Dive Brief:

• Payment processing giant Fiserv said Thursday it has acquired a financial technology consulting firm, Smith Consulting Group, in a deal to help it offer community banks and credit unions “deep subject matter expertise” on the technology platforms they use to run their operations.
• About 70 people are joining Fiserv in the sale and will integrate within Fiserv’s financial solutions group, a Fiserv spokesperson said via email. Financial terms for the purchase of Smith Consulting, based in Lake Mary, Florida, were not disclosed.
• “We look forward to pairing our technical acumen and industry expertise with Fiserv’s leading technology platforms to ensure our clients’ success throughout these highly complex projects,” Darren Smith, founder and CEO of the consulting firm, said in Fiserv’s press release.

Dive Insight:

With Smith’s consultants, Milwaukee-based Fiserv can offer value “by embedding deeper expertise directly into our service model,” Andrew Gelb, Fiserv’s head of financial solutions, said in the press release. The acquisition represents “a clear step forward in our commitment to helping financial institutions achieve growth with speed, clarity, and confidence,” he said.

Darren Smith did not respond to an email Thursday seeking comment on the firm’s sale.

The SCG team will help Fiserv support technology conversions and implementations at client banks and credit unions “as well as consulting services across core, teller, customer service, and call center platforms,” Baird Equity Research analysts led by David Koning wrote Thursday in a note about the deal.

The companies have been business partners for the past 10 years, Fiserv said.

Former Smith employees will report to Dudley White, president of Fiserv’s core account processing solutions unit, the spokesperson said via email.

Darren Smith worked for five years as Fiserv’s vice president of product engineering and architecture, until 2007, and founded the consulting firm in March 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company celebrated its 15th anniversary in April.

“Technological advances, evolving consumer demands and expectations, regulatory compliance, and other challenges require the addition of new areas of expertise that are almost impossible for banks and credit unions to manage internally in a cost and time effective manner,” Smith said in the April press release.