Depending on hardware and software configurations and the individual manufacturers, there are a multitude of options regarding how to encrypt an a transaction at the swipe.

National Merchant offers a variety of encryption solutions from several different manufacturers.  In the payment industry, there is talk of both end to end and point to point encryption.   True end to end encryption begins with the transction being encrypted at the swiper and then terminates with decryption at the payment network.  This type of encryption is more rare than point to point encryption, which begins at the card reader and ends at the payment gateway.   Both methods are secure and of great benefit to merchants, but it is important to note the difference.

For more information on NMA's hardware encryption offerings, please visit our SECURITY CENTER.