Total System Services, Inc. (commonly referred to as TSYS), is an American

financial technology Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...

company headquartered in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it of ...

. In 2019, TSYS was merged into Global Payments Inc. TSYS is the largest third-party payment processor for

issuing bank An issuing bank is a bank that offers card association branded payment cards directly to consumers, such as credit cards, debit cards, contactless devices such as key fobs as well as prepaid cards. The name is derived from the practice of issuing c ...

s in North America, with a 40%

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...

, and one of the largest in Europe. It provides payment processing services, merchant services and related payment services. It also provides reloadable

prepaid debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term ''plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but unl ...

s and payroll cards, and demand deposit accounts to the

underbanked The underbanked is a characteristic describing people or organizations who do not (or volunteer to not) have sufficient access to mainstream financial services and products typically offered by retail banks and thus often deprived of banking servic ...

History

In 1959, TSYS was founded as a division of Columbus Bank and Trust (now

Synovus Synovus Financial Corp., formerly the Columbus Bank and Trust Company, is a financial services company with approximately $45 billion in assets based in Columbus, Georgia. Synovus provides commercial and retail banking, investment, and mortgage ...

). In 1974, it began processing credit cards for other banks. In August 1983, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. In 1995, the company merged its merchant processing services with those of

Visa Inc. Visa Inc. (; stylized as ''VISA'') is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded cred ...

In August 2004, the company acquired Clarity Payment Solutions for $53 million. In 2007,

completed the corporate spin-off of TSYS. In July 2004, the company began processing the credit cards issued by

J.P. Morgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

. In 2008, the company launched n>genuity, a quarterly publication on the world of payments. In 2010, the company acquired a 51% stake in the merchant acquisition business of

First National Bank of Omaha First National Bank Omaha is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The namesake and leading subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, it is the third largest privately held bank subsidiary in the United States with $17 billion in assets and 4 ...

for $150.5 million, which was renamed TSYS Merchant Solutions. The remaining 49% stake was acquired in January 2011. In May 2011, the company acquired TermNet. In August 2012, the company announced a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to access ...

with Central Payment Co. LLC, a direct merchant acquirer. In December 2012, the company acquired ProPay, a Utah-based company with over 250,000 merchants. In July 2013, the company acquired Netspend, a prepaid debit card provider, for $1.4 billion. In November 2013, the company announced TSYS Merchant Insights, a partnership with Womply, a San Francisco-based startup, to provide revenue, social media, and reputation analysis tools to all TSYS merchants. In June 2014, CEO Philip W. Tomlinson retired and was replaced with M. Troy Woods, then the president and COO. In April 2016, the company acquired TransFirst for $2.35 billion, making it the 6th largest acquirer in the United States. In June 2016, the company acquired the remaining 45% stake in TSYS Managed Services EMEA from The Merchants Group Limited. In February 2017, the company's lobbying of the Republican Party was credited for a bill that would remove the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's limits on overdraft fees. 10-12% of NetSpend's revenue comes from these fees. In late 2017, the company acquired a former

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi ( stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...

card production facility in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

and invested $25 million to build out a second, credit card production facility, with a capacity to produce 67 million credit cards per year. In January 2018, the company acquired Cayan for $1.05 billion. In June 2018, the company acquired Jacksonville, Florida-based iMobile3 for $13.4 million. On September 18, 2019, TSYS and Global Payments completed their merger agreement for $21.5 billion. The combined company, Global Payments Inc., is publicly traded (NYSE: GPN), and has more than 24,000 employees worldwide.

References

External links

ngenuity payments journal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsys Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange American companies established in 1983 Financial services companies established in 1983 Financial services companies of the United States Payment service providers Companies based in Columbus, Georgia Financial technology companies Corporate spin-offs 1983 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 1980s initial public offerings 2019 mergers and acquisitions