Vantiv began life inside a Cincinnati bank as Fifth Third Processing Solutions. It sat between the card in a shopper's hand and the money landing in a merchant's account. Every swipe at a grocery store or gas station needed someone to approve it, route it and settle it, and Vantiv did that billions of times a year. In 2009 the private equity firm Advent International bought a majority stake and gave the unit its own name.

A Bank Sells Its Plumbing

Fifth Third had built a payments business that worked for thousands of merchants and for other banks. Advent saw a company that could grow faster on its own than as a division. Vantiv's pitch was scale. Processing is a business of tiny fees on huge volume, and the biggest processors run the cheapest. Vantiv set out to win more small and midsize merchants, often through software companies that sold to them.

Three Owners in Seven Years

Vantiv priced its IPO at $17 a share in March 2012 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as VNTV. It raised about $500 million and rose nearly 15 percent on its first day. In 2018 it bought Britain's Worldpay and took that name. FIS bought the combined company in 2019 for about $43 billion. Global Payments bought Worldpay for $24.25 billion, closing in January 2026.

Cover: The Maid Shopping, Camille Pissarro. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a shopper at the market (every purchase).