Fiserv’s recent financial woes are attributed to softened growth in Argentina and difficulty balancing long-term and short-term projects, the payments firm’s CEO said last week.
However, the Milwaukee-based payment processor remains committed to international growth and an emphasis on its Clover point-of-sale system, CEO Mike Lyons said during a discussion at the KBW Fintech Payments Conference Wednesday.
The company revised its organic revenue growth projections twice in the past year and the company’s stock price has plummeted since a third-quarter earnings report last month that came in below Wall Street expectations.
Future growth will depend on “striking a greater balance between pursuing short-term initiatives and long-term initiatives,” Lyons said in response to a question from a KBW analyst about the revisions. “Every company faces that challenge.”
Achieving such an equilibrium is “critically important to the long-term success of the company,” Lyons added.
The CEO did not say which initiatives he was referring to and a Fiserv spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fiserv has singled out Latin America as a region where it has room to grow, but Argentina hasn’t shown the promise that the company anticipated in 2025, he said.
The processing giant’s organic revenue more than tripled in 2023 and more than quadrupled last year in the Latin American country, the CEO said in an Oct. 29 earnings call with investors. But that figure slowed to 56% organic revenue growth so far this year, he said.
“Nothing is bad in Argentina,” Lyons stressed, adding that Fiserv will continue to do business there.
The payment processor is facing at least two shareholder lawsuits alleging it misled investors. Also, it shuffled its C-suite last month in response to the disappointing third-quarter earnings report.
In spite of the headwinds facing Fiserv, Lyons said the company was doubling down on investment in Clover, saying Fiserv plans to launch the service in Japan. He didn't say when Clover would be introduced there.
