The inaugural year of the Secure POS Vendor Alliance (SPVA) wrapped up with the same enthusiasm with which it began - capped off by the membership of five more leading payment and enterprise security companies.
Joining the SPVA are Elavon, ID TECH, Independent Purchasing Cooperative, Inc. (IPC), Voltage Security, Inc., and the first Asia-based company, GHL Systems Berhad.
"We're indeed pleased to be part of the SPVA. This initiative reflects our ongoing commitment to ensure the highest levels of security and conforming to globally-recognized standards," said GHL Systems' Vice President of Product Marketing & Strategic Alliances Jason Phua. "It is also vitally important that the aspirations of GHL Systems in the areas of payment security, as well as those of our customers, are represented."
The SVPA is a non-profit business organization founded by Hypercom (NYSE: HYC), Ingenico S.A. (EURONEXT: ING) and VeriFone (NYSE: PAY) to advance compliance of existing payment card security standards, protect cardholder information and defend merchants and acquirers against security breaches. Membership is open to all vendors that develop secure POS payment systems or have products or solutions that interact with secure POS payment devices such as retailers, acquirers and banks.
Members of the SPVA are committed to ensuring best practice implementation and working to evolve security enhancements and interoperability required to reduce fraud and lower risk for all participants in card payment transactions.
"As we move into 2010, there is equally as much excitement and innovation in the payment industry as there is concern for security," said Steven Hughes, SPVA president. "We welcome these new companies and applaud their efforts to join the conversation and dramatically impact the industry in the coming years."
New associate members that have signed up with the SPVA since October 2009 include:
Elavon's Global Acquiring Solutions organization is a part of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB). Elavon provides end-to-end payment processing services to more than one million merchants in Europe, the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Solutlutions include credit and debit card processing, electronic check services, gift cards, dynamic currency conversion, multi-currency support, and cross-border acquiring. Elavon has solutions to meet the needs of merchants in specialized markets including small business, retail, hospitality/T&E, health care, education and the public sector. For more information visit www.elavon.com.
GHL Systems Berhad ("GHL Systems"), an MSC-status company listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange), is the Asia/Pacific region's leading end-to-end payment services enabler that deploys world-class payment infrastructure, services and technology. GHL Systems' complete portfolio of payment solutions include transaction routers and concentrators, terminal line encryption technologies, loyalty and online payment solutions, smartcard technologies, secure EDC networks and terminals to consulting services. By providing a broad range of services across the payment solutions spectrum, GHL Systems today deploys its products and services to multiple clients spread across various vertical segments in various countries all over the globe - not limited to banking and financial services institutions, telecommunications, transportation, retail and oil and gas.
ID TECH is a privately held company with sales, manufacturing and research facilities around the world. The company has a well-established reputation for technical excellence through research and engineering design. Designing dependable, featurerich products has made ID TECH a leading supplier of magstripe and smart card readers, barcode readers, keyboards, PCI-compliant PIN pads, and other specialty products for OEMs, VARs, resellers, distributors, and key end users. ID TECH provides both standard and custom solutions to support
SPVA/Add two customer requirements.
Independent Purchasing Cooperative, Inc. (IPC) is an independent SUBWAY® franchisee-owned and operated purchasing cooperative. IPC negotiates the lowest cost for goods and services, while improving quality, enhancing competitiveness and ensuring the best value to SUBWAY® restaurants and their customers. Moreover, IPC is committed to delivering returns to its members year after year. By organizing as a cooperative, the business initiatives are set by the owner members and are benchmarked by the active participation of an elected Board of Directors. Working under the direction of the franchisee Board of Directors, IPC' s Management Team carefully selects strong trading partners and manages the risks inherent to the costing and distribution of products and services in the food service industry.
Voltage Security, Inc., an enterprise security company, is an encryption innovator and global leader in end-to-end data protection. Voltage solutions, based on next generation cryptography, provide end-to-end encryption, tokenization, masking and stateless key management for protecting valuable, regulated and sensitive information such as payment card data. Voltage products enable reduction in PCI audit scope with rapid implementation and the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry through the use of award-winning cryptographic solutions, including Voltage Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) and a new breakthrough innovation: Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE). Offerings include Voltage SecureMail, Voltage SecureData, Voltage SecureFile and the Voltage Security Network (VSN), an on-demand managed service for the extended business network. Voltage has also been issued several patents based upon breakthrough research in mathematics and cryptographic systems. Customers include Global 1000 companies in banking, retail, insurance, energy, healthcare and government.