Bank technology

Principal Financial Services Inc. of Des Moines has become the first company to use a new online banking application from S1 Corp. of Atlanta.

The Redwood City, Calif., mobile phone payment company Obopay Inc. has received financial backing from the venture capital company Wolfensohn & Co. LLC.

Transaction Systems Architects Inc. said it will take longer than expected to make a profit from its acquisition of P&H Solutions Inc.

Google Inc. is offering its Checkout payment service free to merchants through yearend.

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

CheckFree Corp. said more than 40 financial companies are using its fraud detection software or will start using it this year.

Corillian Corp. says the site authentication element it has added to its Intelligent Authentication antifraud product is less taxing on network communications systems than competing technology.

LAS VEGAS - Jane Thompson offered an hourlong defense of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s financial plans here and urged bankers to look at the retailing giant and would-be bank as posing an opportunity, not a threat.

Synovus Financial Corp. plans to offer its customers online banking services that can be accessed through mobile phones.

Metavante Corp. has struck a deal to use bill payment technology from Yodlee Inc. that will let consumers use credit and debit cards to pay bills through a bank's Web site.

The average daily check image volume last month on the SVPCO Image Payments Network rose 17.5% from September, to 4.7 million items.

Amid a maturing market for online banking technology, some leading vendors are taking steps that could have them competing more directly for customers.

Merrill Lynch & Co. chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal said the firm is considering increasing its Internet banking by adding to its existing operations or by making "small acquisitions" or striking partnerships.

The air courier company AirNet Systems Inc. reported a steep drop Tuesday in volume of paper check deliveries during the third quarter as more banks shifted to image exchange systems.

Full methodology at www.gomez.com.

Nacha, the electronic payments association, has released educational materials to help banks and merchants prepare for a new payments format that will let businesses convert paper checks into automated clearing house payments in their back offices.

Royal Bank of Canada has agreed to use software from Transaction Systems Architects Inc. to facilitate its planned transition to smart-card technology for debit and credit cards.

The biometric payments company Solidus Networks Inc. has struck a deal to make Citigroup Inc. its exclusive financial partner in Singapore.

Nexity Bank plans to expand its correspondent banking business by offering outsourced core processing to the community banks that use its other services.