When will Chip-and-PIN come to the U.S.?

Hopefully by now as a merchant you have upgraded to the chip-and-signature EMV POS terminals. If you haven’t give us a call, we can help. You were probably a little unhappy that you had to upgrade your system to what is essentially a half-measure. Don’t worry, you are not alone. Of course the positive side of it is that with the liability shift that occurred last October you are covered. So, when is chip-and-PIN technology going to replace chip-and-signature?

While chip-and-PIN will not stop credit card fraud (thieves are finding vulnerabilities), it does provide the most secure transaction system that the world has to offer and will certainly make the thieves work harder. Chip-and-Pin has been active in the United Kingdom since 2004 and they found retail fraud dropped 67%. Canada saw a 55% drop, so the technology is working. It is understandable why it has taken longer in the U.S. than any other nation, after all there are 10 million POS terminals that needed to be replaced along with 1.2 billion cards to replace but, had we begun the process over a decade ago like most of the rest of the G20 we would be much further along.

The chip placed on the card is what determines whether the card is chip-and-PIN or chip-and-signature. So, to upgrade to chip-and-PIN will take several more years at the very least. The U.S. has one thing the rest of the G20 doesn’t have to deal with (with one exception): 300,000,000+ people. To replace 1.2 billion EMV cards after just replacing those cards is not going to be a cheap proposition and many card issuers will certainly balk at it, especially considering not all the chip-and-signature cards have been upgraded yet.