Heartland Payment Systems (Heartland Payment Systems) Credit Losses Provision

Heartland Payment Systems Inc was incorporated in the state of Delaware on June 2000. The Company provides Card Payment Processing services to merchants in the United States which involves providing end-to-end electronic payment processing services to merchants. For this the Company undertakes merchant set-up and training, transaction authorization and electronic draft capture, clearing and settlement, merchant accounting, merchant assistance and support, and risk management. The Company sells and rents point-of-sale devices. The Company's customers fall into two categories: small and mid-sized merchants, or SME merchants and Network Services merchants, which are predominately petroleum industry merchants of all sizes. Further, the Company provides additional services such as Heartland School Solutions, Heartland Ovation Payroll, Campus Solutions, Micropayments, and Heartland Marketing Solutions. As of December 31, 2013, the Company provided card payment processing services to 166,697 active SME merchants located across the United States. In addition to settling card transactions, Network Services processes a wide range of payment transactions for its predominantly petroleum customer base, including providing 2.3 billion transaction authorizations through its front-end card processing systems in 2013. The Card Payment Processing revenue from SME merchants and Network Services merchants is recurring in nature. The Company enters into three year service contracts with its SME merchants and three to five year agreements with Network Services merchants. The Company's merchant base include restaurants, brick and mortar retailers, hotel and lodgings, automotive sales and repair shops, convenience and liquor stores, professional service providers and gas stations. As of December 31, 2013 the Company served 42,069 independent restaurants and had partner agreements with approximatley 250 trade associations. The Company has developed number of payment processing systems to increase the operating efficiencies such as HPS Exchange, VAPS and NWS and Passport. The Company undertakes procedures such as Merchant Monitoring, Investigation and Loss Prevention, Underwriting and Collateral to minimize the transaction fraud. The Company's marketing efforts are focused on industries in which its direct sales model is effective on merchants who are typically on location, interact with customers, value a local sales presence, and consult with trade associations and other civic groups to make purchasing decisions.