IMGCAP(1)]
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. this morning announced it is purchasing Metavante Technologies Inc., owner of the NYCE Payments Network LLC, for $2.94 billion. The deal gives Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National a debit card network to compete with the Pulse, Interlink and Star networks, Adil Moussa, an analyst with Boston-based Aite Group tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. "Actually very little is going to change for the NYCE Network, but Fidelity will have more access to debit card data so the company can build a data mine for its customers," Moussa says. The data will enable Fidelity National to determine customer behavior, improve best practices and assist customers in making the most out of debit card processing, he says. In 2008, Fidelity National reported $720 billion in debit card settlements. NYCE, based in Secaucus, N. J., processed 89 million member cards last year, making it the nation's fourth-largest PIN-debit card processors in terms of member cards, according to ATM&Debit News 2009 EFT Data Book. NYCE settles transactions through Fidelity National, say Metavante executives.The Pulse, Interlink and the Star networks are all larger. Fidelity National is NYCE's third owner in five years. Metavante Technologies, then Metavante Corp., purchased NYCE from First Data Corp. in 2004 for $610 million. Under terms of the deal, Metavante shareholders will receive 1.35 shares of Fidelity National for each share of Metavante stock they own. Fidelity National, a provider of transaction processing and card issuing, will issue about 162 million additional shares as part of the acquisition. Milwaukee-based Metavante provides banking and payment technologies for 8,000 financial firms.
