Retail Industry Leaders Association Says PINs Over Sigs

The Retail Industry Leaders Association is pushing back against the usage of chip and signature cards.

Despite best efforts to educate merchants on the usage of chip cards, such as Visa’s campaign, the RILA wants banks and issuers to move to chip and pin.

While chip and signature cards can certainly cut down on fraud, the RILA claims that the usage of signatures can be “easily exploited and does not protect against lost or stolen card fraud.”

The Federal Reserve reported that transactions made with a PIN were up to 700 percent more secure than transactions made without one.

So why are card issuers not keen on implementing PINs with these new cards?

According to Karen Cox, Vice President of Payments and Retail Solutions at Moneris, the main issue is the consumer.

Moneris is Canada’s largest payment processor. When Canada moved to chip and pin, the transition was relatively smooth.

Cox mentioned that Canadian consumers were very comfortable with using debit cards, which naturally require a PIN input. Moving credit cards to chip and pin was a natural extension.

In the United States, credit cards reign supreme, so consumers are comfortable swiping and signing.

Cox proposed that chip and signature cards may be an incremental step to chip and PIN, after all, US consumers and merchants need to get comfortable changing their habits.

It’s unclear what security may look like some point in the future, but the RILA believes that until banks and card issuers close off these security loopholes, card fraud will remain a clear danger to retailers.