A headline on The Atlantic website asks, "Why Is the U.S. Determined to Have the Least-Secure Credit Cards in the World?"
The article points out that while EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) technology (AKA chip-and-pin) has proven superior to the magnetic stripe system used in the U.S. when it comes to reducing credit card fraud, there remain a host of obstacles to its full-fledged adoption here.
The author of the article, Josephine Wolff, writes that one action that is particularly perplexing is the decision by some to eschew the use of chip-and-pin for less secure chip-and-signature cards. In fact, Ms. Wolff offers this as the answer to the question raised in the article's title.
Last summer and into early fall, as discussed on RetailWire, retailers and financial institutions were engaged in finger pointing over the Oct. 1 launch of EMV cards. Retailers said banks and credit card companies weren't ready to hit the ground running, while banks maintained the same of merchants.
Personal experience tells me that a number of chains locally came online past the deadline date. Others with point-of-sale terminals for EMV cards continue to have customers swipe instead of using the PIN function.
- Why Is the U.S. Determined to Have the Least-Secure Credit Cards in the World? - The Atlantic
- Are retailers ready for the EMV deadline? - RetailWire