Dive Brief:
- Fiserv confirmed on Thursday that it had recently reduced its employee headcount, although it provided few details. A Wolfe Research analyst estimated in a Wednesday note to clients that the company laid off between 1,000 and 1,500 employees, or between 2.4% and 3.7% of the workforce.
- Workers left the company for a variety of reasons, a Fiserv spokesperson said in a brief statement. “A limited number of associates are leaving the company for a variety of reasons, including performance,” the spokesperson said by email.
- Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller said the staff reduction was likely linked to a renewed company focus on in-person work. “It's not uncommon for Fiserv to implement reduction in force actions, but we believe this one may have been relatively less expected by some employees given otherwise strong trends across the business,” Peller wrote.
Dive Insight:
Peller estimated the Fiserv job reduction would result in savings of between $100 million and $150 million, and give a boost to the company’s bottom line next year.
The layoffs are likely linked to Fiserv’s move to require employees to work from the office four or five days a week, along with a reallocation of resources, Peller wrote. That means some remote workers might be replaced with on-site workers, he said in his note to investors.
The Fiserv spokesperson declined to provide additional details about the workforce reduction.
The news comes on the heels of President-Elect Donald Trump nominating Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration.
The Milwaukee-based payments and financial technology company had more than 42,000 employees across the globe at the end of December 2023, according to a regulatory filing in February.
Peller’s estimate of the percentage of employees cut was based on a slightly lower Fiserv headcount figure of about 41,000 employees. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Fiserv's net income for the first nine months of the year edged down to $2.23 billion, relative to the year-ago period, declining less than one percent as revenue increased 7% to $15.2 billion, according to its third-quarter earnings report.
