Headlines:
Fundtech 4th-Quarter Earnings Climb 64% Payment Data Offers Auto-Update Feature MTXEPS Teams Up With Pay By Touch IRD Printer System From CheckTech
Fundtech 4th-Quarter Earnings Climb 64%
Fundtech Ltd., an Israeli provider of corporate cash management and foreign exchange software, said fourth-quarter earnings grew 64% from a year earlier, to $1.1 million or 7 cents a share, as revenue climbed 37%, to $17.7 million.
Per-share earnings excluding certain charges totaled $1.8 million, or 12 cents a share, meeting analysts' expectations.
Full-year earnings grew from $67,000, essentially breakeven, to $2.5 million, or 16 cents per diluted share. Revenue rose 23% to $58.5 million.
The company, whose U.S. headquarters are in Jersey City, said a pair of fourth quarter acquisitions contributed $1.1 million to revenue but had negligible impact on profits. Fundtech bought Datasphere of Geneva, which provides interbank clearing and settlement systems for 90 European banks; and CashTech Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. of Pune, India, which develops cash management software for banks and has more than 50 clients in Asia.
The acquisitions "position us well for the further expansion of revenues and profits in 2005," said Reuven Ben-Menachem, Fundtech's chairman and chief executive, in the earnings press release.
The company also affirmed its Jan. 11 prediction that it will earn 20 to 24 cents a share this year on revenue of $68 million to $70 million.
Payment Data Offers Auto-Update Feature
The San Antonio payment processor Payment Data Systems Inc. has introduced a feature that will automatically update consumer credit card data for its merchant customers.
The account-update feature can track details that may change, such as an expiration date or the new name of a recently married or divorced person, said chairman and chief executive Michael R. Long on Monday.
Payment Data provides electronic payment services to merchant billers. For three weeks one of its authorization and settlement partners, Central Bancard LLC of Davenport, Iowa, has been providing account updates from Visa U.S.A., Mr. Long said. Central Bancard hopes to establish a similar connection with MasterCard International Inc. in the next few months, he said.
"We always have the most current information, the consumer is never bothered, and the transaction goes through," he said. The feature could be useful, for example, to a health club, which could automatically update member accounts so that a monthly charge would not be declined if the card had expired, Mr. Long said.
In January his company, until recently named Billserv Inc., announced its initial arrangement for Central Bancard to provide authorization and settlement for accounts that its primary authorization firm, Network 1 Financial of McLean, Va., would not handle.
MTXEPS Teams Up With Pay By Touch
Two payment technology companies that mostly serve supermarkets - Pay By Touch Networks Inc., which sells biometric payment systems, and MTXEPS Inc., which sells backend payment software - have agreed to make their products compatible.
They will jointly market a product for consumers who want to authorize payment at the point of sale with just a fingerprint. Pay By Touch, of San Francisco, and MTXEPS, of in Aliso Viejo, Calif., will both support the product.
To enroll in Pay By Touch's system, end users provide a bank account or payment card number. MTXEPS' customers include Publix Super Markets Inc., a large grocery chain in the southeast.
"We are committed to making it as easy as possible to implement Pay By Touch," said John Rogers, Pay By Touch's founder, chairman, and chief executive, in a press release.
IRD Printer System From CheckTech
CheckTech Financial Corp. of Santa Fe, N.M., has introduced a system for printing out digital check images as image replacement documents.
The company said Thursday that the system, which is priced under $10,000, is designed for small and medium-size banks. The system includes printer, software, security paper, installation, and magnetic-ink toner to produce IRDs.
The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, which took effect in October, made IRDs the legal equivalent of original paper checks.
CheckTech, which provides check processing equipment and supplies, said the system could be used as a transition technology for banks to accept IRDs now while making plans to eventually use just the image files to clear and settle. Many banks are already doing so, but many more are still uncertain how they will incorporate image technology into their check handling systems.
"Banks are still going to need to print IRDs for any number of reasons," said Brian Boyd, CheckTech's president and chief executive, in a press release.
