Card Briefs: Greek Processor Using Hypercom Web System

Hypercom Corp. said it is supplying its Ascendent Internet Commerce Transaction System to Delta Informatics, a computer services company in Greece.

Delta works on behalf of 15 banks and processes transactions for 65,000 merchants. Hypercom has extended its point of sale expertise into electronic commerce in part by reselling secure payments software from GlobeSet Inc. of Austin, Tex.

The virtual payments package-it includes a digital wallet, POS, and payment-gateway software for merchant processing-is designed to handle the MasterCard-Visa Secure Electronic Transaction protocol for Internet payments.

Delta would have the first SET-ready system in Greece, Hypercom said, adding that the country anticipates rapid growth in international transactions leading up to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Delta expects to use the Ascendent line to "quickly, easily, and cost- effectively launch new added-value applications and features such as loyalty and signature capture and retrieval," said Andreas Drimiotis, managing director of the processing firm.