In addition to the normal risks of business, we are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including those listed below and others described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any of the risks described herein could result in a significant adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to Our Business and Operations

Entity mergers or consolidations and business failures in the banking and financial services industry could adversely affect our business by eliminating some of our existing and potential customers and making us more dependent on a more limited number of customers.

There has been and continues to be substantial consolidation activity in the banking and financial services industry. In addition, many financial institutions that experienced negative operating results, including some of our customers, have failed. These consolidations and failures reduce our number of potential customers and may reduce our number of existing customers, which could adversely affect our revenues, even if the events do not reduce the aggregate activities of the consolidated entities. Further, if our customers fail and/or merge with or are acquired by other entities that are not our customers, or that use fewer of our services, they may discontinue or reduce use of our services. It is also possible that larger financial institutions resulting from consolidations would have greater leverage in negotiating terms or could decide to perform in-house some or all of the services that we currently provide or could provide. Any of these developments could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we fail to innovate or adapt our services to changes in technology or in the marketplace, or if our ongoing efforts to upgrade our technology are not successful, we could lose customers and have difficulty attracting new customers for our services.

The markets for our services are characterized by constant technological changes, frequent introductions of new services and evolving industry standards. Our future success will be significantly affected by our ability to enhance our current services, and develop and introduce new services that address the increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers and their clients. These initiatives carry the risks associated with any new service development effort, including cost overruns, delays in delivery, and performance issues. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in developing, marketing and selling new services that meet these changing demands, that we will not experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, introduction, and marketing of these services, or that our new services and their enhancements will adequately meet the demands of the marketplace and achieve market acceptance. Any of these developments could have an adverse impact on our future revenues and/or business prospects.

We operate in a competitive business environment and if we are unable to compete effectively our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

The market for our services is intensely competitive. Our competitors vary in size and in the scope and breadth of the services they offer. Some of our competitors have substantial resources. We face direct competition from third parties, and since many of our larger potential customers have historically developed their key applications in-house and therefore view their system requirements from a make-versus-buy perspective, we often compete against our potential customers’ in-house capacities. In addition, we expect that the markets in which we compete will continue to attract new competitors and new technologies. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors or that the competitive pressures we face in the markets in which we operate will not materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. See "Item I. Business. Competition."

Global economic, political and other conditions, including business cycles and consumer confidence, may adversely affect our customers or trends in consumer spending, which may adversely impact the demand for our services and our revenue and profitability.

A significant portion of our revenue is derived from transaction processing fees. The global transaction processing industries depend heavily upon the overall level of consumer, business and government spending. Any change in economic factors, including a sustained deterioration in general economic conditions or consumer confidence, particularly in the United States, or increases in interest rates in key countries in which we operate may adversely affect consumer spending, including related consumer debt, reduce check writing and change credit and debit card usage, and as a result, adversely affect our financial performance by reducing the number or average purchase amount of transactions that we service.

Constraints within global financial markets or international regulatory requirements could constrain our financial institution customers' ability to purchase our services, impacting our future growth and profitability.

A significant number of our customers and potential customers may hold sovereign debt or be subject to emerging international requirements such as Basel III, which could require changes in their capitalization and hence the amount of their working capital available to purchase our services. These organizations could have their capital constrained if the value of sovereign debt of nations such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland or Portugal continues to decline, if additional countries default on their debt, or if emerging regulatory requirements such as Basel III require institutions to alter their capital structures. These potential constraints could alter the ability of customers or potential customers to purchase our services and thus could have a significant impact on our future growth and profitability.

Potential customers may be reluctant to switch to a new vendor, which may adversely affect our growth.

For banks and other potential customers of our financial information software and services, switching from one vendor of bank core processing or related software and services (or from an internally-developed system) to a new vendor is a significant undertaking. Many potential customers perceive potential disadvantages such as loss of accustomed functionality, increased costs (including conversion costs) and business disruption. As a result, potential customers may resist change. We seek to overcome this resistance through value enhancing strategies such as a defined conversion process, system integration including bundling additional services and making ongoing investments to enhance the functionality of our software. However, there can be no assurance that our strategies for overcoming potential customers’ reluctance to change vendors will be successful, and this resistance may adversely affect our growth.

The sales and implementation cycles for many of our software and service offerings can be lengthy and require significant investment from both our customers and FIS. If we fail to close sales or if a customer chooses not to complete an installation after expending significant time and resources to do so, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.

The sales and associated deployment of many of our software or service offerings often involve significant capital commitments by our customers and/or FIS. Potential customers generally commit significant resources to an evaluation of available software and services and require us to expend substantial time, effort, and money educating them prior to sales. Further, as part of the sale or deployment of our software and services, customers may also require FIS to perform significant related services to complete a proof of concept or custom development to meet their needs. All of the aforementioned activities may expend significant funds and management resources and, ultimately, the customer may determine not to close the sale or complete the implementation. If we are unsuccessful in closing sales or if the customer decides not to complete an implementation after we expend significant funds and management resources or we experience delays, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Failure to obtain new clients or renew client contracts on favorable terms could adversely affect results of operations and financial condition.

We may face pricing pressure in obtaining and retaining our larger clients. Larger clients may be able to seek price reductions from us when they renew a contract, when a contract is extended, or when the client's business has significant volume changes. Further, our smaller and mid-size clients may exert pricing pressure due to pricing competition or other economic needs or pressures being experienced by the customer. On some occasions, this pricing pressure results in lower revenue from a client than we had anticipated based on our previous agreement with that client. This reduction in revenue could result in an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Further, failure to renew client contracts on favorable terms could have an adverse effect on our business. Our contracts with customers generally run for several years and provide for early termination fees. Terms are generally renegotiated prior to the end of a contract's term. If we are not successful in achieving a high rate of contract renewals on favorable terms, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We may experience defects, development delays, installation difficulties, system failure, or other service disruptions with respect to our technology solutions, or execution problems with our transformation services, which would harm our business and reputation and expose us to potential liability.

Many of our services, including our transformation services, are based on sophisticated software and computing systems, and we may encounter delays when developing new technology solutions and services. Further, the technology solutions underlying our services have occasionally contained and may in the future contain undetected errors or defects when first introduced or when new versions are released. In addition, we may experience difficulties in installing or integrating our technologies on platforms used by our customers or our customers may cancel a project after we have expended significant effort and resources to complete an installation. Finally, our systems and operations could be exposed to damage or interruption from fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, unauthorized entry and computer viruses. Defects in our technology solutions, errors or delays in the processing of electronic transactions, or other difficulties could result in: (i) interruption of business operations; (ii) delay in market acceptance; (iii) additional development and remediation costs; (iv) diversion of technical and other resources; (v) loss of customers; (vi) negative publicity; or (vii) exposure to liability claims. Any one or more of the foregoing could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Although we attempt to limit our potential liability through controls, including system redundancies, security controls, application development and testing controls and disclaimers and limitation-of-liability provisions in our license and customer agreements, we cannot be certain that these measures will always be successful in preventing disruption or limiting our liability.

The Dodd-Frank Act may result in business changes for our customers that could have an adverse effect on our financial condition, revenues, results of operations, or prospects for future growth and overall business .

Our customers, and as a result our associated software and services, are required to comply with numerous regulations. The Dodd-Frank Act and associated Durbin Amendment were passed and signed into law in 2010. The Dodd-Frank Act represents a comprehensive overhaul of the regulations governing the financial services industry within the United States, established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and will require this and other federal agencies to implement many new regulations, which have the potential to increase the amount and types of regulation on areas of our business that were not previously regulated. The Durbin Amendment established interchange fee ceilings and allowed merchants to direct routing of transactions, both effective October 1, 2011, and established provisions that require all issuers to use at least two unaffiliated networks for processing, effective April 1, 2012. These changes may alter the nature or type of card programs offered by our customers, which could have an ongoing impact on our future growth or revenue for debit cards, debit network or other card programs. Further, these changes could impact the volume or dollar amount of transactions that are routed through our network, which could alter the number of transactions that we process and impact our future processing fee revenue. The regulations and interchange fee provisions released by the Federal Reserve have been challenged in court and we are monitoring how any final judicial decision will impact our customers and our business.

Several new regulations and rules will be written and implemented as directed by the aforementioned legislation and these new rules and regulations will require our customers or potential customers to comply with new requirements and could require FIS to directly comply with new regulations. See "Item I. Business. Government Regulation" for more information regarding certain of these new requirements. These new requirements could result in the need for FIS to make capital investments to modify our products and services to facilitate our customers and potential customers' compliance, as well as to deploy additional processes or reporting to comply with new regulations. Further, requirements of the new regulations could result in changes in our customers' business practices and those of other marketplace participants that may alter the delivery of services to consumers, which could impact the demand for our software and services as well as alter the type or volume of transactions that we process on behalf of our customers. As a result, the new legislation could have an adverse impact on our financial condition, revenues, results of operations, prospects for future growth and overall business.

Many of our customers are subject to a regulatory environment and to industry standards that may change in a manner that reduces the number of transactions in which our customers engage and, therefore, reduces our revenues.

Our customers are subject to a number of government regulations and industry standards with which our services must comply. Our customers must ensure that our services and related products work within the extensive and evolving regulatory and industry requirements applicable to them. Federal, state, foreign or industry authorities could adopt laws, rules or regulations affecting our customers' businesses that could lead to increased operating costs and could reduce the convenience and functionality of our products and services, possibly resulting in reduced market acceptance. In addition, action by regulatory authorities relating to credit availability, data usage, privacy, or other related regulatory developments could have an adverse effect on our customers and, therefore, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Regulations enacted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may require FIS to enact new business practices which may require capital investment which could impact our future operating results.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulates financial and non-financial institutions and providers to those organizations. The Bureau is establishing its regulatory agenda and will likely pass additional rules for regulating non-financial institution providers to ensure adequate protection of consumer privacy and to ensure consumers are not impacted by deceptive business practices. The impact of these rules may require FIS or its subsidiaries to be subject to additional regulation and adopt additional business practices that could require additional capital expenditures or impact our operating results.

Our revenues from the sale of services to members of VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and other similar organizations are dependent upon our continued certification and sponsorship, and the loss or suspension of certification or sponsorship could adversely affect our business.

In order to provide our card processing services, we must be certified (including applicable sponsorship) by VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and other similar organizations. These certifications are dependent upon our continued adherence to the standards of the issuing bodies and sponsoring member banks. The member financial institutions, some of which are our competitors, set the standards with which we must comply. If we fail to comply with these standards we could be fined, our certifications could be suspended, or our registration could be terminated. The suspension or termination of our certifications, or any changes in the rules and regulations governing VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or other similar organizations could prevent our registration or otherwise limit our ability to provide services, which could result in a reduction in revenue or increased costs of operation, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Changes in card association and debit network fees or products could increase costs or otherwise limit our operations.

From time to time, card associations and debit networks increase the interchange fees that they charge. It is possible that competitive pressures will result in our absorption of a portion of such increases in the future, which would increase our operating costs, reduce our profit margin and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operation. Furthermore, the rules and regulations of the various card associations and networks prescribe certain capital requirements. Any increase in the capital level required would further limit our use of capital for other purposes.

Interchange fees and related practices have been receiving significant legal and regulatory scrutiny worldwide. The resulting regulatory changes that could occur from proposed regulations could alter the fees charged by card associations and debit networks worldwide. The impact from the regulations could change from time to time and the resulting changes in fees could impact the card issuance or services offered by our customers, which could have an adverse impact on our business or financial condition due to reductions or changes in types of transactions processed on behalf of our customers. See "Item I. Business. Government Regulation" for more information.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulations or to meet regulatory expectations, our business, results of operations or financial condition could be adversely impacted.

The majority of our data processing services for financial institutions are not directly subject to Federal or State regulations specifically applicable to financial institutions such as banks, thrifts and credit unions. However, as a provider of services to these financial institutions, our data processing operations are examined on a regular basis by various federal and state regulatory authorities. If we fail to comply with any applicable regulations or guidelines for operations of a data services provider, we could be subject to regulatory actions or regulatory rating changes, may not meet contractual obligations, or suffer harm to our client relationships or reputation. Failure to meet the aforementioned requirements or to adapt to new requirements

at the Federal, State or international level could inhibit our ability to retain existing customers or obtain new customers, which could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition to our data processing services described above, we also have business operations that store, process or transmit consumer information or have direct relationships with consumers that are obligated to comply with regulations, including, but not limited to, the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and applicable privacy requirements. Further, our international businesses must comply with applicable laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Failure to maintain compliance with or adapt to changes in any of the aforementioned requirements could result in fines, penalties or regulatory actions that could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Security breaches or attacks, or our failure to comply with laws, regulations or industry security requirements, could harm our business by disrupting our delivery of services and damaging our reputation and could result in a breach of one or more client contracts.

We electronically receive, process, store and transmit sensitive business information of our customers. In addition, we collect personal consumer data, such as names and addresses, social security numbers, driver's license numbers, cardholder data and payment history records. Such information is necessary to support our customers' transaction processing and to conduct our check authorization and collection businesses. The uninterrupted operation of our information systems, as well as the confidentiality of the customer/consumer information that resides on such systems, is critical to our successful operation. If we fail to maintain an adequate security infrastructure, adapt to emerging security threats, or implement sufficient security standards and technology to protect against security breaches, the confidentiality of the information we secure could be compromised. Unauthorized access to our computer systems or databases could result in the theft or publication of confidential information, the deletion or modification of records, or could otherwise cause interruptions in our operations. These risks are greater with increased information transmission over the Internet and the increasing level of sophistication posed by cyber criminals.

Our Risk Management and Information Security programs are the subject of ongoing review by the federal regulatory agencies with responsibility for oversight of our business. In mid-May 2013, the federal agencies that provide regulatory oversight for FIS issued a confidential report related to their examination of our information security, risk management and internal audit functions between October 2011 and October 2012. We responded to the report and described the actions that we have taken, as well as ongoing efforts underway to address specific findings. The regulatory agencies distributed the report, and a cover letter, to a subset of our regulated clients beginning in late May 2013. This prompted inquiries from clients, which, to the extent permitted by federal regulation, FIS has addressed on an individual basis. We are unable to predict with certainty what, if any, further communications our regulators will have with our regulated financial institution clients. We are also unable to predict the effect that any such communications may have on our business. It remains possible that future actions by our regulators or clients related to this matter could have a material adverse impact on our business.

As a provider of services to financial institutions and a provider of card processing services, we are bound by the same limitations on disclosure of the information we receive from our customers as apply to the customers themselves. If we fail to comply with these regulations and industry security requirements, we could be exposed to suits for breach of contract, governmental proceedings, the imposition of fines, or prohibitions on card processing services. In addition, if more restrictive privacy laws, rules or industry security requirements are adopted in the future on the federal or state level, or by a specific industry body, they could have an adverse impact on us through increased costs or restrictions on business processes. Any inability to prevent security or privacy breaches, or the perception that such breaches may occur, could cause our existing customers to lose confidence in our systems and terminate their agreements with us, inhibit our ability to attract new customers, result in increasing regulation, or bring about other adverse consequences from the government agencies that regulate our business.

 

High profile payment card industry security breaches could impact consumer payment behavior patterns in the future and reduce our card payment transaction volumes.

We are unable to predict whether or when high profile card payment security breaches will occur and if they occur, whether consumers will transact less on their payment cards. If consumers transact less on cards issued by our customers and we are not able to adapt to offer our customers new preferred consumer payment technologies, it could have a significant adverse impact on our revenue and related earnings.

Misappropriation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights or a finding that our patents are invalid could impair our competitive position.

Our ability to compete depends upon proprietary systems and technology. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our services or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary or challenge the validity of our patents with governmental authorities. Policing unauthorized use of our proprietary rights is difficult. We cannot make any assurances that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of technology or that the agreements entered into for that purpose will be enforceable. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright, and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our applications and services are made available online. Misappropriation of our intellectual property or potential litigation concerning such matters could have an adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

If our applications or services are found to infringe the proprietary rights of others, we may be required to change our business practices and may also become subject to significant costs and monetary penalties.

As our information technology applications and services develop, we are increasingly subject to infringement claims. Any claims, whether with or without merit, could: (i) be expensive and time-consuming to defend; (ii) result in an injunction or other equitable relief which could cause us to cease making, licensing or using applications that incorporate the challenged intellectual property; (iii) require us to redesign our applications, if feasible; (iv) divert management’s attention and resources; and (v) require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies or pay damages resulting from any infringing use.

We face liability to our merchant customers if checks that we have guaranteed are dishonored by the check writer’s bank.

If a check that we have guaranteed is dishonored by the check writer’s bank, we must reimburse our merchant customer for the check’s face value and pursue collection of the amount from the check writer. In some cases, we recognize a liability to our merchant customers for estimated check returns and a receivable for amounts we estimate we will recover from the check writers, based on historical experience and other relevant factors. The estimated check returns and recovery amounts are subject to the risk that actual amounts returned may exceed our estimates and actual amounts recovered by us may be less than our estimates.

Lack of system integrity, fraudulent payments, credit quality related to funds settlement or the availability of clearing services could result in a financial loss.

We settle funds on behalf of financial institutions, other businesses and consumers and receive funds from clients, card issuers, payment networks and consumers on a daily basis for a variety of transaction types. Transactions facilitated by us include debit card, credit card, electronic bill payment transactions, ACH payments and check clearing that supports consumers, financial institutions and other businesses. These payment activities rely upon the technology infrastructure that facilitates the verification of activity with counterparties, the facilitation of the payment as well as the detection or prevention of fraudulent payments. If the continuity of operations, integrity of processing, or ability to detect or prevent fraudulent payments were compromised, this could result in a financial loss to us. In addition, we rely on various financial institutions to provide ACH services in support of funds settlement for certain of our products. If we are unable to obtain such ACH services in the future, that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations. In addition, we may issue credit to consumers, financial institutions or other businesses as part of the funds settlement. A default on this credit by a counterparty could result in a financial loss to us. Furthermore, if one of our customers for which we facilitate settlement suffers a fraudulent event due to an error of their controls, we may suffer a financial loss if the customer does not have sufficient capital to cover the loss.

Failure to properly manage or mitigate risks in the operation of our wealth management business in the U.K could have adverse liability consequences.

We have a wealth management business in the U.K. engaged in processing securities transactions on behalf of customers and serving as a custodian. Failure to properly manage or mitigate risks in those operations and increased volatility in the financial markets may increase the magnitude of resulting losses, including those that may arise from human errors or omissions, defects or interruptions in computer or communications systems or  breakdowns in processes or in internal controls.  Human errors or omissions may include failures to comply with applicable laws or corporate policies and procedures, theft, fraud or misappropriation of assets, whether arising from the intentional actions of internal personnel or external third parties.  

We have business in emerging markets such as Brazil and India. These emerging markets may experience significant economic volatility in the future, which could add volatility to our revenue and earnings.

In our ISG segment, we have operations in emerging markets, primarily in Brazil, India and southeast Asia. These emerging market economies tend to be more volatile than the more established markets we serve in North America and Europe, which could add volatility to our future revenues and earnings.

Our business is subject to the risks of international operations, including movements in foreign currency exchange rates.

Our international operations represent approximately 21% of total 2013 revenues, which are largely conducted in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, including the Brazilian Real, British Pound, Euro and Indian Rupee. As a result, our financial condition and operating results could be significantly affected by risks associated with international activities, including economic and labor conditions, political instability, tax laws (including U.S. taxes on foreign subsidiaries), differences in business practices and changes in the value of the U.S. Dollar versus local currencies. In addition, we are less well-known internationally than in the United States, have less experience with local business conditions and may face challenges in successfully managing small operations located far from our headquarters, because of the greater difficulty in overseeing and guiding operations from a distance.

As we expand our international operations, more of our customers may pay us in foreign currencies. Conducting business in currencies other than U.S. Dollars subjects us to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Our primary exposure to movements in foreign currency exchange rates relates to foreign currencies in Brazil, Europe, Australia and parts of Asia. The U.S. Dollar value of our net investments in foreign operations, the periodic conversion of foreign-denominated earnings to the U.S. Dollar (our reporting currency), our results of operations and, in some cases, cash flows, could be adversely affected in a material manner by movements in foreign currency exchange rates. These risks could cause an adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations.

Failure to attract and retain skilled technical employees or senior management personnel could harm our ability to grow.

Our future success depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly-skilled technical personnel. Because the development of our products and services requires knowledge of computer hardware, operating system software, system management software and application software, our technical personnel must be proficient in a number of disciplines. Competition for such technical personnel is intense, and our failure to hire and retain talented personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our future growth will also require sales and marketing, financial and administrative personnel to develop and support new products and services, to enhance and support current products and services and to expand operational and financial systems. There can be no assurance that we will be able to attract and retain the necessary personnel to accomplish our growth strategies and we may experience constraints that could adversely affect our ability to satisfy client demand in a timely fashion.

Our ability to maintain compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations and to manage and monitor the risks facing our business relies upon the ability to maintain skilled compliance, security, risk and audit professionals. Competition for such skillsets is intense, and our failure to hire and retain talented personnel could have an adverse effect on our internal control environment and impact our operating results.

Our senior management team has significant experience in the financial services industry, either at FIS or with clients or competitors, and the loss of this leadership could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Further, the loss of this leadership may have an adverse impact on senior management's ability to provide effective oversight and strategic direction for all key functions within the Company, which could impact our future business, operating results and financial condition.

We are the subject of various legal proceedings that could have a material adverse effect on our revenue and profitability.

We are involved in various litigation matters, including in some cases class-action and patent infringement litigation. If we are unsuccessful in our defense in the litigation matters, we may be forced to pay damages and/or change our business practices, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies or unfavorable future tax law changes could adversely affect our tax expense.

Our tax returns and positions are subject to review and audit by Federal, state, local and international taxing authorities. An unfavorable outcome to a tax audit could result in higher tax expense, and could negatively impact our effective tax rate, financial position, results of operations and cash flows in the current and/or future periods. Unfavorable future tax law changes could also result in these negative impacts.

Risks Related to Business Combinations and Ventures

We have a substantial investment in our Brazilian Venture and drive significant revenue through that venture that would be lost and result in significant termination costs if our venture partner were to terminate the agreement.

Revenue attributable to our Brazilian Venture partner, Banco Bradesco, accounted for $296.2 million in 2013 . The contract that we have with our Brazilian Venture partner allows for the termination or partial termination of the contract at any point during the 10-year term, which ends September 30, 2020. This risk of contract termination is mitigated by guaranteed performance targets and minimum payments that would be triggered upon the event of an early termination. These payments have been established based on FIS' expected rate of return for the contract over a 10-year period. The required payments and buyouts decline each year and are further reduced by returns in excess of the expected returns for the contract and reduce the overall barrier to exiting the venture. If our partner were to exit the agreement, this could have a significant impact on our future revenue and growth. For further detail on our Brazilian Venture see Note 5 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Additionally, we employ approximately 11,000 employees in Brazil who would have the ability to file labor claims if their employment is terminated. If our Brazilian Venture partner were to terminate the agreement, we may be subject to labor claims filed by employees of the Brazilian Venture. These claims, if realized, could result in a significant cost and impact to our earnings.

We have substantial investments in recorded goodwill and other intangible assets as a result of prior acquisitions, and a severe or extended economic downturn could cause these investments to become impaired, requiring write-downs that would reduce our operating income.

As of December 31, 2013 , goodwill aggregated to $8,500.0 million , or 60.9% of total assets, and other indefinite lived intangible assets aggregated to $80.8 million , or 0.6% of total assets. Current accounting rules require goodwill and other indefinite lived intangible assets to be assessed for impairment at least annually or whenever changes in circumstances indicate potential impairment. Factors that may be considered a change in circumstance include significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, a significant decline in our stock price and market capitalization, and negative industry or economic trends. The results of our 2013 annual assessment of the recoverability of goodwill indicated that the fair values of the Company’s reporting units were in excess of the carrying values of those reporting units, and thus no goodwill impairment existed as of December 31, 2013 . Likewise, the fair value of indefinite lived intangible assets was also in excess of the carrying value of those assets as of December 31, 2013. However, if worldwide or United States economic conditions decline significantly with negative impacts to bank spending and consumer behavior , or if other business or market changes impact our outlook , the carrying amount of our goodwill and other indefinite lived intangible assets may no longer be recoverable and we may be required to record an impairment charge, which would have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition.

As of December 31, 2013 , intangible assets with definite useful lives aggregated to $1,258.5 million , or 9.0% of total assets. Current accounting rules require intangible assets with definite useful lives to be reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Factors that may be considered a change in circumstance include significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, a significant decline in our stock price and market capitalization, and negative industry or economic trends.

We will continue to monitor the fair value of our intangible assets as well as our market capitalization and the impact of any economic downturn on our business to determine if there is an impairment in future periods.

Risks Related to our Indebtedness

Losses, consolidations and failures in the financial services industry may impact our ability to borrow funds or the ability of our lenders to fulfill their obligations under our interest rate swap agreements.

Some financial institutions continue to be challenged by negative operating results. In certain cases, these negative operating results have led to financial institution failures and/or consolidations. As a result, lenders may become insolvent or further tighten lending standards, which could in turn make it more difficult or impossible for lenders to perform their obligations under our interest rate swap agreements or for us to borrow under our revolving loan, obtain financing on favorable terms, or obtain financing or interest rate swap agreements at all. Our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected if a financial institution fails to fulfill its obligations under our interest rate swap agreements or we are unable to draw funds under our revolving loan or obtain other cost-effective financing.

Our existing debt levels and future levels under existing facilities and debt service requirements may adversely affect our financial condition or operational flexibility and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our outstanding indebtedness.

As of December 31, 2013 , we had total debt of approximately $4,468.6 million . This level of debt could have adverse consequences for our business, financial condition, operating results and operational flexibility, including the following: (i) the debt level may cause us to have difficulty borrowing money in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other purposes; (ii) our debt level may limit operational flexibility and our ability to pursue business opportunities and implement certain business strategies; (iii) some of our debt has a variable rate of interest, which exposes us to the risk of increased interest rates; (iv) we have a higher level of debt than some of our competitors or potential competitors, which may cause a competitive disadvantage and may reduce flexibility in responding to changing business and economic conditions, including increased competition and vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions ; (v) there are significant maturities on our debt that we may not be able to fulfill or that may be refinanced at higher rates; and (vi) if we fail to satisfy our obligations under our outstanding debt or fail to comply with the financial or other restrictive covenants contained in the indenture governing our senior notes, or our credit facility, an event of default could result that could cause all of our debt to become due and payable.

The covenants relating to our notes and the FIS Credit Agreement are limited and do not prohibit us from incurring additional debt or taking other actions that could exacerbate the risks described in the preceding risk factor or otherwise negatively impact holders of our notes.

We may be able to incur substantially more debt in the future. Although the indenture governing our Notes and the agreements governing the FIS Credit Agreement (as both are defined in Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements) and other indebtedness each contain restrictions on our incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and under certain circumstances, indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. As of December 31, 2013 , we had approximately $1,970.2 million of borrowing capacity available under our existing FIS Credit Agreement. To the extent new debt is added to our current levels, the risks described above could substantially increase.

Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

The statements contained in this Form 10-K or in our other documents or in oral presentations or other statements made by our management that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our expectations, hopes, intentions, or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements. These statements relate to, among other things, future events and our future results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Any statements that refer to beliefs, expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that forward-looking statements are subject to include without limitation:

Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Except as required by applicable law or regulation, we do not undertake (and expressly disclaim) any obligation and do not intend to publicly update or review any of these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should carefully consider the possibility that actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements.

None.