Profits soar at card systems firm

Pre-tax profit at ATM testing solutions producer Clear2Pay Scotland in Fife rocketed almost nine times to just over £2 million last year.

The firm’s parent group said the dramatic rise reflected its leading role in the rapidly evolving sector in which card payments worldwide rose by 15% to 270 billion in 2015.

Clear2Pay Scotland, which operates from Pitreavie Court in Dunfermline and employs 36 staff, reported a near 30% rise in turnover at £4.08m.

The proportion of the Fife operation’s turnover from markets outside the UK was up from 52% to 63%.

Staff costs were £67,000 lower and other operating charges were down by more than £800,000, resulting in profit before tax rising from £237,297 to £2,066,433.

The Fife division is part of the greater Clear2Pay group headquartered in Brussels, which was bought by Fidelity Information Services ( FIS) of Jacksonville, Florida, for €375m in 2014.

The deal brought together two of the world’s biggest and most sophisticated payment providers.

FIS has more than 55,000 employees across the globe serving more than 20,000 clients in over 130 countries.

Its technology powers billions of transactions annually that move more than $9 trillion around the globe.

Clients include the major companies in the payments industry including toptier banks, ATM manufacturers and service operators, payment networks, merchants and technology providers.

The Fife division, previously known as Level Four (UK), with linked offices in Phoenix, Arizona and Brussels, form FIS Open Test Solutions, which provides test software and services for electronic payment transactions.

A spokesperson for FIS said another factor in Clear2Pay’s success is that cardholders in developing markets are becoming more accustomed to using cards to make purchases.

The total number of card payments worldwide is projected to rise by 55% between last year and 2021 to reach 417 billion.

Meanwhile, the US market’s move from magnetic strip to chip-and-pin cards offers further opportunity for business growth.

Clear2Pay Scotland is at the centre of a growing global card payment market.