Speaking to ABA’s Core Platforms Committee Monday, FIS President and CEO Stephanie Ferris announced that the Jacksonville, Florida-based core provider has signed on to ABA’s Principles for Strong Bank-Core Provider Relationships. With FIS’s action, all major U.S. core processors are now signatories to the principles. Ferris, who in July announced the spinout of FIS’s Worldpay subsidiary, also detailed plans to refocus FIS on its core bank service business.
Developed by the Core Platforms Committee in 2019, the principles offer reasonable standards under which a bank’s relationship with its core provider, and its customer base, can thrive. In particular, the principles address quality service, responsive and open communication, access to bank data, fair contracts, and data security and protection. With FIS’s inclusion, 23 core processors—including CSI, Finastra, Fiserv and Jack Henry—have now agreed to the principles.
“The Principles for Strong Bank-Core Provider Relationships are widely seen in the industry as the basis for effective collaboration between banks and their critical technology vendors,” said Core Platforms Committee Chair Kimberly Kirk, EVP and COO at Queensborough National Bank and Trust in Louisville, Georgia. “We’re very pleased that FIS has agreed to the principles and appreciate all the core providers that have worked with our committee. In keeping with survey data showing that half of banks say that the principles helped in conversations with cores, FIS’s affirmation of the principles further validates the role that ABA has played in helping to focus the core provider sector on client service, APIs, contract fairness and other bank priorities.”
The Core Platforms Committee’s fall meeting included presentations by CEOs and C-level executives at CSI, Finastra, FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry on the companies’ activities in recent months. Other recent meetings have included information-gathering on core consultants and overseas cores expanding in the U.S. market.