In an article titled "Testing the limits of new banking technology", ContactlessNews reports on recent trials by US Bank of NFC-equipped mobile phones, contactless stickers, smartphone-based mobile banking and small contactless payment keyfobs.

InComm and WiredBenefits have announced an agreement to develop and market a suite of prepaid healthcare cards through InComm’s network of partner retailers. According to the companies, "aligning WiredBenefits’ Healthcare Platform with InComm’s 145,000 store retail network creates a healthcare delivery method a prepaid format that is familiar to consumers and beneficial to retailers." READ MORE »

Intuit has announced that Intuit GoPayment, a new way for business owners to process credit cards on their mobile phones, is the first small business application available for the new Palm Pre phone. According to the company, "GoPayment helps improve cash flow by giving small businesses an affordable and hassle-free way to process credit card payments outside the office as soon as the job is done." READ MORE »

Let's have some fun! A friend of mine, Dave McClure, is currently touring China as part of his Geeks on a Plane tour - a visit Dave and some friends organized to take "10 day orientation tour of Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai's Internet, Mobile & Gaming sector." Among many other roles along the way, Dave led PayPal's initial efforts to build a developer community.

Let's say that we put together a tour for payments geeks on a plane. Where in the world would you want to go? - to see who and what specifically? Or, if you'd want to host a visit to your company - tell us what you'd show us and why it's important!

Let's have some fun - you can either comment here (below) or over on this thread on Friendfeed where I've started with a quick SF Bay Area tour kickoff beginning at PayPal.

We mentioned earlier this week that copies of many of the presentations from the recent Chicago Fed Payments 2009 conference are now available online.

One of the more interesting presentations is the Overview of Green Dot presentation by Steve Streit, CEO. It includes a description of how Green Dot is three companies in one: a retail packaged goods provider, a financial services provider, and the Green Dot reload network (MoneyPak).

Another interesting presentation is Payment Strategy at Home Depot by Dwaine Kimmet, VP Home Depot Financial Services. Kimmet clearly lays out the retailer's payment priorities - and frustrations with increased interchange costs saying that, since 2002, Home Depot "has not seen value created by these new, higher fees." He goes on to describe the private label card approach that Home Depot's adopted which has become its lowest cost credit tender type.

There are lots of other interesting presentations from this recent conference - available here.

After 17 years in the personal financial management software business, Microsoft has announced that it is withdrawing from that market:

With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. After suspending annual updates of Money Plus in 2008, Microsoft is announcing today that we will no longer offer Microsoft Money Plus for purchase after June 30, 2009.

More details here.

The following career opportunities are available now on PaymentsJobs.com:

• Client Services Manager at Bling Nation (Palo Alto, CA)
• Senior Product Manager at Ebillme (Port Chester, NY)
• Director of Risk at Ebillme (Port Chester, NY)

Are you hiring payments professionals? Be sure to list your openings on PaymentsJobs.com!

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