Technology

Whether or not retailers are properly guarding their payment hardware and their in-store networks, a bigger issue might just be the workers who have access to retail organizations' data — including both regular staff and temporary holiday workers.

Belmont Savings in Massachusetts isn't trying to fire or replace its employees who work the phones pursuing sales leads, but it has made some technological investments to get more out of them.

The spread of new payment technology and omnichannel commerce are changing the way people shop during the holiday season, even in brick-and-mortar stores. Here are a few noteworthy trends this season.

PNC and First Data see a benefit in tailoring the health care experience with a focus on the consumer, and are working to enable that process by funding a cloud-based IT company that digitizes medical office management.

Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati will record a gain of $9 million during the fourth quarter after selling shares in the payment processor Vantiv.

The Spanish banking giant Santander has withdrawn from the bank consortium R3 CEV, becoming the second defector from the blockchain group this week after Goldman Sachs.

Few of Apple's numerous patent applications make it to market, but if the consumer electronics giant follows through on one filed last week, iPhone users may have the Siri virtual assistant helping them with person-to-person payments through the iMessage platform.

Google's Android Wear products came to market well ahead of the Apple Watch, but in one category they have always been a step behind: contactless payments.

Visa Inc. has clarified its position on EMV debit card routing to address growing concern among merchants that the card brand's rules were forcing those transactions onto the Visa network rather than allowing merchants to choose among less expensive options.

Merchants’ frustrations with the painful U.S. EMV shift could come to a head this week when Black Friday kicks off the crucial holiday shopping season with large swaths of the merchant landscape unable to handle EMV transactions, more than a year after the U.S. EMV liability shift.