations governing money transmission and the issuance and sale of payment instruments, including some of our prepaid products. In the U.S., most states license money transmitters and issuers of payment instruments. Many states exercise authority over the operations of our services related to money transmission and payment instruments and, as part of this authority, subject us to periodic examinations. Many states require money transmitters, issuers of payment instruments and

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their agents to comply with federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations and often require the licensee to maintain certain levels of net worth.

Credit Reporting and Debt Collections Regulations. TeleCheck, our check acceptance business, is subject to FCRA and various similar state laws. The collection business within our subsidiary TRS Recovery Services, Inc. (“TRS”) is subject to the U.S. federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and various similar state laws. TRS maintains licenses in a number of states in order to engage in collection in those states. TeleCheck and TRS are also subject to regulation, supervision and examination from the CFPB. Additional regulations may be imposed in the future, including laws regulating activities with respect to current or emerging technology such as automated dialers or pre-recorded messaging or calls to cellular phones, which could impair the collection by TRS of returned checks and those purchased under TeleCheck’s guarantee services. Moreover, reducing or eliminating access to or the use of certain information or proscribing the maintenance or use of consumer databases could reduce the effectiveness of TeleCheck’s risk management tools or otherwise increase its costs of doing business. In addition, several of our subsidiaries are subject to comparable local laws regarding collection activities and obtaining credit reports and our U.K. subsidiary described above also holds FCA licenses for debt collection activities.

Unfair Trade Practice Regulations. We and our clients are subject to various federal, state and foreign laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive trade practices. Various regulatory enforcement agencies, including the FTC and state attorneys general, have authority to take action against parties that engage in unfair or deceptive trade practices or violate other laws, rules and regulations. If we process payments for a merchant or other client in violation of laws, rules and regulations, we could be subject to enforcement actions and incur losses and liabilities that may impact our business.

Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Bribery, and Sanctions Regulations. We are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”). Among other things, the BSA requires money services businesses (such as money transmitters, issuers of money orders and official checks, and providers of prepaid access) to develop and implement anti-money laundering programs. Our acquiring businesses outside the U.S. are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations in the countries where they operate. Our Money Network Financial, LLC subsidiary provides prepaid access for various open loop prepaid programs for which it is the program manager and therefore must meet the requirements of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

We are subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and similar laws outside of the U.S. such as the U.K. Bribery Act, that prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures. The FCPA has a broad reach and requires maintenance of appropriate records and adequate internal controls to prevent and detect possible FCPA violations.

We are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), which prohibit or restrict transactions to or from, or dealings with, specified countries, governments, individuals and entities that are specially-designated nationals of those countries, including narcotics traffickers and terrorists or terrorist organizations. Other group entities may be subject to additional local sanctions requirements in other relevant jurisdictions.

Similar anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and proceeds of crime laws apply to movements of currency and payments through electronic transactions and to dealings with persons specified in lists maintained by the country equivalents to OFAC lists in several other countries and require specific data retention obligations to be observed by intermediaries in the payment process. Our businesses in those jurisdictions are subject to those data retention obligations.

Communications Laws. We are subject to various federal and state laws that govern telephone calls and the issuance of text messages to clients and consumers in the U.S. as well as to regulations that impose requirements on marketing emails sent to U.S residents. Our international subsidiaries are subject to equivalent laws in applicable jurisdictions.

Indirect Regulatory Requirements. A number of our clients are subject to various regulations and compliance obligations that do not apply directly to us but impact the services that we provide to our clients. To remain competitive, we have expended, and expect to expend in the future, significant resources to develop and update our products and services to assist our clients to meet various compliance obligations. In addition, independent auditors annually review many of our operations to provide internal control evaluations for our clients and their auditors.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2020, we had over 44,000 employees worldwide, approximately 17,000 of whom were employed outside the U.S. Successful execution of our strategy depends on attracting, developing and retaining highly qualified talent at all levels of our organization. We do this by focusing on our commitment to diversity and inclusion and employee development, retention, engagement and well-being.

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Diversity and Inclusion

We are committed to cultivating a diverse, respectful and inclusive workplace. In 2020, we undertook a series of initiatives comprising our “Forward Together” plan to enhance our existing diversity and inclusion programs. Through this plan, we committed to:

•Improve diversity at all levels across the organization, including increasing the representation of women and minorities in leadership positions, requiring consideration of diverse candidates for senior leadership positions, dedicating talent acquisition resources focused on hiring diverse individuals and deepening relationships with historically Black colleges and universities, industry networks, and military and veterans’ organizations;

•Increase employee awareness through: education and participation in diversity and inclusion programs, such as inclusive leader assessment and coaching program to develop the competencies necessary to create an inclusive workplace; our Forward Together Accountability Pledge pursuant to which our senior leaders commit to advance our Forward Together plan; eight Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”) across 10 countries for associates to connect, support each other and elevate their professional development; and a host of diversity and inclusion training courses available to all employees;

•Invest $50 million to support Black- and minority-owned small businesses through financial assistance, technology solutions, strategic partnership and subject matter expertise; and

•Strengthen partnerships with organizations focused on human rights, racial equity and social justice including work by our ERGs with community organizations and groups to provide mentorship opportunities and serve as force multipliers for talent acquisition, employee engagement and diversity efforts.

Development and Retention

We are committed to creating a high-performance culture that consistently delivers excellence for our clients and long-term value for our shareholders while providing a workplace experience for our employees that values leadership, innovation, diversity and collaboration. Our performance management process promotes differentiation based on contributions toward our strategic business objectives and overall success. Career development is an important part of our overall value proposition for employees. We provide employees with opportunities to grow, regardless of job level, within the organization including through targeted online learning, our Leading Women program designed to accelerate the professional growth of female top talent, our Leading Fiserv program designed to develop critical leadership skills for frontline managers, and our Vision to Results leadership program focused on driving our One Fiserv approach to enterprise goals. We also focus on internal mobility and redeployment to ensure we provide talented employees the best opportunity for internal success while retaining their skill sets.

Engagement

To assess employee engagement, we seek and collect employee feedback through our annual Your Voice employee engagement survey, distributed to all associates worldwide. The survey focuses on the following categories: Engagement; Manager Effectiveness; Client Experience; Trust; Diversity and Inclusion; Communication and Teamwork; and Well-Being. More than 90% of our associates responded to the survey in 2020. Our engagement scores improved over the prior year and were higher than the comparable average benchmarks, most landing in the top decile of companies surveyed. These results are particularly notable given that the survey was completed in the midst of driving a transformational corporate integration and the global COVID-19 pandemic, which manifested in most of our associates working remotely. In addition to assessing engagement, the survey results enable us to gain insight into employee perspectives and issues which we use to enhance processes, set priorities and respond quickly to associate concerns.

Well-Being and Safety

We are focused on delivering a comprehensive and competitive benefits offering as part of our total rewards strategy. We provide associates with access to a holistic suite of well-being programs and benefits focused on physical, financial, social and emotional resources. These programs are supported by complementary policies such as paid parental and military service leave policies.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a number of actions to protect the health, safety and well-being of our employees while continuing to serve our clients. These actions include, among others, requiring most of our employees to work

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remotely, suspending non-essential travel, suspending all non-essential visitors to our facilities, disinfecting facilities and workspaces extensively and frequently, providing personal protective equipment to employees and requiring employees who must be present at our facilities to adhere to a variety of safety protocols. We expanded paid time-off for employees impacted by COVID-19, provided increased pay for certain employees involved in critical infrastructure who could not work remotely, and expanded our Fiserv Cares program to benefit employees in need around the world. We expect to continue such safety and wellness measures for the foreseeable future and may take further actions, or adapt these existing policies, as government authorities may require or recommend or as we may determine to be in the best interest of our employees, clients, vendors and shareholders.

Available Information

Our website address is www.fiserv.com. We are not including the information provided on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available free of charge (other than an investor’s own internet access charges) through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider each of the risks described below, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making an investment decision with respect to our securities. If any of the following risks develop into actual events, our business, results of operations or financial condition could be materially and adversely affected, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Competitive and Business Risks

We operate in a competitive business environment and may not be able to compete effectively.

The markets for our products and services are highly competitive from new and existing competitors. Our principal competitors include other vendors and providers of financial services technology and payment systems, data processing affiliates of large companies, processing centers owned or operated as user cooperatives, financial institutions, independent sales organizations (“ISOs”), independent software vendors, payments companies and payment network operators. Our competitors vary in size and in the scope and breadth of the services they offer. Many of our larger existing and potential clients have historically developed their key applications in-house. As a result, we may compete against our existing or potential clients’ in-house capabilities. In addition, we expect that the markets in which we compete will continue to attract new technologies and well-funded competitors, including large technology, telecommunication, media and other companies not historically in the financial services and payments industries, start-ups and international providers of products and services similar to ours. In addition, participants in the financial services, payments and technology industries may merge, create joint ventures or engage in other business combinations, alliances and consolidations that may strengthen their existing business services or create new payment services that compete with our services. We cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors or that competitive pressures faced by us in the markets in which we operate will not materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we fail to keep pace with technological change, we could lose clients or have trouble attracting new clients, and our ability to grow may be limited.

The markets for our products and services are characterized by constant and rapid technological change, frequent introduction of new products and services, and increasing client expectations. Our ability to enhance our current products and services and to develop and introduce innovative products and services will significantly affect our future success. We may not be successful in developing, marketing or selling new products and services that meet these demands or achieve market acceptance. We must anticipate and respond to these changes in order to remain competitive within our relevant markets. For example, our ability to provide innovative point-of-sale technology to our merchant clients could have an impact on our merchant acquiring business, and new services and technologies that we develop may be impacted by industry-wide solutions and standards related to tokenization or other safety, fraud prevention and security technologies. If we are unable to anticipate or respond to technological changes or evolving industry standards on a timely basis, our ability to remain competitive could be materially adversely affected. In addition, the success of certain of our products and services rely, in part, on financial institutions, corporate and other third parties to promote the use of our products and services by their customers. If we are unsuccessful in offering products or services that gain market acceptance and compete effectively, or if third parties insufficiently promote our products and services, it would likely have a material adverse effect on our ability to retain existing clients, to attract new ones and to grow profitably.

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If we are unable to renew client contracts at favorable terms, we could lose clients and our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Failure to achieve favorable renewals of client contracts could negatively impact our business. At the end of the contract term, clients have the opportunity to renegotiate their contracts with us or to consider whether to engage one or more of our competitors to provide products and services or to perform the services in-house. Some of our competitors may offer more attractive prices, features or other services that we do not offer, and some clients may desire to perform the services themselves. Larger clients may be able to seek lower prices from us when they renew or extend a contract or the client’s business has significant volume changes. In addition, larger clients may reduce the services we provide if they decide to move services in-house. Further, our small merchant business clients may seek reduced fees due to pricing competition, their own financial condition, or pressures from their customers. On some occasions, these factors result in lower revenue from a client than we had anticipated based on our previous agreement with that client. If we are not successful in achieving high renewal rates and favorable contract terms, our results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

Our business depends, in part, on our merchant relationships and alliances, and if we are unable to maintain these relationships and alliances, our business may be adversely affected.

Under our alliance program, a bank or other institution forms an alliance with us, generally on an exclusive basis, either contractually or through a separate legal entity. Merchant contracts may be contributed to the alliance by us and/or the bank or institution. The banks and other institutions generally provide card association sponsorship, clearing and settlement services and typically act as a merchant referral source when the institution has an existing banking or other relationship with such merchant. We provide transaction processing and related functions to the alliance. Both we and our alliance partners may also provide management, sales, marketing and other administrative services. The alliance structure allows us to be the processor for multiple financial institutions, any one of which may be selected by the merchant as its bank partner. Our merchant acquiring business depends, in part, on our merchant relationships, alliances and other distribution channels. There can be no guarantee that we will achieve growth in our merchant relationships, alliances or other distribution channels. In addition, our contractual arrangements with merchants and merchant alliance partners are for fixed terms and may allow for early termination upon the occurrence of certain events. There can be no assurance that we will be able to renew our contractual arrangements with these merchants or merchant alliance partners on similar terms or at all. The loss of merchant relationships or alliance partners could negatively impact our business and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Changes in card association and debit network fees or products could increase costs or otherwise limit our operations.

From time to time, card associations and debit networks, including the card networks which we own and operate, increase the processing and other fees (including what is commonly called “interchange fees”) that they charge. It is possible that competitive and other pressures will result in us absorbing a portion of such increases in the future, or not being able to increase our own fees, which would increase our operating costs, reduce our profit margin, limit our growth, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, the various card associations and networks prescribe certain capital requirements. Any increase in the capital level required would further limit our use of capital for other purposes.

Consolidations in the banking and financial services industry could adversely affect our revenue by eliminating existing or potential clients and making us more dependent on fewer clients.

Mergers, consolidations and failures of financial institutions reduce the number of our clients and potential clients, which could adversely affect our revenue. If our clients merge with or are acquired by other entities that are not our clients, or that use fewer of our services, they may discontinue or reduce their use of our services. Our alliance strategy could also be negatively affected by consolidations, especially where the financial institutions involved are committed to their internal merchant processing businesses that compete with us. It is also possible that the larger financial institutions that result from mergers or consolidations could have an increased ability to negotiate terms with us or could decide to perform in-house some or all of the services which we currently provide or could provide. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Operational and Security Risks

Security incidents or other technological risks involving our systems and data, or those of our clients, partners or vendors, could expose us to liability or damage our reputation.

Our operations depend on receiving, storing, processing and transmitting sensitive information pertaining to our business, our employees, our clients and their customers. Under the card network rules, various federal, state and international laws, and client contracts, we are responsible for information provided to us by financial institutions, merchants, ISOs, third-party service providers and others. The confidentiality of such sensitive business information and personal consumer information residing on

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our systems is critical to our business. Any unauthorized access, intrusion, infiltration, network disruption, denial of service or similar incident could disrupt the integrity, continuity, security and trust of our systems or data, or the systems or data of our clients, partners or vendors. These incidents are often difficult to detect and are constantly evolving. We expect that unauthorized parties will continue to attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities, and those of our clients, partners and vendors, through various means and with increasing sophistication. These events could create costly litigation, significant financial liability, increased regulatory scrutiny, financial sanctions and a loss of confidence in our ability to serve clients and cause current or potential clients to choose another service provider, all of which could have a material adverse impact on our business. In addition, we expect to continue to invest significant resources to maintain and enhance our information security and controls or to investigate and remediate any security vulnerabilities. Although we believe that we maintain a robust program of information security and controls and that none of the events that we have encountered to date have materially impacted us, we cannot be certain that the security measures and procedures we have in place to detect security incidents and protect sensitive data, including protection against unauthorized access and use by our employees, will be successful or sufficient to counter all current and emerging technological risks and threats. The impact of a material event involving our systems and data, or those of our clients, partners or vendors, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Operational failures and resulting interruptions in the implementation or availability of our products or services could harm our business and reputation.

Our business depends heavily on the reliability of our processing and other systems. An operational failure and the resulting implementation delays or service interruption could harm our business or cause us to lose clients. An operational failure could involve the hardware, software, data, networks or systems upon which we rely to deliver our services and could be caused by our actions, the actions of third parties or events over which we may have limited or no control. Events that could cause operational failures include, but are not limited to, hardware and software defects or malfunctions, computer denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, pandemics, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses or other malware, or other events. In the event of operational failures or damage or disruption to our business due to these occurrences, we may not be able to successfully or quickly recover all of our critical business functions, assets and data through our business continuity program. Implementation delays, interruptions of service or hardware device defects could damage our relationship with clients and could cause us to incur substantial expenses, including those related to the payment of service credits, product recalls or other liabilities. A prolonged interruption of our services or network could cause us to experience data loss or a reduction in revenue, and significantly impact our clients’ businesses and the customers they serve. In addition, a significant implementation delay, interruption of service or product recall could have a negative impact on our reputation and could cause our current and potential clients to choose another service provider. As a provider of payments solutions and other financial services, clients, regulators and others may require specific business continuity and disaster recovery plans including frequent testing of such plans. Meeting these various requirements may require a significant investment of time and money. Any of these developments could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Disruptions of operations of other participants in the global financial system could prevent us from delivering our products and services.

The operations and systems of many participants in the global financial system are interconnected. Many of the transactions involving our products and services rely on multiple participants in the global financial system to move funds and communicate information to the next participant in the transaction chain. A disruption for any reason of the operations of a participant in the global financial system could impact our ability to obtain or provide information or cause funds to be moved in a manner to successfully deliver our products and services. Although we work with other participants to avoid any disruptions, there is no assurance that such efforts will be effective. Such a disruption could lead to our inability to deliver products and services, reputational damage, lost clients and revenue, loss of clients’ and their customers’ confidence, as well as additional costs, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We rely on third parties to provide products and services and if we are unable to obtain such products or services in the future or if these third parties fail to perform these services adequately, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely on third parties we do not control to provide us with products and services, including payment card networks, acquiring processors, payment card issuers, financial institutions and the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) network which transmit transaction data, process chargebacks and refunds, and perform clearing services in connection with our settlement activities. If, for example, such third parties stop providing clearing services or limit our volumes, we would need to find other financial institutions to provide those services. In the event these third parties fail to provide these services adequately or in a timely manner, including as a result of errors in their systems or events beyond their control, or refuse to provide these services on

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terms acceptable to us or at all, and we are not able to find timely suitable alternatives, we may no longer be able to provide certain services to customers, which could expose us and our clients to information security, financial, compliance and reputational risks, among others, and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, if we are unable to renew our existing contracts with key vendors and service providers, we might not be able to replace the related product or service at all or at the same cost, which would negatively impact our results of operations.

We may experience software defects, development delays or installation difficulties, which would harm our business and reputation and expose us to potential liability.

Our services are based on sophisticated software and computer systems and we may encounter delays when developing new applications and services. Further, the software underlying our services may contain undetected errors or defects when first introduced or when new versions are released. We may also experience difficulties in installing or integrating our technology on systems or with other programs used by our clients. Defects in our software, errors or delays in the processing of electronic transactions or other difficulties could result in interruption of business operations, delay in market acceptance, additional development and remediation costs, diversion of technical and other resources, loss of clients or client data, negative publicity or exposure to liability claims. Although we attempt to limit our potential liability through disclaimers and limitation of liability provisions in our license and client agreements, we cannot be certain that these measures will successfully limit our liability.

COVID-19 Pandemic Risks

Our business has been, and is likely to continue to be, adversely impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of many countries, states, cities and other geographic regions have taken actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as imposing travel restrictions and bans, quarantines, social distancing guidelines, shelter-in-place or lock-down orders and other similar limitations. These measures have, among other matters, negatively impacted consumer and business spending and, as a result, our operating performance, primarily within our merchant acquiring and payment-related businesses, which earn transaction-based fees. The pandemic may continue to negatively impact transaction volumes, create economic uncertainty and financial market volatility, reduce economic activity, increase unemployment and cause a decline in consumer and business confidence, and could in the future further negatively impact the demand for our products and services, including merchant acquiring and payment processing. Ultimately, the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our future operational and financial performance will depend on, among other matters, the duration and intensity of the pandemic; the level of success of global vaccination efforts; governmental and private sector responses to the pandemic and the impact of such responses on us; and the impact of the pandemic on our employees, clients, vendors, operations and sales, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted.

Additional factors that could negatively impact us include:

•Payment processing risks associated with disruptions to merchant activity and business failures including chargeback risk. As an unprecedented number of merchants have been required to suspend or terminate their operations, there may be an increase in consumer chargebacks associated with processed transactions that merchant clients have submitted but have not fulfilled. Merchants may be unable to fund these chargebacks, potentially resulting in losses to us;

•Client payment risks. Clients may require additional time to pay us or fail to pay us at all, which could significantly increase the amount of accounts receivable and require us to record additional allowances for doubtful accounts. If clients cease operations or file for bankruptcy protection, we may experience lower revenue and earnings and have greater exposure to future transaction declines;

•Increased cyber and payment fraud risk, as cybercriminals attempt to profit from the disruption given increased online banking, e-commerce and other online activity;

•Disruption to our supply chain and third-party delivery service providers, including if the factories that manufacture our point-of-sale devices are temporarily closed or experience workforce shortages, if shipping services are interrupted or delayed, or if there are workforce shortages at our or third-party customer support, software development or technology hosting facilities;

•Increased risk of failing to meet client contractual obligations, including due to government orders or other restrictions that limit or prohibit us from providing client-facing services from regular service locations or the failure of our business continuity plans, which could cause loss of revenue, contractual penalties or potential legal disputes and associated costs; and

•Challenges to the availability and reliability of our solutions and services due to changes to normal operations, including the possibility of one or more clusters of COVID-19 cases occurring at our data, call or operations centers,

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affecting our employees or affecting the systems or employees of our clients or other third parties on which we depend.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to modify our business practices, including requiring a majority of our employees to work remotely, suspending non-essential travel, suspending all non-essential visitors to our facilities, disinfecting facilities and workspaces extensively and frequently, providing personal protective equipment to associates and requiring employees who must be present at our facilities to adhere to a variety of safety protocols. We expect to continue such safety measures for the foreseeable future and may take further actions, or adapt these existing policies, as government authorities may require or recommend or as we may determine to be in the best interest of our employees, clients and vendors. Such measures may impact our productivity or effectiveness, and there is no certainty that such measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the risks to the health of our employees. Further, the ability of our employees to get to work has been disrupted across multiple locations, both with respect to their own offices and client sites, due among other things to government work and travel restrictions, including mandatory shutdowns.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal, state, local and foreign governments have issued emergency orders and a significant number of new laws and regulations in a short period of time. These actions have impacted our current operations, including with respect to collection and consumer credit reporting activities, and we have experienced an increased volume of client support requests because many of the new laws impact our clients. We could be required to expend additional resources and incur additional costs to address regulatory requirements applicable to us or our clients, and we may not have the capacity to implement necessary changes within the times prescribed by applicable laws. There could be government initiatives to reduce or eliminate payments, costs or fees to merchants, or fees or other sources of revenue to financial institutions. Regulations may be unclear, difficult to interpret or in conflict with other applicable regulations. As a result, we may have to make judgments about how to comply with these new laws and regulators may not ultimately agree with how we implement applicable regulations. Failure to comply with any of these laws and regulations, including changing interpretations and the implementation of new, varying or more restrictive laws and regulations by federal, state, local or foreign governments, may result in financial penalties, lawsuits, reputational harm or change the manner in which we or our clients currently conduct some aspects of our business. In addition, during times of economic stress, there tends to be greater regulatory and governmental scrutiny of actions taken in response to such stress and an increased risk of both governmental and third-party litigation.

A lack of further recovery or deterioration in economic and market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could negatively impact our ability to generate earnings and cash flows sufficient to service debt and meet lease and other obligations as they come due or to meet our financial debt covenants. The pandemic could also make obtaining financing more difficult or expensive, and our ability to access the long-term debt markets on favorable interest rate and other terms will depend on market conditions and the ratings assigned by the credit rating agencies to our indebtedness.

There are no comparable recent events that provide guidance as to the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to have, and, as a result, the ultimate impacts are highly uncertain and subject to change. The extent to which the pandemic or any resulting worsening of the global business and economic environment adversely impacts our business, results of operations, liquidity and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and are difficult to predict, including, but not limited to, the duration and intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the actions taken to contain or limit the pandemic, including whether vaccination efforts are successful, and how quickly and to what extent pre-pandemic economic and operating conditions can resume. These factors may remain prevalent for a significant period of time even after the pandemic subsides, including due to a continued or prolonged recession in the U.S. or other major economies. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, liquidity or financial condition and heighten or exacerbate risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Global Market Risks

Our business may be adversely affected by geopolitical and other risks associated with operations outside of the U.S. and, as we continue to expand internationally, we may incur higher than anticipated costs and may become more susceptible to these risks.

We offer merchant acquiring, processing and issuing services outside of the U.S., including in the U.K., Germany, Argentina, India and Brazil. Our facilities outside of the U.S., and those of our suppliers and vendors, including manufacturing, customer support, software development and technology hosting facilities, are subject to risks, including natural disasters, public health crises, political crises, terrorism, war, political instability and other events outside of our or our suppliers’ control. As we expand internationally and grow our client base outside of the U.S., we may face challenges due to the presence of more established competitors and our lack of experience in such non-U.S. markets, and we may incur higher than anticipated costs. If we are unable to successfully manage the risks associated with the international operation and expansion of our business, our results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.

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The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union Single Market and Customs Union as part of the process known as “Brexit” could adversely affect our results of operations.

Effective December 31, 2020, the U.K. left the E.U. Single Market and Customs Union and also ceased to be subject to international agreements the E.U. is a party to. On December 24, 2020, the E.U. and the U.K. agreed to the terms of a trade and cooperation agreement which sets out the terms of their future relationship (the “Trade Agreement”). As a result, and subject to the terms of the Trade Agreement, the rules of the E.U. Single Market and Customs Union relating to the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital between the U.K. and the E.U. ended, and the E.U. and the U.K. formed two separate markets and two distinct regulatory and legal spaces. Brexit may, among other outcomes, and subject to the terms of the Trade Agreement, disrupt the free movement of goods, services, data and people between the U.K. and the E.U., undermine bilateral cooperation in key policy areas, and significantly disrupt trade between the U.K. and the E.U. In addition, Brexit may lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. determines, going forward and subject to the terms of the Trade Agreement, which E.U. laws and regulations to maintain and which to amend or replace. The effects of Brexit will depend in part on any agreements, in addition to the Trade Agreement, which the E.U. and the U.K. reach to allow the U.S. and the E.U. to retain access to each other’s markets in areas not covered by the Trade Agreement.

The Trade Agreement offers U.K. and E.U. businesses preferential access to each other’s markets, ensuring imported goods will be free of tariffs and quotas. However, economic relations between the U.K. and the E.U. will now be on more restricted terms than existed previously. The Trade Agreement does not incorporate the full scope of the services sector, and businesses such as banking and finance face a more uncertain future. The U.K. and E.U. plan to put in place a regulatory dialogue on financial services based on a separate memorandum of understanding (“MoU”). Talks on the MoU are expected to begin by March 2021. At this time, we cannot predict the impact that the Trade Agreement and any future agreements on services, including the MoU, will have on our business and our clients, and it is possible that the terms of any new agreements (or a failure to reach such agreements) may adversely affect our operations and financial results. Given the lack of comparable precedent, it is unclear what financial, trade and legal implications the withdrawal of the U.K. from the E.U. will have and how such withdrawal will affect us.

In addition, Brexit may create additional uncertainty in currency exchange rate fluctuations that may result in the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business. We translate revenue denominated in foreign currency into U.S. dollars for our financial statements. During periods of a strengthening U.S. dollar, our reported international revenue and profit is reduced because foreign currencies translate into fewer U.S. dollars. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could materially adversely affect our relationships with our existing and future clients and vendors, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and business opportunities.

Our business may be adversely impacted by U.S. and global market and economic conditions.

For the foreseeable future, we expect to continue to derive revenue primarily from products and services we provide to the financial services industry and our merchant acquiring business. Given this focus, we are exposed to global economic conditions and adverse economic trends may accelerate the timing, or increase the impact of, risks to our financial performance. Such trends may include, but are not limited to, the following:

•declining economies, foreign currency fluctuations, social unrest, natural disasters, public health crises, including the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness, and the pace of economic recovery can change consumer spending behaviors, such as cross-border travel patterns, on which a significant portion of our revenues are dependent;

•low levels of consumer and business confidence typically associated with recessionary environments and those markets experiencing relatively high inflation and/or unemployment, may cause decreased spending by cardholders;

•budgetary concerns in the U.S. and other countries around the world could affect the U.S. and other specific sovereign credit ratings, impact consumer confidence and spending, and increase the risks of operating in those countries;

•emerging market economies tend to be more volatile than the more established markets we serve in the U.S. and Europe, and adverse economic trends, including high rates of inflation, may be more pronounced in such emerging markets;

•financial institutions may restrict credit lines to cardholders or limit the issuance of new cards to mitigate cardholder defaults;

•uncertainty and volatility in the performance of our clients’ businesses may make estimates of our revenues, rebates, incentives, and realization of prepaid assets less predictable;

•our clients may decrease spending for value-added services; and

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•government intervention, including the effect of laws, regulations, and/or government investments in our clients, may have potential negative effects on our business and our relationships with our clients or otherwise alter their strategic direction away from our products.

A weakening in the economy or competition from other retailers could also force some retailers to close, resulting in exposure to potential credit losses and declines in transactions, and reduced earnings on transactions due to a potential shift to large discount merchants. Additionally, credit card issuers may reduce credit limits and become more selective in their card issuance practices.

A prolonged poor economic environment could result in significant decreases in demand by current and potential clients for our products and services and in the number and dollar amount of transactions we process or accounts we service, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Potential tariffs or trade wars could increase the cost of our products, which could adversely impact the competitiveness of our products and our financial results.

The U.S. has imposed tariffs on certain imports from China, including on some of our hardware devices manufactured in China. If the U.S. administration imposes additional tariffs, or if additional tariffs or trade restrictions are implemented by the U.S. or other countries, our hardware devices produced in China could be impacted. Although it is difficult to predict how current or future tariffs on items imported from China or elsewhere will impact our business, the cost of our products manufactured in China and imported into the U.S. or other countries could increase, which in turn could adversely affect the demand for these products and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Regulatory and Compliance Risks

If we or third parties with whom we partner or contract fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, we could be subject to liability and our business could be harmed.

If we or third parties with whom we partner or contract fail to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our business, including state and federal payment, cybersecurity, consumer protection, trade and data privacy laws and regulations, we could be exposed to litigation or regulatory proceedings, our client relationships and reputation could be harmed, and our ability to obtain new clients could be inhibited, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our clients are also subject to numerous laws and regulations applicable to banks, financial institutions and card issuers in the U.S. and abroad, and, consequently, we are at times affected by these federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations. These laws and regulations are subject to frequent change, with new laws, regulations and interpretations thereof being implemented.

Certain of our subsidiaries are licensed as money transmitters and are required, among other matters, to demonstrate and maintain certain levels of net worth and liquidity and to file periodic reports. Our direct-to-consumer payments businesses are subject to state and federal regulations in the U.S., including state money transmission regulations, anti-money laundering regulations, economic and trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) and certain privacy regulations, such as the U.S. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Our Money Network Financial, LLC subsidiary provides prepaid access for various open loop prepaid programs for which it is the program manager and therefore must meet the requirements of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. We also have businesses that are subject to credit reporting and debt collection laws and regulations in the U.S. In addition, certain of our subsidiaries are subject to, among others, privacy, anti-money laundering, debt collection, and payment institution or electronic money licensing regulations outside the U.S.

We operate our business around the world, including in certain foreign countries with developing economies where companies often engage in business practices that are prohibited by laws applicable to us, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act. These laws prohibit, among other things, improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have implemented policies and training programs to discourage such practices; however, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, consultants and agents will comply with our policies and all applicable laws.

We are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs, including those that are administered by OFAC, which prohibit or restrict transactions to or from, or dealings with, specified countries, their governments, individuals and entities that are specially-designated nationals of those countries, narcotics traffickers and terrorists or terrorist organizations. Similar anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and proceeds of crime laws apply to movements of currency and payments through electronic transactions and to dealings with persons specified in lists equivalent to OFAC lists in several other countries

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and require specific data retention obligations to be observed by intermediaries in the payment process. Our businesses in those jurisdictions are subject to those data retention obligations.

The volume and complexity of these regulations will continue to increase our cost of doing business. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or changes in the regulatory environment, including changing interpretations and the implementation of new, varying or more restrictive laws and regulations by federal, state, local or foreign governments, may result in significant financial penalties, reputational harm, suspension or termination of our ability to provide certain services, or change or restrict the manner in which we currently conduct our business, all of which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of the payment card networks and Nacha, they could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations, which could adversely affect our business.

In order to provide our transaction processing services, several of our subsidiaries are registered with Visa and Mastercard and other networks as members or service providers for member institutions. A number of our subsidiaries outside the U.S. are direct members or associate members of Visa and Mastercard for purposes of conducting merchant acquiring, and various subsidiaries are also processor level members of numerous debit and electronic benefits transaction networks. As such, we are subject to card association and network rules that could subject us or our clients to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by the card associations or networks for certain acts or omissions by us, acquiring clients, processing clients or merchants. In addition, we are subject to Nacha rules relating to payment transactions processed by us using the ACH network and to various federal and state laws regarding such operations, including laws pertaining to electronic benefits transactions, as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard enforced by the major card brands. The rules of Nacha and the card networks are set by their respective boards, some of which are our competitors, and the card network rules may be influenced by card issuers, some of which offer competing transaction processing services.

If we fail to comply with these rules, we could be fined and our member registrations or certifications could be suspended or terminated. The suspension or termination of our member registrations or certifications, or any changes to the association and network rules, that we do not successfully address, or any other action by the card networks to restrict our ability to process transactions over such networks, could limit our ability to provide transaction processing services to clients and result in a reduction of revenue or increased costs of operation, which, in either case, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

A heightened regulatory environment in the financial services industry may have an adverse impact on our clients and our business.

Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”), a number of substantial regulations affecting the supervision and operation of the financial services industry within the U.S. have been adopted, including those that establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). The CFPB has issued guidance that applies to, and conducts direct examinations of, “supervised banks and nonbanks” as well as “supervised service providers” like us. In addition, the CFPB regulates consumer financial products and services (including many offered by our clients), restricts debit card fees paid by merchants to certain issuer banks and allows merchants to offer discounts for different payment methods. CFPB rules, examinations and enforcement actions may require us to adjust our activities and may increase our compliance costs. Changes to the Dodd-Frank Act or regulations could adversely impact our debit network business. In addition, certain of our alliance partners are subject to regulation by federal and state authorities and, as a result, could pass through some of those compliance obligations to us.

To the extent this oversight or regulation negatively impacts the business, operations or financial condition of our clients, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected because, among other matters, our clients could have less capacity to purchase products and services from us, could decide to avoid or abandon certain lines of business, or could seek to pass on increased costs to us by negotiating price reductions. Additional regulation, examination and oversight of us could require us to modify the manner in which we contract with or provide products and services to our clients; directly or indirectly limit how much we can charge for our services; require us to invest additional time and resources to comply with such oversight and regulations; or limit our ability to update our existing products and services, or require us to develop new ones. Any of these events, if realized, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Legislative or regulatory initiatives on cybersecurity and data privacy could adversely impact our business and financial results.

Cybersecurity and data privacy risks have received heightened legislative and regulatory attention. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) extends the scope of the E.U. data protection law to all companies processing data of

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E.U. residents, regardless of the company’s location, subject to certain limitations. The law requires companies to meet stringent requirements regarding the handling of personal data. E.U. data protection law continues to develop and require significant changes to our policies and procedures. In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a decision in the case Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Limited, and Maximillian Schrems (the “Schrems II Decision”) that invalidated the European Commission’s adequacy decision for the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and placed additional safeguards necessary for transfers of personal data to the U.S., requiring companies and regulators to conduct case-by-case analyses to determine whether foreign protections concerning government access to transferred data meet E.U. standards. Our vendors and clients have been directly impacted by the Schrems II Decision, and our ability to transfer data outside the E.U. may be further impacted by the Schrems II Decision and determinations made by regulators in the E.U. We do not yet know the extent of this impact on our operations. We, along with our vendors and customers, rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) to transfer data out of the E.U. If the European Commission requires that new SCCs be signed to replace the existing SCCs, we will need to devote resources to entering into the appropriate SCCs to continue to engage in transfers of data as applicable. In addition, with the U.K.’s exit from the E.U. Single Market and Customs Union on December 31, 2020, there is uncertainty surrounding transfers of personal data from the E.U. to the U.K. The Trade Agreement provides that transfers of personal data from the E.U. to the U.K. will not be considered transfers of personal data to a third country during a transitional period of up to six months from January 1, 2021. If the transition period ends without an appropriate resolution, transfers of personal data from the E.U. to the U.K. may be impacted.

Our efforts to comply with E.U., U.K. and other privacy and data protection laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Privacy Rights Act taking effect in January 2023, the Brazilian General Data Protection Law and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act) could involve substantial expenses, divert resources from other initiatives and projects and limit the services we are able to offer. Further, failure to comply with applicable laws in this area could also result in fines, penalties and reputational damage.

In addition, U.S. banking agencies have proposed enhanced cyber risk management standards that would apply to us and our financial institution clients and that would address cyber risk governance and management, management of internal and external dependencies, and incident response, cyber resilience and situational awareness. Several states also have adopted or proposed cybersecurity laws targeting these issues, including the New York Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies and the New York Shield Act to protect personal and private data. New York and Washington state have each proposed comprehensive privacy acts to govern the personal data of their residents. The U.S. government has also proposed federal privacy legislation. Legislation and regulations on cybersecurity, data privacy and data localization may compel us to enhance or modify our systems, invest in new systems or alter our business practices or our policies on data governance and privacy. If any of these outcomes were to occur, our operational costs could increase significantly.

Failure to comply with state and federal antitrust requirements could adversely affect our business.

Through our merchant alliances, we hold an ownership interest in several competing merchant acquiring businesses while serving as an electronic processor for those businesses. In order to satisfy state and federal antitrust requirements, we actively maintain an antitrust compliance program. Notwithstanding our compliance program, it is possible that perceived or actual violations of state or federal antitrust requirements could give rise to regulatory enforcement investigations or actions. Regulatory scrutiny of, or regulatory enforcement action in connection with, compliance with state and federal antitrust requirements could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and business.

We may be sued for infringing the intellectual property rights of others.

Third parties may claim that we are infringing their intellectual property rights. We expose ourselves to additional liability when we agree to defend or indemnify our clients against third-party infringement claims. If the owner of intellectual property establishes that we are, or a client which we are obligated to indemnify is, infringing its intellectual property rights, we may be forced to change our products or services, and such changes may be expensive or impractical, or we may need to seek royalty or license agreements from the owner of such rights. If we are unable to agree on acceptable terms, we may be required to discontinue the sale of key products or halt other aspects of our operations. We may also be liable for financial damages for a violation of intellectual property rights, and we may incur expenses in connection with indemnifying our clients against losses suffered by them. Any adverse result related to violation of third-party intellectual property rights could materially and adversely harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Even if intellectual property claims brought against us are without merit, they may result in costly and time-consuming litigation and may require significant attention from our management and key personnel.

Misappropriation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights could impair our competitive position.

Our ability to compete depends upon proprietary systems and technology. We actively seek to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. Nevertheless, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our services or to obtain and use

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information that we regard as proprietary. The steps we have taken may not prevent misappropriation of technology. Agreements entered into for that purpose may not be enforceable or provide us with an adequate remedy. It is also possible that others will independently develop the same or similar technology. Further, we use open source software in connection with our solutions. Companies that incorporate open source software into their solutions have, from time to time, faced claims challenging the ownership of solutions developed using open source software. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our applications and services are made available. The laws of certain non-U.S. countries where we do business or contemplate doing business in the future may not recognize intellectual property rights or protect them to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. Misappropriation of our intellectual property or potential litigation concerning such matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Changes in tax laws and regulations could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows from operations.

Our operations are subject to tax by federal, state, local, and international taxing jurisdictions. Changes in tax laws or their interpretations in our significant tax jurisdictions could materially increase the amount of taxes we owe, thereby negatively impacting our results of operations as well as our cash flows from operations. For example, the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”) significantly revised the U.S. corporate income tax code by, among other things, lowering corporate income tax rates, implementing a territorial-type tax system and imposing repatriation tax on deemed repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. Further analysis of the Tax Act or future tax laws, regulations or guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Financial Accounting Standards Board could cause us to adjust current estimates in future periods, which could impact our earnings and have an adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flow. Furthermore, our implementation of new practices and processes designed to comply with changing tax laws and regulations could require us to make substantial changes to our business practices, allocate additional resources, and increase our costs, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows from operations.

Our tax returns and positions are subject to review and audit by federal, state, local and international taxing authorities. An unfavorable outcome to a tax audit could result in higher tax expense, thereby negatively impacting our results of operations as well as our cash flows from operations. We have established contingency reserves for known tax exposures relating to deductions, transactions and other matters involving some uncertainty as to the proper tax treatment of the item. These reserves reflect what we believe to be reasonable assumptions as to the likely final resolution of each issue if raised by a taxing authority. While we believe that the reserves are adequate to cover reasonably expected tax risks, there is no assurance that, in all instances, an issue raised by a tax authority will be finally resolved at a financial cost not in excess of any related reserve. An unfavorable resolution, therefore, could negatively impact our effective tax rate, financial position, results of operations, and cash flows in the current and/or future periods.

Organizational and Financial Risks

The failure to attract and retain key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We depend on the experience, skill and contributions of our senior management and other key employees. If we fail to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified management, technical, compliance and sales personnel, our future success could be harmed. Our senior management provides strategic direction for our company, and if we lose members of our leadership team, our management resources may have to be diverted from other priorities to address this loss. Our products and services require sophisticated knowledge of the financial services industry, applicable regulatory and industry requirements, computer systems, and software applications, and if we cannot hire or retain the necessary skilled personnel, we could suffer delays in new product development, experience difficulty complying with applicable requirements or otherwise fail to satisfy our clients’ demands.

Our merchants may be unable to satisfy obligations for which we may also be liable.

We are subject to the risk of our merchants being unable to satisfy obligations for which we may also be liable. For example, we and our merchant acquiring alliances may be subject to contingent liability for transactions originally acquired by us that are disputed by the cardholder and charged back to the merchants. If we or the alliance is unable to collect this amount from the merchant because of the merchant’s insolvency or other reasons, we or the alliance will bear the loss for the amount of the refund paid to the cardholder. Although we have an active program to manage our credit risk and often mitigate our risk by obtaining collateral, a default on such obligations by one or more of our merchants could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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Fraud by merchants or others could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may be subject to potential liability for fraudulent transactions, including electronic payment and card transactions or credits initiated by merchants or others. Examples of merchant fraud include when a merchant or other party knowingly uses a stolen or counterfeit credit, debit or prepaid card, card number or other credentials to record a false sales transaction, processes an invalid card or intentionally fails to deliver the merchandise or services sold in an otherwise valid transaction. Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities such as counterfeiting and fraud. We also rely on ISOs to sell our merchant processing services, which they may do by contracting with their own sub-ISOs. We rely on these ISOs and sub-ISOs to exercise appropriate controls to avoid fraudulent transactions. It is possible that incidents of fraud could increase in the future. Failure to effectively manage risk and prevent fraud, or otherwise effectively administer our chargeback responsibilities, would increase our chargeback liability or expose us to fines or other liabilities. Increases in chargebacks, fines or other liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Acquisitions subject us to risks, including assumption of unforeseen liabilities and difficulties in integrating operations.

A major contributor to our growth in revenue and earnings since our inception has been our ability to identify, acquire and integrate complementary businesses. We anticipate that we will continue to seek to acquire complementary businesses, products and services. We may not be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates or complete acquisitions in the future, which could adversely affect our future growth; or businesses that we acquire may not perform as well as expected or may be more difficult or expensive to integrate and manage than expected, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. We may not be able to integrate all aspects of acquired businesses successfully or realize the potential benefits of bringing them together. In addition, the process of integrating these acquisitions may disrupt our business and divert our resources.

In addition, acquisitions outside of the U.S. often involve additional or increased risks including, for example:

•managing geographically separated organizations, systems and facilities;

•integrating personnel with diverse business backgrounds and organizational cultures;

•complying with non-U.S. regulatory requirements;

•fluctuations in currency exchange rates;

•enforcement of intellectual property rights in some non-U.S. countries;

•difficulty entering new non-U.S. markets due to, among other things, consumer acceptance and business knowledge of these new markets; and

•general economic and political conditions.

These risks may arise for a number of reasons: we may not be able to find suitable businesses to acquire at affordable valuations or on other acceptable terms; we may face competition for acquisitions from other potential acquirers; we may need to borrow money or sell equity or debt securities to the public to finance acquisitions and the terms of these financings may be adverse to us; changes in accounting, tax, securities or other regulations could increase the difficulty or cost for us to complete acquisitions; we may incur unforeseen obligations or liabilities in connection with acquisitions; we may need to devote unanticipated financial and management resources to an acquired business; we may not realize expected operating efficiencies or product integration benefits from an acquisition; we could enter markets where we have minimal prior experience; and we may experience decreases in earnings as a result of non-cash impairment charges.

We may be obligated to indemnify the purchasers of businesses pursuant to the terms of the relevant purchase and sale agreements.

We have in the past and may in the future sell businesses. In connection with sales of businesses, we may make representations and warranties about the businesses and their financial affairs and agree to retain certain liabilities associated with our operation of the businesses prior to their sale. Our obligation to indemnify the purchasers and agreement to retain liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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Our balance sheet includes significant amounts of goodwill and intangible assets. The impairment of a significant portion of these assets would negatively affect our results of operations.

Our balance sheet includes goodwill and intangible assets that represent 69% of our total assets at December 31, 2020. These assets consist primarily of goodwill and identified intangible assets associated with our acquisitions. On at least an annual basis, we assess whether there have been impairments in the carrying value of goodwill. In addition, we review intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable. If the carrying value of the asset is determined to be impaired, then it is written down to fair value by a charge to operating earnings. An impairment of a significant portion of goodwill or intangible assets could have a material negative effect on our results of operations.

Existing or future leverage may harm our financial condition and results of operations.

At December 31, 2020, we had approximately $20.7 billion of debt. We and our subsidiaries may incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our indebtedness could: decrease our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, general corporate or other purposes; limit our flexibility to make acquisitions; increase our cash requirements to support the payment of interest; limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry; and increase our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic and industry conditions. Our ability to make payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness depends upon our future performance, which will be subject to general economic conditions and financial, business and other factors affecting our consolidated operations, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, if certain of our outstanding senior notes are downgraded to below investment grade, we may incur additional interest expense. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations in the future to service our debt and meet our other cash requirements, we may be required, among other things: to seek additional financing in the debt or equity markets; to refinance or restructure all or a portion of our indebtedness; or to reduce or delay planned capital or operating expenditures. Such measures might not be sufficient to enable us to service our debt and meet our other cash requirements. In addition, any such financing, refinancing or sale of assets might not be available at all or on economically favorable terms.

An increase in interest rates may negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.

Certain of our borrowings, including borrowings under our revolving credit facility, term loan, foreign lines of credit and receivable securitization facility, are at variable rates of interest. An increase in interest rates would have a negative impact on our results of operations by causing an increase in interest expense. At December 31, 2020, we had approximately $1.8 billion in variable rate debt, which includes $1.3 billion on our term loan, $166 million drawn on our revolving credit facility and lines of credit and $425 million drawn on our accounts receivable securitization facility. Based on outstanding debt balances and interest rates at December 31, 2020, a 1% increase in variable interest rates would result in a decrease to annual pre-tax income of $18 million.

Our results of operations may be adversely affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

We are subject to risks related to changes in currency rates as a result of our investments in foreign operations and from revenues generated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Revenues and profit generated by such international operations will increase or decrease compared to prior periods as a result of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. From time to time, we utilize foreign currency forward contracts and other hedging instruments to mitigate the market value risks associated with foreign currency-denominated transactions and investments. These hedging strategies may not, however, eliminate all of the risks related to foreign currency translation, and we may forgo the benefits we would otherwise experience if currency exchange rates were to change in our favor. We have also issued foreign currency-denominated senior notes for which payments of interest and principal are to be made in foreign currency, and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could cause the expense associated with such payments to increase. In addition, we may become subject to exchange control regulations that restrict or prohibit the conversion of our foreign revenue currencies into U.S. dollars. Any of these factors could decrease the value of revenues and earnings we derive from our international operations and have a material adverse effect on our business.

First Data Acquisition Risks

The synergies attributable to the acquisition may vary from expectations.

We may fail to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies expected from the acquisition, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The success of the acquisition will depend, in significant part, on our ability to successfully integrate the acquired business, grow the revenue of the combined company and realize the anticipated strategic benefits and synergies from the combination. This growth and the anticipated benefits of the transaction may not be realized fully or may take longer to realize than expected. Actual operating, technological, strategic, synergy and revenue

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opportunities may be less significant than expected or may take longer to achieve than anticipated. If we are not able to achieve these objectives and realize the anticipated benefits and synergies expected from the acquisition within the anticipated timing, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We have incurred and expect to continue to incur substantial expenses related to the integration.

We have incurred and expect to continue to incur substantial expenses in connection with the integration of First Data. There are a large number of processes, policies, procedures, operations, technologies and systems that may need to be integrated, including our business operating platforms, purchasing, accounting and finance, sales, payroll, pricing and benefits. While we have assumed that a certain level of expenses will be incurred, there are many factors beyond our control that could affect the total amount or the timing of the integration expenses. Moreover, many of the expenses that we will continue to incur are, by their nature, difficult to estimate accurately. These expenses could, particularly in the near term, exceed the savings that we expect to achieve from the elimination of duplicative expenses and the realization of economies of scale and cost savings. These integration expenses may result in us taking significant charges against earnings, and the amount and timing of such charges are uncertain at present.

Our future results will be negatively impacted if we do not effectively manage our expanded operations.

As a result of the acquisition, the size of our business has increased significantly. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to manage this expanded business, which will pose substantial challenges for management, including challenges related to the management and monitoring of new operations; integrating complex systems, technology, networks and other assets in a seamless manner that minimizes any adverse impact on customers, suppliers, employees and other constituencies; potential unknown liabilities; and associated increased costs. We may also face increased scrutiny from governmental authorities as a result of the significant increase in the size of our business. Any of these issues could adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and other constituencies or achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisition or could reduce our earnings or otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results.

New Omaha Holdings L.P. may sell a substantial amount of our common stock as certain restrictions on sales expire, and these sales could cause the price of our common stock to fall.

New Omaha Holdings L.P. (“New Omaha”) owns approximately 13% of our outstanding shares. New Omaha may sell its shares subject to certain limitations contained in the shareholder agreement between us and New Omaha. Under a registration rights agreement entered into in connection with the acquisition, we have granted New Omaha registration rights, which permit, among others, underwritten offerings. The registration rights agreement will terminate when the aggregate ownership percentage of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock held by New Omaha and its affiliate transferees falls below 2% and such shares may be freely sold without restrictions.

New Omaha may have influence over us and its interests may conflict with other shareholders.

New Omaha owns approximately 13% of our issued and outstanding shares and is our largest shareholder. Under the shareholder agreement between us and New Omaha, New Omaha may designate a director to serve on our board of directors in accordance with the terms thereof until the aggregate ownership percentage of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock held by New Omaha and its affiliate transferees first falls below 5%. The shareholder agreement will terminate when the aggregate ownership percentage of our outstanding shares held by New Omaha and certain of its affiliates falls below 3%. Although there are various restrictions on New Omaha’s ability to take certain actions with respect to us and our shareholders (including certain standstill provisions for so long as New Omaha’s aggregate ownership percentage of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock remains at or above 5%), New Omaha may seek to influence, and may be able to influence, us through its appointment of a director to our board of directors and its share ownership.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

At December 31, 2020, we owned 20 properties and leased 161 properties globally. These locations are used for operational, sales, management and administrative purposes. As a normal part of our business operations, including in connection with the integration of companies that we acquire, we regularly review our real estate portfolio. We may choose to acquire or dispose of properties in order to maintain a real estate footprint designed to maximize collaboration, innovation and communication in ways that enable us to best serve our clients and to create more opportunities for professional growth and development for our associates.

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Item 3. Legal Proceedings

In the normal course of business, we or our subsidiaries are named as defendants in lawsuits in which claims are asserted against us. In the opinion of management, the liabilities, if any, which may ultimately result from such lawsuits are not expected to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

The names of our executive officers as of February 26, 2021, together with their ages, positions and business experience are described below:


Name	Age	Title
Frank J. Bisignano	61	President and Chief Executive Officer

Guy Chiarello	61	Chief Administrative Officer
Christopher M. Foskett	63	Executive Vice President, Global Sales
Robert W. Hau	55	Chief Financial Officer
Lynn S. McCreary	61	Chief Legal Officer and Secretary
Devin B. McGranahan	51	Executive Vice President, Senior Group President
Byron C. Vielehr	57	Chief Digital and Data Officer

Mr. Bisignano has served as Chief Executive Officer since July 2020 and a director and President since July 2019. He served as Chief Operating Officer from July 2019 until July 2020. Mr. Bisignano joined Fiserv as part of the acquisition of First Data Corporation, where he served as chief executive officer since 2013 and chairman since 2014. From 2005 to 2013, he held various executive positions with JPMorgan Chase & Co., a global financial services firm, including co-chief operating officer, chief executive officer of mortgage banking and chief administrative officer. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Bisignano served as chief executive officer for Citigroup’s Global Transactions Services business and a member of Citigroup’s Management Committee.

Mr. Chiarello has served as Chief Administrative Officer since July 2019. Mr. Chiarello joined Fiserv as part of the acquisition of First Data Corporation, where he served as president since 2013. From 2008 to 2013, he served as chief information officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., a global financial services firm. From 1985 to 2008, Mr. Chiarello served in various technology and leadership roles including chief information officer at Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm.

Mr. Foskett has served as Executive Vice President, Global Sales since July 2019. Mr. Foskett joined Fiserv as part of the acquisition of First Data Corporation, where he served as executive vice president, head of corporate and business development since 2015 and co-head of global financial services since 2018. He joined First Data Corporation in 2014 as head of global, strategic and national accounts. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Foskett served as managing director, head of North American treasury services and global head of sales for treasury services at JPMorgan Chase & Co., a global financial services firm. From 2009 to 2011, he was managing director, global head of financial institutions at National Australia Bank, an Australian financial institution. From 1991 to 2008, Mr. Foskett was managing director in Citigroup’s Corporate & Investment Bank leading several global businesses. Prior to that, he was employed by Goldman Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Hau has served as Chief Financial Officer since 2016. Before joining Fiserv, Mr. Hau served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at TE Connectivity Ltd., a global technology and manufacturing company, from 2012 to 2016. From 2009 to 2012, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Lennox International Inc., a provider of products and services in the heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets; and from 2006 to 2009, he served as vice president and chief financial officer for the aerospace business group of Honeywell International, Inc., a technology and manufacturing company. Mr. Hau joined Honeywell (initially AlliedSignal) in 1987 and served in a variety of senior financial leadership positions, including vice president and chief financial officer for the company’s aerospace electronic systems unit and for its specialty materials business group.

Ms. McCreary has served as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary since 2013. Ms. McCreary joined Fiserv in 2010 as senior vice president and deputy general counsel. Prior to joining Fiserv, Ms. McCreary was a partner with the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP from 1996 to 2010, including serving as managing partner of its San Francisco, California office from its opening in 2008 to 2010. Ms. McCreary began her career in financial services with positions at Citicorp Person-to-Person and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s mortgage subsidiary, Metmor Financial, Inc.

Mr. McGranahan has served as Executive Vice President, Senior Group President since 2018 and joined Fiserv in 2016 as group president, Billing and Payments Group. Before joining Fiserv, Mr. McGranahan served as a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. While there, he held a variety of senior management roles, including leader of the global insurance practice from 2013 to 2016 and co-chair of the global senior partner election committee from 2013 to 2015. In addition, Mr. McGranahan served as co-leader of the North America financial services practice from 2009 to 2016. He joined McKinsey & Company in 1992 and served in a variety of other leadership positions prior to 2009, including leader of the North American property and casualty practice and managing partner of the Pittsburgh office.

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Mr. Vielehr has served as Chief Digital and Data Officer since January 2021. He previously served as Executive Vice President, Senior Group President from 2019 to January 2021, Chief Administrative Officer from 2018 to 2019, and as Group President, Depository Institution Services Group from 2013 to 2018. Prior to joining Fiserv, from 2005 to 2013, Mr. Vielehr served in a succession of senior executive positions with The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, a provider of commercial information and business insight solutions, most recently as president of international and global operations. He also previously served as president and chief operating officer of Northstar Systems International, Inc., a developer of wealth management software (now part of SEI Investments Company), from 2004 to 2005. Mr. Vielehr has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and technology industries, including a variety of executive leadership roles at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Strong Capital Management.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Price Information

Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “FISV.” At December 31, 2020, our common stock was held by 1,690 shareholders of record and by a significantly greater number of shareholders who hold shares in nominee or street name accounts with brokers. We have never paid dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying dividends in the foreseeable future. For additional information regarding our expected use of capital, refer to the discussion in this report under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The table below sets forth information with respect to purchases made by or on behalf of us or any “affiliated purchaser” (as defined in Rule 10b-18(a)(3) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) of shares of our common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2020:



Period	Total Number of Shares Purchased	Average Price Paid per Share		Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs (1)	Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs (1)
October 1-31, 2020	—	$	—	—	7,486,000
November 1-30, 2020	—	—		—	67,486,000
December 1-31, 2020	1,818,000	110.04		1,818,000	65,668,000
Total	1,818,000			1,818,000

(1)On August 8, 2018 and November 19, 2020, our board of directors authorized the purchase of up to 30.0 million and 60.0 million shares of our common stock, respectively. These authorizations do not expire.

In connection with the vesting of restricted stock awards, shares of common stock are delivered to the Company by employees to satisfy tax withholding obligations. The following table summarizes such purchases of common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2020:



Period	Total Number of Shares Purchased		Average Price Paid per Share		Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs	Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
October 1-31, 2020	—		$	—	—	—
November 1-30, 2020	—		—		—	—
December 1-31, 2020	30,900	(1)	113.86		—	—
Total	30,900				—

(1)Shares surrendered to us to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of restricted stock awards issued to employees.

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Stock Performance Graph

The stock performance graph and related information presented below is not deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the Securities and Exchange Commission or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such a filing.

The following graph compares the cumulative total shareholder return on our common stock for the five years ended December 31, 2020 with the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ US Benchmark Transaction Processing Services Index (the “Index”). Prior to September 21, 2020, the Index was known as the NASDAQ US Benchmark Financial Administration Index. The Index, as renamed, is identical to the NASDAQ US Benchmark Financial Administration Index prior to its name change on September 21, 2020. The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2015 in our common stock and each index and that all dividends were reinvested. No cash dividends have been declared on our common stock. The comparisons in the graph are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common stock.


	December 31,
	2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
Fiserv, Inc.	$	100	$	116	$	143	$	161	$	253	$	249
S&P 500 Index	100		112		136		130		171		203
NASDAQ US Benchmark Transaction Processing Services Index	100		112		151		162		225		302

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Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The following data should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes and the sections entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected historical data presented below has been affected by the First Data and other acquisitions, dispositions and transactional gains recorded by our unconsolidated affiliates, debt financing activities, foreign currency fluctuations, the tax effects related to share-based payment awards and by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017. In addition, effective January 1, 2020, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326), using the required modified retrospective approach, which resulted in a cumulative-effect decrease to beginning retained earnings of $45 million. Effective January 1, 2019, we adopted ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), and its related amendments using the optional transition method applied to all leases. The adoption of the new lease standard resulted in the recognition of lease liabilities and right-of-use assets on the consolidated balance sheet beginning January 1, 2019. Under the optional transition approach, prior period amounts have not been restated. Effective January 1, 2018, we adopted ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, and its related amendments using the modified retrospective transition approach applied to all contracts. Under this transition approach, prior period amounts have not been restated. All per share amounts are presented on a split-adjusted basis to retroactively reflect the two-for-one stock split that was completed in the first quarter of 2018.



(In millions, except per share data)	2020		2019		2018		2017		2016
Total revenue	$	14,852	$	10,187	$	5,823	$	5,696	$	5,505
Income from continuing operations	$	975	$	914	$	1,187	$	1,232	$	930
Income from discontinued operations, net of income taxes	—		—		—		14		—
Net income	975		914		1,187		1,246		930
Less: net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests	17		21		—		—		—
Net income attributable to Fiserv, Inc.	$	958	$	893	$	1,187	$	1,246	$	930

Net income attributable to Fiserv, Inc. per share – basic:
Continuing operations	$	1.42	$	1.74	$	2.93	$	2.92	$	2.11
Discontinued operations	—		—		—		0.03		—
Total	$	1.42	$	1.74	$	2.93	$	2.95	$	2.11

Net income attributable to Fiserv, Inc. per share – diluted:
Continuing operations	$	1.40	$	1.71	$	2.87	$	2.86	$	2.08
Discontinued operations	—		—		—		0.03		—
Total	$	1.40	$	1.71	$	2.87	$	2.89	$	2.08

Total assets	$	74,619	$	77,539	$	11,262	$	10,289	$	9,743
Long-term debt (including short-term and current maturities)	20,684		21,899		5,959		4,900		4,562
Fiserv, Inc. shareholders’ equity	32,330		32,979		2,293		2,731		2,541

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is provided as a supplement to our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes to help provide an understanding of our financial condition, the changes in our financial condition and our results of operations. Our discussion is organized as follows:

•Overview. This section contains background information on our company and the services and products that we provide, acquisitions and dispositions, our enterprise priorities, and the trends affecting our industry in order to provide context for management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations.

•Critical accounting policies and estimates. This section contains a discussion of the accounting policies that we believe are important to our financial condition and results of operations and that require judgment and estimates on the part of management in their application. In addition, all of our significant accounting policies, including critical accounting policies, are summarized in Note 1 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

•Results of operations. This section contains an analysis of our results of operations presented in the accompanying consolidated statements of income by comparing the results for the year ended December 31, 2020 to the results for the year ended December 31, 2019 and by comparing the results for the year ended December 31, 2019 to the results for the year ended December 31, 2018.

•Liquidity and capital resources. This section provides an analysis of our cash flows and a discussion of our outstanding debt and commitments at December 31, 2020.

Overview

Company Background

We are a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions. We provide account processing and digital banking solutions; card issuer processing and network services; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing; and the Clover® cloud-based point-of-sale (“POS”) solution. We serve clients around the globe, including banks, credit unions, other financial institutions, corporate clients and merchants.

On July 29, 2019, we acquired First Data Corporation (“First Data”), a global leader in commerce-enabling technology and solutions for merchants, financial institutions and card issuers. Effective in the first quarter of 2020, we realigned our reportable segments to reflect our new management structure and organizational responsibilities (“Segment Realignment”) following the acquisition of First Data.

Our operations are comprised of the Merchant Acceptance (“Acceptance”) segment, the Financial Technology (“Fintech”) segment and the Payments and Network (“Payments”) segment. The consolidated financial statements include the financial results of First Data from the date of acquisition. Segment results for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 have been restated to reflect the Segment Realignment.

The Acceptance segment provides a wide range of commerce-enabling solutions to merchants of all sizes and types around the world. These solutions include POS merchant acquiring and digital commerce services; mobile payment services; security and fraud protection products and services; CaratSM, our omnichannel commerce solution; and our cloud-based Clover POS platform, which includes a marketplace for proprietary and third-party business applications. The businesses in the Acceptance segment are subject to a modest level of seasonality, with the first quarter generally experiencing the lowest level of revenue and the fourth quarter experiencing the highest level of revenue.

The Fintech segment provides financial institutions around the world with technology solutions that enable them to process customer deposit and loan accounts and manage general ledger and central information files, as well as other products and services that support numerous types of financial transactions such as digital banking, financial and risk management, cash management, professional services and consulting, and item processing and source capture services. Our businesses in this segment also provide products and services to corporate clients to facilitate the management of financial processes and transactions.

The Payments segment primarily provides financial institutions and corporate clients with the products and services required to process digital payment transactions, including card transactions such as debit, credit and prepaid card processing and services, a range of network services, security and fraud protection products, card production and print services. In addition, our businesses in this segment offer non-card digital payment software and services, including bill payment, account-to-account transfers, person-to-person payments, electronic billing, and security and fraud protection products.

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The majority of our revenue is generated from recurring account- and transaction-based fees under multi-year contracts with high renewal rates. Most of the services we provide within our segments are necessary for our clients to operate their businesses and are, therefore, non-discretionary in nature.

Corporate and Other supports the reportable segments described above, and consists of amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, unallocated corporate expenses and other activities that are not considered when we evaluate segment performance, such as gains or losses on sales of businesses, costs associated with acquisition and divestiture activity, and our Output Solutions postage reimbursements. Corporate and Other also includes the historical results of our Investment Services business, of which we sold a 60% controlling interest in February 2020, as well as certain transition services revenue associated with various dispositions.

Acquisitions and Dispositions

We frequently review our portfolio to ensure we have the right set of businesses to execute on our strategy. We expect to acquire businesses when we identify: a compelling strategic need, such as a product, service or technology that helps meet client demand; an opportunity to change industry dynamics; a way to achieve business scale; or similar considerations. We expect to divest businesses that are not in line with our market, product or financial strategies.

Acquisitions

On March 2, 2020, we acquired MerchantPro Express LLC (“MerchantPro”), an independent sales organization (“ISO”) that provides processing services, POS equipment and merchant cash advances to businesses across the United States. MerchantPro is included within the Acceptance segment and further expands our merchant services business. On March 18, 2020, we acquired Bypass Mobile, LLC (“Bypass”), an independent software vendor and innovator in enterprise POS systems for sports and entertainment venues, food service management providers and national restaurant chains. Bypass is included within the Acceptance segment and further enhances our omni-commerce capabilities, enabling enterprise businesses to deliver a seamless customer experience that spans physical and digital channels. On May 11, 2020, we acquired Inlet, LLC (“Inlet”), a provider of secure digital delivery solutions for enterprise and middle-market billers’ invoices and statements. Inlet is included within the Payments segment and further enhances our digital bill payment strategy. We acquired these businesses for an aggregate purchase price of $167 million, net of $2 million of acquired cash, and including earn-out provisions estimated at a fair value of $45 million.

On July 29, 2019, we acquired First Data for a total purchase price of $46.5 billion by acquiring 100% of the First Data stock that was issued and outstanding as of the date of acquisition. As a result of the acquisition, First Data stockholders received 286 million shares of common stock of Fiserv, Inc., at an exchange ratio of 0.303 shares of Fiserv, Inc. for each share of First Data common stock, with cash paid in lieu of fractional shares. We also converted 15 million outstanding First Data equity awards into corresponding equity awards relating to common stock of Fiserv, Inc. in accordance with the exchange ratio. In addition, concurrent with the closing of the acquisition, we made a cash payment of $16.4 billion to repay existing First Data debt. We funded the transaction-related expenses and the repayment of First Data debt through a combination of available cash on-hand, proceeds from the issuance of senior notes, and term loan and revolving credit facility borrowings. The acquisition of First Data, included within the Acceptance and Payments segments, increases our footprint as a global payments and financial technology provider by expanding the portfolio of services provided to financial institutions, corporate and merchant clients and consumers.

On October 31, 2018, we acquired the debit card processing, ATM Managed Services, and MoneyPass® surcharge-free network of Elan Financial Services, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, for approximately $659 million including post-closing working capital adjustments, estimated contingent consideration related to earn-out provisions and future payments under a transition services agreement in excess of estimated fair value. This acquisition, included within the Payments segment, deepens our presence in debit card processing, broadens our client reach and scale and provides new solutions to enhance the value proposition for our existing debit solution clients.

On January 22, 2021, we acquired Ondot Systems, Inc., a digital experience platform provider for financial institutions. This acquisition, to be included within the Payments segment, will further expand our digital capabilities, enhancing our suite of integrated solutions spanning card-based payments, digital banking platforms, core banking, and merchant solutions to enable clients of all sizes to deliver frictionless, digital-first and personalized experiences to their customers.

Dispositions

Effective July 1, 2020, we and Bank of America (“BANA”) dissolved the Banc of America Merchant Services joint venture (“BAMS” or the “joint venture”), of which we maintained a 51% controlling ownership interest. Upon dissolution of the joint venture’s operations, the joint venture transferred a proportionate share of value, primarily the client contracts, to each party via

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an agreed upon contractual separation. The remaining activities of the joint venture will consist of supporting the transition of the business to each party and an orderly wind down of remaining BAMS assets and liabilities. The revenues and expenses of the BAMS joint venture were consolidated into our financial results though the date of dissolution. The business transferred to us will continue to be operated and managed within our Acceptance segment.

We will continue to provide merchant processing and related services to former BAMS clients allocated to BANA, at BAMS pricing, through June 2023. We will also provide processing and other support services to new BANA merchant clients pursuant to a five-year non-exclusive agreement which, after June 2023, will also apply to the former BAMS clients allocated to BANA. In addition, both companies are entitled to certain transition services, at fair value, from each other through June 2023.

On February 18, 2020, we sold a 60% controlling interest of our Investment Services business, subsequently renamed as Tegra118, LLC (“Tegra118”), which is reported within Corporate and Other following the Segment Realignment. We received pre-tax proceeds of $578 million, net of related expenses, resulting in a pre-tax gain on the sale of $428 million, with a related tax expense of $112 million. Our retained interest is accounted for as an equity method investment. On February 2, 2021, Tegra118 completed a merger with a third party, resulting in a dilution of our ownership interest in the combined new entity, Wealthtech Holdings, LLC.

In connection with the acquisition of First Data, we acquired two businesses which we intended to sell. In October 2019, we completed the sales, at acquired fair value, of these two businesses for aggregate proceeds of $133 million.

On March 29, 2018, we sold a 55% controlling interest of our Lending Solutions business, which was reported within the Fintech segment, retaining 45% ownership interests in two joint ventures (the “Lending Joint Ventures”). In conjunction with this transaction, we entered into transition services agreements to provide, at fair value, various administration, business process outsourcing and data center related services for defined periods to the Lending Joint Ventures. We received gross sale proceeds of $419 million from the transactions. In August 2019, the Sagent Auto, LLC joint venture, formerly known as Fiserv Automotive Solutions, LLC, completed a merger with a third party, resulting in the dilution of our ownership interest to 31% in the combined entity, defi SOLUTIONS Group, LLC. Our remaining ownership interest in the Lending Joint Ventures are accounted for as equity method investments. In addition, in January 2018, we completed the sale of the retail voucher business acquired in our 2017 acquisition of Monitise for proceeds of £37 million ($50 million).

Enterprise Priorities

We aspire to move money and information in a way that moves the world by delivering superior value for our clients through leading technology, targeted innovation and excellence in everything we do. We achieve this through active portfolio management of our business, enhancing the overall value of our existing client relationships, improving operational effectiveness, being disciplined in our allocation of capital, and differentiating our products and services through innovation. Our long-term priorities are to (i) deliver integration value from the First Data acquisition; (ii) continue to build high-quality revenue while meeting our earnings goals; (iii) enhance client relationships with an emphasis on digital and payment solutions; and (iv) deliver innovation and integration which enables differentiated value for our clients.

Industry Trends

The global payments landscape continues to evolve, with rapidly advancing technologies and a steady expansion of digital payments, e-commerce and innovation in real-time payments infrastructure. Because of this growth, competition also continues to evolve. Business and consumer expectations continue to rise, with a focus on convenience and security. To meet these expectations, payments companies are focused on modernizing their technology, expanding the use of data and enhancing the customer experience.

Financial Institutions

The market for products and services offered by financial institutions continues to evolve rapidly. The traditional financial industry and other market entrants regularly introduce and implement new payment, deposit, risk management, lending and investment products, and the distinctions among the products and services traditionally offered by different types of financial institutions continue to narrow as they seek to serve the same customers. At the same time, the evolving global regulatory and cybersecurity landscape has continued to create a challenging operating environment for financial institutions. These conditions are driving heightened interest in solutions that help financial institutions win and retain customers, generate incremental revenue, comply with regulations and enhance operating efficiency. Examples of these solutions include electronic payments and delivery methods such as internet, mobile and tablet banking, sometimes referred to as “digital channels.”

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The focus on digital channels by both financial institutions and their customers, as well as the growing volume and types of payment transactions in the marketplace, continues to elevate the data and transaction processing needs of financial institutions. We expect that financial institutions will continue to invest significant capital and human resources to process transactions, manage information, maintain regulatory compliance and offer innovative new services to their customers in this rapidly evolving and competitive environment. We anticipate that we will benefit over the long term from the trend of financial institutions moving from in-house technology to outsourced solutions as they seek to remain current on technology changes in an evolving marketplace. We believe that economies of scale in developing and maintaining the infrastructure, technology, products, services and networks necessary to be competitive in such an environment are essential to justify these investments, and we anticipate that demand for products that facilitate customer interaction with financial institutions, including electronic transactions through digital channels, will continue to increase, which we expect to create revenue opportunities for us.

In addition to the trends described above, the financial institutions marketplace has experienced change in composition as well. During the past 25 years, the number of financial institutions in the United States has declined at a relatively steady rate of approximately 3% per year, primarily as a result of voluntary mergers and acquisitions. Rather than reducing the overall market, these consolidations have transferred accounts among financial institutions. If a client loss occurs due to merger or acquisition, we receive a contract termination fee based on the size of the client and how early in the contract term the contract is terminated. These fees can vary from period to period with the variance depending on the quantum of financial institution merger activity in a given period and whether or not our clients are involved in the activity. Our focus on long-term client relationships and recurring, transaction-oriented products and services has also reduced the impact that consolidation in the financial services industry has had on us. We believe that the integration of our products and services creates a compelling value proposition for our clients by providing, among other things, new sources of revenue and opportunities to reduce their costs. Furthermore, we believe that our sizable and diverse client base, combined with our position as a leading provider of non-discretionary, recurring revenue-based products and services, gives us a solid foundation for growth.

Merchants

The rapid growth in and globalization of mobile and e-commerce, driven by consumers’ desire for simpler, more efficient shopping experiences, has created an opportunity for merchants to reach consumers in high-growth online and mobile settings, which often requires a merchant acquiring provider to enable and optimize the acceptance of payments. Merchants are demanding simpler, integrated and modern POS systems to help manage their everyday business operations. When combined with the ever-increasing ways a consumer can pay for goods and services, merchants have sought modern POS systems to streamline this complexity. Furthermore, merchants can now search, discover, compare, purchase and even install a new POS system through direct, digital-only experiences. This direct, digital-only channel is quickly becoming a source of new merchant acquisition opportunities, especially with respect to smaller merchants.

In addition, there are numerous software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) solutions in the industry, many of which have chosen to integrate merchant acquiring within their software as a way to further monetize their client relationships. SaaS solutions that integrate payments are often referred to as Independent Software Vendors (or “ISVs”), and we believe there are thousands of these potential distribution partnership opportunities available to us.

We believe that our merchant acquiring products and solutions create compelling value propositions for merchant clients of all sizes, from small and mid-sized businesses (or “SMBs”) to medium-sized regional businesses to global enterprise merchants, and across all verticals. Furthermore, we believe that our sizable and diverse client base, combined with valued partnerships with merchant acquiring businesses of small, medium and large financial institutions, and non-financial institutions, gives us a solid foundation for growth.

Recent Market Conditions

In 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was identified and has since continued to spread. In March 2020, the World Health Organization recognized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of many countries, states, cities and other geographic regions have taken actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as imposing travel restrictions and bans, quarantines, social distancing guidelines, shelter-in-place or lock-down orders and other similar limitations, adversely impacting global economic activity and contributing to significant volatility in financial markets. From time to time during the second half of 2020 and into 2021, some jurisdictions have eased restrictions in an effort to reopen their economies. While this has been successful in some places, others have had to reinstate restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

We have taken several actions since the onset of the pandemic to protect the health, safety and well-being of our employees while maintaining business continuity. These actions include, among others, requiring a majority of our employees to work remotely, eliminating non-essential travel, suspending all non-essential visitors to our facilities, disinfecting facilities and workspaces extensively and frequently, providing personal protective equipment to associates and requiring employees who

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must be present at our facilities to adhere to a variety of safety protocols. In addition, we have expanded paid time-off for employees impacted by COVID-19, provided increased pay for certain employees involved in critical infrastructure who could not work remotely, and expanded our Fiserv Cares program to benefit employees in need around the world. We expect to continue such safety measures for the foreseeable future and may take further actions, or adapt these existing policies, as government authorities may require or recommend or as we may determine to be in the best interest of our employees, clients and vendors.

Our operating performance is subject to global economic and market conditions, as well as their impacts on levels of consumer and business spending. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related decline in global economic activity, we experienced a significant decrease in payments volume and transactions beginning in late March 2020 that negatively impacted our merchant acquiring and payment-related businesses, which earn transaction-based fees, as well as modest declines in other businesses. Merchant acquiring transaction and payment volumes began to partially recover in May 2020 and continued to improve into July 2020; thereafter, the monthly volume growth rate as compared to the prior year stabilized for the balance of the year. While recent business trends demonstrate positive momentum, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic creates an economic environment where our future financial results remain difficult to anticipate. We currently expect payments volume and transactions to continue to improve throughout 2021.

Throughout 2020, we also took several actions to manage discretionary costs including, among others, limiting the hiring of new employees, limiting third-party spending and the temporary suspension of certain employee-related benefits, including company matching contributions to the Fiserv 401(k) Savings Plan as well as the discount on shares purchased under the Fiserv, Inc. Amended and Restated Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Effective January 1, 2021, company matching contributions were re-established to equal 100% on the first 1% contributed and 25% on the next 4% contributed for eligible participants. In addition, we reassessed and deferred certain capital expenditures that were originally planned for 2020. We will continue to monitor and assess developments related to COVID-19 and implement appropriate actions to minimize the risk to our operations of any material adverse developments. Ultimately, the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our future operational and financial performance will depend on, among other matters, the duration and intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic; governmental and private sector responses to the pandemic and the impact of such responses on us; the level of success of global vaccination efforts; and the impact of the pandemic on our employees, clients, vendors, operations and sales, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, which require management to make estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amount of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses. We continually evaluate the accounting policies and estimates that we use to prepare our consolidated financial statements, including for recently adopted accounting pronouncements, and base our estimates on historical experience and assumptions that we believe are reasonable in light of current circumstances. Actual amounts and results could differ materially from these estimates.

Acquisitions

From time to time, we make strategic acquisitions that may have a material impact on our consolidated results of operations or financial position. We allocate the purchase price of acquired businesses to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the transaction at their estimated fair values. The estimates used to determine the fair value of long-lived assets, such as intangible assets, can be complex and require significant judgments. We use information available to us to make fair value determinations and engage independent valuation specialists, when necessary, to assist in the fair value determination of significant acquired long-lived assets. The determination of fair value requires estimates about discount rates, growth and retention rates, royalty rates, expected future cash flows and other future events that are judgmental in nature. While we use our best estimates and assumptions as a part of the purchase price allocation process, our estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to refinement. As a result, during the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date, we record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period or final determination of the values of assets acquired or liabilities assumed, whichever comes first, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to our consolidated statements of income. We are also required to estimate the useful lives of intangible assets to determine the amount of acquisition-related intangible asset amortization expense to record in future periods. We periodically review the estimated useful lives assigned to our intangible assets to determine whether such estimated useful lives continue to be appropriate. Additional information regarding our acquisitions is included in Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements.

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Goodwill and Intangible Assets

We review the carrying value of goodwill for impairment annually, or more frequently if events or circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is tested for impairment at a reporting unit level, which is one level below our reportable segments. When reviewing goodwill for impairment, we consider the prior test’s amount of excess fair value over the carrying value of each reporting unit, the period of time since a reporting unit’s last quantitative test, the extent a reorganization or disposition changes the composition of one or more of our reporting units, and other factors to determine whether or not to first perform a qualitative test. When performing a qualitative test, we assess numerous factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of our reporting units are less than their respective carrying values. Examples of qualitative factors that we assess include our share price, our financial performance, market and competitive factors in our industry and other events specific to our reporting units. If we conclude that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value, we perform a quantitative impairment test.

The quantitative impairment test compares the estimated fair value of the reporting unit to its carrying value, and recognizes an impairment loss for the amount by which a reporting unit’s carrying amount exceeds its fair value, without exceeding the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. We determine the fair value of a reporting unit using both a discounted cash flow analysis and a market approach. Determining the fair value of a reporting unit involves judgment and the use of significant estimates and assumptions, which include assumptions regarding the revenue growth rates and operating margins used to calculate estimated future cash flows, risk-adjusted discount rates and future economic and market conditions.

In connection with the Segment Realignment, certain of our reporting units changed in composition in which goodwill was allocated to such reporting units using a relative fair value approach. Accordingly, we performed an interim goodwill impairment assessment in the first quarter of 2020 for those reporting units impacted by the Segment Realignment and determined that our goodwill was not impaired based on an assessment of various qualitative factors, as described above. Our most recent annual impairment assessment of our reporting units in the fourth quarter of 2020 determined that our goodwill of $36 billion was not impaired as the estimated fair values of the respective reporting units exceeded the carrying values. However, for four of our reporting units that were acquired as part of the First Data acquisition, with aggregate goodwill of $12 billion, the excess of the respective reporting unit’s fair value over carrying value ranged from 14 to 21 percent. If future operating performance is below our expectations or there are changes to forecasted revenue growth rates, risk-adjusted discount rates, effective income tax rates, or some combination thereof, a decline in the fair value of the reporting units could result in, and we may be required to record, a goodwill impairment charge. It is also reasonably possible that future developments related to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain of our recently acquired (recorded at fair value) First Data businesses, such as an increased duration and intensity of the pandemic and/or government-imposed shutdowns, prolonged economic downturn or recession, or lack of governmental support for recovery, could have a future material impact on one or more of the estimates and assumptions used to evaluate goodwill impairment. We have no accumulated goodwill impairment through December 31, 2020. Additional information regarding our goodwill is included in Note 8 to the consolidated financial statements.

We review intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable. We review capitalized software development costs for impairment at each reporting date. Recoverability of intangible assets is assessed by comparing the carrying amount of the asset to either the undiscounted future cash flows expected to be generated by the asset or the net realizable value of the asset, depending on the type of asset. Determining future cash flows and net realizable values involves judgment and the use of significant estimates and assumptions regarding future economic and market conditions. Measurement of any impairment loss is based on estimated fair value. Given the significance of our goodwill and intangible asset balances, an adverse change in fair value could result in an impairment charge, which could be material to our consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue is measured based on consideration specified in a contract with a customer, and excludes any amounts collected on behalf of third parties. As a practical expedient, we do not adjust the transaction price for the effects of a significant financing component if, at contract inception, the period between customer payment and the transfer of goods or services is expected to be one year or less. Contracts with customers are evaluated on a contract-by-contract basis as contracts may include multiple types of goods and services as described below.

Processing and Services

Processing and services revenue is generated from account- and transaction-based fees for data processing, merchant transaction processing and acquiring, electronic billing and payment services, electronic funds transfer and debit/credit processing services; consulting and professional services; and software maintenance for ongoing client support.

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We recognize processing and services revenues in the period in which the specific service is performed unless they are not deemed distinct from other goods or services, in which case revenue would then be recognized as control is transferred of the combined goods and services. Our arrangements for processing and services typically consist of an obligation to provide specific services to our customers on a when- and if-needed basis (a stand-ready obligation) and revenue is recognized from the satisfaction of the performance obligations in the amount billable to the customer. These services are typically provided under a fixed or declining (tier-based) price per unit based on volume of service; however, pricing for services may also be based on minimum monthly usage fees. Fees for our processing and services arrangements are typically billed and paid on a monthly basis.

Product

Product revenue is generated from print and card production sales, as well as software license sales. For software license agreements that are distinct, we recognize software license revenue upon delivery, assuming a contract is deemed to exist. Revenue for arrangements with customers that include significant customization, modification or production of software such that the software is not distinct is typically recognized over time based upon efforts expended, such as labor hours, to measure progress towards completion. For arrangements involving hosted licensed software for the customer, a software element is considered present to the extent the customer has the contractual right to take possession of the software at any time during the hosting period without significant penalty and it is feasible for the customer to either operate the software on their own hardware or contract with another vendor to host the software.

We also sell or lease hardware (POS devices) and other peripherals as part of our contracts with customers. Hardware typically consists of terminals or Clover devices. We do not manufacture hardware, rather we purchase hardware from third-party vendors and hold such hardware in inventory until purchased by a customer. We account for sales of hardware as a separate performance obligation and recognize the revenue at its standalone selling price when the customer obtains control of the hardware.

Significant Judgments

We use the following methods, inputs and assumptions in determining amounts of revenue to recognize. For multi-element arrangements, we account for individual goods or services as a separate performance obligation if they are distinct, the good or service is separately identifiable from other items in the arrangement, and if a customer can benefit from the good or service on its own or with other resources that are readily available to the customer. If these criteria are not met, the promised goods or services are accounted for as a combined performance obligation. Determining whether goods or services are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately may require significant judgment.

Technology or service components from third parties are frequently embedded in or combined with our applications or service offerings. Whether we recognize revenue based on the gross amount billed to a customer or the net amount retained involves judgment that depends on the relevant facts and circumstances including the level of contractual responsibilities and obligations for delivering solutions to end customers.

The transaction price is determined based on the consideration to which we will be entitled in exchange for transferring products or services to the customer. We include any fixed charges within our contracts as part of the total transaction price. To the extent that variable consideration is not constrained, we include an estimate of the variable amount, as appropriate, within the total transaction price and update our assumptions over the duration of the contract. We may constrain the estimated transaction price in the event of a high degree of uncertainty as to the final consideration amount owed because of an extended length of time over which the fees may be adjusted. The transaction price (including any discounts or rebates) is allocated between distinct goods and services in a multi-element arrangement based on their relative standalone selling prices. For items that are not sold separately, we estimate the standalone selling prices using available information such as market conditions and internally approved pricing guidelines. Significant judgment may be required to determine standalone selling prices for each performance obligation and whether it depicts the amount we expect to receive in exchange for the related good or service.

Contract modifications occur when we and our customers agree to modify existing customer contracts to change the scope or price (or both) of the contract or when a customer terminates some, or all, of the existing services provided by us. When a contract modification occurs, it requires us to exercise judgment to determine if the modification should be accounted for as (i) a separate contract, (ii) the termination of the original contract and creation of a new contract, or (iii) a cumulative catch up adjustment to the original contract. Further, contract modifications require the identification and evaluation of the performance obligations of the modified contract, including the allocation of revenue to the remaining performance obligations and the period of recognition for each identified performance obligation.

Additional information regarding our revenue recognition policies is included in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements.

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Income Taxes

The determination of our provision for income taxes requires management’s judgment in the use of estimates and the interpretation and application of complex tax laws, sometimes made more complex by our global footprint. Judgment is also required in assessing the timing and amounts of deductible and taxable items. We establish a liability for known tax exposures relating to deductions, transactions and other matters involving some uncertainty as to the proper tax treatment of the item. In establishing a liability for known tax exposures, assumptions are made in determining whether, and the extent to which, a tax position will be sustained. A tax benefit with respect to a tax position is recognized only when it is more likely than not to be sustained upon examination by the relevant taxing authority, based on its technical merits, considering the facts and circumstances available as of the reporting date. The amount of tax benefit recognized reflects the largest benefit that we believe is more likely than not to be realized on settlement with the relevant taxing authority. As new information becomes available, we evaluate our tax positions and adjust our liability for known tax exposures as appropriate.

We maintain net operating loss carryforwards in various taxing jurisdictions, resulting in the establishment of deferred tax assets. We establish a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets when, based upon the weight of all available evidence, we believe it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. In making this determination, we have considered the relative impact of all of the available positive and negative evidence regarding future sources of taxable income and available tax planning strategies. However, there could be a material impact to our effective tax rate if there is a significant change in our judgment. To the extent our judgment changes, the valuation allowances are then adjusted, generally through the provision for income taxes, in the period in which the change in facts and circumstances occurs. Additional information regarding our income taxes is included in Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements.

Results of Operations

Components of Revenue and Expenses

The following summary describes the components of revenue and expenses as presented in our consolidated statements of income.

Processing and Services

Processing and services revenue, which in 2020 represented 82% of our total revenue, is primarily generated from account- and transaction-based fees under multi-year contracts. Processing and services revenue is most reflective of our business performance as a significant amount of our total operating profit is generated by these services. Cost of processing and services includes costs directly associated with providing services to clients and includes the following: personnel; equipment and data communication; infrastructure costs, including costs to maintain software applications; client support; certain depreciation and amortization; and other operating expenses.

Product

Product revenue, which in 2020 represented 18% of our total revenue, is primarily derived from print and card production sales, as well as software license sales and hardware (POS devices) sales. Cost of product includes costs directly associated with the products sold and includes the following: costs of materials and software development; hardware; personnel; infrastructure costs; certain depreciation and amortization; and other costs directly associated with product revenue.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses primarily consist of: salaries, wages, commissions and related expenses paid to sales personnel, administrative employees and management; advertising and promotional costs; certain depreciation and amortization; and other selling and administrative expenses.

Synergies from the First Data Acquisition

Following the acquisition of First Data, we continue to implement our post-merger integration plans to achieve synergies from future expected economic benefits, including enhanced revenue growth from expanded capabilities and geographic presence as well as substantial cost savings from duplicative overhead, streamlined operations and enhanced operational efficiency. At December 31, 2020, we have achieved a significant portion of revenue and cost synergies and expect to meet or exceed our previously announced targets.

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Financial Results

The following table presents certain amounts included in our consolidated statements of income, the relative percentage that those amounts represent to revenue and the change in those amounts from year-to-year. This information should be read together with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. The financial results presented below have been affected by the acquisition of First Data and other acquisitions, dispositions, debt financing activities, and foreign currency fluctuations. The amounts from the acquired First Data businesses were included in our results for the full year in 2020 and for the five months, since the July 29,2019 acquisition date, in 2019.



(In millions)							Percentage of Revenue (1)						Increase (Decrease)
Year Ended December 31,	2020		2019		2018		2020		2019		2018		2020 vs. 2019				2019 vs. 2018
Revenue:
Processing and services	$	12,215	$	8,573	$	4,975	82.2	%	84.2	%	85.4	%	$	3,642	42	%	$	3,598	72	%
Product	2,637		1,614		848		17.8	%	15.8	%	14.6	%	1,023		63	%	766		90	%
Total revenue	14,852		10,187		5,823		100.0	%	100.0	%	100.0	%	4,665		46	%	4,364		75	%
Expenses:
Cost of processing and services	5,841		4,016		2,324		47.8	%	46.8	%	46.7	%	1,825		45	%	1,692		73	%
Cost of product	1,971		1,293		745		74.7	%	80.1	%	87.9	%	678		52	%	548		74	%
Sub-total	7,812		5,309		3,069		52.6	%	52.1	%	52.7	%	2,503		47	%	2,240		73	%
Selling, general and administrative	5,652		3,284		1,228		38.1	%	32.2	%	21.1	%	2,368		72	%	2,056		167	%
Gain on sale of businesses	(464)		(15)		(227)		(3.1)	%	(0.1)	%	(3.9)	%	449		n/m		(212)		n/m
Total expenses	13,000		8,578		4,070		87.5	%	84.2	%	69.9	%	4,422		52	%	4,508		111	%
Operating income	1,852		1,609		1,753		12.5	%	15.8	%	30.1	%	243		15	%	(144)		(8)	%
Interest expense, net	(709)		(473)		(189)		(4.8)	%	(4.6)	%	(3.2)	%	236		50	%	284		150	%
Debt financing activities	—		(47)		(14)		—	%	(0.5)	%	(0.2)	%	(47)		(100)	%	33		236	%
Other income (expense)	28		(6)		5		0.2	%	(0.1)	%	0.1	%	34		n/m		(11)		n/m
Income before income taxes and income from investments in unconsolidated affiliates	1,171		1,083		1,555		7.9	%	10.6	%	26.7	%	88		8	%	(472)		(30)	%
Income tax provision	(196)		(198)		(378)		(1.3)	%	(1.9)	%	(6.5)	%	(2)		(1)	%	(180)		(48)	%
Income from investments in unconsolidated affiliates	—		29		10		—	%	0.3	%	0.2	%	(29)		(100)	%	19		190	%


Net income	975		914		1,187		6.6	%	9.0	%	20.4	%	61		7	%	(273)		(23)	%
Less: net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests	17		21		—		0.1	%	0.2	%	—	%	(4)		(19)	%	21		n/m
Net income attributable to Fiserv, Inc.	$	958	$	893	$	1,187	6.5	%	8.8	%	20.4	%	$	65	7	%	$	(294)	(25)	%

(1)Percentage of revenue is calculated as the relevant revenue, expense, income or loss amount divided by total revenue, except for cost of processing and services and cost of product amounts, which are divided by the related component of revenue.

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(In millions)
Year Ended December 31,	Acceptance				Fintech				Payments				Corporate and Other		Total
Total revenue:
2020	$	5,522			$	2,901			$	5,504			$	925	$	14,852
2019	2,571				2,942				3,909				765		10,187
2018	—				2,917				2,408				498		5,823

Revenue growth:
2020	$	2,951			$	(41)			$	1,595			$	160	$	4,665
2020 percentage	115		%		(1)		%		41		%				46		%
2019	$	2,571			$	25			$	1,501			$	267	$	4,364
2019 percentage					1		%		62		%				75		%

Operating income:
2020	$	1,427			$	992			$	2,361			$	(2,928)	$	1,852
2019	764				885				1,658				(1,698)		1,609
2018	—				851				1,081				(179)		1,753

Operating income growth:
2020	$	663			$	107			$	703			$	(1,230)	$	243
2020 percentage	87		%		12		%		42		%				15		%
2019	$	764			$	34			$	577			$	(1,519)	$	(144)
2019 percentage					4		%		53		%				(8)		%

Operating margin:
2020	25.9		%		34.2		%		42.9		%				12.5		%
2019	29.7		%		30.1		%		42.4		%				15.8		%
2018	—		%		29.2		%		44.9		%				30.1		%

Operating margin growth: (1)
2020	(380)			bps	410			bps	50			bps			(330)			bps
2019					90			bps	(250)			bps			(1,430)			bps

(1)Represents the basis point growth or decline in operating margin.

Operating margin percentages are calculated using actual, unrounded amounts.

Total Revenue

Total revenue increased $4,665 million, or 46%, in 2020 and increased $4,364 million, or 75%, in 2019 compared to the prior years, primarily driven by the incremental revenue from the First Data acquisition. The First Data acquisition, which was completed on July 29, 2019, contributed $5,067 million and $4,078 million of incremental revenue during 2020 and 2019, respectively, with $3,114 million and $2,571 million to the Acceptance segment, $1,616 million and $1,230 million to the Payments segment, and $337 million and $277 million to Corporate and Other, during 2020 and 2019, respectively. Conversely, dispositions reduced revenue by $348 million and $54 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively, compared to the prior years.

Revenue in our Acceptance segment increased $2,951 million, or 115%, in 2020, driven by the acquisition of First Data on July 29, 2019, which contributed incremental revenue of $3,114 million during the first seven months of 2020 and the entire $2,571 million of Acceptance segment revenue in 2019. The dissolution of the BAMS joint venture on July 1, 2020 reduced Acceptance segment revenue growth in 2020 by 6% compared to 2019. In addition, revenue in our Acceptance segment, which earns transaction-based fees, was adversely affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two weeks of March 2020 and throughout the remainder of the year. Merchant acquiring transaction and payment volumes began to partially recover in May 2020 and continued to improve into July 2020; thereafter, the monthly volume growth rate as compared to the prior year stabilized for the balance of the year.

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Revenue in our Fintech segment decreased $41 million, or 1%, in 2020 and increased $25 million, or 1%, in 2019 compared to the prior years. Dispositions, including our remittance solutions business in December 2019 and Lending Solutions business in March 2018, reduced Fintech segment revenue growth by 1% and 2% in 2020 and 2019, respectively, compared to the prior years. Recurring revenue growth from higher processing volumes in 2020 was offset by a reduction of 2% from a decline in termination fee revenue. Fintech segment revenue growth in 2019 was driven by growth in our bank solutions business from new business, customer migrations from in-house technology to outsourced solutions and growth with existing customers across a range of products.

Revenue in our Payments segment increased $1,595 million, or 41%, in 2020 and increased $1,501 million, or 62%, in 2019 compared to the prior years. Revenue from acquired businesses, including First Data, contributed 41% and 57% to Payments segment revenue growth in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Payments segment revenue in 2020 was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic while the remaining growth in 2019 was driven by expansion in our recurring revenue businesses, with our card services and electronic payments businesses contribu