By Jeff McKinney
The Cincinnati Enquirer

For the first time in eight months, 30-year mortgage rates have surpassed the 6 percent level in Greater Cincinnati.

The average rate hit 6.10 percent this week, up from 5.88 percent the previous week, a survey released Tuesday by the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors showed.

The last time the rate broke the 6 percent mark was Jan. 13, when it came in at 6.07 percent. Mortgage rates have been steadily rising since the Federal Reserve cut a key short-term interest rate a quarter of a point in late June, further evidence that mortgage rates don't follow the Fed's actions.

Some analysts contend that rates will continue rising on the theory that the U.S. economy will gain strength in coming months.

Though rates have been inching up in recent weeks, the latest rate is still lower than the 6.43 percent rate a year ago.

Fifth Third to process for Tennessee bank

Fifth Third Bank's data processing unit has signed a deal to handle check-card processing services for one of Tennessee's largest banks.

Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions will process transactions for more than 800,000 debit cards for National Commerce Financial Corp.

The Memphis-based bank has assets of $22 billion and almost 500 branches in the Southeast.

The deal will bring Fifth Third up to $3.4 million a year in extra revenue as it processes about 67.8 million transactions for National Commerce.

This latest contract also shows why Fifth Third's data-processing unit is one of the Cincinnati-based banking company's fastest growing units.

Provident Bank gets new e-payment firm

Provident Bank has teamed up with U.S. Bancorp's payment services unit to offer services to some of Provident's business clients.

Nova Information Systems, the nation's third-largest merchant payment processor, will handle such things as credit-card processing and electronic check services for Provident's 3,000 merchant clients. The deal also calls for Provident and Nova to jointly market merchant processing services to new clients.

The deal will allow Nova to generate extra fees for U.S. Bancorp as it charges fees granting those services.

The venture also comes three weeks after Provident said it would sell its merchant-services business, which only reaped about $1 million in quarterly revenue.

That deal is expected to bring Provident a $12.7 million after-tax gain.

U.S. Bancorp acquired Nova for about $2.1.billion in cash and stock two years ago.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com