TSYS and Global Payments have announced a merger deal of about $21.5 billion, the third M&A deal in the financial/fintech industry of more than $20 billion this year, and the latest in a series of deals of all sizes. Like the $34 billion FIS-Worldpay deal announced in March and the $22 billion Fiserv-First Data deal announced in January, TSYS and Global Payments have a deep bench of payments and financial services technology, but need to scale and expand geographically to counter smaller yet faster-growing technology companies like Stripe and Square. Those fintechs are scooping up merchants with a mix of hardware and software that makes it easy for small to mid-sized businesses to offer e-commerce and other mobile technology. Global Payments is valued at about $23 billion, and is the third-largest merchant acquirer in the U.S.; and TSYS is the No. 3 card processor in the U.S., worth about $18 billion. TSYS CEO Troy Woods will be chairman of the Board of Directors and Global Payments CEO Jeff Sloan will be CEO of the combined company. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.