MasterCard signs deal for retail payment services.

MasterCard International has signed an exclusive agreement with Harmonic Systems Inc. of Minneapolis to sell electronic payment and data communication services to retail merchants.

The service is a so-called virtual private network, which will let merchants complete point of sale transactions in as few as five seconds, a speed normally possible only with private networks.

Cutting Costs

The service is designed to help merchants in cutting their data communication costs by a third to a half, Harmonic Systems president Barrs Lewis said in a prepared statement.

The virtual private network will be marked by a MasterCard unit called the Automated Point-of-Sale Program, known as MAPP.

"This agreement leverages our expertise in point of sale processing and the expertise of Harmonics in retail automation," said Heidi Goff, a senior vice president for the automated point of sale program.

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