NEW YORK – According to a report from CNN Money, Walmart’s payments expert believes that the impending implementation of EMV "chip & signature" cards is barely an improvement on security and fraud. Speaking at a conference last week, Mike Cook, Walmart's assistant treasurer and a senior vice president, reiterated that the world’s largest retailer would have preferred "chip and PIN" to better protect against card fraud. 

"The fact that we didn't go to PIN is such a joke," Cook told CNNMoney, according to the news source.

"Signature is worthless as a form of authentication," Cook said during a presentation at last week’s payments conference. "If you look at the Target and Home Depot breaches ... not a single PIN debit card needed to be reissued in those breaches. The card number was worthless to the individual thief and fraudsters, because they didn't know the PIN."

Cook knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fraud prevention. Unlike many smaller retailers, Walmart has been ahead of the curve on card security, having started installing EMV-capable payment terminals at its stores eight years ago. They are one of the few chains to have activated their chip-enabled card readers well in advance of October’s EMV implementation.

Walmart is certainly not alone, however, numerous retailers (and merchant organizations, including NACS) have been critical of the banking industry's decision to avoid PINs on credit cards, calling it a half-step in the right direction. (For more information, read last year’s NACS Magazine article, “Half Covered.”)