You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Gary Norcross, our Chairman, President and CEO, will discuss our operating performance and share our strategy to continue accelerating revenue growth and maximizing shareholder value.
Woody Woodall, our Chief Financial Officer, will then review our financial results and provide forward guidance.
Bruce Lowthers, President of Banking and Merchant Solutions will also be joining the call today for the Q&A portion.
Turning to slide three.
Also, throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP information, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net earnings, adjusted net earnings per share and free cash flow.
These are important financial performance measures for the company, but are not financial measures as defined by GAAP.
I'm pleased to announce our fourth quarter and full-year results starting on slide five.
2020 was an unprecedented year for the world and for FIS, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the world on a human as well as an economic level.
Despite the extraordinary year, we leveraged our scale and resources to keep the global economy running, while delivering solid results.
We generated $12.6 billion in revenue as our balanced solution portfolio allowed us to offset weaker consumer spending trends with strong demand for our Banking and Capital Markets Solutions.
As we close out 2020, all three of our business segments ended the year with record annual sales, continuing to improve that our solutions and technologies are winning share around the globe.
Our backlog grew 7% organically to $22 billion.
This gives us a exceptional visibility into our future growth trajectory and drives our confidence in accelerating organic revenue growth for our Banking and Capital Markets segments.
From a merchant perspective, given the accelerating rollout of COVID vaccines globally and improving trends and economic indicators, we are confident we will see strong merchant revenue acceleration throughout 2021.
Our team continues to execute at the highest level as demonstrated by our ability to expand adjusted EBITDA margins by 120 basis points for the full-year, despite near term COVID challenges.
We also made great progress with the Worldpay integration, remaining well ahead of plan and exited the year generating more than $200 million in revenue synergies, and more than $750 million in cost synergies.
With this impressive momentum, we are excited to build on our strengths as we look ahead to accelerating organic revenue growth in 2021.
Turning to slide six.
FIS has had a very successful year operating in the business, and I couldn't be prouder of the team's accomplishments and unwavering commitment to support our clients and communities.
The modernization and innovation investments we've made are paying dividends, enabling us to accelerate organic growth across our entire business.
Amazon, a long-term merchant client added our capital markets industry-leading treasury management system to the growing portfolio of services that we provide them.
Further, Walgreens and Giant Eagle expanded their long-standing relationships with FIS.
Walgreen selected our integrated payable solution and Giant Eagle selected a series of our back office financial solutions from our comprehensive banking suite.
We also recently developed an innovative benefits card solution with UnitedHealth Group.
The combined strengths from across FIS.
In this partnership, we created a fully in-house solution where we accept transactions as the merchant processor route them through our network and finish with our own authorization and settlement engine.
2020 highlighted how our unique capabilities are being successfully combined to serve our clients and ways if they can't find anywhere else.
We continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies for the future, including contactless, voice-enabled and self-service solutions as well as AI and automation.
We launched over 60 new products in 2020 with a focus on enabling our clients to grow their revenues and operate more efficiently.
All of this enables FIS to emerge from the pandemic, and an even stronger competitive position.
We also continue to be relentlessly focused on improving our own operational efficiencies.
We made exceptional progress in integrating Worldpay as well as consolidating platforms and data centers with over 70% of our global compute now running in the cloud.
To continue our upward margin momentum, we are beginning the next phase of our enterprise transformation.
We will leverage data analytics and automation to reduce our cost and create new efficiencies by upgrading and consolidating our technology platforms as well as continuing to simplify our technology architecture.
As a result, FIS will be faster, more agile and deliver frictionless service by transforming our operating model and streamlining our organization.
Given the tremendous achievements from our data center consolidation program and ongoing cost synergies, I am confident in our ability to deliver 45% adjusted EBITDA margins this year and then continue to expand them in each year for the foreseeable future.
From a market viewpoint, demand continues to increase.
Both our sales pipeline and backlog continue to grow and we are finding new sources of revenue synergies and cross-sell wins to accelerate our business further.
Turning to slide seven.
In Banking Solutions, we continue to win share and accelerate revenue growth.
Our investments have enabled us to build a differentiated offering, winning new logos across markets of all sizes and actively expanding wallet share with existing clients.
As a result, our backlog within the banking business expanded by 8% organically and generated $3.5 billion in new sales during 2020, which is our largest selling year ever.
Cross-selling of new solutions into our existing client base is also up, including a 23% increase in cross-selling solutions to our top 100 clients.
In addition, three of our recent modern banking platform wins are now live, and we project that the modern banking platform will generate in excess of $100 million of revenue in 2021.
We expanded our relationship with Bank of Hawaii to power their digital banking product offering.
They will implement our Digital One solution to bring modern, best-in-class capabilities to both self-service and banker-assisted channels.
Lastly, US Bank, a top-5 bank selected our bill-pay solution due to our simple integration and personalization across digital channels.
Our multi-year sales success, strong revenue backlog, continued strength in the pipeline and ability to consistently drive innovation into the market lay out a clear path for banking to accelerate revenue growth in 2021.
Turning to slide eight.
In merchant, we will leverage our technology advantage and leading competitive position to continue to win share, all while taking advantage of the revenue tailwind being presented by recovering economic and pandemic indicators.
We continue to outpace the industry regarding total volumes being processed, indicating not only the overall strength of our capabilities, but our continued ability to gain share throughout the pandemic.
We are also seizing the opportunity created by the rapid shift of consumer spending to online and digital channels, where e-commerce volume excluding travel and airlines grew 32%.
We provide advanced and highly differentiated omnichannel capabilities, including buy online and pick up or return in store, which merchants must have to compete in the digital economy.
Our expanded relationship with Walmart to process e-commerce transactions is a great example.
And we are also winning new business with innovative online providers like GrubHub.
NortonLifeLock also selected FIS to provide global e-commerce acquiring using our Innovative Access Worldpay gateway, which is The Strawhecker Group just recognized for having the highest authorization rates in the industry.
Looking forward, our global reach, tailored solutions and innovative technology will continue to drive share gains for us as changing merchant and consumer behaviors play to our strengths.
Moving to slide nine.
Demand is strong for our end-to-end, front, middle and back office solutions within capital markets and our leading regulatory compliance technology.
We continue to gain traction with our SaaS-based delivery model, which drove a 7% increase in new sales for reoccurring revenue in 2021, including a 19% increase in the fourth quarter.
In addition, new logos contributed to 26% of our fourth quarter new sales and average deal size grew 9% as we continue to add to our portfolio of leading buy side and sell side clients.
All of these are strong indicators for accelerating growth in 2021.
A few sales highlights included BNP Paribas, who recently chose to expand our relationship.
We will transform their post-trade derivatives clearing platform, which will allow them to benefit from significant cost and operational efficiencies, as well as enhanced customer service, all while reducing risks.
We also signed an agreement with Allianz, a large global insurance companies provide payment and cash processing platforms.
On the buy side, Vanguard recently expanded their relationship with us to include outsource tax reporting, highlighting one of our leading RegTech solutions.
Our differentiated end-to-end solutions are winning share and our transition to reoccurring SaaS-based revenue streams is also taking hold, which gives us confidence in our ability to further accelerate this business.
I'd like to underscore that we are pleased with our full-year 2020 results across all of our business segments.
We expect this positive momentum to continue into 2021 and beyond.
Woody will now provide additional detail on the financial results for the quarter as well as forward guidance.
Starting on slide 11, I will touch on our fourth quarter results before transitioning to our forward guidance.
We remain excited about the trajectory of our Banking and Capital market segments and look forward to significantly rebounding growth in our Merchant segment as global economies reopen.
On a consolidated basis, organic growth was flat during the fourth quarter and adjusted EBITDA margins expanded by 60 basis points to generate adjusted earnings per share of $1.62.
We expect to exit 2021 generated $400 million of run rate revenue synergies based on strong client demand for our premium payback solution, growing distribution with new bank referral partners as well as geographic expansion and cross sell initiatives across the enterprise.
These revenue synergies will help supplement our organic revenue growth profile, giving us increased confidence in achieving 7% to 9% organic revenue growth on a sustained basis.
We also have line of sight to execute an additional $100 million of operating cost synergies, bringing net total to $500 million, exiting 2021 or 125% of the original opex target.
Turning to segment results on slide 12.
In Banking, organic revenue growth accelerated to 5%, a strong execution more than offset lower termination fees.
Based on our large and growing backlog as well as our growing pipeline of new opportunities, we continue to expect the Banking segment to accelerate into the mid to high single-digits.
Our Merchant segment revenue declined 9% organically or 7% on a normalized basis, when excluding the step up in debit routing synergy that we achieve following the Worldpay acquisition.
As we begin to lap the impact of COVID-19 in the second quarter, we expect Merchant revenue growth to rebound sharply, driving mid to high teens growth for 2021.
Our Capital Market segment continues to exceed expectations with organic growth of 3% in the quarter, which includes about a point of headwind associated with the timing of license renewals.
This segment is positioned for low to mid single-digit organic growth in 2021, driven by another strong year of new sales and recurring revenue growth.
On slide 13, we provide more detail about how client mix is affecting merchant revenue growth during the pandemic.
The significant difference in consumer spending trends between discretionary and non-discretionary verticals is creating an unusual revenue mix headwind for us.
Discretionary spending verticals, which typically carry higher yields experienced a sharp contraction during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, non-discretionary verticals and most of e-com typically comprised of lower priced large enterprise and multinational clients experienced strong demand.
As a result, merchant revenue declined even as volumes continue to grow.
Beginning in the second quarter, we expect these mix headwinds on yield to reverse as discretionary verticals rebound over easy comps.
This should create a significant yield tailwind for our merchant revenue growth that extends until these verticals rebound fully.
Turning to slide 14.
I want to touch on the strength of our balance sheet, cash flow and liquidity position.
We generated over $3 billion of free cash flow in 2020, which was up about 50% over last year.
We invest over $1 billion in capex in order to drive new technology and solutions to the market.
We made the strategic decision to maintain our capital expenditure budget through the pandemic as others were forced to retrench in order to continue to accelerate our new sales and competitive momentum relative to our peers.
Even as we continue to invest in innovation and growth, our liquidity position continues to grow and reached $4.6 billion by the end of the fourth quarter, which is up by about $400 million sequentially.
Looking forward, we expect free cash flow conversion to continue to improve, up from 24% of revenue in 2020, increasing to 25% to 27% of revenue in 2021, as we continue to drive integration and efficiency throughout the business.
Turning to slide 15.
I want to touch on our capital allocation priorities in light of the large share repurchase authorization and simultaneous dividend increase that we recently announced.
Over the long-term, organic growth and M&A opportunities have been and will continue to be our first priority for the long-term success.
We will invest aggressively in our fastest growing businesses and target high growth assets for M&A to accelerate or extend our growth profile.
If it fits our overall strategy and drives accelerating growth for our company and is actionable, we will execute accordingly.
Next, share repurchase will continue to be a primary tool for returning excess free cash flow, along with consistent 10% to 15% dividend increase each year.
In the short term, we believe that FIS shares are trading well below their intrinsic value, creating an opportune time to buy back stock.
We recently announced Board approval to buy back 100 million shares, which represents approximately 16% of our shares outstanding, or over $13 billion at current stock price.
The Board's decision to approve this program reflects continued confidence in the strength of our financial position and the durability of our business model.
There is no time limit on this authorization and we expect to begin buying stock as soon as we can.
I'd like to begin our discussion of '21 guidance with a view into our adjusted EBITDA margin expectations on slide 16.
We expect to achieve 250 basis points to 300 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in '21.
The biggest driver of this will be high incremental margins as revenue growth accelerates.
We anticipate approximately 100 basis points of margin expansion associated with our ongoing achievement of operating expense synergies.
Unwinding our COVID-related short-term cost actions will create approximately 150 basis points of headwind in 2021, as these costs come back online.
We continue to anticipate meaning margin -- meaningful margin expansion beyond 2021, supported by our one to many operating model and ongoing efficiencies as we continue to optimize our infrastructure.
Turning to our guidance on slide 17.
In the first quarter, we expect organic growth of 1% to 2% generating revenues of $3.13 billion to $3.16 billion.
Once we lap the COVID pandemic comps in late Q1, we expect revenue growth to accelerate materially, beginning with the second quarter and driving us to our full year expectations.
We expect to generate $1.25 billion to $1.28 billion of adjusted EBITDA for a margin of approximately 40% to 40.5%, as we begin to fund our bonus pool.
This will result in adjusted earnings per share of $1.20 to $1.25 for the quarter.
For the full-year, we anticipate revenue of $13.5 billion to $13.7 billion.
This represents 8% to 9% organic revenue growth, which is higher than the 7% to 9% range that we initially expected reflecting our increased confidence as Gary described.
Further, we expect to generate $6 billion to $6.15 billion of adjusted EBITDA for a margin of approximately 45%.
As a result of our accelerating revenue growth and expanding margins, we expect adjusted earnings per share to grow 14% to 17% to a range of $6.20 to $6.40.
Finally, we provided some additional guidance assumptions in the appendix material.
As we enter 2021, I'm excited about our accelerating revenue growth and free cash flow generation.
I believe we are uniquely positioned as a sustained higher growth large cap stock and we'll be able to drive consistent long-term shareholder value.

user
q4 adjusted earnings per share $1.62.
sees fy 2021 adjusted earnings per share $6.20 - $6.40.
sees q1 2021 adjusted earnings per share $1.20 - $1.25.
covid-19 continued to impact our financial results in q4 of 2020.

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