Just a reminder to be sure to visit our Payments Jobs web site. Here you'll find payments-related career opportunities for payments professionals - including listings from Chase Paymentech, Online Resources, an industry leading EBPP provider, Authorize.net, Transaction Network Services, and more. And, If you're hiring payments professionals, be sure to post your current openings on PaymentsJobs.com.

Glenbrook's Russ Jones is in London this week - and files this field report on his first encounter with dynamic currency conversion in action - at Harrods.

Prosper.com has updated its People-to-People Lending Market Survey to reflect results through the end of September. In September, $5.4 million in loans were funded at an average loan size of $7,175. Over average over the month, 2,298 borrowers were looking for loans. A market commentary by CEO Chris Larson addressed the question of whether the Prosper lending marketplace anticipated the Fed's recent 50 basis point cut in interest rates.

J.D. Power and Associates has announced the results of its 2007 Credit Card Satisfaction Study - finding that American Express ranks highest among credit card issuers in overall customer satisfaction followed closely by Discover.   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has launched Heartland Express Funds, a bank-neutral remote deposit capture system. "Express Funds allows businesses to electronically deposit checks into bank accounts without physically transporting them to the bank – regardless of which bank or banks the business uses. Eliminating floats and holds, funds are available within 24 hours, and, in many cases, by the next-business morning."   » Continue Reading

Western Union and Yodlee have announced a program that the two companies says is "the first ever capable of linking financial institutions' online bill-payment services directly to Western Union's thousands of billers. These payment capabilities are featured in Yodlee's new BillPay PayItAll solution."   » Continue Reading

On the Digital Money Forum blog, Consult Hyperion's Dave Birch writes about "Where next for UK Cards?" and muses about the issues - security, privacy, disabling a FOB, etc - associated with contactless payments.

• Datacard Group Inventors Honored at 4th Annual Patent Awards Ceremonies
• Simmons and First Manhattan Consulting Group Launch New Targeting Tools for Financial Services Advertisers
• Javien to Earn Micropayment Aggregation Engine Patent
• Sioux Falls, SD: Downtown merchants try to sell through gift cards
• EU's Kroes to take decision on MasterCard interchange fees by end of the year
• Notre Dame, Chase Enhance Fightin' Irish Fan Experience; ND Becomes One of the First Universities to Accept Contactless Credit Card Payments with blink
• ClimateCooler.com from Cooler Lets Consumers Eliminate the Global Warming Impact of Their Online Purchases at No Additional Cost
• Giving Tree GiveCardTM Prepaid MasterCard® to Target Socially Conscious Consumers
• Washington Post: How Do I ... Use PayPal?
• More Than Half of Americans Feel Vulnerable to Identity Theft According to Staples National Survey
• TSYS Card Tech Receives Positive Rating in Leading Analyst Firm’s MarketScope Report
• North Dallas Bank Deploys Check Fraud Prevention Technology from ASD and Parascript
• GiftCertificates.com™ to Offer American Express® - Branded Shopping Card