Called Digital Xpress, the system was developed by VeriFone, a Redwood City, Calif. company that was founded in Hawaii, and Visa U.S.A.
The system replaces slower analog telephone lines with digital connections to link credit card authorization terminals with the banks.
The difference, according to the Bank of Hawaii, is that once the credit card is swiped through the machine, the connection with the bank is immediate. The result: a savings of up to 50 percent on the communication time with the bank, according to Robin Uesato, the merchant services coordinator at Bank of Hawaii.
The bank is finishing a Digital Xpress pilot program with six merchants, he said, and will soon be offering the service to other merchants.
A First Hawaiian Bank spokesman said it also offers the VeriFone system to Oahu merchants.
The new Digital Xpress service is limited to Oahu but will be expanded as neighbor islands get access to Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines.
"We've made ISDN available in places where we expect to see demand," said Russ Saito, manager of vertical market applications at GTE Hawaiian Tel's Technology & Marketing Center. "If Digital Xpress and similar services catch on, we can provide ISDN in places that don't have it now."