Dive Brief:
- Fiserv executives called out Latin America as a key driver of growth for the payments processor during a second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Revenue from Argentina and Brazil has been particularly robust, the company said.
- The region accounted for about 6% of Fiserv’s total adjusted revenue and 10% of merchant acceptance adjusted revenue, said CEO Frank Bisignano.
- “Latin America has been a standout grower in recent quarters, and we believe it can remain so for the long term,” said Bisignano.
Dive Insight:
When asked how Fiserv would perform given recent merger and acquisition activity in the region, including U.S. card giant Visa buying Brazilian company Pismo, Bisignano pointed to an ongoing partnership with state-owned financial services company Caixa Econômica Federal.
“[Caixa] put us in fundamentally every city in Brazil,” Bisignano said.
Earlier in the call, the CEO spoke of growing Fiserv’s reach in the bill payment sector through that Brazilian partner. Bisignano called the opportunity “meaningful” due to Caixa enabling bill payments equal to about 11% of all Brazilian credit and debit payments in 2022.
“We will be expanding our relationship with our partner, Caixa Econômica Federal, enabling card payment for their more than 13,000 bill payment agencies throughout Brazil,” said Bisignano.
The CEO also discussed Pix, an instant payment scheme backed by Brazil’s central bank, and how Fiserv is using that system to enable business-to-business payments, and transactions beyond B2B, including offering related services in neighboring Argentina.
And in Argentina, Bisignano highlighted the introduction of Fiserv-owned point-of-sale system Clover.
“We have great organic capability in Latin America,” said Bisignano. “Our model’s strong.”
In the second-quarter earnings report Wednesday, Fiserv said total revenue increased 7% over the year-ago quarter to $4.8 billion. Net income grew 14% to $683 million in that period.
