Cards

Billions of dollars are changing hands in the ATM industry, accelerating a revolution in how self-service is used in both bank branches and retail stores.

Payroll cards are part of the emerging mobile payments capabilities that are shifting the nature of financial transactions.

Banks give a lot of reasons for providing chip cards that work with signatures, rather than four-digit PIN codes, but none of them are convincing.

Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf — which plan to merge under the name "Diebold Nixdorf" — were already in the midst of major projects to digitize bank branches and retail stores before the pressure from mobile devices led them to join forces to keep pace with innovation.

Diebold Inc. agreed to buy German rival Wincor Nixdorf AG for about 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to create the biggest maker of cash machines and security systems with more than $5 billion in sales.

At long last, the National Retail Federation has won the support of several U.S. attorneys general in its demand for chip and PIN security at the point of sale. But even this isn't enough.

As shopping gets more digital, so does fraud. The rise in technology at shoppers' fingertips provides many new channels for scammers to exploit.

In an effort to crack down on consumer fraud, the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that it will ban telemarketers from using four payment methods that are frequently abused by scam artists.

Volkswagen AG's "goodwill gesture" of $1,000 worth of gift cards to owners of cars with engines that pollute more than the law allows is helping the company identify those autos when it comes time to fix them, Audi of America President Scott Keogh said Tuesday.