For most retailers heading into this year’s holiday-season sales crunch, the epic Equifax data breach was only the latest in a series of escalating threats that are having a profound effect on the way they handle payments.

Neural network systems — which try to emulate the human brain — will become increasingly important as the stolen identities from the recent Equifax breach and others start surfacing in the coming years on fraudulent payment card or loan applications.

Facebook Messenger now supports person-to-person payments and customer service for PayPal, expanding the funding choices for repaying friends and family and the channels available to PayPal users sending P-to-P payments.

Personalized experiences are becoming more prevalent in banking with digital assistants and apps, thanks to AI. Getting more women on boards is part of the job for JPMorgan Chase's Karen Simon. Why aren't 'good guys' better allies? (Carrie Fisher sure is.)

Execs from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BBVA, Ally Bank and others outlined their AI strategies, progress to date and lessons learned at BankAI this week.

As many as a dozen financial institutions are deploying IBM’s Watson to search for signs of employee misconduct so they can avoid a Wells Fargo-size scandal. But the legal and technical limits of its use are major issues.

Two realistic utopians -- David Orban, founder of the London think tank Network Society Research, and Himi Khan, executive V.P. at the virtual assistant tech startup Clinc – share their AI vision.

Banks such as Citigroup, Regions and TD have decided they need to offer mobile customers truly customized experiences. They are experimenting with different ways of doing so that come across as helpful without being intrusive.

Bankers need to set aside their post-crisis aversion to risk, recapture some of the magic they once practiced as innovators, fear fintechs less, and worry about the Googles and Amazons more, says Peter Memon, a bank IT veteran turned global consultant.

In experimenting with a chatbot on its mobile app, TD Bank will have to tackle the same issue facing several of its rivals — how to automate conversations with consumers and decide at what point it’s time to switch to a human.

Some financial institutions are looking at how to translate the complicated and document-heavy mortgage lending process into the digital world of voice-interactive personal assistants.

Some banks are looking at how to translate the complicated and document-heavy mortgage lending process into the digital world of voice-interactive personal assistants.

Readers comment on the ripple effects of the Equifax breach, who benefits from the CFPB's final arbitration rule, gender-related issues in financial services, and more.

Separate apps for banking and PFM are too much for most customers to handle, so the Canadian bank is adding automated advice and savings to mobile banking — and it’s relying on artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to make it all work.

In a world where information overload can leave investors paralyzed, Candace Browning's focus is turning mind-numbing reams of data into actionable intelligence.

It's Yvette Hollingsworth Clark's job to make sure consumer, cyber and other protections are embedded into the design of digital products.

With the high-performance and capabilities AI provides, this technology will serve as one of the most valued assets in the future, writes Arushi Srivastava, senior director of public sector for NTT Data Services.

It’s highly debatable whether the artificial intelligence engines that online lenders typically use, and that banks are just starting to deploy, are capable of making credit decisions without inadvertent prejudices.

Bots can use revealed preferences and purchase history to make pertinent recommendations, writes Doug Baldasare, CEO of ChargeItSpot.

An artificial intelligence model predicted creditworthiness more accurately than traditional models in an experiment conducted by the auto lender. The technology someday could be used to find hidden gems among loan applicants — emphasis on the someday.