FIS company history

What is the history of FIS?

FIS® traces its roots to Systematics™, a financial technology company founded in 1968. The company became Fidelity Information Services (FIS) after its acquisition by Fidelity National Financial® in 2003 and expanded through major acquisitions, including Certegy®, eFunds®, Metavante®, SunGard, Worldpay and Global Payments’ Issuer Solutions. Today, FIS is a global financial technology company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, serving banks, capital markets, firms, businesses and financial institutions around the world.

What is FIS, and what does the company do?

FIS is a leader in technology and services that helps businesses and communities thrive by advancing commerce and the financial world.

For more than 50 years, leading financial institutions and businesses have relied on FIS financial technology to power their mission-critical operations and drive innovation to propel their growth.

By connecting merchants, banks and capital markets, we use our scale, apply our deep expertise and data-driven insights, innovate with purpose to solve for our clients’ future, and deliver experiences that are simpler, more seamless and secure.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS employs 57,000 people across 61 countries and is dedicated to helping our clients stay ahead of what’s next. FIS offers more than 500 solutions and processes over 34 billion transactions worldwide. FIS is a Fortune 500® company and a member of Standard & Poor’s 500® Index.

How did FIS become a global leader in financial technology?

Founded in 1968 as Systematics, which was later acquired by ALLTEL Information Services, and then bought by title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial in 2003, which renamed it Fidelity Information Services. Over the course of the next few years, FIS acquired several other financial technology firms, including Certegy in 2006, eFunds in 2007 and Metavante in 2009.

These acquisitions broadened its reach worldwide, earned FIS a place on the Fortune 500 list and positioned the company as the largest technology provider to the global financial industry.

In 2015, FIS acquired SunGard, which complementary offerings brought FIS into new markets for financial technology services, including asset managers, traders, custodians, treasurers, third-party administrators and clearing agents.

In Q3 2019, FIS acquired Worldpay, a global leader in e-commerce and payments, greatly enhancing FIS’ acquiring and payment capabilities and increasing Worldpay’s distribution footprint.

This combination of organic and external growth has positioned FIS among the world's leading technology providers to the capital markets, retail banking and merchant industries. We connect the value chain and use our scale to develop solutions that enable our clients to grow confidently. We help our clients seamlessly adapt to innovations. We share insights and data with one another. We shape better experiences for clients and their customers alike. We do all of this because at FIS, we’re out to lift economies and communities across the world by relentlessly advancing the interests of commerce and the financial world.

In Q3 2023, FIS signed a definitive agreement for GTCR to acquire a majority stake in our merchant solutions business, Worldpay. This transaction closed in Q1 2024.

This enabled us to simplify our business. It also accelerated our strategy to deliver next-generation, cloud-native and modular technology solutions to clients of all sizes and globally.

In Q2 2025, FIS announced that we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Global Payments’ Issuer Solutions (formerly TSYS) business. The addition of Issuer Solutions will not only immediately expand our money in motion payments capabilities, but also simplify our portfolio and product suite.

At the same time, FIS announced the sale of our minority ownership position in Worldpay to Global Payments.