Global Payments Inc. is a provider of electronic transaction processing services for merchants, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, government agencies and multi-national corporations located throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Global Payments, a Fortune 1000 company, offers processing solutions for credit and debit cards, business-to-business purchasing cards, gift cards, electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification and recovery including electronic check services, as well as terminal management.

 

History

Global Payments’ former parent company, National Data Corporation, was founded in 1967. Today, the company services both virtual and “brick-and-mortar” merchants. Global Payments is a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and has been an independent, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “GPN” since 2001. The Company has offices located throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Spain, Russia and the Asia-Pacific region to serve consumers, organizations, financial institutions and government agencies that use Global Payments’ acquiring, processing and Internet services. Global Payments Inc. currently processes approximately five billion transactions per year and serves over one and a half million merchant locations through our electronic information network. Global Payments has obtained the necessary licences to start operating in Malta EU, after it bought the acquiring business from HSBC Bank in Malta for approx €11m.

 

The Company provides processing solutions for:

• Credit and debit cards, Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), purchasing cards, prepaid gift and loyalty cards and stored value cards

• Terminal management and point-of-sale support services

• Electronic check conversion, check guarantee, verification and recovery services

• Emerging payments

• Business-to-Business payments

 

Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, Global Payments’ product and service lines includes acquiring front-end network, point-of-sale applications, merchant processing support and terminal management services, as well as Internet-based solutions, for payment processing and storefront enablement.

 

Security breach

The company was hit with a security breach in March 2012 affecting anywhere from 50,000 to 10 million credit card holders.

 

Global Payments Inc. announced on Friday, March 30, 2012, that it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into its processing system. The company believes that the affected portion of its processing system is confined to North America and less than 1,500,000 card numbers may have been exported. The investigation to date has revealed that Track 2 card data may have been stolen, but that cardholder names, addresses and social security numbers were not obtained by the criminals. Based on the forensic analysis to date, network monitoring and additional security measures, the company believes that this incident is contained.

 

In a letter to possibly affected card holders, Global Payments writes "This data may have included your name, social security number and the business bank account number designated for the deposit of merchant processing proceeds." This statement by the company directly contradicts their attempts at damage control reported in the LA Times. Affected card holders are informed "We have provided additional information at www.2012infosecurityupdate.com"

 

Competition

Merchant services is a very competitive industry especially when it comes to credit card processing. Among the thousands of firms offering merchant services in the United States a few have been more dominant than others.

• First Data - Founded in 1969, First Data currently employees 33,000 workers and has become one of the nation's largest payment processors, specializing in credit card processing, ATM processing and electronic check acceptance.

• GlobalPay - although Global Payments and GlobalPay have a very similar name they are not associated with each other. GlobalPay is not a processor vs Global Payments, which is a processor.