The company that spun off from National Data Corp. five years ago chose a name that fell somewhere between false advertising and blind ambition.

Global Payments did indeed process electronic money transactions. But it was hardly global, operating only in the United States, plus in specks of Canada and the United Kingdom.

Ben Gray/Staff (ENLARGE)

Paul Garcia, CEO of Global Payments: 'I'm amazed at our growth. I had high expectations, but ... I really feel blessed.'

AT A GLANCE • Clickable ticker: GPN • Headquarters: Atlanta • CEO: Paul R. Garcia • Employees: 4,000 • Business: Provides electronic transaction processing services to variety of markets, including credit and debit card processing, electronoic check conversion, gift cards, B-to-B purchasing cards and check guarantee, verification and recovery. • Online: globalpay.com REVENUE • 2005: $784.3 million • 2004: $629.3 million • 2003: $516 million • 2002: $462.8 million • 2001: $353.1 million NET INCOME • 2005: $92.8 million • 2004: $62.4 million • 2003: $53.3 million • 2002: $23.8 million • 2001: $23.6 million NET INCOME PER SHARE* • 2005: $1.16 • 2004: 80 cents • 2003: 70 cents • 2002: 31 cents • 2001: 41 cents *Adjusted for 2-for-1 stock split on Oct. 28, 2005. WANT REPRINTS? Our provider can reformat articles, with accompanying photos and graphics. Get more information on custom reprints — and custom plaques.

"It took a lot of hubris to call ourselves that," Chief Executive Paul Garcia acknowledged. "It was a stretch, like calling [the Major League Baseball playoffs] the World Series.

"We bought a big pair of shoes, and we grew into them."

Filling those size-16s, Global Payments has pushed into 20 countries while tripling its employment roll and bumping its market cap eightfold. It caught the wave of society's gradual shift toward cash-free purchases of goods and services. Its business: facilitating nearly 3 billion transactions annually via credit, debit and gift card, along with money transfers and check processing.

Here's how Global Payments operates: It signs up merchants — more than 1 million, and counting, in the United States alone — to accept credit and debit cards. When a customer's card is swiped, it expedites the transfer of information through a network that completes the purchase.

Typically, for a $100 buy, the merchant keeps $98, with $1.50 going to the financial institution that issues the card, 10 cents to the card company and 40 cents into Global Payments' pocket.

That covers about 80 percent of Global Payments' activities. The remainder of its business focuses on money transfer services for Latinos, also going strong.

"It hasn't been a tidal wave," Garcia said of the trend, "but absolute steady growth."

The genesis of Global Payments was a parent company that drifted into health care data while continuing its core money transactions. As the health care side flourished, "the company became two companies," said Garcia, who was brought in to run the offshoot.

"I'm amazed at our growth," Garcia said. "I had high expectations, but ... I really feel blessed."

Knowing when to go, when to slow

The firm enters fresh markets by acquiring or partnering with established institutions in those regions. Garcia has closed deals with eight such sidekicks. The latest hookup was the grandest: HSBC, a vast banking and financial service organization, which helped gain Global Payments entry into 10 Asian nations. Previous footholds were established in Russia, Mexico and the Czech Republic, among others.

Garcia attributes the firm's robust health to willingness to apply the brakes to even greater growth. At any given time, he said, deals are being considered with 70 institutions.

"I don't have this sword of Damocles hanging over my head telling me I've got to buy [companies]," he said. "That's a nice position to be in. If we get one or two done a year, it's a terrific accomplishment."

The card companies themselves, Garcia pointed out, seem recession-proof, often enjoying annual double-digit growth.

In recent years, doctors and hospitals, government and educational institutions have been won over to the charge card crusade.

The percentage of payments by cash or check has dwindled to 45 percent, according to the 2005-2006 Study of Consumer Payment Preferences, conducted by the American Banking Association and Dove Consulting. Five years ago, when Global Payments was born, the rate was 57 percent.

The challenge, as Garcia sees it, is staying on the cusp of technology. He admits failing to anticipate the spread of debit cards. "I did not believe they were going to catch on."

He cites a few spending options that might be embraced in the future: One is biometrics — customers identifying themselves not with a card but a fingerprint. "You could walk into a store naked" and make a purchase," Garcia said. "You don't need anything but your thumb."

Another is via cellphone — conducting transactions with punches on the keypad.

Yet another is, well, Garcia declined to say. He is working with an anonymous innovator on a system that would "change the fee structure" of electronic transactions, one that he confides is a long shot for widespread use.

"I don't think we're smart enough to say precisely how people are going to pay for things in the future," he said. "We do know things are going to change. We've got to make sure we're in the middle of that."