U.S. credit card networks to phase out signature requirements this month

NEW YORK, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Four of the largest U.S. credit card networks -- American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa -- will stop requiring their clients' signatures for most transactions later this month.

The process will make signature, an old way of shop owners verifying identity of clients, gradually disappear.

The change would apply to EMV cards, so-called "chip cards" originally created by Europay, Mastercard and Visa, which set a technical payment standard.

The transition to EMV technology in the United States began in 2015, when merchants without EMV readers had to accept fraud liability for transactions. It triggered widespread complaints that chip transactions were much slower than the old swipe method.

However, with EMV-enabled merchants showing a huge 66-percent-drop in credit card fraud between June 2015 and June 2017, the transition has been accelerated.

Most other countries that use EMV technology have already abandoned signatures, replacing them with PIN numbers.

Credit card signatures won't vanish overnight, leaving retailers to decide whether they want to stop collecting them.

Besides, those older credit cards without the chips, or transactions at terminals without chip readers, will still require signatures. Enditem