Financial/Banking

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores reported in a filing on Monday that its CEO  Mike Duke received compensation valued at $18.7 million last year, less than a year earlier, as U.S. store sales dropped.

Duke received incentive pay, which is tied to Wal-Mart’s financial performance, of $3.85 million in the year ended Jan. 31, down from $4.8 million a year earlier.

His salary rose 2.4% to $1.23 million, based on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. A year earlier, Duke’s compensation totaled $19.2 million.

Atlanta -- A report released Monday by First Data Corp., which tracks year-over-year same-merchant activations, redemptions and reloads of merchant-branded prepaid cards in the United States, including spending, gift, incentive and promotional cards, revealed that delayed post-holiday redemptions and incentives drove activations in first quarter 2011.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. announced Friday that it has been cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its investigation and that the SEC will not take any action against the company.

The SEC began investigating the jeweler in October 2009 after it restated its 2008 and 2009 earnings. The company said at the time that a financial audit had uncovered internal control and accounting issues related to advertising costs, income taxes and internal company payments, among other things.

ABILENE, Kan. -- Duckwall-ALCO Stores reported that net sales from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 increased 4.4% to $136.9 million and same-store sales, excluding fuel center sales, increased 1.8%, compared with the same period in the prior fiscal year. Net sales from continuing operations for the fiscal year decreased 0.6% to $465.2 million and same-store sales decreased 2.4%, compared with the same period in the prior fiscal year.

New York City -- Survey results released Thursday showed that, for the first time since 2006, small business owners are shifting their focuses from just surviving to plotting growth.

According to the 2011 American Express OPEN Spring Small Business Monitor, entrepreneurs say they are expecting to hire and make necessary capital investments in their firms, signaling signs of an economic recovery.

Dallas -- Finance solution-provider Trintech announced that international food retailer Delhaize Group has implemented its AssureNET GL software for financial process compliance.

AssureNET GL is a component of Trintech's Unity platform, a suite of modular software that empowers companies to automate their Last Mile of Finance to increase efficiency, improve visibility, shorten cycle times, lower costs, and reduce risk.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by Bloomberg said that consumer confidence rose for a third straight week, indicating an improving job market and more positive attitudes about finances and the economy.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to minus 43 in the period to April 10, the best showing since the end of February, following a minus 44.5 reading the prior week.

Paris -- French retail giant Carrefour SA reported Thursday that sales in its fiscal first quarter inched up 3.9% to $35.7 billion.

Stronger showings in Brazil and China helped the retailer counteract weaker performance in Western Europe.

Carrefour's sales figures come ahead of a key shareholder vote in June on the company's plans to spin off its discount chain Dia and some European property assets into separately listed companies.