Fiserv’s Bisignano: ‘Order Ahead Has Become A Way Of Life’

Reporting revenues of $3.47 billion for its second quarter 2020 — a jump of 129 percent from Q2 2019 — Fiserv President and CEO Frank Bisignano said Wednesday (Aug. 5), “We demonstrated the strength and resilience of our business model during the quarter.”

Internal revenues declined 7 percent in the quarter “driven by significant impact of lower transactional volume associated with a global pandemic” and 2 percent to date, Firserv reported, “with declines of 15 percent in the acceptance segment, 1 percent in the Fintech segment and 3 percent in the Payments segment compared to the prior-year period.”

Fiserv’s free cash flow rose 23 percent to $895 million and by 13 percent to $1.66 billion in the second quarter and first six months of 2020, respectively, compared to $728 million and $1.47 billion in the comparable 2019 period.

On the earnings call, Executive Chairman Jeff Yabuki noted that in May, “we shared our thesis that April would be the likely trough and we expected to see gradual improvement from there. That is exactly what has happened. Each month revenue has improved sequentially from the lows of April and culminated with a return to internal revenue growth in July.”

Despite COVID-19 headwinds, Fiserv’s net cash rose 400 percent to $1.03 billion and 231 percent to $1.92 billion in the second quarter and first six months of 2020, respectively, “compared to $206 million and $579 million in the prior-year periods, primarily attributable to the First Data acquisition,” the company said.

Fiserv’s restaurant mobile order-ahead and payment solution, Clover, is a standout, with Bisignano noting that “Gross payment volume is recovering well from the weakness experienced early in the quarter. In July, GPV for the quarter was $23.4 billion dollars or more than $90 billion annualized.” He added that “order-ahead has become a way of life for many,” and hinted at larger announcements to come at Fiserv’s Investor Day coming in December.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Hau said, “Clover units shipped are back in positive territory, and in June [up] 9 percent year over year.”

“With [Q2] sales up a very strong 38 percent over the prior year, and 20 percent year to date, our excellent momentum continued into July,” Bisignano said, as Fiserv signed two large credit card issuers, including top 25 issuer Atlanticus Holdings.

Not much detail was provided around Fiserv’s turnkey real-time payments service featuring Zelle, but it continued to gain in adoption and usage during the pandemic, tracking along with growth in its merchant portfolio during the COVID episode.