Change to pin-based cards by June 30: Bank Negara
Published on: Friday, May 05, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Payment card holders who have yet to replace their cards with the new Personal Identification Number (PIN) enabled ones have been reminded to do so as soon as possible.Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Payment Systems Policy Department Director Tan Nyat Chuan said effective July 1, card holders must use PIN for all domestic transactions conducted using locally issued payment cards at Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals."Signature verification will no longer be accepted and there will be no extension to the deadline of July 1.
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"Card holders who have not received the new PIN-based payment cards should contact their card issuers immediately as card holders have until June 30 to familiarise themselves with PIN usage," he said during a media briefing on the migration to PIN-based payment cards at BNM, here, Thursday.He further said card holders who have received the new PIN-based payment cards are advised to activate the cards, select PIN and start using PIN for every transaction."Merchants should also promote the use of PIN for every transaction to benefit from greater protection against fraud.
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"Card issuers are expected to facilitate card holders to replace their payment cards while the acquirers are expected to continuously engage with merchants to educate them on the need to accept PIN for every transaction."Merchants should reach out to their acquirers for the necessary assistance to accept PIN."
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Tan said the migration to PIN-based payment cards is one of the initiatives to further enhance the security of the payment card infrastructure."Similar to ATM transactions, card holders will be required to enter a six-digit PIN when making payment card transactions at the merchants' POS terminals."The industry has spent about RM300 million for the migration to PIN-based payment cards."As at end-March this year, about 91.6 per cent of payment cards have been replaced and 99.6 per cent of terminals have been upgraded."The balance of the payment cards that have yet to be replaced comprise mainly ATM-active debit cards that are used only at ATMs and not used at POS terminals," he said.Currently there are about 24.5 million payment cards being used in the country with about two million of them yet to be replaced.The new payment cards are also equipped with contactless EMV chip which provides card holders with the convenience of making low value purchases without the need to enter PIN or to sign."Contactless EMV chip payment cards are equipped with safety features which make them a secure payment instrument."Among the features are protection from being cloned or counterfeited, a fraud monitoring system, transactions are subject to limits set by the individual card issuers and contactless readers are configured to accept one transaction at a time."Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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