Banks or Visa and MC get more for processing signature verification than they do for PIN verification.
So they want to keep using signatures while the merchants want to use PIN.
Typical.
Hopefully, the consumer can easily change his or her PIN.
I think the PIN is encoded onto the CHIP so I would expect a new card is needed. I just ordered a replacement CHIP & PIN card from Penfed on their advice since the prompt for a PIN didn't even work at a car park in Canada and I had to ask a Canadian friend to use his PIN card.
Anyway I asked if I could choose my own PIN like I did when first ordering my current CHIP & PIN card and she said no, it had to be a computer generated PIN.