A Boston Financial Data Services center in Lawrence contributed to earnings gains last year for one of its co-owners.

Kansas City, Mo.-based DST Systems Inc., a partner in Boston Financial with State Street Corp., reported Tuesday that Boston Financial generated $6.6 million in profits for DST during the final three months of 2006, up from $4.8 million during the same period a year earlier.

DST attributed the gain to an increase in the number of shareowner accounts being processed by Boston Financial, which handles accounts for owners of mutual funds. DST also attributed gains to “improvement in operations.”

In June, DST said it was turning over its Lawrence processing center at 2000 Bluffs Drive – with 124 full-time employees and another 100 part-timers – to Boston Financial.

At the time, Boston Financial executives forecast that the Lawrence center would have 450 employees by the end of 2008.