ট্রাম্প প্রশাসন একজন প্রধান আর্থিক কর্মকর্তাকে যুক্ত করেছে। এরপর তার কোম্পানি ভেঙে যায়
When Donald Trump appointed Fiserv’s Chief Executive Frank Bisignano to his administration 11 months ago, his company was considered a Wall Street fintech darling alongside Visa and Mastercard. The business Bisignano helped build is now in freefall. Shares of Fiserv, which manages server technology for banks and payment networks, plummeted 44% Wednesday after disastrous third-quarter results, wiping out $30 billion in market value. The company revealed a number of problems that have plagued it for years, with analysts describing the earnings as “shocking” and “can’t be sugarcoated.” But Bisignano already cashed out, selling 3.3 million shares of Fiserv worth more than $500 million at the time of his Senate confirmation in May, and deferring taxes on the gains. The shares would be worth about $220 million today.
The company’s management under Bisignano is now under question, after Trump tapped him to run two of the most important financial operations in the government, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration. One collects more than $5 trillion in annual tax revenue, and the other handles more than $1.6 trillion in annual payments to the elderly. “To see a company that had a great track record 12 months ago and end the day down 44% is one of the most shocking earnings releases I’ve seen in my time in this seat,” said Deutsche Bank analyst, Net Svendsen.
New Fiserv CEO Mike Lyons, who took over after Bisignano stepped down in May, said the review revealed unfortunate decisions to delay investments and cut costs, as well as a reliance on short-term initiatives to maximize quarterly results. “As a result, we’ve decided to sunset certain short-term revenue and expense initiatives, which obviously had some near-term impact on our growth and profitability,” Lyons told analysts. The company is currently facing lawsuits from shareholders alleging it misled investors. Fiserv declined to comment. Bisignano did not respond to a request for comment.
Fiserv is headquartered in Wisconsin and was founded in 1984. The company in its current form is the result of a merger between Fiserv and First Data, of which Bisignano was CEO. The deal combined Fiserv’s strong but slower-growing core banking systems business with First Data’s faster-growing merchant solutions business, which provided payment processing systems like credit card readers and also e-commerce services for small and large businesses.
Fiserv’s headquarters are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it was founded in 1984. © Bloomberg
Before Fiserv and First Data, Bisignano, 66, was a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, reporting to CEO Jamie Dimon. Within the company, he had a reputation as a savvy operator, as well as someone who was capable of blurring the lines between company affairs and his personal life. Bisignano was known to invite family and friends to the corporate box at MetLife Stadium to watch even the NFL’s New York Giants play when he wasn’t in attendance and for his frequent use of the company’s private jet, according to executives who worked with him at the time. His relationship with Dimon eventually soured, and he left JPMorgan to join First Data in 2013, according to people familiar with the situation. In 2017, his pay there reached $100 million. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Bisignano led the combined Fiserv/First Data company in 2020. It emerged as an industry winner, ahead of competitors like FIS and GPN. Fiserv’s standout business was Clover payment terminals.
Bisignano and his wife Tracy were major donors to Trump’s 2024 and 2020 presidential campaigns, before he was tapped to run the Social Security program, and take on the newly created role of IRS executive director, reporting to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. A Treasury Department spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
President Donald Trump appointed Bisignano (left) as commissioner of the Social Security Administration and later named him Director General of the Internal Revenue Service © AFP or licensors.
In October 2024, weeks before election day, Tracy Trump gave the committee $47,924,600, the maximum an individual can give in a joint PAC fundraising effort, and nearly $800,000 was divided among the Republican National Committee and dozens of local GOP groups.
At Fiserv, the image of a stable business with solid growth prospects has been shattered. On Wednesday, the company missed analysts’ forecasts for quarterly results by a wide margin and cut its organic revenue growth forecast in 2025 to just 3.5%, down from 10%. Lyons said its Argentina business, driven by high interest rates and hyperinflation, has become a stronger driver of growth than investors previously anticipated. He has spoken of the previous management’s focus on price increases and the need to “reimagine” the customer experience for Clover products.
“There’s been a lot of restructuring, a lot of cost-cutting at Fiserv. I don’t think there’s been investment in the places where investment was needed,” said Ali Raza, managing director at Blue Leviathan, a consulting firm specializing in payments. “So what we have is what we have.”
Now Lyons faces the challenge of turning the company around. He has appointed a new chief financial officer, three new board members and new vice presidents. He has spoken of returning the company’s culture to prioritize integrity, fairness, performance, accountability and customer service – changes that will take time to implement.
“Financials aside,” Deutsche’s Svendsen said, “This is not something that you can just wave a magic wand and fix overnight.”
প্রকাশিত: 2025-11-01 15:00:00
উৎস: www.ft.com
