Fiserv

The Fiserv-First Data deal, valued at about $22 billion, will combine two of the financial services industry's largest technology and processing companies.

The large core banking software vendors are already criticized as large and slow-moving. Consolidations like these are only likely to make them more so.

Fiserv will acquire First Data in an all-stock deal with a value of about $22 billion that will combine two of the financial services industry's largest technology and processing companies. Fiserv shareholders will own almost 58% of the combined company, with First Data's shareholders holding the rest. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2019.

The company built a patch within 24 hours of being alerted to a vulnerability in messaging software used by many banks. Fiserv is looking into how this happened while addressing speculation about whether consumer data is still threatened.

The Golden Contract Coalition, formed in mid-2016 to get community banks better deals with the “big three” core systems vendors, said banks need help with buying from fintech sellers as well.