Remote Deposit Capture Creates Buzz at TransPay

If there was one universal recommendation from BAI's TransPay Conference it was this:

Offer remote deposit capture NOW!

Remote deposit capture, the scanning and depositing of checks from the user's own location, rivals online banking in terms of utility for businesses of all sizes. In an interesting general session yesterday, three small business principals from companies in the $5 million to $10 million category were on stage with two bankers. When the subject of remote deposit capture came up, two business owners were ready to install the system immediately. The third only received a few checks each month and wasn’t interested, however he said his spouse who runs a retail operation is very interested.

The business owners were willing to pay a considerable fee since it would save many hours of labor each week. And maybe more important, they liked how it made remittance processing easier to manage. With small staffs, they often have to find replacements to make the "bank run." And sometimes checks sat idle for days at a time when someone was unexpectedly sick.

Mainstbank_remotedeposit
Main Street Bank <mstreetbank.com> features check scanning in its Main Street Connect package.

The predicted remote deposit capture adoption curve resembles online banking in the late 1990s. Celent estimates there will be 100,000 remote locations by the end of this year, about 5% penetration of the corporate market. In five years, the research company predicts more than 1 million business locations will use the service, along with a quarter million branch locations for 1.4 million total locations in 2012 (see below).

Remotedepositcapture_celent_graph
Source: Celent, 5/06

So far, only 50 or so banks are offering, but all top-20 banks either have it now or are in the final testing phase. By this time next year, as many as 500 banks may offer it, and it will soon be an expected part of a full-service, business-banking offering.

JB

The Right Stuff for AML Means the Right Software

One phrase says everything about anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement: Mission creep. Since 9/11, federal agencies supporting the financial war on terror have developed a number of new regulations, apparently designed either to create the perfect trap for every money-laundering scheme, or to build its power base.

Whichever it is, the burden to comply falls on financial institutions of every stripe. And not every new regulation is the fault of over-zealous bureaucrats: The fertile minds of money launderers are always finding new ways to do business, and government needs to keep up.

The real battle with money laundering is a matter of forensics, not mere compliance. At the end of the day, going after people dumb enough to use banks or money-service businesses is the anti-terror equivalent of busting street dealers: Moving real money can’t be done $9,000 at a clip, and it’s easier to get money from Miami to Bogota or Peshawar by smuggling it, taking out life policies on dying relatives, or buying a shack for $10 million, than trying to evade the ever-narrowing gaps in the established financial system.

Nevertheless, even if AML compliance is more a matter of politics than of having any real effect, it’s a serious matter. Non-compliance can mean big legal bills, a loss of reputation, and multi-million dollar fines—or even being shut down—for institutions foolish enough to give the task short shrift. And with most institutions processing thousands—if not millions—of payments daily, this task is clearly beyond any sort of manual monitoring.

The result, says Eva Weber, an Aite Group analyst, is that financial institutions must take the necessary steps to satisfy the regulators. "The size of the problem is continuing to grow, and not going away," she says. "Regulators are always saying that the focus for banks should be on preventing money laundering, and not necessarily on compliance, but of course, one can’t exist without the other, so the focus has been heightened on AML compliance."

As for the cost, expect no slack from Washington: "It’s natural for regulators to expect more from financial institutions when they know there are many tools available to them," she says. "They’re mindful of the cost, but the goal of AML compliance is, in their minds, more important than the price tag."

That being the case, those few banks still struggling with the task—and the many non-banks about to be faced with it—had better get their ducks in a row. There really is no way out of it, and any bank chairman who doubts it need only read one of the many cease-and-desist orders on the website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Compliance means more than a software installation. AML forces change in managing a typical bank over and above computer issues. To take just one example: Almost every OCC cease-and-desist order includes a directive to train staff in AML issues, including being familiar with a written AML policy and procedures manual.

Software is unavoidable. The job is just too big. "Compliance officers are really stretched these days, because they’re the sole person responsible for complying with all those regulations, and it’s too time consuming to go through all a bank’s transactions, manually go through all the lists, and check for all the red flags," says Weber.

However, software is not good enough, and an institution that over-relies on it, and does not go to the trouble of knowing their customers—usually number one in any compliance regimen—is asking for trouble.

Consider, for instance, a wine importer who decides to hold a November nouveaux Beaujolais festival, and orders 40 cases of wine from 10 vineyards for roughly $9,000 each. That transaction would be flagged by any software package as suspicious, and generate a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). But automatically sending it on to the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) would only lose you a customer, and annoy FinCEN. Appropriate procedures need to be in place to avoid a stumble like that.

"The most common reason for filing a SAR is structuring (making numerous payments just below the reporting threshold), but it’s not always people looking to avoid filing a CTR (currency transaction report). A lot of times, it’s just the nature of their business," says Weber. "It’s difficult for a larger institution, but you should know your customer pretty well, and hopefully, you’ve already spoken to them about this particular sort of incident. But you still need to investigate it."

The cumulative effect of AML implementation shouldn’t actually change the bank, she adds, as long as the bank has already been vigilant. "If you haven’t been doing this already, then this is going to hurt," she says. "Training your staff about what the red flags are and the importance of complying, and that any form that needs to be filed, is filed, is too important to ignore."

"Everything should begin with your risk assessment," she adds. "That means knowing what sort of transactions your customers execute and what sort of businesses that you’re dealing with, so even when you implement the technology, things shouldn’t change that much. You should already know what you should be looking out for."

At the end of the day, says Weber, the AML task is a chore that’s only going to grow, if only because regulators will be constantly thinking up better ways to do their job, and look better before a Congress hungry for ways to look like it’s doing its job. "The enforcers are always going to want more information, and not less," she says. (Contact: Aite Group, Eva Weber, 210-688-0123)

Huntington’s Online Game Boosts Blue Jackets’ Affinity Marketing Efforts

Huntington_bluejacket_game_1As part of its sponsorship of the Columbus Blue Jackets National Hockey League franchise, Hungtington Bank has created an online Flash game. The simple hockey-themed game is easy to play and apparently addictive, at least for "Chuck Norris" who had all five weekly high scores, ranging from 250 to 350 times my score of 1,162 (see left).

At the conclusion of the 45-second game, users are invited to play again or "challenge a friend," a great way to spread the word virally. The bank's logo in the upper right clicks through to its regular homepage.

Huntington_bluejacket_homeAccess to the game is from a "Blue Jacket's Banking" page <huntington.com/ bluejacketsbanking> at Hungtington (click on inset for a closeup). The bank dresses up its checking accounts with Blue Jacket checks, ATM card, and mousepad. Any of the bank's checking accounts can be ordered with Blue Jacket adornment.

Unfortunately, the online application process requires "blue jackets" to be manually typed in the promotion code field or the customer will receive regular old Huntington colors.

–JB

Bottomline Technologies Slips but Damage May Be Slight

Bottomline Technologies Inc. shares have slipped since rumors began circulating on Wall Street in early April that it would miss its expected quarterly earnings. When the firm finally announced on April 14 that it would miss its earnings estimate by as much as $0.07 per share, Bottomline’s stock fell 17 percent in one day. Shares in Bottomline closed last Friday at $10.17, down from $14 per share in early April.

NCR Corp. says that Buffalo’s M&T Bank bought 390 NCR Personas 77 ATMs. Separately, NCR says that Europe’s KBC Group will replace its current ATMs in Belgium and France with NCR Personas M Series ATMs. (Contact: NCR Corp., 937-445-3784)

US Bank says it’s issuing a Rewards Visa Platinum Card for Sierra Trading Post and for Sportsman's Warehouse. (Contact: US Bank, 612-303-0732)

ACI Worldwide says it has a new version of its BASE24-es product designed for the British market. (Contact: ACI Worldwide, 402-390-8906)

bcgi says it has a reseller agreement with Telogic in which Telogic will be offering bcgi’s M-payments platform in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China and other Asian markets. (Contact: bcgi, 781-904-5026)

 

CheckFree Corp.’s CheckFreePay unit says that Boost Mobile’s eRe-Boost “top-up” service is available at some CheckFreePay walk-in locations. (Contact: CheckFree Corp., 678-375-1595)

 

Electronic Clearing House Inc. says it hired Karl Asplund as senior vice president of sales, a new position. Asplund was last senior vice president of Genpass Technologies. Also, Ryan Granard joined the company as vice president of datacenter operations. (Contact: Electronic Clearing House Inc., 800-262-3246)

 

Hypercom Corp. says its Optimum P2100 PIN-entry payment device was qualified for Sociedade Interbancaria de Servicos' (SIBS) operations in Portugal. (Contact: Hypercom Corp., 602-504-5383)

 

Netvantage says that Merkle will be using Netvantage’s ItemAge payments engine for the lockbox operations Merkle runs for charities. (Contact: Netvantage, 301-459-9700)

 

Misys Banking Systems says that China Bohai Bank is using Misys Opics and its risk management module, Misys Opics Risk. Bohai is a new bank in China.(Contact: 852-2230-2302)

 

Open Solutions Inc. says that Pittsfield, Mass.-based Greylock Federal Credit Union is using its Complete Credit Union Solution. (Contact: Open Solutions Inc., 860-652-3153)

 

Payment Processing Inc. says that United Systems Technology Inc. will be re-selling Payments Processing’s credit card processing for utilities billing. (Contact: 510-795-4988)

 

Paymetric Inc., says it hired Ken Naumann for a new position, senior vice president, sales and marketing. Nauman was last vice president of worldwide sales for Guidance Software. (Contact: Paymetric Inc., 713-895-2066)

 

Viewpointe says that SunTrust is the first bank to use its image-exchange connection with the Federal Reserve. (Contact: Viewpointe, 704-602-6654)

 

VeriFone Holdings Inc says that MICROS Systems Inc. has integrated VeriFone’s Vx 670 mobile payment system into its MICROS RES 4.0. payments system and will be selling it on North American restaurants. (Contact: VeriFone Holdings Inc., 508-283-4112)

 

 

New to Market

New deals and announcments for the past week.

NCR Corp. says that Buffalo’s M&T Bank bought 390 NCR Personas 77 ATMs. Separately, NCR says that Europe’s KBC Group will replace its current ATMs in Belgium and France with NCR Personas M Series ATMs. (Contact: NCR Corp., 937-445-3784)

US Bank says it’s issuing a Rewards Visa Platinum Card for Sierra Trading Post and for Sportsman's Warehouse. (Contact: US Bank, 612-303-0732)

ACI Worldwide says it has a new version of its BASE24-es product designed for the British market. (Contact: ACI Worldwide, 402-390-8906)

bcgi says it has a reseller agreement with Telogic in which Telogic will be offering bcgi’s M-payments platform in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China and other Asian markets. (Contact: bcgi, 781-904-5026)

 

CheckFree Corp.’s CheckFreePay unit says that Boost Mobile’s eRe-Boost “top-up” service is available at some CheckFreePay walk-in locations. (Contact: CheckFree Corp., 678-375-1595)

 

Electronic Clearing House Inc. says it hired Karl Asplund as senior vice president of sales, a new position. Asplund was last senior vice president of Genpass Technologies. Also, Ryan Granard joined the company as vice president of datacenter operations. (Contact: Electronic Clearing House Inc., 800-262-3246)

 

Hypercom Corp. says its Optimum P2100 PIN-entry payment device was qualified for Sociedade Interbancaria de Servicos' (SIBS) operations in Portugal. (Contact: Hypercom Corp., 602-504-5383)

 

Netvantage says that Merkle will be using Netvantage’s ItemAge payments engine for the lockbox operations Merkle runs for charities. (Contact: Netvantage, 301-459-9700)

 

Misys Banking Systems says that China Bohai Bank is using Misys Opics and its risk management module, Misys Opics Risk. Bohai is a new bank in China.(Contact: 852-2230-2302)

 

Open Solutions Inc. says that Pittsfield, Mass.-based Greylock Federal Credit Union is using its Complete Credit Union Solution. (Contact: Open Solutions Inc., 860-652-3153)

 

Payment Processing Inc. says that United Systems Technology Inc. will be re-selling Payments Processing’s credit card processing for utilities billing. (Contact: 510-795-4988)

 

Paymetric Inc., says it hired Ken Naumann for a new position, senior vice president, sales and marketing. Nauman was last vice president of worldwide sales for Guidance Software. (Contact: Paymetric Inc., 713-895-2066)

 

Viewpointe says that SunTrust is the first bank to use its image-exchange connection with the Federal Reserve. (Contact: Viewpointe, 704-602-6654)

 

VeriFone Holdings Inc says that MICROS Systems Inc. has integrated VeriFone’s Vx 670 mobile payment system into its MICROS RES 4.0. payments system and will be selling it on North American restaurants. (Contact: VeriFone Holdings Inc., 508-283-4112)

 

 

Ohio Savings Marketing CDs through AmTrust Direct

Amtrustdirect_homeOhio Savings Bank <ohiosavings.com> is marketing CDs through a direct-banking subsidiary, AmTrust Direct. The company is currently topping the 1-yr CD chart at BankRate.com with a 5.35% APY. Users can click through to the direct-banking site (see screenshot right) through an enhanced listing at BankRate.com.

The direct banking offer is only 35 basis points higher than the 5.00% offered at the parent, Ohio Savings, or its AmTrust Bank <amtrust.com> division.

JB

Union National Bank’s Gold Cafe

Unionnational_goldcafe_logoTalk about thinking outside the box: Instead of serving coffee in its branches, Union National Community Bank <uncb.com> is serving checking accounts in a cafe. Unionfinancial_goldcafe_pic_1The $400 million bank, headquartered in Mt. Joy, Penn., is using a strategy similar to ING Direct, except UNCB has gone as far as to remove its brand from the name, calling the financial store "Gold Cafe" (see picture right).

The cafe features a full retail coffee operation with coffee, lattes, tea, smoothies and so on priced at $1.45 to $4.45 and pastries and desserts from $1.75 to $2.25. The coffee service is run by Lancaster County Coffee Roasters.

Unionnational_goldcafe_homepageThe branding has also been extended to its website, GoldCafes.com, where the concept is supported with an emphasis on the lengthy hours, 6:30 am to 7:00 pm, Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5:00 pm on Sundays, 82 hours in total. The website also features information on an iPod giveaway during its May 11-13 grand opening. The only banking product mentioned is free checking in the lower-right corner (see screenshot).

The branch, er cafe, located near a major community college in Lancaster, Penn., includes a coffee bar, couches, an outdoor patio, fireplace, free Wi-Fi, and the ubiquitous plasma screen monitors. The bank has also created Sip, a "cultural newszine" available only in the cafe. A second cafe is set to open later this year in Centerville.

Analysis
We can't predict whether this concept ultimately works. Although we like the new-age branch concept popularized by Umpqua and others, this might be over the top. One of the biggest reasons to build branches is for their advertising value, placing the bank's brand in front of thousands of commuters and errand-runners each day. By calling it the Gold Cafe, the UNCB loses the normal branding value, but the highly unusual strategy will generate a large amount of publicity, overcoming the initial customer confusion of using a bank named "Gold Cafe." However, this is a unique situation that wouldn't readily work for other financial institutions.

Unionnational_goldcafe_homeThe initial website is just a single page (see above) and badly needs an upgrade to cash in on all the publicity. At a minimum, prospective customers should be able to get a virtual tour of the cafe and open an account online. The site will be heavily visited by banking analysts and reporters and should do a better job supporting the publicity it's bound to attract, although the parent's home page does include a series of photos of the new concept along with a Gold Cafe link in the main navigation (see screenshot right).

If anyone has a chance to visit the branch, let me know what you think of it.

JB

Citi Focuses on its High-Yield Savings Account

Citi_esavings_msn_1On Tuesday (5/16), Citibank raised its e-Savings rate 25 basis points to 4.75%, making it the highest savings rate at a name-brand financial institution. Only Corus Bank in Chicago has a higher APY on BankRate.com today, 4.84% with a $10,000 minimum.

Bankrate_savingspageMore importantly, Citi continues its massive ad buy touting the rate. It was back on the top of MSN's homepage today, and the bank has bought huge parcels of BankRate.com, with some pages running three Citibank promos, top, bottom and side (see BankRate "Checking & Savings" page right). It's similar to what Emigrant Direct did last year to kick off its direct banking efforts (click here to see past NetBanker articles on deposit marketing).

Analysis
Emigrant Direct, HSBC, ING Direct, and now Citibank are all spending $10+ million per year promoting high rates (see ad spending NetBanker5/17). While high-rate offers are nothing new, the ease of finding rate deals online and transferring the funds means it will be harder to hold onto those high-balance 0.50% checking and savings account balances.

JB

Check-Scanning ATMs to Receive 15 Minutes of Fame

Bofa_atmWondering what to call your remote deposit-capture service? Just wait a few months and Bank of America will solve that problem for you. The bank, and its $175 million advertising budget (see NetBanker May 17), is on the verge of making check-scanning ATMs a household name.

According to last week's Wall Street Journal (May 8), "The Envelope-Free ATM," BofA will use television to trumpet the new feature as it rolls out 1700 next-generation ATMs by the end of the year. Bank of America has an ATM base of 15,000.

As you recall, the last time BofA used its advertising budget to push a new high-tech feature, free bill pay, in 2002, it set off a chain reaction that has resulted in bill payment being free at most U.S. financial institutions.

We expect the BofA advertising to be the beginning of mass adoption of check scanning at ATMs, self-service teller-assisted stations in branches, and for business customers, in-home/office devices.

Analysis
Today there are only about 4000 check-scanning ATMs in the United States compared to 396,000 conventional machines, so it will be years before there is a critical mass of the new machines. TowerGroup predicts that 25% of the 200,000 bank-owned machines will feature check imaging in 2010 (see chart below).

Atm_chart_2

Financial institutions of all sizes should accelerate their plans to harness the technology. As the branch network is downsized, this is one of the ways the impact on consumers will be minimized. The extra $10,000 to $15,000 per ATM expense is relatively insignificant considering the labor savings from the device. TowerGroup estimates a 75% decrease in processing costs to just $0.40 per item compared to $1.70 for checks deposited with a teller or by means of an envelope dropped into an ATM. That means the breakeven is often less than 10,000 deposited items per machine, assuming the bank is able to reduce back-office or branch labor. This does not include the expected lower fraud costs.

However, this particular technology is more about customer satisfaction than cost reductions. Customers will love this system once they understand it. Not only is there instant feedback with an image of the deposited items, users also get the peace of mind of being able to access the image through their online bank system. Yet, another way that online banking adds value to the relationship.

JB

Online Advertising Spending for Financial Services Companies

American Banker released figures for 2005 online advertising expenses for financial services companies. Among banks, Bank of America was first with $20 million spent online in 2005, no surprise there. Five others spent $10 million or more including two direct banking efforts, ING Direct and Emigrant Direct, which spent 96% of its media budget online (click on the table below for a larger version).

2005 Advertising Expenses, in millions
Internet_spending_2005_2004

Sunmark FCU Goes Direct with RateEdge.com

Rateedge_logoWe've seen a number of banks enter the direct banking business, primarily through high-rate savings products. Late last year, Sunmark Federal Credit Union <sunmarkfcu.org> joined the fray with a private-branded direct Web offering at RateEdge.com (click on screenshot below for a closeup).

Rateedge_homeThe Internet-only savings account pays 5.25% interest on all balance levels with no fees and no minimum balance. Rates are five times higher than the credit union's regular share account, which pays 1% on balances of $5000 or more. The credit union's money market pays 2% on a $25,000 balance.

The only possible fee is for transferring money OUT of the account more than twice in a month. The third and subsequent withdrawals are charged a fee ranging from $2 to $5 per transfer depending on the amount. Refer to its fee schedule for more information.

This would be the best savings account in the country, except that it is limited to residents of six counties in upstate New York (Albany, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie). However, anyone in the country can open an account if they have a relative in any of those counties, or at least claim* they do.

*The application asks for the name of the relative living in the six-county area, but no other identifying information. According to an online posting, the credit union's customer service department requires the address and phone number of the relative prior to opening the account. We did not test it ourselves.

Fidelity Sees its Future in Payments

Margins are thin, markets are tight. New customers are hard to find. Compliance issues are multiplying. New technologies threaten to disrupt established operations.

Some companies wonder if there’s a future for them in payments, but not Fidelity National Financial Corp. (FNF). The Jacksonville, Florida, firm is executing a war plan that could give it the same sort of market domination it already enjoys in title insurance—50 percent of the market. To prove it, Fidelity’s Fidelity Information Services (FIS) said late last month that it was taking up a complex deal that would in effect give FIS freedom to build its business without reference to title insurance, Fidelity National’s original line. Wall Street liked the news; FIS's stock soared 24 percent on the news before closing at a mere 17 percent rise.

In the deal:

  • FNF will transfer insurance and other assets to Fidelity National Title Corp.(FNT) in exchange for FNT stock, in a transaction worth $1 billion to $1.25 billion;
  • FNF will spin off its ownership stake in FNT to FNF shareholders in a tax-free distribution, leaving its ownership in FIS as its only asset;
  • FIS will merge with FNF, and issue FIS stock in a tax-free transaction, making FIS completely independent;
  • FNT will rename itself Fidelity National Financial.

The deal creates two publicly traded companies: a new FNF, trading under the FNF ticker symbol, and FIS, which will keep its FIS symbol. The FNT symbol will disappear.

The move follows on a tortuous road that chairman William Foley II embarked on in 2003, when he stumbled into the payments industry by buying Alltel Information Services, and its ACBS mortgage-servicing products, for $1.06 billion. That acquisition gave Fidelity the databases of eight of the top nine home-mortgage lenders; 50 percent of the outstanding home mortgages; and a clear view of the cash-flow opportunities in the payments business.

Since then, he’s spent more than $2.5 billion to assemble a payments-processing operation that could dominate the industry. This latest move, say informed observers, is designed to simplify the financial structure of the parent company by shifting the debt load associated with the FIS acquisitions away from the title company (FTN owns about 50 percent of that industry). That, in turn, will get FIS what it considers a proper valuation on Wall Street and get a listing on the Standard & Poor’s 500, in the process making it easier for FIS to raise money in the capital markets and thus continue to grow through acquisitions.

“The motivation was to eliminate the holding company structure, move the assets to two individual companies, and make those companies, independently, more able to pursue their strategies,” says Geoffrey Dunn, a senior vice president of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. (KBW). “FIS gained freedom from a controlling parent, and more flexibility to pursue its strategy and capital management going forward. Foley has historically not sat around if he’s created value in the market.”

FIS's main business idea is that banks will become marketing operations, and increasingly outsource their payments-processing operations, says Executive Vice President Grace Brasington.

“If they’re going to outsource their payments capabilities, we’re going to provide those capabilities to them, so they can focus on the marketing aspects of their business,” she says. “From a marketing perspective, banks won’t have to worry about how to get the additional volume [to turn a profit from payments]; it will be Fidelity’s problem.”

Bulking up Fidelity’s processing volume will in turn boost its earnings by creating scale, and profit. Fidelity has been doing this by, among other things, buying a customer base through acquisitions—last year’s acquisition of Certegy for $235 million in stock, for instance—and then migrating those acquisitions to a simplified clutch of standardized offerings that pretty much cover the waterfront of bank-payments operations. This has allowed them to avoid the expense of supporting obsolete products still used by important customers, a trap that some of its competitors have not eluded.

Meanwhile, the simplified financial structure will allow FIS to continue buying customers by buying companies, a strategy that will be greatly helped by FIS’s roster of institutional investors, all of which are looking for homes for their investor’s money.

Among those investors: Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners, two private equity investors that together paid $500 million in 2004 for 25 percent of FIS after an uninvited, and failed, attempt to buy the the parent.

These companies had their stakes reduced to 17 percent after the Certegy deal, which among other things gave Chairman Foley the public vehicle he had been seeking for FIS for years. But according to FIS’s SEC filings, both investment groups, which own their FIS shares through a maze of offshore accounts, have remained active owners even though—thanks to a September 2005 shareholder’s agreement—their holdings have largely disappeared into FIS’s 156.6 million outstanding shares.

And both firms have also been working closely with Foley to acquire more companies. In January, according to FNF’s March 10-Q, FNF, Lee, and Texas Pacific together bought 40 percent of Sedgwick CMS Holdings Inc., an insurance claims outsourcer, for about $126 million. That transaction will probably become part of the FNT portfolio.

But this partnership, combined with the splitting of FNT and FIS, will probably be of real help to FIS’s acquisition strategy going forward, says KBW’s Dunn. “If FIS goes and does additional acquisitions eventually, I wouldn’t be surprised if the private equity guys would be involved,” he says. “Once Foley’s found an area that makes sense, he’ll be aggressive to build out a platform, and he’s not afraid to find companies that are underperforming and fix them. He's got a great track record of doing that.”

This sort of resource will lead over time to a larger, increasingly dominant FIS. “Near-term and longer-term, they’ll be very focused on cross-selling opportunities. But they’ll also round out their offering through acquisitions. I would absolutely expect them to be a major player in the M&A front, going forward,” says Dunn.

FIS’s Brasington wouldn’t deny that assertion for a minute, pointing out that risk management and merchant acquiring, both of which came to FIS with the Certegy deal, are natural directions for FIS to take. “We’re always, as a company, going to evaluate the right opportunities from an acquisition perspective as those opportunities come up,” she says in perfect corporate-speak. “We want to exponentially increase our capabilities.” (Contact: Fidelity Information Services Inc., 904-854-5043; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., 860-722-5902)