FLEETCOR Reveals Gift Card Data Breach

FLEETCOR Technologies, a provider of commercial payment services, reported a data breach as the company announced on Thursday (May 3) a 17 percent year-over-year revenue increase for the first quarter of 2018, beating analyst expectations.

In its earnings statement, FLEETCOR said that on April 26, it “identified suspicious activity primarily on systems involving the company’s Stored Value Solutions gift card business.” The payment services provider did not detail the scope of the breach but said that a “significant number” of gift cards that were six months or older, along with PINs, were accessed.

“The affected data does not include personally identifiable information such as consumer names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other sensitive personal data,” FLEETCOR said. “The company did not see any evidence of access to its systems involving fleet cards and other payment products, or to the proprietary and third-party payment networks used to deliver the company’s payment solutions.”

FLEETCOR contacted federal law enforcement and affected merchants about the incident and plans to issue an update in its upcoming 10-Q, which it said it would file by May 10.

The news of the breach comes as FLEETCOR revenue hit $609.7 million in the first quarter, which beat Wall Street predictions of $604 million. The payment services firm booked net income of $174.9 million in the first quarter, a 41 percent increase year over year. Adjusted net income per diluted share stood at $2.50, up from $1.96 for the same period last year — higher than analyst estimates of $2.19.

Among the bright spots for FLEETCOR in the first quarter was the company’s new universal trucking card.

“This new product allows drivers to use their personal [money], think per diem or payroll, at virtually any class of merchant, so they don’t have to withdraw their [money] as cash,” said CEO Ronald Clarke during the company’s post-earnings conference call. “We’re seeing the drivers now use this card at a variety of merchants, generating interchange for us, and this is resulting in almost the doubling of our monthly card revenue among the clients that have adopted it.”