Worldpay Eyes Technology And Growth As Cornerstones Following Merger With Vantiv

With the merger between Vantiv Inc. and Worldpay plc finalized, the combined organization, known as Worldpay Inc., will get to the tasks at hand, says Shane Happach, Worldpay executive vice president and head of its global enterprise e-commerce. Chief among them will be developing its technology and growing the company, he says.

That will be a considerable accomplishment, given Worldpay already processes 40 billion transactions annually in 146 nations. Worldpay says it processes more than $1.5 trillion in annual payment volume. In comparison, Atlanta-based First Data Corp., in its most recent annual report, from 2016, said it processed $1.9 trillion in payment volume.

Among the early initiatives for Worldpay is the gradual replacement of the 7-year-old Vantiv brand with that of Worldpay, Happach tells Digital Transactions News. “We’re going to launch a new brand somewhere over the next 100 to 180 days,” Happach says. “The Vantiv name will disappear, but not so quickly as to confuse customers.”

The newly combined company also will look at how its payments services can benefit the growing Internet of Things as well as some technologies related to the point-of-sale experience, Happach says.

Happach also expects Worldpay to capitalize on e-commerce trends, such as its global nature, the proliferation of different payment methods, and compliance measures.

“The speed to go global has just rocketed,” he says, as e-commerce merchants increasingly look internationally to increase sales.  As for the multitude of payment methods—Worldpay says it accepts more than 300 payment types—the driver is consumer preference, he says. Worldpay needs to offer this diversity because consumers in different parts of the world have different payment preferences.

The other major trend, compliance, includes not only payment-related measures, but governmental ones, too, he says. “There’s a lot more rules for customers,” Happach says. “We’re frequently called on to make sure what we provide is compliant.”

The Vantiv-Worldpay merger closed Jan. 16, having been announced in August. Vantiv’s origin is as the bank-owned Fifth Third Processing Solutions, which became Vantiv in 2011.