Good morning, welcome to the Fiserv Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Glenn Renwick, Chairman of the Board of Directors. Today's meeting is being broadcast at fiserv.com, an archive will be available on our website following the meeting. Before we address the business of the meeting, allow me to introduce my fellow board members, Alison Davis, Harry DiSimone, John Kim, Dennis Lynch, Denis O'Leary, Kim Robak, J.D. Sherman, Doyle Simons, and Jeff Yabuki, our President and CEO. Also with us today representing Deloitte & Touche is James Stewart, who will be available as needed during the question and answer segment of the meeting. As chairman of the company, I call the meeting to order. On April 18th, 2019, at a specially convened meeting, Fiserv shareholders overwhelmingly approved the issuance of shares in conjunction with our First Data transaction.
We appreciate your support as we continue in our process to close this transformative transaction. As for this meeting, the Board of Directors has fixed March 25th, 2019, as the record date for the determination of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. Chris Sundberg, our third-party Inspector of Elections, is acting as the Inspector of Elections at this meeting. Anyone in attendance who has not sent in a proxy and who intends to vote at this meeting may now sign and return a ballot. Please raise your hand if you need one. Thank you. Ms. Sundberg has informed me that over 88% of the company's outstanding shares are present, therefore, we have a quorum. We have a quorum, this meeting is now legally convened.
The first matter of business is to vote upon the election of director nominees identified in the proxy statement to serve until next annual meeting of shareholders. As a proxy holder, I hereby cast votes for each of the board's nominees, as authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders. Such votes constitute a majority of the votes cast, I declare the director nominees elected. The second matter of business is to approve our amended and restated employee stock purchase plan. As a proxy holder, I hereby cast votes for approval of the employee stock purchase plan, as authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders. Such votes constitute a majority of the votes cast, I declare that the shareholders have approved the employee stock purchase plan.
The third matter of business is to vote upon a resolution to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers. As a proxy holder, I hereby cast votes for the resolution as authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders. Such votes constitute a majority of the votes cast, I declare that shareholders have approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers. The fourth matter of business is to ratify the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2019. As a proxy holder, I hereby cast votes for the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, as authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders. Such votes are a majority of the votes cast, the appointment is ratified.
The fifth matter of business is to vote upon a shareholder proposal requesting the company provide a report on political contributions. I now invite a representative of the shareholder who submitted this proposal to introduce the proposal and make a brief statement. In accordance with the rules of conduct for this meeting, please limit your statement to a maximum of five minutes.
Thank you. Proposal number five, political disclosure shareholder resolution sponsored by John Speddin of Redondo Beach, California. Shareholders request that Fiserv provide a report disclosing the company's, one, policies and procedures for making contributions to participate in any campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office or influence the general public with respect to an election. Two, contributions used in the manner described above, including, A, the identity of the recipient as well as the amount paid to each recipient, and B, the titles of the company employees responsible for the decision-making. The report shall be posted on the company's website within 12 months from the date of the annual meeting. Supporting statement.
This proposal supports transparency and accountability in corporate electoral spending. This includes any activity considered intervention in a political campaign under the Internal Revenue Code, such as direct and indirect contributions to political candidates, parties, or organizations, and independent expenditures or electioneering communications on behalf of federal, state, or local candidates. Disclosure is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. The Supreme Court recognized this in its 2010 Citizens United decision, which said, "Disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react in the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages." The company statement that follows this proposal in the proxy suggests that this would be an easy report for the company to prepare. Relying on publicly available data does not provide a complete picture of the company's electoral spending.
For example, the company's payments for trade associations that may be used for election-related activities are undisclosed and unknown. This proposal asks the company to disclose all of its electoral spending, including payments to trade associations and other tax-exempt organizations which may be used for electoral purposes. This would bring the company in line with a growing number of leading companies, including Becton, Dickinson and Company, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, which present this information on their websites. The company's board and shareholders need comprehensive disclosure to fully evaluate the use of corporate assets in elections. Please support this important governance reform, political disclosure shareholder resolution proposal number five. Thank you.
Thank you. Your board of directors does not agree with this proposal for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement. As a proxy holder, I hereby cast votes against the shareholder proposal as authorized by the proxies received from the company's shareholders. Because such votes constitute a majority of the votes cast, I declare the shareholder proposal has been rejected. The Secretary of the company did not receive proper notice of any other business or proposal to come before this meeting as of February 24th, 2019, as required by our bylaws. As there is no further business, the formal meeting is adjourned. Fiserv will publish the final voting results in a Form 8-K later today. With the formal meeting proceedings complete, Jeff Yabuki will provide a brief update on our business, and we'll answer shareholder questions. Thank you again for your support of Fiserv.
Thank you, Glenn. Good morning, everyone. Let me add my welcome. It's great to see everyone again today, for some of you, for the second time in just a few weeks. Before I provide an update, allow me to introduce members of our Executive Committee in attendance today. Jim Cox, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development. Paul Dumas, Chief Human Resources Officer. Lynn S. McCreary, up on the dais, Chief Legal Officer. Devin McGranahan, Senior Group President, and Byron Vielehr, our Chief Administrative Officer. I assure you that this management team is committed to delivering superior value and excellence for clients, associates, and shareholders. With that, let's move on to a discussion of the company. Thank you, Stacy. Please familiarize yourself with forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures, which we will certainly comment on today.
2018 was a good year for Fiserv, a year in which we achieved strong financial results, including an increase in our internal revenue growth rate of 80 basis points to 4.5%, 25% adjusted earnings per share growth, record levels of free cash flow. Importantly, we took a series of strong steps to strengthen the organization, not just for the year but for the future. We were also awarded the designation of being a World's Most Admired company for the fifth year in a row and eight of the last 10. We achieved our highest level of associate engagement, moving into the top quartile of all large companies surveyed. We also increased our level of client advocacy scores from our clients during the year. Lastly, we actually made an important acquisition.
We acquired Elan's debit processing business, which gives us important additions to talent, scale, and some new high-value capabilities. One of the things that we also did during the year is we took an important step in elevating Fiserv's brand by acquiring the naming rights for Fiserv Forum. It appears to have been a strong move at the right time, given how the Bucks have played for the last year. The best record, the best team, one of the best players. Fiserv Forum was also recognized as the best arena in the NBA. Of course, it's more than that. For those of you who are local, you know that Fiserv Forum will also host the Democratic National Convention in 2020.
Overall, we're quite pleased with the benefits that we have achieved so far and excited about the opportunity to elevate our brand to being a little bit more of a household name. Importantly, as shareholders, we continued our streak of beating the S&P 500. We were up 12% last year against a market that was actually down 4%. It was our 13th consecutive year of nominally beating the index. As you can see, we have beat all of the indexes over that period quite substantially. We will continue to make sure that we are taking the actions necessary to deliver strong returns, which we would simplify as saying a very strong business model with strategic focus, high cash flow generation, and then very disciplined allocation of that capital.
We think that's a powerful combination for success, for the year to date, we're up 20%, meaningfully ahead of all of the indexes. As we turn the page to 2019, we'll continue to work on the three shareholder priorities that you see ahead of you. Our goals for the year are to deliver 4.5%-5% internal revenue growth for the year, 10%-14% adjusted earnings per share growth, and to continue to deliver strong free cash flow and expand margins. We're off to a strong start, reporting 5% growth in the first quarter, along with 12% adjusted earnings per share growth. We feel as though we are on track for the year. You may recall last year that we shared with you at this meeting our new aspiration and purpose. You can see our aspiration in front of you.
We think in a time of continuing and accelerating change, a growing digitocracy that is changing the world of financial services and payments as we know it today, that this idea of moving money and information in a way that moves the world is being increasingly important. Finding the opportunities to deliver inspired experiences that make a difference for people in their financial lives. We know to do this, that it was important for us to increase not just our ability to deliver what we were doing for clients day in and day out, but also to expand our capabilities to create larger pools of talent, new networks, and our reach overall. As you know, earlier this year, we made a decision back in January, to acquire First Data.
First Data is the world's leading payments company focused on merchant acquiring and card issuing around the world. We believe this combination creates a unique and compelling value proposition, one that will be unmatched and unparalleled, along with creating significant shareholder value through a combination of cost synergies, revenue synergies, investments in innovation, and excellence in delivery. By bringing this together, we believe that we'll deliver value for our clients in each of these areas, but also driving unique and powerful integration. We think where these solutions come together is the most exciting of all of the opportunities ahead of us. We expect to do it with excellence and passion, as you've seen us do it for the last 13 years.
We're quite excited to do it with our new partners at First Data as we combine to make sure that we are the best for clients in fintech, digital, and payments. Overall, we just could not be more excited about the future. With that, let me stop there and answer any questions that you may have. Morning. We'll get you a mic so people can hear.
Morning, Jeff.
Good to see you.
Thank you for another great year.
Thank you.
It's great.
Thank you for the support.
Any thoughts on having the annual meeting at the arena?
I'd love a tour. See the lockers and all that good stuff.
Well, I think it's a good thought. We should give that some consideration. Thank you. All right. Maybe when they raise the banner. Other questions? I know I had a question on the way in, which I said I would comment on, around location. We had been looking for different locations. For right now, we're putting that on hold as we start to move forward with our integration planning around our First Data combination. I will continue to assure our associates here, as well as you, that we remain very committed to Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin, and expect to have a presence here for a long time.
Good morning.
Morning.
I'm here to ask a question about money, and specifically related to blockchain.
Sure.
Also cryptocurrency. I think that it's something that's changing in the mission statement. It talks about money. You talk about the digitization of our transactions, with Square and Cash App and Venmo and PayPal. We're seeing that kind of thing. I'm interested mainly in the R&D effort going into implementation of blockchain to support our customers' businesses and the future as we kind of bet with First Data on a traditional model.
That's great. Thank you for the question. I would also add Zelle and Clover and a number of other brands in there. I just want to make sure I'm on the record for that. Listen, we think about blockchain and crypto differently. Bitcoin, we like blockchain a lot. We think the technology is quite secure. Blockchain does not bring the capabilities to move money in real-time, instantaneous movement that we see in a lot of the businesses that we're in today. We think for high-value, very secure transfers, it's going to be increasingly important. We were early investors in several different blockchain companies, and we continue to monitor it. We were also, we believe, the first people to move money using blockchain from one bank to another. We continue to look at it.
For right now, the use cases have not made enough sense for us to deliver it to the communities in which we serve, but we'll certainly look to do that. We think that blockchain, especially to move money and information in a way that moves the world, that will become instrumental to our strategy over time. Other questions or comments? I was so close. No, I'm kidding.
This is a great job by-
Here, let me get you the mic so people can hear. Thank you.
Again, thank you very much for a great year.
Sure.
As an investor, it's been great to watch the progress of the stock.
Thank you.
Could you comment, Mr. Yabuki, about possible duplication of facilities in the merger, and how soon it would be before you have it streamlined and where you want it to be for the future?
Sure. Great question. As I mentioned, we're very excited about the combination between Fiserv and First Data. We did announce that there would be meaningful revenue and cost synergies as part of the transaction. We expect those to happen over a five-year period. We thought it was very important to give us time to make sure that we're doing everything right, that we're delivering value for clients, and making sure that we can attract and retain the talent that's necessary to deliver on the opportunities that we see. Certainly, there will be some cases in which there will be duplication, and we'll look at that over time. Right now, we're only in the integration planning phases. When the transaction closes in the second half of the year, we'll be able to obviously focus more energy on that.
We are very focused on making sure that we're creating opportunities for all of our people and allowing them to help and contribute in different ways as we're a much larger and more globally focused enterprise.
Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Well, with that, I'm going to say thank you so much for your support and for attending the meeting today, and we look forward to talking with you throughout the year. Thanks and have a great day.