Vantiv on Thursday was named the top payment processor in the country.

The company, that has its second-largest office in Durango, processed more debit and credit transactions than any other company in the United States during 2016, according to The Nilson Report’s annual U.S. Merchant Acquirer Rankings.

“We expected we would be really close. We were No. 2 last year,” said Matt Taylor, group president of integrated payments and emerging channels.

Vantiv processed about 21.18 billion individual transactions in 2016, beating out First Data, Chase and Bank of America, Nilson reported. Nilson rankings are the industry standard for payment processing.

Taylor expects the company will continue to be the top processor and grow its lead because it is investing in products and services, and it has money set aside to buy other companies in 2017.

Vantiv handled $930 billion in credit and debit card transactions last year, or about a third of about the almost $3 trillion purchases made with cards in America, Taylor said.

By coincidence, Vantiv CEO and President Charles Drucker and a group that included Durangoan Walker Thompson rang the bell Thursday to close the New York Stock Exchange. The event was scheduled to celebrate Vantiv’s five-year anniversary as a publicly traded company

The Vantiv office in Durango employs more than 400 people, and it helped drive growth in 2016, Taylor said.

Thompson, director of alliance management, started at Vantiv in Durango a year and a half ago and was recently honored by the company for his work rolling out numerous programs, products and promotions, a company article said.

Vantiv bought Mercury Payment Systems, a company founded in Durango about three years ago. At the time, Mercury was ranked No. 11 by Nilson and Vantiv was No. 3, Taylor said.

Vantiv’s goal is to be the top payments processor in the world, he said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com