FIS and Pismo: Banking Competition in 2026

Fidelity National Information Services CEO Stephanie Ferris offered a blunt reply last week when an analyst raised Pismo as a challenger.

The question referenced Pismo, a provider of digital payments and banking technology, winning work from Wells Fargo, an FIS client, and asked what that meant for FIS.

Ferris said there would be “no effect at all” during FIS’s first-quarter 2026 earnings webcast on Friday.

She explained that FIS’s role at Wells Fargo is limited. FIS handles some commercial credit card processing for the bank but doesn’t supply its core banking platform or consumer card processing.

In the broader U.S. banking-technology market, Fiserv is generally the larger company by revenue and market capitalization, while FIS remains a major provider with a large issuer-processing footprint and a long roster of bank clients.

FIS is the same company sometimes referred to as “FIS Global,” a legacy shorthand rather than a separate business. In recent years, it has reshaped its portfolio through acquisitions and divestitures and now emphasizes banking and payments technology, including issuer processing, core and digital banking capabilities, and risk and financial-crime tools.

For example, FIS Digital One is positioned as a digital-banking front end with modular capabilities such as online and mobile experiences, digital onboarding, and journey and channel tools that sit on top of core systems. FIS Integrated Banking Solution is positioned as a core processing platform for areas such as deposits and lending, with integration to surrounding channels and payments. Pricing for both offerings is typically contract-based and tailored, with implementation and ongoing fees that can be structured around modules, users or accounts, and transaction or volume tiers rather than a single published price list.

Ferris added that she welcomed the topic because of the industry buzz surrounding Pismo.

On core banking, she argued Pismo isn’t moving the needle; in her view it provides ledger functionality rather than a comprehensive core. Large banks modernizing their core may seek a ledgering layer, she said, but that does not materially alter the core banking market because it is not an end-to-end solution.

Visa Touts Pismo Prospects

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney struck a different tone last month, highlighting the Wells Fargo win in the network’s fiscal second-quarter report and saying Pismo is likely to contribute to the bank’s core banking modernization over the coming years.

Visa described Pismo in these terms:

• Acquired by Visa in 2023 after operating as an independent, venture-backed provider. Visa framed the deal as a way to add modern processing and ledgering capabilities alongside its network reach. Financial terms were not disclosed in the discussion.
• Cloud-native platform.
• Serves banks and fintechs.
• Digital card issuing.
• Banking services in Latin America.
• Expansion into U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Operationally, Pismo is often positioned as an API-first, microservices-based stack that separates account and ledger posting from surrounding channels, enabling configuration-heavy product changes without rebuilding an entire end-to-end core. That architecture can be attractive for banks that want to modernize in layers, but it can also mean more integration work when institutions expect a single, fully bundled platform.

In the banking-platform market, Pismo commonly competes for modernization budgets against core and processing providers such as FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, and Temenos, as well as cloud-first and component-style platforms such as Thought Machine, Mambu, and Finxact. Its perceived strengths tend to center on modularity and developer-oriented integration, while its perceived weaknesses can include the need to stitch together more components when a bank wants a broad suite delivered as one package.

Key trends reshaping the competitive landscape around Pismo include accelerated cloud migration, rising demand for modular “core plus ledger” architectures, increasing use of AI in operations and support tooling, more scrutiny around resilience and third-party risk, and pressure to shorten product-launch cycles while maintaining auditability and controls.

Ferris downplayed any threat to FIS, noting it is now the largest U.S. credit card processor, with about one-third of issuing clients renewed through 2029. FIS’s scale increased this year after closing a $13.5 billion purchase of the world’s largest issuing business, formerly TSYS, from Global Payments, as announced in January.

Modern issuer processors are often marketed on benefits such as faster time to launch new programs, greater configuration flexibility, elastic scaling during peak volumes, easier integration through APIs, improved resilience and uptime tooling, and quicker adoption of new risk, authorization, and compliance capabilities.

Even if Pismo gains ground in credit, she said FIS remains well positioned and she hopes lingering concerns about Pismo will fade.

The remarks cited in the discussion did not include net income, EPS, or specific guidance for coming quarters.

FIS Partners With Anthropic

Ferris highlighted the partnership as a recent example of product investment:

• Collaboration with Anthropic.
• Development of an AI agent for financial crime investigation.

Addressing competition more broadly, she said the landscape remains intense, with three major providers and other rivals vying for the same business.

She also noted that switching from one core provider to another is hard for banks, in part due to regulatory oversight. Core platforms are sticky, and replacing them is painful.

Analysts then asked whether AI could reduce that friction — making migrations between core systems faster, safer, or simpler.

Ferris said FIS already applies AI when onboarding new core clients, which can shorten timelines, though it does not automatically reduce the required effort or cost.

AI can compress discovery, mapping, and testing work, but governance, controls, and regulatory obligations still set the pace for most core migrations.

She cautioned that AI will not eliminate expenses overnight and said she has not yet seen a fully AI-operated core that a bank could run today.

AI-Enabled Core Services?

Anthropic could also be viewed as a potential competitor. Baird Equity Research said FIS leaders believe their role as the system of record will protect client relationships, though the firm noted investor skepticism remains.

Meanwhile, Pismo is working to embed AI across its core services.

In December, Pismo announced a partnership in Vietnam to use AI for card services this year. The companies said integrating Pismo’s technology with Visa’s global network is accelerating modernization across core banking and payments.

AI appears set to intensify rivalry among card processors and core banking providers.