Payment processor iPayment posted a fourth-quarter profit of $7.1 million on revenues of $181 million. In late 2009, those numbers were $4.4 million and $174 million, respectively.

For the year, iPayment reported a slight decline in revenues in 2010, but a drop in expenses helped boost the company’s income. iPayment recorded revenues of $699 million for the full year, down about 2.6 percent from 2009, attributed mainly to the deconsolidation of Central Payment Corp., which the company sold in late 2009. But iPayment also worked with fewer merchants in 2010 than the prior year, leading to a 3.7 percent decline in the total value of processed transactions.

On the expense side, the deconsolidation of CPC helped the company’s annual results. Selling, general and administrative expenses fell by 32 percent because of reduced direct selling expenses, helping to lower total operating expenses, as a percentage of revenue by about 2.6 percent.

iPayment’s net income for the year was $22.8 million, nearly double the $11.7 million it earned in 2009 — though the year-ago figures carved out $3.6 million in income from its non-controlling interest in CPC.

iPayment, based in Nashville, employed 334 full-time workers at the end of the year.