Visa was the only payment network that hadn’t announced a plan to no longer require a signature during checkout at a store. Discover, Mastercard & American Express had all already announced their plans to discontinue this requirement. Today Visa announced that a signature would no longer be required starting on April 1st, 2018.
- “Visa is committed to delivering secure, fast and convenient payments at the point of sale,” said Dan Sanford, vice president, consumer products, Visa. “Our focus is on continually evolving the market towards dynamic authentication methods such as EMV chip, as well as investing in emerging capabilities that leverage advanced analytics and biometrics. We believe making the signature requirement optional for EMV chip-enabled merchants is the responsible next step to enhance security and convenience at the point of sale.”
I’m honestly surprised it has taken Visa this long to make their announcement. Signature requirements do not help prevent fraud and are nothing more than security theater designed to make consumers feel safer than they actually are. If the payment networks were serious about reducing fraud rates then EMV chip + PIN would be mandatory. The reason they haven’t moved to mandatory PIN is because they are scared that requiring a PIN will reduce the likelihood that a card will be used (either because it slows down the transaction or because the cardholder forgets their PIN).
Given that now all four of the major payment networks have announced these changes, it’s likely that individual retailers will also stop requiring signatures when these go live (these announcements are just stating that Visa/Mastercard/Discover/American Express will no longer require a signature for fraud liability reasons, individual retailers will still be able to request a signature).
Hat tip to One Mile At A Time
