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BFD Expert Voices - Private Credit

BFD Expert Voices

The FIS-Worldpay marriage is officially over, after once being hailed as a landmark partnership for payments integration.

The big picture: FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris tells Axios she has no "sacred cows" when it comes to other divisions that FIS could divest.

Catch up quick: FIS Thursday agreed to sell its remaining 45% stake in Worldpay to Global Payments, plus pay $13.5 billion to buy Global Payments' issuer solutions business.

It previously had sold a 55% position in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR, which also is exiting. 

Context: Ferris, CFO of Worldpay during the original acquisition, spoke to Axios about what the divestirure means for the future of FIS.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Axios: How did the Global Payments-Worldpay deal come together?

Ferris: "It was an easy transaction because it makes a ton of sense for all three parties. Strategically, it is a win-win-win. 

That being said, it is quite complex, so it took us some time to get there. And obviously, we don't love doing these transactions in a volatile market."

Why now, less than two years after spinning off Worldpay?

"I can only speak for FIS, but for us, it's a great deal. We are fully monetizing the Worldpay asset, which was a non-cash flow-generating minority interest that was non-core to our business. 

The hard part in doing deals like this, with its level of complexity and volatility, is negotiating with the other parties so that everybody wins and gets the right set of financial returns and partnerships they need."

The original idea behind acquiring Worldpay in 2019 was vertical integration. What changed?

"The strategic thesis at the time I thought made sense. I was part of Worldpay, and we didn't think that merchant acquiring standing alone would be able to win the day. 

But if I took a big step back and you asked, 'Why did FIS-Worldpay not work?' I would say two things: One is that it really is about focus and making sure you're allocating capital to the right parts of your business. I don't think we did that amazingly well at FIS. The second thing was that we didn't retain the management team we needed to run the payments business.

When I stepped into the CEO role, I made a pretty difficult decision to separate Worldpay, which was value-destructive. De-scaling fintech is never a good idea. 

It was dilutive, but I thought we needed to do it to simplify the portfolio."

You're acquiring Global Payments' issuer business as part of the deal. Why that asset?

"We didn't have credit card processing that could serve large financial institutions. We had credit card processing for smaller financial institutions, but to do credit card processing for the likes of Capital One, Bank of America and Fifth Third, you need a very specific scale. 

The TSYS business invented this space. They have clients who have been with them for 25 years. They have the largest scale, serving the largest of the large. For us to continue to grow in payments, we needed this capability if we were going to get access to credit card TAM."

Now that you've divested the Worldpay business, is there more to come?

"I don't have any sacred cows. I'm always looking at, 'Are we delivering the right value to clients? Are we being innovative enough? Are we missing the mark, and are we driving shareholder value?' 

That being said, it's much more fun to buy things than to sell things. 

We are now really well-positioned. This [deal] drives a ton of cash flow for us. Once we pay down debt, we'll be a much more scaled, cash-flow-generative company. Then we would go back to looking at what we think we can't build ourselves fast enough and what we need to buy."

FIS CEO on selling Worldpay and the path forward

Stephanie Ferris says she has no "sacred cows" when it comes to other divisions FIS could divest.

Photo illustration of FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris surrounded by abstract shapes at the FIS logo fading out. 

Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: FIS

Expert Voices

The FIS-Worldpay marriage is <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="officially over" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2025/04/17/global-payments-buys-worldpay-24b-gtcr" data-vars-content-id="6754cc62-8177-4e34-b6e0-2a12c421d9be" data-vars-headline="FIS CEO on selling Worldpay and the path forward" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2025/04/17/global-payments-buys-worldpay-24b-gtcr" target="_self">officially over</a>, after once being hailed as a landmark partnership for payments integration.The big picture: FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris tells Axios she has no &quot;sacred cows&quot; when it comes to other divisions that FIS could divest.

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FIS CEO on selling Worldpay and the path forward

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