How AI Is Reshaping Banking: A Conversation with FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris | Ep1

Thank you. It's wonderful to talk to you.

Yeah, we truly are. There's three things that are happening in financial services that have never happened before. The first is banks in the banking industry have incredible strength. They don't have any capital issues, they don't have any liquidity issues. They're extraordinarily strong. The second is with the rollback of the regulatory environment, and this is true around the world, they have the handcuffs off of them that are going to allow them to grow, whether they want to grow organically or they want to grow through M&A. We saw the largest amount of bank consolidation that we've seen in 10 years happen in 2025 and we see more of that coming in 2026. So, you have incredibly strong industry, you have growth on the agenda, organic or inorganic. And then the third, probably biggest tectonic moment, is the shift in technology, in particular this favorite word of ours, two-letter word AI. Which is really bringing to the forefront to the banking industry something they've never seen before. And what I would tell you is that typically in the banking industry most of us wait to adopt technology. We're slow followers or no followers. But this technology is enabling banks to really get after very much locked costs that have been in their franchises for a long time. So, those three things coming together are making it a generational moment in financial services. And then so if you think about for FIS, which is the largest technology provider to this industry, we have a set of customers that are happy and growing. We have a set of customers that need to and want to spend money on technology to help either grow their franchise, protect their franchise, or service their franchise. So, just all kinds of opportunities abound for us as we think about this moment in time.

Yeah, that's a great question. I'd say there's two. One is modernizing the bank and what banking looks like in a modern world. As you and I both know, we all now do digital banking. I mean, so we used to go in the branch and then we went to the ATM and then we went online and now we're doing mobile banking. But what is that going to continue to look like if you're a big bank or a small bank? And I can tell you for sure what I've already seen that's going to be coming to a theater near us and your mobile app, you're going to be able to start talking to your mobile app in plain language, much like you're talking to ChatGPT. And so, for banks, as they think about how does a modern bank look and feel for their customers, they're thinking a lot about that. And so, they need the technology and the capabilities and a partner that helps them make those changes either for their customers or in the back office. I think the second thing they're thinking about is how do I harness this opportunity with AI and do it in a very trust-oriented way. How can FIS help me bring AI into my bank in a trusted way that I can make sure I meet all of my regulatory requirements.

Yeah, it is actually absolutely so exciting and fantastic. So, what we have is we have 90 million core banking accounts. So, we know what you have in checking, what you have in savings, we know your name, we know your address. We keep this all locked tight, so don't be worried that we give it to anybody. But, we have core banking customer information. We also have your credit card information. We have your debit card information. And we have your wealth account information. And so, when you think about a bank, what a bank wants to provide to you is they want to give you hyper-personalized service. What does that mean? So, let's just say you have a paycheck coming up on Friday, what the bank wants to be able to say to you proactively is something like, 'Hey, your paycheck's coming up on Friday, but I think you're going to be a little short money on Wednesday, would you like us to move money from your savings account to your checking account?' They would also like to answer questions for you or offer advice out to you in terms of what to do with your wealth accounts. They've been after this hyper-personalization type of services because that's how you and I would love to be serviced from a bank and it makes a lot of sense. They've never been able to do that because all of this data that they have, which we run, is locked up in all these different systems. So, with AI, not only do we have an opportunity to aggregate the data for our banks and provide that information up in a real-time basis on what's happening with you, where we can take the AI capabilities and then deliver and create models that create those opportunities for the bank to reach out to you and give those offerings. So, those are very exciting changes and it's going to change the landscape of how you and I interact with our bank. It is very exciting.

Well, thank you. Thank you. We're very excited about it. So, it's a really unique partnership. I think what, you know, there's been a lot of mania around AI is going to disrupt FIS and as you know, we're the largest financial technology provider to the banking industry globally and I've been saying for a while, given how much data we have, which I thought was our moat, I actually think what our moat is, it's not just data. We have trusted data that we provide to banks so you feel comfortable about everything being compliant, data privacy, it complies with all the risk, etc. So, Anthropic came to us because they can create really interesting technology capabilities and automate onboarding, they can automate all kinds of processes inside a bank. What they can't say when they do that is this compliant? Does this meet all the regulatory requirements we need to have and that's auditable and evidenceable to all of our regulators. And so, the Anthropic and the FIS partnership together, we bring the data, we bring the regulatory know-how, and they bring their fantastic LLM models, and together we can then build things that banks can trust and we can distribute those. So, we're very, very excited about this partnership. We're starting with financial crimes, which is one of the biggest, most painful parts of financial institutions, and they spend a ton of money getting after it. So, we're really, really excited about what we're doing here.

Yeah, so you should rely on FIS if you're a customer of FIS or prospect of FIS that we will be forward-leaning in terms of the next big thing that's happening in technology. We want to make sure that we are there and can provide those products and services to our customers in a risk and regulated way and keep banks healthy and fraud-free and compliant with all their regulations. So, we're very excited about all of that. Interestingly, since we closed the Total Issuing transaction, we thought there we would see a lot of Agentiq commerce, a lot of you authorizing your agent to go online and buy your airline ticket without you being in the loop. It's been interesting. It's gone a little bit slower than we expected.

It's still going to happen.

That's true. My kids might, but we won't.

And so that's been going a little bit, so which actually is good because when we think about that, what we're doing is as part of that agenda capability is not just making sure that our issuing banks know that it is your agent making the purchase for you and on your behalf, but also making sure that it's not fraudulent. So we want to make sure that if you want the transaction done that we authorize that transaction and don't frustrate you by turning the transaction down, but we also want to block anybody, all the fraudulent agents that are coming in trying to use your card. So it's both and we're very, very pleased with that.

Yeah, so it's like power to the people, right? So the first thing is we have to have a top-down agenda in terms of okay, we're going to spend a hundred million dollars on AI. I have to set where we're going to spend that money. Are we going to develop products? Are we going to give it to our back office? Where is the best case where we should spend this money because as you know, it's not endless money. But at the same time, some of the best use cases we've seen is when we give AI capabilities out to everyone in the company, which we've done, and then they can generate their own ideas and their own activities in terms of how to make their job better for them, how to make them more efficient, how to create a product better. So it's both. You have to have both in a company. And I think when you have both coming together, you get the magic.

It's a lot.

Yeah, it is a lot and I have clients ask me a lot about what they should be focused on and what they should rely on us for. Because what, you know, you're one institution, whether you're a community bank or a regional bank or a large bank, you can only do so many things. And so what I tell people is it's really hard to figure out what the signal is inside all the noise. So you should rely on FIS and us to tell you where we think the industry is going. You have to ultimately make your own decision, but if we think fundamentally like mobile banking is going to go completely where you're speaking to it instead of digitally, then we need to back that up with and here's how we would provide that capability for you should you want to or need it. So I think you have and but then also in the bank, you have to be thoughtful about what is your strategy inside the bank and where should you be using AI to make things better or not or is it just too expensive and you should rely on your partner. It's a really tough conversation and I every night am a little bit overwhelmed by what happened today.

Yes. You too.

I know, but imagine too that kind of help you stay focused when there's a new shiny thing.

And you're just going here and there, but you got to stay here.

I think you have to be clear-eyed on what your bank strategy is. Don't be confused and get swayed. So, if wealth is part of your strategy, make sure that you have the best set of tools and what you need to serve that set of customers. If you know, as you think about tokenized deposits or digital currency, it's very easy to get confused. Do you need to be in that? Do you not need to be in that? Lean into your partners and your advisors to help them match the capabilities and the demands of your clients up with your ultimate strategy. And then constantly reassess, is the strategy going to work? Am I going to continue to be relevant in banking? Are there trends around me that I think could be disruptive ultimately to what I'm trying to accomplish? You know, at the end of the day, what banks will tell me every single time is the value prop that they bring is the relationships that they have with their customers. And so, we have to be relentless in this industry to say, what could possibly disrupt that relationship that you have with your customer? Or what can enhance that relationship? What can we bring to enhance that relationship with your customer? And as you know, it's different for our parents than it is for us as it is for our kids. And so, that's where expectations change along the line. And so, you do have to deliver things differently, but all according to your strategy and where your value prop shows up for your customer relationship.

Thank you.