With the launch of the FIS Modern Banking Platform in mid January, FIS became the first of the three legacy core banking platforms to move to cloud-first, componentized, API-supportive architecture. 

The Big Three — FIS, Fiserv, and Jack Henry — have been strongly criticized for their long-term contracts, outdated technology, closed systems, and high prices for modifications. Both the American Banking Association (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) have sponsored new core banking systems in response to members’ complaints about the Big Three.  

Bruce Lowthers, President, Banking Solutions at FIS, responded to those criticisms as he talked with us about the fast pace of change in banking and the challenges for tech providers.

What do you say to the complaints from the ABA and ICBA?

They do a wonderful job of representing their constituents as best they can. As an industry, it is a very difficult time. Client expectations and technology are changing at a rapid pace, placing pressure on our customers, and they are trying to figure out how to evolve and compete. It’s a very difficult time in our industry because of the huge amount of change everyone is trying to digest.

“Tech expectations have changed from people using their mobile devices, their interactions with their favorite apps, whether Amazon or Facebook. They see those experiences, and so we started to drag that into banking.”

Where do the heightened expectations come from?

Tech expectations have changed from people using their mobile devices, their interactions with their favorite apps, whether Amazon or Facebook. They see those experiences, and so we started to drag that into banking. Customers are saying if those apps work so well, if it is so seamless for Apple Pay to move money from one place to another, why can’t everything work that seamlessly?

What role does cloud play for FIS and the FIS Modern Banking Platform?

We built a private cloud and have about 60% of our compute in the cloud. No one in the market has that much capacity in the cloud. We’ve moved hundreds of clients onto the new platform already.

What has this meant for banks?

It allows us to be much more responsive to client needs and provide a tremendous amount of client reliability. It is startling how much this has improved the performance of our platforms.

How is cloud different from the service bureau?

We have been a SaaS company for a very long time, but cloud is different. Moving to the cloud isn’t just taking software from a server and moving to a different environment — there are app changes; you are trying to get the benefit of resilience and scalability. When we announced the first SLA (service level agreement) in April, most SLAs were measured in days or extended hours. We took that down to 15 minutes on our apps. Cloud also provides some cost efficiencies and some significant price reductions in the market.

Where does FIS fit in the world of fintech?

Definitions — what is fintech? A lot of people, when they talk about fintech, are talking about the Chimes of the world and challenger banks. Others talk about start-up organizations. We hold ourselves out as a fintech organization, and we have been around for over 50 years. 

FIS did a major expansion by acquiring Worldpay in March of last year for $35 billion. How is that going?

The Worldpay team has been a blast to get to know and work with — they are great people. The teams have had tremendous progress, as we announced in our earnings call. We are ahead on synergy from where we thought we would be.

What do you see around the globe?

FIS is in well over 100 countries — a little less that 30% of our revenue is international. We see pockets of tech innovation happening all over the world. China is really accelerating things in the payment space. I think the UK has done some nice things as well in transforming thoughts around KYC, AML, and open banking. Certainly the U.S. is doing things as well. I wouldn't say any one country is dominating in tech.