Staff reports

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has made its first deal with a private company to sell its internally developed research software. The licensing agreement, announced Monday, gives distribution rights to itCube, Inc., a Cincinnati-based company that also maintains software development centers in Pune and Bangalore, India.

The Web-based software was developed by Children's Center for Computational Medicine, which recently received a $25.2 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier project. The software to be licensed to itCube was developed before the Third Frontier award, officials said.

Bank of Kentucky dividend declared

The parent of the Bank of Kentucky has declared a semi-annual cash dividend of 11 cents a share, up 2 cents from its previous dividend in September. The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp., based in Crestview Hills, will pay the new dividend March 19 to shareholders of record March 5. One of the area's largest banks, Bank of Kentucky has assets of $800 million and 25 branches in Northern Kentucky. Its stock is trading at $30.10 in the over-the-counter market.

Sovereign data to go to Fifth Third

Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions, Fifth Third Bancorp's data-processing unit, has signed a five-year deal to provide electronic processing services for Sovereign Bank, a Philadelphia-based bank with $43 billion in assets and one of the nation's 25 largest banks. The deal, which will make Sovereign Bank one of the top five customers for Fifth Third's data-processing unit, calls for Fifth Third to process 42 million transactions for Sovereign Bank.