John Adams

The simplified pricing of fintechs like Square and Stripe has finally caught up with banks' more complex fees, prompting Wells Fargo to restructure its billing for small businesses. Other banks will also face consequences—particularly community banks that depend on local merchants.

Fair Square Financial has received a $100 million equity investment from the Orogen Group to fund a credit card designed for underserved U.S. consumer segments.

The irony of the explosive growth of mobile P2P is this: As consumers get more comfortable with paying one another through mobile devices, they're thinking of P2P less as a service that one should find within a bank's app.

The technology company's major projects over the past couple of years have included a diversification to serve merchants' cross-channel shopping and payment needs, adding advanced ATM technology in Europe and upgrading hardware to compete with rivals such as Square.

As with most of the company's inventions, an Amazon checking account would more deeply embed customers into an Amazon ecosystem that provides an endless flow of data and efficiencies.