Merchant

Banks could shed as much as 20 million square feet of office space over the next five years as they shift many functions to high-tech operations centers in markets with cheaper rents.

Machine learning and voice recognition can ease the many pain points of drive-thru ordering.

This week's ruling from a U.K. appeals court is the latest of many episodes in a battle between merchants and card brands that has influenced regulations, technology, market strategies and nearly all other aspects of the payments ecosystem.

Consumer advocates are urging local governments and courts to consider a person’s ability to pay before assessing fines and fees for such infractions as unpaid traffic tickets. Such changes could help low-income households avoid bankruptcy — and perhaps even make them more bankable.

For stores that don't want such a high-tech makeover, options for automatic checkout options are being built on a much simpler foundation.

The day after Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc.’s mid-year sale, a company drone took off from a playground in the city of Xi’an to deliver one of the orders. The six-rotor craft is one of about 40 JD.com designed to cut delivery times.

Joel Tucker is the brother of Scott Tucker, who in January was sentenced to 16 years in prison for perpetrating an unrelated payday-loan scheme.

Barclays has introduced an SMB credit card with a very targeted perk: It extends the interest-free credit periods up to 116 days for payments made at popular trade retailers Travis Perkins and Toolstation.

Chris Furlow, who was a founding staff member at the Department of Homeland Security, is now the president and CEO of the Texas Bankers Association.

The Oakland company has hired Colleen Atkinson, a former manager at HSBC, to oversee its new professional banking business line.