The agreement with Valutec represents a significant win for HBNet, and an important addition to its U.S. customer base.

The use of HBNet will enhance Valutec's ability to speed the checkout process for both dial and IP transactions at thousands of U.S. retailers who use Valutec's electronic gift programs to offer their own store-branded cards. With HBNet, gift and loyalty card redemptions, reward dollars, merchandise credits and reloads will be completed faster, more securely and more affordably than ever before.

"We selected HBNet because they deliver the best combination of performance, security and price; and that gives us the ability to deliver unbeatable speed, service and convenience to thousands of retailers and the tens of thousands of consumers they serve," said Bill Horne, CEO, Valutec.

Valutec provides small and medium sized merchants everything they need to implement their own gift and/or loyalty card program. Services include card design and production, in-store merchandising, secure transaction processing and reporting, cardholder data capture and data mining for marketing and security, 24/7, toll free customer support, and systems compatibility with a wide variety of terminals and point-of-sale environments.

"Valutec's switch to HBNet is an important addition to our customer base and a solid endorsement of our value proposition. Simply put, HBNet offers a combination of performance, price, service and know-how that can't be beat," said Sharon Cline, senior vice president and general manager, HBNet, Inc.

Hypercom's HBNet network speeds the authorization and processing of electronic transactions for retail point-of-sale, financial, government, health care and other customers in both the dial and IP POS markets. The service has a growing presence in the U.S. and Canada, with plans to expand globally.

HBNet is powered by robust, ultra high-density MegaNAC180 Network Access Controllers (NACs) strategically positioned within the North American Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN) and at processor data centers. It supports all POS terminal protocols at any modem speed up to V.92 and provides uninterrupted service with no single point of failure, seamless load balancing, state-of-the-art Web-based reporting, and simple all-inclusive pricing.