As AI agents become more of a presence in retail commerce, payments processors and merchants alike are going to have to adjust to a new world where purchasing decisions are made at machine-speed.

There is a tendency among many sales managers to tightly script sales interactions. But if you attempt to take all reasoning and thinking out of a job, you'll get employees who stop reasoning or thinking.

Restrictions that limit access to private market investments are harmful to ordinary investors, who are denied better returns. They also seal off a large potential source of funding for long-term infrastructure investments.

Pinnacle Financial Partners' headquarters is moving to a new 25-story office tower in Midtown Atlanta; New Jersey-based Provident Bank appoints Adriano Duarte to succeed Thomas Lyons as chief financial officer; Binance will shut down services for customers in France, Italy, Spain and Poland after the exchange withdrew its MiCA licence application in Greece; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Whether advisors choose individual stocks or not, the SEC's proposal to allow semiannual reporting rather than quarterly could impact clients' portfolios.

Many clients avoid consolidating their assets at a single firm because they don't want the hassle. Advisors say it's important when to know not only when they're most likely to want to move assets, but also what to say.

While the nationwide purchase average declined nearly 3% in 2025, these costs rose in 23 of 50 states and the District of Columbia, a study from LodeStar said.

There's broad support for the effort to reduce costs and processes, but the Appraisal Institute warns about reducing property valuation quality control checks.

Part of the proposal affects the risk weighting for certain "investment properties and other cashflow-dependent" mortgages, according to a new Pennymac report.