Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services technology, reported robust full-year 2025 financial results on February 24, 2026, meeting its aggressive growth targets and setting a optimistic tone for the year ahead. The company achieved a 6% increase in adjusted revenue and a notable 10% rise in adjusted earnings per share (EPS), signaling that its "back-to-basics" strategy is resonating with a market increasingly focused on core banking stability and digital modernization.

The results, which highlight a year of streamlined operations following the previous spin-off of its merchant-acquiring business, suggest that FIS is successfully repositioning itself as a pure-play powerhouse in banking and capital markets. With a 2026 outlook that projects continued earnings expansion and a significant multi-billion dollar acquisition already under its belt in the new year, the company appears poised to lead the next wave of consolidation in the financial technology sector.

A Year of Execution and Strategic Realignment

For the full year ending December 31, 2025, FIS reported total revenue of $10.7 billion. On an adjusted basis, this represented a 6% year-over-year growth, driven primarily by strong demand for core modernization and digital payment solutions. The company’s bottom line showed even greater strength, with adjusted EPS reaching $5.75, a 10% increase over 2024. This performance was underpinned by consistent 6% recurring revenue growth across its primary business segments, illustrating the stability of its long-term contract model.

The growth was evenly distributed across its core divisions. Banking Solutions, the company’s largest segment, saw adjusted revenue grow by 6%, fueled by a surge in digital transformation projects at large and mid-tier financial institutions. Meanwhile, the Capital Market Solutions segment ended the year on a high note, recording an 8% GAAP revenue growth in the fourth quarter. This momentum was largely attributed to high-margin license revenue and improved operating leverage, as investment firms sought more sophisticated risk management and trading platforms.

The timeline leading to these results was marked by several high-stakes moves. Following the successful separation from Worldpay in 2024, FIS spent much of 2025 focusing on internal efficiencies and "tuck-in" acquisitions that bolstered its cloud capabilities. The strategy culminated in a transformative "three-way" deal announced in early January 2026 with Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) and private equity firm GTCR. In this landmark transaction, FIS acquired the Issuer Solutions business from Global Payments—rebranded as FIS Total Issuing Solutions—for approximately $13.5 billion, while simultaneously offloading its remaining 45% stake in Worldpay for $6.6 billion.

Competitive Dynamics: Winners and Losers in the Fintech Arms Race

The 2025 performance of FIS stands in contrast to its primary rival, Fiserv (NYSE: FI), which faced a more turbulent year. Fiserv reported a 4% organic revenue growth for 2025, falling short of its original double-digit targets. Furthermore, Fiserv’s adjusted EPS saw a 2% decline to $8.64, as the company grappled with higher integration costs for its "One Fiserv" initiative and a weaker performance in its legacy financial solutions segment. While Fiserv remains a formidable competitor, particularly after its late-2025 acquisition of StoneCastle Cash Management, FIS’s cleaner focus on core banking currently gives it a perceived edge in investor sentiment.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ: JKHY) continued to dominate the community banking niche. For its fiscal year 2025, Jack Henry reported a 7.2% revenue increase and a staggering 19.3% jump in diluted EPS. By maintaining a 98% client retention rate and focusing on organic wins, Jack Henry has carved out a "wide moat" that neither FIS nor Fiserv has been able to fully penetrate. However, the new FIS "Total Issuing Solutions" platform is designed specifically to compete for the super-regional bank consolidations that Jack Henry typically avoids, potentially creating a new frontline in the battle for market share.

For the broader market, the winners are likely to be the mid-to-large financial institutions that can now leverage integrated issuing and core banking stacks from a single provider. The primary "losers" in this shift may be smaller, specialized fintech providers that lack the scale to compete with the all-in-one platform strategy that FIS is now aggressively pursuing.

Industry Trends and the Regulatory Landscape

The shift at FIS reflects a broader industry trend toward "vertical integration" in financial technology. After a decade of unbundling—where specialized startups attacked specific parts of the banking value chain—large incumbents are now rebundling these services. By integrating card issuing directly into the core banking stack, FIS is creating what CEO Stephanie Ferris described as the "most comprehensive financial data set in the industry," allowing banks to offer more personalized lending and fraud prevention services.

Historically, the fintech sector has moved in cycles between diversification and specialization. FIS’s total exit from the merchant-acquiring space (Worldpay) mirrors similar moves by other legacy players who found the low-margin, high-volume retail payments business too volatile compared to the steady, high-margin world of core bank processing. This move also simplifies the company's regulatory profile, as merchant-acquiring carries different risk weights and compliance burdens than core banking software.

From a policy perspective, the consolidation of massive data sets under one roof will likely draw the attention of regulators. As FIS and its peers move toward more integrated models, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other bodies may increase scrutiny on data portability and "open banking" requirements. The 2026 outlook for the sector will be heavily influenced by how these companies balance their data-driven competitive advantages with emerging privacy regulations.

The 2026 Outlook: Deleveraging and Integration

Looking ahead to 2026, FIS has provided a dual-layered guidance that accounts for its recent massive acquisition. The company projects reported revenue growth of 30% to 31%, reaching as high as $13.85 billion, due to the inclusion of the Total Issuing Solutions business. On a pro-forma basis—assuming the businesses were combined for the full prior year—growth is expected to be a more modest 5.1% to 5.7%. Adjusted EPS is forecasted to rise between 8% and 10%, landing in the range of $6.22 to $6.32 per share.

The primary strategic pivot for 2026 will be a temporary pause in further M&A and share repurchases. Management has signaled a commitment to aggressive deleveraging, targeting a gross leverage ratio of 2.8x. This conservative fiscal approach is intended to strengthen the balance sheet following the $13.5 billion acquisition, ensuring the company has the flexibility to return to aggressive capital return programs by 2027.

However, the short-term challenge will be integration. Successfully merging the Global Payments issuing business into the FIS ecosystem without disrupting service for existing clients is a high-wire act. Any significant outages or migration delays could provide an opening for competitors like Fiserv to reclaim lost ground.

Investor Wrap-Up: What to Watch

The 2025 results confirm that FIS has successfully navigated its transition phase and is now operating with a clear, focused mandate. The 6% revenue growth and 10% EPS growth are solid indicators of health, but the true test of the company’s new strategy will be the performance of the integrated Banking and Issuing segments in the coming quarters.

Investors should closely monitor the company’s progress toward its 2.8x leverage target, as any deviation could signal higher-than-expected integration costs. Additionally, the "mega-deal" pipeline—the large-scale bank consolidations FIS is targeting—will be a critical barometer for whether its new, comprehensive data set is truly a differentiator in the eyes of bank CIOs.

Moving forward, the market will be looking for signs that the "Total Issuing" acquisition is yielding the cross-selling synergies promised by management. If FIS can successfully upsell issuing services to its vast core banking client base, the company could see a multi-year period of sustained, high-margin growth that outpaces the broader fintech sector.

This content is intended for informational purposes only and is not financial advice