Bank systems stocks ended the week mostly higher, riding a charging bull market in equities overall.
Technology firms have been at the forefront of this year's rally, which has seen the Dow Jones industrial average leap nearly 10% since Jan. 1.
Among bank technology firms, payments processor National Data Corp. saw its common stock jump 30% last week after the Atlanta-based company announced Thursday it was combining its credit card merchant processing with a similar business run by MasterCard International Inc.
Under terms of the deal, National Data would absorb MasterCard's processing business in return for an undisclosed amount of cash and a seat on the card association's board of directors. The combination would vault National Data into the elite of merchant processing, which includes First Data Corp., Visa U.S.A., and National City Corp.
Following the announcement, investment firm Goldman Sachs upgraded National Data to its "recommended list" from "moderate outperform."
Another company in the payment processing business, Checkfree Corp., last week reported higher revenues, but also a small loss, for the fourth quarter of 1995.
Columbus, Ohio-based Checkfree, which provides automated bill payment services to consumers, banks, and merchants, said its fourth-quarter revenues totaled $13.4 million, a 31% increase from the year-earlier period.
It recorded a net loss of $123,000 for the latest quarter, compared with net income of $252,000 during the corresponding period in 1994.
"The substantial growth in total revenues accelerated during the fourth quarter of 1995 and exceeded our initial expectations," said Peter J. Kight, president and chief executive of Checkfree. "We are aggressively pursuing efforts to expand within each of our target markets to further strengthen Checkfree's leadership position in the electronic commerce industry."
In other news, executives at outsourcing and investment services firm Bisys Group said Thursday the company has been selected to provide mutual fund administration and distribution services for First Chicago NBD Corp.
Earlier in the week, Little Falls, N.J.-based Bisys announced it had expanded an existing mutual fund distribution contract with Chase Manhattan Corp. Under the new agreement, Bisys will distribute Chemical Banking Corp.'s Hanover family of proprietary mutual funds after Chemical merges with Chase later this year.
