Investing in Bank Technology and Payment Processing Outsourcing: Expert Analyst Brett Huff Discusses His Top Picks and Outlook for the Sector with The Wall Street Transcript

67 WALL STREET, New York - June 12, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Business and Application Software Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Application Software Consolidation Activity - Cloud Computing and SaaS Trends - Cloud Computing - SaaS and PaaS

Companies include: Fidelity National Information (FIS), Fiserv Inc. (FISV), Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (JKHY), Total System Services, Inc. (TSS), ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW), Heartland Payment Systems Inc. (HPY), Global Payments Inc. (GPN) and many more.

In the following excerpt from the Business and Application Software Report, an expert analyst discusses the outlook for the sector for investors:

TWST: How about on the other side of your coverage - payments? What's going on?

Mr. Huff: I divided the world into payments on one hand and then bank technology on the other hand. We talked a lot about banks, so let's talk about the payments a little bit.

Payments for us is mostly merchant-focused, so for example we cover the acquirers - Heartland Payments, Global Payments (GPN), and TSYS actually does some of this. So merchant-focused acquiring and processing is another leg of the processing stool for us. Heartland Payments is an example of that. That's the idea we like best in that particular group.

In terms of trends going on there, we think that consolidation will continue in that industry as well. There's been some competitors that have bought smaller private acquirers and merchant processors. We also think that there is a lot of joint venture or partnership, commercial partnership activity.

In particular, an example that we think is interesting is Heartland Payments' relationship or partnership with a private company called LevelUp out of Boston. LevelUp and some of its peers and other similar products are helping merchants create more loyal customers, and we think that those smaller companies that are startups and evolving into medium-sized companies will provide some of the larger acquirers and payment processors with an opportunity to introduce new products.

And so, we think that whether it's consolidation or partnerships on the merchant processing and acquiring side, we think that will continue over time as they try, and as acquirers try and figure out what merchants need in order to accept new payment types and to drive loyalty...

For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.