Priority Holdings’ Processing Volumes Down, But Growth Outlook Promising

Priority Technologies Holdings (PRTH) Inc. has been set back by the covid-19 pandemic but should maintain the healthy growth going forward, the company says.

According to the company CEO, Thomas C. Priore, the company’s processing volumes were significantly affected, especially in March, with 18% fewer transactions processed in that month compared to the same time last year. Hospitality merchants, who were the worst hit, processed only 50% of expected volumes.

“Our other segments are off substantially less,” Priore, who is also the Chairman of the Priority Technology Holdings, said in a conference call with reporters.

The poor results come on the back of a highly positive two month period that Mr. Priore described as “the strongest in our history.” In both February and March, the company generated $4 billion from transactions, representing a 14.7% year-over-year growth.

Initially, the company had expected the volumes to only falter slightly, even in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. According to Mr. Priore, they expected “a manageable 7% decline from March 2019,” which would have represented only a slight fall from the January and February figures. However, it appears that the pandemic effects were too much, even for the usually stable markets.

The Future Looks Bright, Though

Despite the setback, Mr. Priore believes that the future of Priority Holdings is bright. He points out that some of the company’s merchant segments are very resilient and should bounce back soon.

Rental payments, he says as an example, tend to hold up well. Other sectors he believes will return soon include integrated payments and software-based services such as automated payables, curbside-pickup, and order ahead.

Priority currently partners with sixteen property managers who represent at least 30,000 rental units. An additional 35 property management clients on their list, representing 150,000 units, are also on course to integrate rental payment processing to their transactions. The merchant service provider entered the rental payments processing arena by acquiring YapStone Inc. in 2019.

Priority Holdings signed 4,270 new merchants in March, which isn’t too far from its historical highs of 4,500 and 5,000 recorded in the past and is expecting similar numbers through to December.

Author Bio:Payment industry guru Taylor Cole is a passionate payments expert who understands the complex world of merchant accounts. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to stocks to cryptopay. He enjoys eating pie on his backyard porch, as should all right-thinking people.