Chase Plans to Issue Chip-and-PIN Cards This Year

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will issue chip-and-PIN credit cards this year, a deviation from the company's earlier plans to issue only chip-and-signature cards.

EMV cards are commonly called chip-and-PIN because issuers around the world typically require their customers to use a PIN when making payments. When the U.S. began migrating to EMV cards, Chase was among the first to choose a chip-and-signature approach.

The adoption of chip-and-PIN will strengthen the issuer's fraud prevention, Chase Card Services CEO Eileen Serra told investors Feb. 25 at the bank's annual Investor Day presentation.

For several years, Chase has offered more than a half dozen EMV chip-and-signature credit cards, Serra says. When contacted, Chase would not elaborate on whether the chip-and-PIN cards would replace or complement the bank's current chip-and-signature products.

Although many companies, including Visa, have defended chip-and-signature cards as easier and less expensive to deploy, others have said the chip-and-PIN approach is preferable because of the added security step of typing a PIN.

Banks and retailers have shown increased interest in converting to EMV-chip cards in the wake of the massive holiday-season data breach at Target, and the retailer has chosen to fast-track its own acceptance of EMV cards.

Chase also told investors it would add tokenization to its new Chase Wallet services to protect shoppers making online or mobile purchases.