XML 47 R21.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.10.0.1
Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments and Contingencies

Reliance Trust Claims

Reliance Trust Company ("Reliance"), the Company’s subsidiary, is named as a defendant in a class action arising out of its provision of services as the discretionary trustee for a 401(k) Plan (the "Plan") for one of its customers. Plaintiffs in the action seek damages and attorneys’ fees, as well as equitable relief, on behalf of Plan participants for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty and prohibited transactions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The action also makes claims against the Plan's sponsor and record-keeper. Reliance is vigorously defending the action and believes that it has meritorious defenses. Pre-trial discovery has now been completed. Reliance contends that no breaches of fiduciary duty or prohibited transactions occurred and that the Plan suffered no damages. Plaintiffs allege damages of approximately $125 million. While we are unable at this time to estimate more precisely the potential loss or range of loss because of unresolved questions of fact and law, we believe that the ultimate resolution of the matter will not have a material impact on our financial condition. We do not believe a liability for this action is probable and, therefore, have not recorded a liability for this action.

Brazilian Tax Authorities Claims

In 2004, Proservvi Empreendimentos e Servicos, Ltda., the predecessor to Fidelity National Servicos de Tratamento de Documentos e Informatica Ltda. ("Servicos"), a subsidiary of Fidelity National Participacoes Ltda., our former item processing and remittance services operation in Brazil, acquired certain assets and employees and leased certain facilities from the Transpev Group ("Transpev") in Brazil. Transpev’s remaining assets were later acquired by Prosegur, an unrelated third party. When Transpev discontinued its operations after the asset sale to Prosegur, it had unpaid federal taxes and social contributions owing to the Brazilian tax authorities. The Brazilian tax authorities brought a claim against Transpev and beginning in 2012 brought claims against Prosegur and Servicos on the grounds that Prosegur and Servicos were successors in interest to Transpev. To date, the Brazilian tax authorities filed 12 claims against Servicos asserting potential tax liabilities of approximately $14 million. There are potentially 25 additional claims against Transpev/Prosegur for which Servicos is named as a co-defendant or may be named, but for which Servicos has not yet been served. These additional claims amount to approximately $50 million making the total potential exposure for all 37 claims approximately $64 million. We do not believe a liability for these 37 total claims is probable and, therefore, have not recorded a liability for any of these claims.

Acquired Contingencies

FIS and certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries acquired SunGard and SunGard Capital Corp. II (collectively, "SunGard") on November 30, 2015 (the "SunGard acquisition"). As part of the SunGard acquisition, the Company became responsible for certain contingencies that were assumed. The Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2018 includes a liability of $64 million largely related to tax compliance matters.

Indemnifications and Warranties

The Company generally indemnifies its clients, subject to certain limitations and exceptions, against damages and costs resulting from claims of patent, copyright, or trademark infringement associated solely with its customers' use of the Company's software applications or services. Historically, the Company has not made any material payments under such indemnifications, but continues to monitor the conditions that are subject to the indemnifications to identify whether it is probable that a loss has occurred, and would recognize any such losses when they are estimable. In addition, the Company warrants to customers that its software operates substantially in accordance with the software specifications. Historically, no material costs have been incurred related to software warranties and no accruals for warranty costs have been made.

 Leases

The Company leases certain of its property under leases which expire at various dates. Several of these agreements include escalation clauses and provide for renewal options for periods generally ranging from one to five years.

Future minimum operating lease payments for each of the years in the five years ending December 31, 2023, and thereafter, in the aggregate, are as follows (in millions):

2019
$
121

2020
104

2021
80

2022
51

2023
38

Thereafter
86

Total
$
480



Rent expense incurred under all operating leases during the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, was $147 million, $134 million and $143 million, respectively.

See Note 4 for information on the Company's capital lease obligations.

Recent Accounting Guidance Not Yet Adopted

On February 25, 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), which requires lessees to recognize leases on-balance sheet and disclose key information about leasing arrangements. Topic 842 was subsequently amended by ASU No. 2018-01, Land Easement Practical Expedient for Transition to Topic 842; ASU No. 2018-10, Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases; ASU No. 2018-11, Targeted Improvements; and ASU No. 2018-20, Leases (Topic 842): Narrow-Scope Improvements for Lessors (collectively, the "new standard"). The new standard establishes a right-of-use model (ROU) that requires a lessee to recognize a ROU asset and lease liability on the balance sheet for all leases with a term longer than 12 months. Leases will be classified as finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern and classification of expense recognition in the income statement. Under the new standard, lessor accounting is largely unchanged.

The new standard is effective for public business entities on January 1, 2019, with early adoption permitted. A modified retrospective transition approach is required, applying the new standard to all leases existing at the date of initial application. An entity may choose to use either (1) its effective date or (2) the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements as its date of initial application. If an entity chooses the second option, the transition requirements for existing leases also apply to leases entered into between the date of initial application and the effective date. The entity must also recast its comparative period financial statements and provide the disclosures required by the new standard for the comparative periods. We will adopt the new standard on January 1, 2019 and use the effective date as our date of initial application. Consequently, financial information will not be updated and the disclosures required under the new standard will not be provided for dates and periods before January 1, 2019.

The new standard provides a number of optional practical expedients in transition. We expect to elect the "package of practical expedients," which permits us not to reassess under the new standard our prior conclusions about lease identification, lease classification and initial direct costs. We do not expect to elect the use-of-hindsight or the practical expedient pertaining to land easements. The new standard also provides practical expedients for an entity’s ongoing accounting. We currently expect to elect the practical expedient to not separate lease and non-lease components for all of our leases. We do not currently expect to elect the short-term lease recognition exemption.

We expect that this standard will have an immaterial effect on results of operations. While we continue to assess all of the effects of adoption, we currently believe the most significant effects relate to the recognition of new ROU assets and lease liabilities on our balance sheet for our real estate operating leases and providing new disclosures about our leasing activities. On adoption, we currently expect to recognize additional ROU assets and lease liabilities for operating leases ranging from $400 million to $500 million.

Data Processing, Maintenance and Other Service Agreements

The Company has agreements with various vendors, which expire between 2019 and 2024, principally for portions of its computer data processing operations and related functions. The Company’s estimated aggregate contractual obligation remaining under these agreements is approximately $372 million as of December 31, 2018. However, this amount could be more or less depending on various factors such as the inflation rate, foreign exchange rates, the introduction of significant new technologies, or changes in the Company’s data processing needs.