U.S. financial tech firm FIS sees revenue from abroad doubling

By Steve Slater

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. banking and payments technology firm FIS expects to double the share of revenue it gets from abroad in five years and may make acquisitions to do so, its new chief executive said.

Florida-based FIS is one of the biggest U.S. financial technology firms, with over 40,000 staff and 14,000 clients. It had revenue of $6.4 billion last year, including 22 percent from foreign markets.

"With the opportunities outside the U.S., I'd like to see that more than double. I'd be surprised if it (abroad) wasn't at least 40 percent of revenues in the next five years," Chief Executive Gary Norcross told Reuters.

Norcross, who moved up to CEO from chief operating officer at the start of the year, said he would consider "appropriate acquisitions" to add products or expand into new markets.

FIS bought Brussels-based payments processing firm Clear2Pay in September for 375 million euros.

FIS's international revenue rose 12 percent last year to $1.4 billion, double the pace of growth across the group, and Norcross said European and Asian income should rise amid rapid technology change - banks are updating complex legacy systems to cut costs, meet tougher compliance rules and improve cyber security.

New challenger banks are also buying platforms from FIS and other technology firms and customizing and building them up, rather than building a new system from scratch.

(Editing by David Evans)