Heartland Payment Systems® (NYSE: HPY), headquartered in Princeton, NJ, delivers credit/ debit/prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payments solutions to more than 250,000 business locations in North America.
Heartland chairman and chief executive officer Robert O. Carr founded the company in 1997. It quickly became the launching pad for the end-to-end credit and debit card processing engine it is today. Heartland processed its first card transaction on July 15, 1997 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005. Today, it processes more than 4 billion transactions worth an estimated $80 billion annually and has grown to be the 5th largest payments processor in the United States by transaction volume, 8th largest by transaction dollar value and 9th largest in the world.
At Heartland’s core is its investment and commitment to technological innovation. In fact, it is the only company in the payments industry with proprietary 21st century technology designed exclusively for brick-and-mortar merchants, enabling them to process payments efficiently and cost-effectively. It is through its technology that Heartland offers business owners a full suite of payments solutions and provides the infrastructure necessary to support new service enhancements that help them increase efficiencies and decrease expenses.
Heartland’s latest endeavors are the development of end-to-end encryption technology and encouragement of a new level of information sharing among industry peers to improve data security and more effectively thwart cyber crime. Heartland’s industry-leading E3™ initiative is being designed to take credit and debit card processing security to the next level, encrypting card numbers instantly with the first swipe and protecting data throughout the entire transaction process.