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Long-time payments executive Frank Bisignano, who has guided payments giant Fiserv Inc. through a tumultuous time in the payments industry, has signed on to lead the company for another five years. Bisignano became chairman of the Brookfield, Wis.-based company in May, following his appointment as chief executive in July 2020. With the new agreement, announced late Wednesday, he will serve in his dual role through December 2027.
In unveiling Bisignano’s new contract, lead independent director Doyle Simons cited the CEO’s “proven track record of execution” and pointed to board expectations that he will deliver “growth through innovation and discipline.”
Fiserv in October reported third-quarter adjusted revenue of $4.3 billion, compared to $3.6 billion in 2020’s third quarter, the first period under Bisignano’s leadership. The company’s merchant-acquiring unit, bolstered by Fiserv’s $22-billion acquisition of processing giant First Data Corp. in 2019, alone reported $1.88 billion in adjusted revenue, accounting for 44% of the total.
Bisignano succeeded former CEO Jeff Yabuki, who had led the company for 15 years, and soon embarked on a program to build out Fiserv’s presence in payments and merchant processing, where it now ranks third among all U.S. processors, according to rankings by The Strawhecker Group. In this endeavor, he has not been shy about laying out funds for acquisitions, with deals for companies including Finxact this year and BentoBox, NetPay, Ondot, Pineapple Payments, Radius8, and SpendLabs in 2021.
At the same time, the 63-year-old executive had to contend with a pandemic that had virtually shut down much of the U.S. and world economy, depressing payments volumes for merchants and merchant processors and forcing companies to rush to market with innovations such as contactless payments.
In response, Fiserv under Bisignano promoted products such as Clover, a set of advanced point-of-sale technologies, and Carat, a comprehensive commerce platform for merchants. Petroleum giant Sunoco agreed in October to deploy Carat across its more than 5,500 service stations.
A former JPMorgan Chase executive, Bisignano took the reins at First Data as chairman and CEO in 2013 and soon embarked on a program to expand the big processor’s reach and capabilities. His efforts led to Fiserv’s decision to buy the company, a move that turned out to be the first of several thrusts by major processors in 2019 to expand through massive deals.
