First Data Corp plans to further exploit its fast-growing Clover point-of-sale hardware and software platform for small and mid-sized businesses by bringing it to full-service restaurants Clover has always been strong in small quick-service restaurants but the FSR segment needs much deeper functionality and is a large addressable software market that enables Clover to increase its revenue per merchant First Data chairman and chief executive Frank Bisignano said Monday morning while reviewing the Atlanta-based processors third-quarter financial results The package which Bisignano said will roll out shortly will put First Data into even sharper competition with merchant processors Square Inc and Global Payments Inc both of which have many restaurants as merchants and have extensive business-management software offerings Chief financial officer Himanshu Patel said on todays conference call with analysts that First Data is up to the task He noted that the restaurant sector already is Clovers biggest merchant segment or vertical A Clover Flex device Image credit First Data Corp We never had a full-service restaurant solution before so we were fundamentally never going after that market aggressively with software we were always going after it with obviously payments and an app store Patel said We think its very natural for us to sort of peel deeper into that vertical and build out software functionality for full-service restaurants who are obviously very different than quick-service restaurants He added Building out a full-service restaurant solution is entirely right in our strike zone both for the existing client base as well as for the future Bisignano indicated that other industry-specific Clover software products are in the works but didnt give any details The intention is to get merchants to pay for cloud-based management software not just buy apps from third-party developers in addition to using Clovers payment service Clover is now processing 70 billion in annualized volume up 45 year-over-year and more than triple its 20 billion in annualized volume as of early 2016 according to Bisignano First Data last week brought Clover to Canada and will roll it out in Argentina by years end The company also has launched an online-enrollment service for new merchants at clovercom Clovers growth is one reason First Datas merchant-processing segment Global Business Solutions posted a 9 increase in North American transactions in the third quarter hitting 136 billion compared with 125 billion transactions a year earlier International merchant transactions rose 15 to 283 billion Besides Clover GBS got a lift from the addition of 250 independent software vendors since the start of the year according to Bisignano The under-performer continues to be First Datas joint ventures with large banks but Patel said he expects improvement next year Two partners now have online merchant enrollments The Network Security Solutions segment which includes the Star electronic funds transfer network debit card processing and prepaid cards processed 621 billion transactions up 12 from 554 billion in 2017s third quarter Global Financial Solutions which processes for payment card issuers reported 944 million North American accounts on file and 201 million internationally for year-over-year increases of 6 and 21 respectively In all First Data reported total segment revenue of 216 billion a 3 increase after an accounting change and net income of 401 million up 35 in part because of the sale of two divested businesses for 550 million Despite the higher profit First Datas shares fell 12 Monday morning from Fridays close because the company missed analysts earnings expectations and lowered its profit outlook owing to negative foreign-exchange impacts according to reports on the financial wires Heavily leveraged First Data continued to reduce its debt load a top priority of Bisignanos The CEO said the companys net debt fell by more than 850 million in the third quarter and is down 14 billion year to date Net debt still stood at 172 billion as of Sept 30