Bank Bets You Can Remember Another PIN
A regional bank in upstate New York is challenging the industry belief that American credit-card users can’t deal with one more thing to remember.
First Niagara Financial Group Inc. MMFNFGMM said on Wednesday that it is rolling out new chip-enabled credit and debit cards that require customers to enter a personal identification number instead of a signature.
That bucks the industry trend, in which the vast majority of banks and others issuing new chip cards have chosen the signature option, even though merchants say that PINs are more secure.
Chip and PIN cards are used in most other countries, but U.S. bank executives have said they don’t think Americans want to be burdened at the checkout line with having to remember a new four-digit code.
First Niagara executives decided to go with the PIN method because they believe it is better for customers, said Justin Bigham, head of consumer product management at the Buffalo, N.Y. bank.