BNM: Change to PIN-based cards by June 30

KOTA KINABALU - Bank Negara has reminded payment cardholders to change to the new personal identification number (PIN)-based card by June 30 to enable payments at point-of-sales (POS) terminals that will only accept PIN-based cards instead of the signature verification method.

Bank Negara director of payment systems policy department Tan Nyat Chuan said the signature verification method for all payment cards such as debit and credit cards would be turned off, effective July 1.

"Migration to PIN-based payment cards is one of the initiatives to further enhance the security of the payment card infrastructure.

"Similar to the automated teller machine (ATM) transaction, cardholders will be required to enter a six-digit PIN when making payment card transactions at POS terminals," he told a press conference on the migration to the PIN-based payment cards in Kota Kinabalu on Thursday.

Tan said about RM300 million has been spent on the migration process since it began in 2014 with about 25 million cards.

He said that as of March 31, 2017, about 99.6% of POS terminals nationwide have been upgraded and 91.6% of payment cards have been replaced, but some 2 million cardholders have yet to replace their old cards with the PIN-based cards.

Of the two million cards yet to be replaced, some 1.7 million were used solely for ATM transactions, he said.

"However, ATM transactions using the old cards can still be done only until the end of this year," he added, stressing that changing to the PIN-based cards required no additional cost.

Tan also advised merchant banks to carry out awareness programmes to promote PIN usage for greater protection against fraud. - Bernama