News from the Wire

Heartland installs 10,000th SmartLink Network

Monday, February 27, 2012 — 12:49:50 (EST)

Princeton, N.J., Feb. 27, 2012 -- Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE: HPY), one of the nation's largest payments processors, today announced that it has installed its 10,000th SmartLink network site in less than 18 months, with the installation taking place at Martin Eagle Oil Company's newest location in Mesquite, Texas. A Texas-based, multi-branded marketer of fuel products, Martin Eagle Oil Company was the first petroleum retailer to deploy SmartLink and currently has SmartLink at most of its Texas locations.

SmartLink is a secure managed network service, with PCI-compliant network security, that effectively supports transaction data and back-office systems, allowing petroleum and convenience store operators to spend less time managing their networks and more time focusing on their business. SmartLink's merchant gateway provides operators with monitored VPN communications for automatic tank gauges, in-store environmental control systems, back-office systems, digital signs, email and Internet access. It also provides a distributed and segmented SSL network to support transactions generated by point-of-sale, money order, check cashing, ATM and fleet card terminals.

"From the very beginning, SmartLink's benefits have been advantageous to Martin Eagle Oil Company and Heartland has found new ways to expand the service, adding refrigeration temperature monitoring and alarms to protect our expensive food assets," said Bill Meek, director of information services at Martin Eagle Oil Company, which supplies fuel products to hundreds of locations in Texas and Oklahoma, while also operating convenience stores under the Quick Track brand in Texas. "SmartLink has enabled us to provide our dealer locations with additional value-added operational services, such as new high-speed payment options. It was a great decision to deploy SmartLink and we're not surprised Heartland has installed 10,000 SmartLink sites in less than eighteen months."

Alan Levine, Heartland's director of sales, SmartLink, added, "Also used by CITGO Petroleum Corporation and Marathon Petroleum Corporation LP, SmartLink provides solutions for many common industry challenges such as consolidating multiple dial lines into one high speed connection, increasing DVR security monitoring controls, and providing faster transactions with add-on capabilities for tank gauge and environmental monitoring. Because it's available in several versions and can accommodate single and multi-store environments, all operators can benefit from SmartLink."

Heartland is one of the largest payments processors in the convenience store and petroleum industry, with more than 49,000 convenience stores using Heartland's comprehensive suite of products and services, including secure card processing, gift marketing, prepaid services, payroll services and more. To learn more, visit HeartlandPaymentSystems.com/Petroleum and SmartLinkPro.com.

About Heartland Payment Systems

Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY), the fifth largest payments processor in the United States, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, gift marketing and loyalty programs, payroll and related business solutions to more than 250,000 business locations nationwide. A FORTUNE 1000 company, Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. The company is also a leader in the development of end-to-end encryption technology designed to protect cardholder data, rendering it useless to cybercriminals. For more detailed information, visit HeartlandPaymentSystems.com or follow the company on Twitter @HeartlandHPY and Facebook at facebook.com/HeartlandHPY.

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Source: Company press release.