IMGCAP(1)]
First Data Corp. continued to add ISOs as sales partners during the second quarter, adding 33, the company said. So far this year, Atlanta-based First Data has added 54 ISOs. At the end of 2008, the payment processor said it worked with more than 400 ISOs. First Data would not say if it had lost any ISOs in the quarter.
This comes on top of First Data signing 11 merchant-referral agreements during the quarter ended June 30, highlighted by its late June announcement that it and Bank of America Corp. were forming Banc of America Merchant Services LLC instantly creating a portfolio of 380,000 merchants.
Michael Capellas, First Data chairman and CEO, told analysts last week that the processor expects $300 million in new revenue this year and $700 million in 2010 from the joint venture.
First Data likely will welcome the added revenue because the processor last week reported a $195.9 million second-quarter loss a nearly $40 million increase from the $160.6 million loss the company reported for the same period last year.
Revenue totaled $2.2 billion, about the same amount the company reported a year ago. First Data says the strengthening U.S. dollar and an after-tax expense of $284 million contributed to the quarter's loss.
By segment, the Retail and Alliance Services division, which includes credit, debit, check, stored-value and loyalty card processing services, reported the strongest performance, with revenue of $1.28 billion, a 7.6% increase from $1.19 billion a year ago.
U.S. same-store transaction growth held steady at 6% compared with last year's second quarter, Capellas told analysts.
But consumers remained thrifty. "Average tickets were down 13% for our acquired transactions," Capellas said. "Large, national chains continue to gain share versus small and medium-sized merchants." First Data processed 6.17 billion U.S. transactions during the quarter, down 12.1% from 7.02 billion a year ago.
