This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Payments Industry Insider " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . US-based processor Vantiv announced what it called an “exceptional” start to 2016 after posting a 15% annual revenue increase and strong growth across segments in its Q1 earnings report held late Tuesday.
For context, Vantiv is the second-largest merchant acquirer and top PIN debit acquirer, according to the Nilson Report .
Vantiv emphasized two segments that it sees as particularly important for ongoing growth: Integrated payments: Integrated payments, including e-commerce, contributed to Vantiv’s growth. That’s partly due to Vantiv completing the integration of independent software vendor (ISV) Mercury Payment Solutions, which it acquired in Q2 2015, ahead of schedule. That pushed over 100,000 merchants to Mercury’s platform in Q1 and will continue to bolster the strong performance of high-growth business segments. Mercury could also help Vantiv move into new verticals, like healthcare, and build up its small business portfolio.
Small businesses: Like many of its peers, Vantiv continues to push to grow its market share and presence among smaller businesses. Growth in that segment was a major driver of the firm’s strong Q1 growth. And Vantiv continues to grow small business initiatives. The firm’s Mercury integration will allow it to roll out OptBlue, an Amex initiative that makes it simpler for merchants to accept American Express, to many of its partners, which could bolster growth. And it’s also working on growing small business relationships — Vantiv recently launched a new small business community, called Vantiv BizBuz, which will give small business owners the opportunity to connect with one another and access resources.
Vantiv’s small-business push, in particular, is indicative of a trend in the payments industry.Some of the firm’s peers, including Ingenico and First Data, are seeing small […]
