Visa Inc. said the alerts it issued this month about a credit card breach at a processor stem from an previously disclosed incident, rather than a new one.
Several publications reported the warnings this week, and because Visa did not name the source of the breach, some inferred that the warnings were connected to an incident that had not been made public.
Heartland Payment Systems Inc. announced a breach in January, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's RBS WorldPay announced one in December.
"The recent alerts Visa sent to card issuers were part of an existing investigation and are not related to a new compromise event," the San Francisco company said in an e-mail Friday.
Heartland spokesman Jason Maloni said, "I can say unequivocally that the rumors of the new breach are not related to Heartland." RBS WorldPay said it does not comment on Visa alerts.
