Fiserv Puts Clover at Center of Its Technology Reset

Five weeks into Takis Georgakopoulos’ tenure as CEO, Fiserv used the first quarterly report under its new leader to reset expectations for 2026. The payments and banking technology provider lowered its full-year revenue and earnings guidance Thursday, pointing to delayed client projects, weaker conditions in Argentina and softer hardware sales. It also plans to spend more than $100 million on technology infrastructure and cybersecurity during the second half.

Georgakopoulos, a former JPMorgan executive who joined Fiserv in late 2024, said the company’s second-quarter results were consistent with its forecasts. What changed was its view of the next six months.

Fiserv now expects organic revenue to decline 1% or remain flat in 2026. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to range from $7.20 to $7.40. The company had reaffirmed its second-half outlook as recently as June 15.

In his opening remarks, Georgakopoulos divided the change into three areas. Economic conditions in Argentina deteriorated while some client-controlled implementation schedules moved more slowly than expected. Fiserv also fell behind schedule on some internal growth initiatives. Finally, management decided to increase spending on technology, infrastructure and cybersecurity, primarily in its Financial Solutions business.

CFO Paul Todd later put numbers around the revision. Compared with Fiserv’s previous forecast of 6% to 8% adjusted revenue growth in the second half, delayed contracted revenue and slower enterprise client launches reduced the outlook by about 2 percentage points. Lower product revenue, including hardware, accounted for another point. Argentina and planned business sales each contributed roughly another point.

During the analyst discussion, Georgakopoulos said the client delays reflected timing rather than lost business. He cited a large customer that had been scheduled to go live in September or October but needed more time because it was completing a merger.

“There’s nothing fundamentally changing in terms of the deal, in terms of the size of the deal, just the timing moves out by a quarter,” he said. “So we believe that these numbers that we have is an accurate assessment, derisked and does not impact the momentum that we see in 4Q and beyond.”

Fiserv reported second-quarter revenue of $5.29 billion, down 4% from a year earlier. Net income fell to $630 million from $1.03 billion while earnings per share declined 37% to $1.17. Adjusted revenue decreased 4% to $4.96 billion and adjusted earnings per share fell 26% to $1.84. Adjusted operating margin narrowed to 31.8% from 39.6%. The company generated $1.1 billion in quarterly free cash flow.

The decline wasn’t uniform across the business. Merchant Solutions organic revenue slipped 1%, with Clover revenue rising 2% on a reported basis. When Fiserv excluded weaker revenue from Argentina and unusually high one-time revenue a year earlier, Clover revenue grew 13%. Clover payment volume increased 9%.

Financial Solutions had a more difficult quarter. Organic and adjusted revenue each declined 8%, partly because the year-earlier period included more one-time revenue. Digital Payments revenue fell 6%, Issuing declined 10% and Banking organic revenue decreased 10%. Management said underlying transaction and account trends remained generally stable.

Hardware created another complication. Fiserv sold elevated amounts of equipment during the previous two years, making further growth harder. Georgakopoulos said the company hasn’t seen a material change in new merchant acquisition and views the hardware slowdown as temporary.

The new CEO is also reviewing Fiserv’s wide product portfolio. He said the company will invest behind products that can compete with the strongest alternatives in the market and consider other options where it can’t. Fiserv has already divested or moved to divest its student loan servicing and managed ATM businesses. It’s also leaving unprofitable merchant segments in India.

For Georgakopoulos, the immediate priority is getting the basics right. As he described what clients want during the call: “They want platforms that work. They want us to deliver what we promised. They want good customer service.”