In Briefs: Small La. Bank Agrees To Process Paychecks

A community bank has won the contract to process paychecks for 8,000 employees of New Orleans' public schools.

Liberty Bank and Trust Co., a $143 million-asset company, plans to process about 20,000 payroll checks a month. Liberty would issue the checks using a software system that lets schools keep track of payroll electronically. The school system now processes its payroll checks by hand.

Liberty president and chief executive officer Alden J. McDonald Jr. said he is excited about the prospect of updating the schools' payroll system while giving the bank a chance to market itself to thousands of new customers.

"We're really excited that technology is coming into play," he said. Since it will not charge a fee to process the checks, Liberty will get no new revenue from the payroll deal. Issuing the checks, however, gives the bank an opportunity to sell other products to school employees, Mr. McDonald said.