Fidelity National Information Services and Toast separately disclosed that their chief financial officers are exiting, as they also announced third-quarter earnings results. 

At FIS, which provides payments services to banking and capital markets clients, the company announced the departure of James Kehoe, with no further explanation. Alexandra “Alex” Brooks will step into the CFO post on an interim basis starting Thursday as the company begins a search for a permanent replacement, according to a Wednesday press release.

The CFO change at Jacksonville, Florida-based FIS landed as the company adjusted its financial forecasts due to unexpected changes in the outlook for recurring revenue, citing new factors that are dragging on that income.

The shifts were mainly related to changed expectations at some of its banking clients as those customers encounter implementation delays and, in some cases, work through acquisition activity, CEO Stephanie Ferris explained on a webcast with analysts Wednesday. The change is happening as some customers move from services with more traditional licenses to the company’s more updated subscription software services, she said.

“Over the course of the third quarter, we started to see some client-directed conversion delays, primarily in our larger client base, and some impacts from the timing around large bank consolidation,” Ferris said on the webcast.

FIS divests prepaid business

She also noted that the company would invest in technology and security to assist clients with implementations and to prioritize cyber work.

“These factors will weigh on our results in the fourth quarter in 2027, and we expect them to largely fade in 2028,” Ferris said. 

FIS also disclosed during the third-quarter report that it had sold what it referred to as a “non-core, prepaid asset” for $100 million. A spokesperson for the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for more information about the unit or the buyer.

Kehoe has been with FIS since August 2023, joining shortly after Ferris became CEO in January of that year. Together, they took the company through a $24.25 billion sale last year of its merchants services business Worldpay to Global Payments, and the $13.5 billion acquisition of a card issuer business from Global Payments.

FIS reported third-quarter adjusted net earnings rose 5.3% to $831 million as operating revenue climbed 29%, on an adjusted basis, to $3.37 billion, according to the company’s earnings press release.

At Toast, the digital payments processor said that its president and chief financial officer, Elena Gomez, will leave her posts at the end of the year. Michael Senno, who has served as Toast’s senior vice president of finance, will become CFO at that time, the company said.

Gomez, who has been at Toast since May 2021 and guided the company through its initial public offering that year, said in the company’s earnings press release that it’s time “to take a break before my next chapter.”

Toast CEO criticizes lawsuit

Meanwhile, during a webcast with analysts on Tuesday, Toast’s CEO, Aman Narang, continued to make a case for fighting a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission and states last week. The federal and state regulators alleged in their lawsuit that the company exacted “hidden fees” and “unauthorized charges” from both merchants and consumers. 

Narang defended the contracts Toast negotiates with every restaurant, and other merchants, to provide services in the business-to-business industry. 

The lawsuit turns on the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, barring companies from misleading customers. The regulators said Toast made “false or misleading claims” regarding its subscription and financing services; failed to make required disclosures; didn’t provide simple ways for customers to cancel their subscription; and charged customers without their consent. 

“We are incredibly disappointed with the FTC's decision to file the suit,” Narang told analysts on the earnings webcast. “We've been engaged with them and cooperating with them really over the past year, and fundamentally believe their application of ROSCA is unprecedented for custom contracts in B2B.”

Narang posited that the enforcement action on that basis could impact the entire industry. “If ROSCA were to apply to B2B custom negotiated contracts in a B2B context, it would have huge implications for, really, the whole industry and business contracts in general,” Narang contended. “We have a lot of confidence in our business practices and are ready to defend ourselves.” 

Toast reported third-quarter net income rose 60% to $169 million as revenue increased 21% to $1.98 billion, according to the earnings press release.

The CFOs at both FIS and Toast said they’ll continue to work with the companies to transfer their duties to their successors.