Fiserv Chief Executive Takis Georgakopoulos is moving to streamline the company without disrupting banks that rely on its systems. Speaking at the Citi Fintech Conference on Tuesday, he said Fiserv plans to close more than a dozen small business lines that lack strong growth or profitability potential and move customers from two debit networks to one in the coming months. The Milwaukee-based company provides account software and payment services to thousands of financial institutions.
The company’s review of its business also found savings from Fiserv’s cost-cutting program, Project Elevate. On Nov. 3, Fiserv doubled its three-year goal from $500 million to $1 billion. At the Citi conference, Georgakopoulos said artificial intelligence, technology simplification and other efficiency measures will save costs in roughly equal measure.
He did not name the business line or debit network or give a timetable for the closure. At the meeting, he said Fiserv would consider how the changes impact its banking customers and ensure they have appropriate solutions, but did not explain what those solutions would be.
Why bank migration is important
Fiserv provides banks with core software to track account balances and process transactions. When a bank migrates to a new system, customer information must be transferred without interrupting bank services.
It remains to be seen whether Fiserv can make this transition smoothly. During a Nov. 3 earnings call, Georgakopoulos said the $20 billion Pinnacle Bancorp has gone live on CoreAdvance, Fiserv’s platform for community and regional banks. He did not say whether Pinnacle switched from other vendors or what its customers’ experiences were.
The call also detailed how the CEO hopes to make future migrations easier. Georgakopoulos said the company is developing shared components across banking systems and using artificial intelligence agents in products such as DNA and CoreAdvance to shorten implementation and migration times.
On the earnings call, Georgakopoulos described efficiency and customer service as complementary. “I really don’t think these things are contradictory,” he said. “I think they work together.”
What George Kopoulos inherited
Georgakopoulos is Fiserv’s third CEO since May 2025. Frank Bisignano took over as CEO in 2020 and left in May 2025 to lead the Social Security Administration. His successor, Mike Lyons, comes from PNC, one of Fiserv’s largest customers. He put customer service at the center of the One Fiserv initiative and launched Project Elevate to cut costs. Lyons left for Truist in June 2026, and Georgakopoulos inherited both priorities.
Georgakopoulos has been at the helm of the company for about five months now. He joined Fiserv in 2024 from JPMorgan Chase, where he led the company’s global payments business for corporate and investment banking. At Fiserv, he served as chief operating officer, then as co-president, overseeing business solutions and technology, and finally as CEO.
Project Elevate launches in late 2025. By May, Fiserv has set a $500 million savings goal. After taking over in June, Georgakopoulos announced a review of the company’s products, technology and operations. This work informed the higher targets announced in November.
Georgakopoulos told the Citi conference that much of the additional $500 million in savings is expected to come from closing operations and phasing out legacy systems. He said these system-related savings may take time to realize because Fiserv must migrate remaining clients.
Since Georgakopoulos took over, savings plans have included reducing Fiserv’s contractor and employee headcount by 3,000, including more than 10 percent of senior managers. It also includes automating processes and streamlining operations.
At the Citi conference, Georgakopoulos said artificial intelligence could speed up some of the cost-cutting efforts. “What we thought would take quarters, or even six months ago, we now think will take weeks,” he said.
Customer losses ease, but revenue lags
In addition to the savings plan, Georgakopoulos also seeks to grow Fiserv’s banking business. On a Nov. 3 earnings call, he said Fiserv has lost fewer banking customers so far this year. At the same time, he said he has won more than 50% more new banking customers than a year ago. He warned that these victories would come from a lower base. “The base is much lower than I would have liked, but it’s the right trajectory,” he said.
Georgakopoulos believes improvements in platform stability and customer service will help reduce customer losses. At the Citi conference, he said bank infrastructure incidents had dropped by 75% year-on-year. He said Fiserv has added customer relationship managers to strengthen customer coverage, and investments in platform stability began more than a year ago, before he became CEO.
Bank revenue does not yet reflect the company’s customer gains. It was down 5% organically compared to the same period last year, while the broader financial solutions segment grew 2%. During a Nov. 3 earnings call, Fiserv Chief Financial Officer Paul Todd said it could take nine to 12 months for retention improvements and new customer wins to impact revenue. Georgakopoulos said the bank’s business should show growth in the second half of 2027.
What banks want from Fiserv
Georgakopoulos told the Citi conference that Fiserv serves about 3,500 of the more than 8,000 banks and credit unions in the United States. Bank sales cycles are longer than Fiserv’s large commercial business, he said.
To win over more of these institutions, Fiserv is looking beyond its core account processing system. Speaking at the Citi conference, Georgakopoulos said banks need better digital banking, useful data and insights, and guidance on deploying artificial intelligence safely. As he said, “How can you help me grow my business?”
Fiserv’s banking AI platform AgentOS is one example of this broader offering. During an earnings call on November 3, Georgakopoulos said that nearly 200 banks are in preparation and pilot banks are close to production deployment. Fiserv plans to open the program to more customers in 2027.
The test will be whether that interest will translate into active customers and revenue as Fiserv moves banks to the new system without disruption. “We just need to be more proactive about talking to potential customers about these solutions. Historically, we’ve never done that,” Georgakopoulos said at the Citi conference.