There is still a segment of US cardholders unfamiliar with a PIN based card, and one of the card associations is recommending the simpler EMV implementation of signature only. As a result there is some concern and hesitation by the card issuers regarding the acceptance of the PIN and its usage by the cardholder, and whether this will be a deterrent to using the card.
ACI’s experience around the world has demonstrated that cardholders, regardless of age, will embrace the adoption of the PIN if they are properly educated about its value as an additional security measure to a secure card. One the major pitfalls to avoid is issuing new cards without PIN capabilities or allowing fallback to magstripe only to be accommodated without proper assessment and justification, as this will impact the return on investment and give fraudsters an opportunity to capitalize on such weakness.
While the PIN does not have to be stored on the chip, as this introduces additional management and synchronization processes, there is a great benefit for using the PIN and taking advantage of the related savings. This will come from the decline in fraud and the reduction in the processing of chargebacks.
Selling the cardholder on the value of using a PIN will ensure that all the related benefits are understood and will result in quicker adoption.
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