Milwaukee Firm Close to Deal with Major Banks Down Under

Milwaukee based Fiserv, is closing in on a deal with an alliance of Australia’s largest banks. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Fiserv is bidding to provide check clearing services to the alliance in a multi-year deal worth tens of millions of dollars. The Australian alliance will bring together three of the country’s four biggest banks with combined assets of $750 billion. Fiserv provides diverse services in financial institutions, but its strength lies in check processing and image staining that prevents check fraud.

Fiserv provides global financial services to clients in over 60 countries and commands nearly 50% of the US market share. Despite this, Fiserv’s rivals for the Australia deal, Electronic Data Systems Corp and Unisys Corp, have a much stronger global percentage of the market. Leslie Muma, Fiserv’s president and CEO, believes that the Australia deal could open the door to many more international markets such as South Africa, South America, and China. Fiserv just entered the Chinese market this past year and expects major growth in the region. Critics of the Australia deal note, however, that Australians use fewer checks on average than Americans and continually rely on credit cards and other payment methods.