Global Payments Inc. is an American multinational

financial technology Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

company that provides

payment A payment is the tender of something of value, such as money or its equivalent, by one party (such as a person or company) to another in exchange for goods or services provided by them, or to fulfill a legal obligation or philanthropy desir ...

technology and services to merchants, issuers and consumers. In June 2021, the company was named to the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

. The company processes payments made through credit cards,

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 card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...

s, and digital and

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) for making sec ...

History

Global Payments was founded in 1996 and spun off from

National Data Corporation National Data Corporation (NDC) was an American information technology company and payment processor founded in 1967 by Ret. U.S. Air Force Colonel George Thorpe. At its peak in 1987, NDC was the world's largest payments processor by volume. NDC ...

, its former parent company, in 2001. Global Payments has been an independent, publicly-traded company on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

having the ticker symbol “GPN” since its spin off. In 2009, it paid $75 million for United Card Service,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's leading credit card processing company. In 2011, Global Payments's United Card Service bought

Alfa-Bank Alfa-Bank JSC () is the largest of the private banks in Russia. It was founded in 1990 by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who remains the controlling owner. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, providing financial servi ...

's credit card processing unit. In October 2012, it acquired the smaller Accelerated Payment Technologies for $413 million. In October 2014, it purchased Australian payment processing company Ezidebit for $305 million. In January 2015, it bought Payment Processing (also known as PayPros), a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

company, for $420 million. In March 2015, Global Payments bought Realex Payments, an Irish-based payments gateway services company, for €115 million. On April 25, 2016, Global Payments completed the acquisition of

Heartland Payment Systems Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. is a U.S.-based payment processing and technology provider. Founded in 1997, Heartland Payment Systems' last headquarters were in Princeton, New Jersey. The company was acquired by Global Payments for $4.3 billion ...

for $4.3 billion. Both Global Payments and its subsidiary Heartland Payment Systems were among the leading credit card processing companies in 2016, according to ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

''. Its headquarters moved from Sandy Springs, Georgia to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Georgia in 2016. In 2017, Global Payments initiated acquiring divisions of Active Networks. In 2018, Global Payments completed the acquisition of AdvancedMD. Also in 2018, Global Payments completed the acquisition of Sentral Education. On May 28, 2019, Global Payments announced a $21.5 billion merger with TSYS. The merger was expected to trigger a Federal Trade Commission investigation. However, no such investigation occurred. In August 2022, Global Payments entered a definitive agreement to acquire EVO Payments Inc. for nearly $4 billion. On May 1, 2023, the company announced that

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Jeffrey M. Sloan would resign, effective June 1, 2023. COO Cameron M. Bready succeeded him and now serves as

and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

. As of July 2023, no singular COO of the company had been named. Instead, two individuals were appointed to oversee domestic and international operations as Senior Executive Vice Presidents: Vince Lombardo and Bob Cortopassi, respectively. Starting in early 2024 and continuing into September, Global Payments began laying off staff. These layoffs took place in the US, Canada, UK and India, as well as other smaller regional markets. Approximately 5400 employees were laid off during this time. Just weeks before the September lay offs were announced, Global Payments reported their second quarter results. Global Payments reported a net income of $296.4 million, a significant increase of $46.6 million compared to $249.7 million in the same quarter of 2023. In April 2025, Global Payments agreed to acquire Worldpay, a payments technology provider, for $22 billion.

Services and operations

Global Payments provides payment services directly to merchants and indirectly through other financial organizations. Its technology-enabled services also support integrated payments,

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

, and omni-channel services. Through Total System Services (TSYS), its issuer processor business, Global Payments helps banks manage credit and debit card portfolios. Global Payments operates in more than 100 countries and serves 3.5 million merchants as well as 1,300 financial institutions. The company processes more than 50 billion transactions per year. After merging with TSYS in 2019, Global Payments has nearly 24,000 employees. In 2020, 63 percent of the company's revenue was derived from "Merchant Solutions" 26 percent from Issuer Solutions, and 11 percent from the Business and Consumer Solutions segment, which operates as NetSpend. Eighty percent of Global Payments Merchant Solutions revenue was from North America, 15 percent was from Europe, and five percent was from Asia. Additionally in 2020, the company was recognized as the first payment processor to win the J.D. Power Award for excellence in customer service; an effort spearheaded by

Senior Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice ...

Jim Hightower and now-Senior Executive Vice President Bob Cortopassi. As of 2023, Global Payments does not have a singular Chief Operating Officer (COO). Instead the company divides operations into two distinct branches: domestic "US Merchant Solutions" headed by Senior Executive Vice President Vince Lombardo and international and vertical markets headed by Senior Executive Vice President Bob Cortopassi. Current CEO Cameron M. Bready was formerly the COO of the company, but no COO was announced as part of the succession plan.

Data breaches and faults

In 2012, a data breach at Global Payments affected 1.5 million credit and debit card numbers. This breach eventually cost the company around $100 million. In 2015, a technical fault with Global Payments' systems led to thousands of British businesses being unable to accept credit card payments on

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

weekend.

Lawsuits

''Story v. Heartland Payments Systems''

In 2019, Global Payments subsidiary Heartland Payments Systems was sued by Florida resident Max Story, alleging that Heartland defrauded parents of school children by leading them to believe that fees collected by th
MySchoolBucks
online lunch payment service, which Heartland owns and operates and which is used by 2 million people with children in 30,000 schools in the US, were going to their children's schools when in fact the money was going to Heartland. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Heartland deposited $40,000 into Story's bank account in an attempt to nullify Story's legal standing to sue, but Story refused to accept the payment and reversed the deposit. To limit the number of people who could potentially join the lawsuit if it is granted

class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage Robot''), a 2002 e ...

status, Heartland also updated its terms of service in 2019 to require MySchoolBucks users to accept that they "will not be permitted to participate in the Story case as a class member."

Merger with TSYS

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

company headquartered in

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

. In 2019, TSYS was merged into Global Payments Inc. In 1959, TSYS was founded as a division of Columbus Bank and Trust (now Synovus). 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 share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

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 investm ...

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

Visa Inc. Visa Inc. () is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit c ...

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

corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. It is distinct ...

of TSYS. In July 2004, the company began processing the credit cards issued by J.P. Morgan Chase. 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 d/b/a FNBO is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, Inc., a bank holding company primarily owned by the Lauritzen family. It is on the list of largest banks in the Un ...

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 acce ...

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 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, Payday lo ...

'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 (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...

card production facility in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

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.

References

External links

{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 2000 Online payments Corporate spin-offs Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange American companies established in 2000 Companies based in Atlanta Payment service providers Financial technology companies 2001 initial public offerings