Fiserv Inc. (FISV): Headlines suggest major US banks considering bid for FISV (STAR and Accel) card networks

Research evidence excerpt

Fiserv Inc. (FISV): Headlines suggest major US banks considering bid for FISV (STAR and Accel) card networks

Equity Research

7 July 2026 | 9:40AM EDT

Fiserv Inc. (FISV): Headlines suggest major US banks considering bid for

FISV (STAR and Accel) card networks

On 7/6/2026 The Wall Street Journal reported that some of the United States’ Will Nance

+1(212)357-7438 | will.nance@gs.com

largest card issuers (incl. JPM, WFC, PNC, and BAC) have held preliminary and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

tentative discussions about potentially acquiring a debit network owned by Fiserv Jack Evans

(who owns both the STAR and Accel debit networks). If a Durbin-regulated issuer +1(212)357-3560Goldman Sachs & Co.| jack.evans@gs.comLLC

were to acquire its own debit network, under the current rules, the issuer could Chandru Ravikumar

theoretically no longer be subject to Durbin interchange caps and could earn +1(212)934-7681chandru.ravikumar@gs.com|

unregulated debit fees (>100bps vs ~40-50bps) on customer purchases. However, Goldman Sachs India SPL

we believe that in practice, there are several challenges a large bank could face in

fully converting a large debit portfolio to a smaller network such as one of the PIN

debit networks owned by Fiserv (Star/Accel) or FIS (NYCE/Jeanie), largely as a

function of the much lower acceptance footprint of these networks relative to the

big four networks (V/MA/DFS/AXP) and the ability for merchants to decline

acceptance of these networks if faced with higher interchange rates. This practical

questions around the likelihood of a large bank fully realizing Durbin exempt status

add to the regulatory and political concerns that the large banks involved reportedly

have around any potential transaction (which was explicitly mentioned in the WSJ

article).