Card processing volume for the fourth quarter increased 23% to $16.5 billion, including $2.5 billion volume from Heartland acquisitions. Transaction processing volume and net revenue growth were limited by the general slowdown in economic activity in the fourth quarter, including a 6.8% decline in same store sales.

Heartland chairman and CEO, Robert Carr, also addressed the security breach Heartland suffered late last year. “Clearly our biggest challenge in 2009 will arise from the system breach. There are two main components to the challenge we face: addressing claims that cardholders, card issuers, the brands, regulators, and others have asserted, or may assert, against us arising out of the breach and managing the potential impact of the breach on the day-to-day operations of our business.”

He said Heartland intends “to vigorously defend any such claims and we believe we have meritorious defenses to those claims that have been asserted to date. At this time we do not have information that would enable us to reasonably estimate the amount of losses we might incur in connection with such claims.”