It’s been a jam-packed few weeks for earnings. Here’s some of the highlights from the rest of the Q1 2021 financials, from FIS, Fleetcor and Global Payments. As ever, we pick out the cross-border elements where relevant.

FIS Q1 2021: Bouncing back and pushing its new cross-border payments product

• Payments processor FIS exceeded expectations with its Q1 results, seeing a 5% increase in Q1 revenue, fuelled by a 7% increase in its banking solutions segment due to a number of key new clients. Capital market solutions, meanwhile, grew by 5%.
• Its merchant solutions segment saw a 3% climb, led in part by ongoing strength in ecommerce that fuelled 76% growth in new sales, although travel restrictions and UK lockdowns prevented more significant revenue growth.
• It highlighted cryptocurrency as one of the strongest growth areas in merchant solutions, with revenue growth five times year-on-year, and identified a new partnership with Okcoin to deliver global multicurrency acquiring, including cryptocurrency.
• FIS also talked about RealNet – its new account-to-account product as it looks to compete in the real-time payments network space across the globe and leverage what it calls payment orchestration to network of networks (e.g. connecting real-time payment infrastructures, from country to country to card networks, to different delivery mechanisms for payments). 

Fleetcor Q1 2021: Recovering and with AFEX’s acquisition, real scale in B2B cross-border

• B2B global payments company Fleetcor saw a year-on-year overall revenue decrease of 8% (corporate payments was down 5%), in line with expectations as the pandemic continues to impact client activity.
• However, both new sales and net incomes saw increases of 7% and 25% respectively, with the company also reporting an improvement in customer retention. This has seen the company update its outlook for FY 2021, with revenues expected to grow by 9-13% compared to 2020. 
• Ahead of its earnings, Fleetcor also announced that its subsidiary Cambridge Global Payments would be united with its other domestic and international payments companies, Comdata Corporate Payments, Nvoicepay, Roger and AFEX (when its $450m transaction closes later in Q2), to form Corpay. 

Global Payments Q1 2021: Bouncing back too and back in the M&A game

• Payments technology and software provider Global Payments returned to growth for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with adjusted net revenues increasing 5% to $1.8bn from Q1 2020 – the last quarter largely unaffected by the fallout from the coronavirus. 
• Its merchant solutions segment, which covers both online and in-store solutions and accounts for over half of the company’s revenue, saw non-GAAP revenue growth of 4.4% year-on-year, likely due to the reopening of physical retail outlets in some regions, particularly the US.
• However, the strongest growth came from its business and consumer solutions segment, Global Payments’ smallest division that provides prepaid debit cards and small business banking to US customers, which saw a 19.4% increase in revenue. 
• The company also announced the acquisition of two companies: Zego, a real estate software and payments solutions company that CEO Jeff Sloan described as operating in “one of the largest and most attractive vertical markets worldwide” and PAYONE, the Austria-based acquiring business previously owned by Worldline, which will increase the company’s European presence.  

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Lucy Ingham

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Lucy is Head of Content & Editor-in-Chief at FXC Intelligence, overseeing all content and taking deep dives into the trends and data driving changes in payments. Before joining FXC Intelligence, Lucy worked as a technology journalist and editor, interviewing CEOs and major names across enterprise technology, including fintech. She has an MSc in Development Anthropology from Durham University.