Amazon

Going back to the debut of the free Square card reader, the mobile payments market has made fees — or the lack of fees — a major selling point.

A bill moving through the California Legislature seeks to tame the largely unregulated world of online small-business lending. If passed, it would be the first of its kind nationally, but so far it has failed to satisfy either the industry or its critics.

The deal could be harmful to their bottom line because it will provide Amazon with more visibility into an even wider percentage of their e-commerce data, writes Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google garner so much attention that they have their own collective shorthand, FAANG. But it was a mostly different set of companies, including Starbucks and Acorns, that were top of mind this week for their financial services moves.

The cashierless Amazon Go store is barely more than an experiment — it's live in only one location in Seattle, with plans for a handful of stores to follow this year — but it has already sparked a race to put similar models in place.

Banks will need to evolve further and faster to reach consumers in an interconnected, always online world, according to industry leaders.

Following the path paved by the checkout-free Amazon Go concept, the newly merged Albertsons and Rite Aid are developing their own technologies for faster and more efficient checkouts.

Bank of America says its artificial-intelligence assistant isn't likely to listen in on private conversations the way Amazon.com's Alexa did last month.

Retailers often try to counter Amazon's dominance by using the e-commerce giant's strengths against it, including its reliance on search engine optimization.

For voice to truly thrive in business and enterprise settings, the technology must handle complicated transactions, such as an order for multiple sets of tables and chairs with customized dimensions, writes Mark Bartlett, chief experience officer at FPX.