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First Data, the largest US-based processor, announced solid growth in Q1 2016 — its second quarter as a public company — despite less-than-satisfactory gains in its Global Business Solutions (GBS) business segment.
The firm’s GBS segment grew 2% on a constant currency basis but saw revenues from North America remain flat or decrease. And those declines are dragging growth, because North America is the firm’s largest segment.
First Data is concentrating on US small business services as part of a plan to bolster its North American revenues and accelerate company growth overall. That’s because the firm believes that attrition within its small business portfolio was a major drag in this segment. First Data believes that its North American business will begin to improve in the second half of 2016.
The firm plans to invest in its small business merchant segment in several ways: Value-added services: Most importantly, the firm plans to pour resources into bolstering its small business-oriented products, like Clover, its mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) product. By strengthening small business products and adding e-commerce and business management tools, First Data can make businesses more loyal, but can also increase its own fee revenue by giving merchants the tools to improve efficiency and increase their daily transaction volume.
Bank partnerships: The firm also plans to “penetrate solutions in branches,” according to CEO Frank Bisignaro. That could help banks partnered with First Data offer its services more easily to merchant clients. For example, the processor recently partnered with First Tennessee Bank in order to gain a wide base of small merchants to market its services to.
Easier acquisition: First Data plans to grow its digital strategy to make it easier to […]
