Dive Brief:

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation Friday released an alert about point-of-sales and card-not-present cyber-fraud, urging merchants, banks, and consumers to use EMV technology’s capacity to use a personal identification number.

• Using a PIN is more secure than using a signature, the FBI warned. Many retailers have also urged the use of PINs, but most banks in the U.S. have not enabled the PIN feature and would have to re-issue cards that work with PINs.

• The FBI also urged increased vigilance for card-not-present fraud, including taking measures when accepting payment over the phone, and having technology to securely process payments online.

Dive Insight:

Many retailers have advocated for banks to issue cards with the full “chip-and-PIN” capabilities that are now familiar abroad — where a customer enters a one-use personal identification number to authenticate the transaction. 

Banks here have opted for signature authentication, which they argue is secure enough and easier for U.S. consumer to accept.

But retailers say that PINs are in common use, that Americans would accept a bit of added authentication for the sake of security, and that the additional layer of security is worth it. A few banks have indeed issued the cards with PIN capacity, but most haven’t. 

“Retailers have long-argued that PINs are essential to providing cardholders with the security that they deserve,” Retail Industry Leaders Association EVP Brian Dodge said in a statement. “The FBI’s alert should be a wake-up call to the banks and card networks that continue to stand in the way of making PIN authentication the standard in the U.S. just as it has been around the world for years.”