Fis (NYSE: FIS), one of the world's largest providers of banking and payments technology, today announced it has acquired ValueCentric Marketing Group (VCMG), a leading software provider of loyalty and rewards solutions to the retail, transportation and other non-financial services industries. The terms of the deal were not announced.
This acquisition is a strategic move by FIS to enhance the company's intellectual property for its loyalty and rewards offerings. It also enables FIS to expand its loyalty solutions into the healthcare, retail, petroleum, transportation and government markets, which are strategic growth markets for the company.
FIS is one of the oldest providers of loyalty and rewards programs in the nation and has been providing loyalty solutions for more than 20 years. The company currently supports over 7,000 loyalty programs for 3,500 financial services institutions and processes more than 10 million consumer loyalty accounts. The acquisition of VCMG adds 43 million loyalty and rewards accounts to the FIS portfolio as well as one of the largest local and regional merchant-funded coalition networks in North America.
"In the past several years, loyalty programs have moved beyond traditional credit card rewards systems," said Bob Bream, president of North America Card and Payment Solutions, FIS. "FIS is a well-established leader of loyalty innovation to the financial services market and this transaction allows us to expand that innovation into other strategic growth areas."
"We are excited to become part of FIS," said Raymond H. Stanton, founder and CEO of VCMG. "The combination of our two companies creates an entity that will lead the loyalty market in scale, processing power and innovation."