TSYS

About TSYS

Total System Services (TSYS) provides payment processing services, merchant services, and related payment solutions to financial and non-financial institutions. The company operates through three main segments: Issuer Solutions, Merchant Solutions, and Consumer Solutions (Netspend). Its services include traditional point-of-sale processing, mobile payment acceptance via smartphones and tablets, and online payment gateways like MultiPASS and Authorize.Net. TSYS also offers fraud management, data analytics, and customer support.

The company's history traces back to 1959 as a division of Columbus Bank and Trust (now Synovus). In 1983, it was spun out as a separate publicly traded company, Total System Services, Inc., founded by James Blanchard. A key milestone was the development of the TS2 processing system in 1992. In 2013, TSYS acquired Netspend, a provider of prepaid debit cards, for $1.4 billion. In April 2016, the company acquired TransFirst for $2.35 billion, which made it the 6th largest acquirer in the United States. TSYS merged with Global Payments in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $21.5 billion, which was completed in September 2019. Following the merger, the combined company provides payment services to roughly 3.5 million small to mid-sized merchants and over 1,300 financial institutions in more than 100 countries. The issuer solutions business of the combined entity continues to operate under the TSYS name.

TSYS serves a diverse clientele, including issuing banks, merchants of all sizes, and underbanked consumers through its prepaid card services. Its business model revolves around providing the infrastructure for electronic payments, earning revenue from processing millions of transactions globally. The company has a significant market presence, holding a 40% market share as a third-party payment processor for issuing banks in North America.