Bank technology

George F. Thomas, who is retiring this month from The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC after a 25-year career, says he is frustrated by the slow pace of the banking services industry's shift from paper to electronic payment systems.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC will use software from Transaction Systems Architects Inc. to drive the Nigeria Central Switch, which supplies connectivity and interoperability between the country's electronic funds transfer switches.

Merchants are showing increased interest in routing customer transactions through the automated clearing house network instead of the more expensive credit and debit card systems, but some industry observers are questioning whether consumers will take to the idea.

NCR Corp. is modifying thousands of automated teller machines it sold to banks in Pakistan but which do not accommodate a resized currency.

The table lists daily composite stock prices at 4 PM (unless otherwise noted) as measured by market capitalization.

Payment Data Systems Inc. of San Antonio said it has agreed to provide payment processing for a insurance carrier, which it did not name.

CheckFree Corp. has renewed a contract to provide electronic billing and payment service to retail and small-business customers of SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta.

Eastman Kodak Co. is entering a business where it says banking companies have been slow to fill customer demand: corporate check-image capture.

NetBank Inc. has priced a private placement of 6.5 million shares of its common stock.

Shares of Fiserv Inc. dropped slightly Wednesday morning after Peter J. Heckmann, an A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. analyst, downgraded the Brookfield, Wis., banking technology vendor's stock.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about online banking security, and many are willing to vote with their feet, according to a recent survey by Unisys Corp.

Within the next year plans call for more banks to start letting their customers chart their spending online, make last-minute bill payments from a credit card, check their balances from a cell phone screen, and program automated teller machines remotely.

The table lists daily composite stock prices at 4 PM (unless otherwise noted) as measured by market capitalization.

By connecting larger banks to its Endpoint Exchange Network, Metavante Corp. is making the check-image network more useful to the small banks that are its core users, an analyst said Thursday.

Metavante Corp. said Wednesday that 12 of the nation's 25 largest banks began transmitting check images over its Endpoint Exchange Network this year.

Wholesale bankers are developing new growth strategies for cash management services, and are anticipating extending what now look to be two solid years of growth into 2007. But bankers and observers continue to counsel caution, citing continuing upheaval in the payments space and uncertainty about interest rates, among other things.