BNM: 23 million payment cards now PIN-enabled

About 23 million payment cards in Malaysia have been replaced with personal identification number- (PIN) enabled cards to-date, Bank Negara Malaysia said.

In a statement today, the central bank said all payment card terminals deployed in the country, including outdoor payment terminals at petrol stations, had also been upgraded to support PIN.

"The vast majority (94 per cent) of cardholders are already using PIN, with only six per cent of PIN-eligible card transactions reported to be still using signature verification as at May 31, 2017," it said.

BNM earlier announced that all local payment card transactions would only be verified using PIN effective July 1, 2017, whereby signature verification would no longer be accepted from then.

It suggested cardholders who have not converted their payment cards into PIN-enabled cards to contact their banks or non-bank payment service providers immediately for replacement.

-- BERNAMA