Robert Carr, the CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, reported that the processors' 2008 card data security breach has cost the firm almost $13 million.

But Carr also told analysts and reporters on a conference call that the breach, which took place largely in 2008 but the company made public in January 2009, had not had too much impact on the company's ongoing operation and growth in some metrics.

"In the first quarter our first priority for our relationship and account managers was [sic] to maintain our over 250,000 merchant relationships and I am pleased to report that their efforts were highly successful with both total and card merchants at March 31 up compared to end of the year levels," Carr told the analysts on the call.

Robert Baldwin, Heartland Chief Financial Officer, told the analysts that most of the $12.6 million went to fines that Visa USA and MasterCard levied against the processor's sponsoring banks.

"Most of these costs relate to penalties assessed by Visa and MasterCard against our sponsor banks which we and our sponsor banks are contesting," Baldwin reported. "The remaining portion of these costs are predominantly legal expenses. These costs will continue to be separately reported," he added.