Amazon

More than a decade ago, bankers fought Walmart tooth and nail as it made forays into banking. But with Amazon making more moves into financial services, the reaction is very different.

The world’s largest online retailer is searching for locations in cities that can serve as both grocery stores and urban distribution centers for delivering goods to online shoppers faster.

Amazon.com Inc. has looked at the possibility of expanding its retail footprint by acquiring some locations from bankrupt Toys “R” Us Inc., according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The main problem is that Amazon's Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant can’t yet verify a person’s identity. But there are already workarounds for that issue — and the tech giants may solve it soon.

Banks need to figure out how to provide more value to customers or nonbank financial services companies could displace them.

The e-commerce giant is muscling its way into a number of businesses that banks have long dominated.

The online giant has succeeded in disrupting every area of retail, but in banking it faces a high barrier to entry and fierce determination from banks like Citizens Financial and Bank of the West to keep upping their games.

Amazon.com is planning to offer a credit card to U.S. small-business customers, furthering its push to supply companies with everything from reams of paper to factory parts, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Democratic infighting over a bill to curb the reach of the Dodd-Frank Act dominated discussion this past week, but Amazon still made waves in its disruptor role. Also: Our 'Best Fintechs to Work For' debuted.

The tech giant is reportedly in talks with JP Morgan Chase and Capital One about creating a checking account product, and two analysts say that could create major challenges for credit unions.

With a foray into financial services, Amazon.com could disrupt the decades-old card payments system, a move that some say could save the retailer $250 million a year in swipe fees.

Readers opine on the possibility of an Amazon-JPMorgan Chase checking partnership, weigh in on the Crapo bill, applaud plans that would make the CFPB more of a backup regulator and more.

Disruptors would get a powerful new competitor if Amazon began offering checking accounts, but such a move would also validate the notion that fintechs are the future.

The online retailer wants to offer customers checking accounts but won’t become a bank; Quarles says the rule is too complex and “not working well.”

The negotiations between Amazon and big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Capital One to offer a checking-account-like product pose significant questions for regulators about the e-commerce giant pushing further into the banking space.

News that Amazon is courting banks to help it offer its own branded checking account raises major questions about which banks could be helped or hurt, who would control the relationship and how Amazon's partner(s) would make money.

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.

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Capital One Financial Corp. about offering the tech giant’s customers a product similar to a checking account.

Even if most consumers aren't leaving their plastic cards at home in favor of mobile wallets, the very idea of using a mobile wallet is no longer cutting-edge. But a few companies go the extra mile.

The Amazon Go store isn't just reinventing retail; the company's recent acquisitions of Ring and Blink indicate Amazon wants to reproduce its model of camera-fueled commerce in consumers' homes.