Through this partnership, Element will integrate Ingenico's end-to-end encryption algorithm with its tokenization solution to provide Ingenico's customers with secure end-to-end transaction processing technologies. The fully integrated solution will reduce the customers' cardholder data environment and PCI DSS-compliance footprint.

As an innovator of fully integrated PCI DSS compliant payment processing technologies, Element's well-designed processing solutions have led the industry in risk reduction and transference. Additionally, Element's Hosted Payments solution eliminates the need for both merchants and software providers to process, transmit or store cardholder data, removing their applications from the scope of the PCI DSS/PA-DSS compliance requirements.

"We're excited about our newly formed strategic partnership with Element because it will play a key role in delivering Ingenico's overall security strategy to address the entire payment transaction process," says Deborah Dixson, senior vice president of security solutions at Ingenico, North America. "As a proven industry leader and member of the PCI Security Standards Council, Element has the technology, established track record, a talented team, and the industry expertise we seek in a strategic security partner."

Credit and debit cardholder data compromises are at an all time high. According to the 2009 Data Breach Investigation Report by Verizon Business Consumer, 285 million records were breached in 2008. Given this reality and the increasingly stringent PCI compliance requirements, this new partnership will help Ingenico's merchant customers secure their payment environments, protect their brands, and reduce the cost, risk and burden associated with payment card acceptance.

"Element shares Ingenico's commitment to delivering security solutions that protect cardholder data while transmitted, processed and stored, significantly reducing the scope of PCI DSS/PA-DSS compliance requirements. This partnership will provide a huge value for merchants and software providers," says Sean Kramer, president and CEO at Element Payment Services.

Element's end-to-end transaction processing technologies are powered by its Express Processing Platform, a purpose-built processing engine architected specifically for security and compliance. Unlike other processing platforms, Express is engineered using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), making it easily adaptable to changing industry requirements.