According to banking experts, as they try to push hi-tech ways to pay, by the year 2020, the four digit PIN will be phased out. This is with the endeavor to launch means of payment through fingerprint-readers and mobile phones.
As banks replace the four-digit password with new technology that has the ability to detect your fingerprints, vein pattern or voice, experts have claimed that within the next five years, the PIN number will not be applicable anymore.
At the moment, more and more banks are suggesting that instead of the typical "chip and Pin", customers can now use hi-tech readers or effortlessly do contactless payments in shops and ticket terminals. This way, banks find it safer and more discounts are being offered for using the new technology.
Moreover, some of the major banks like Halifax and Barclays, claims that PINS are examples of a "flawed" security barrier which fails to protect its users against fraudulent activities.
Introduced in the 1960s, the so-called "personal identification numbers" was launched with the invention of cash machines. Although criminals are still able to exploit this weakness due to the fact that it can be written down or guessed, there are around 10,000 different variations of these PINs.
Under banking rules, writing down a Pin, even in a disguised form for customers, is considered as "negligent" and would automatically mean that their bank does not have to return stolen money.
For more than any year in the past decade except for 2008, but just last year, the British banking industry lost an amount of almost £480m due to card fraud.
As per David Webber of Intelligent Environments, the PIN will be good as dead in 2020 after claiming that a lot of customers will lose faith in its ability to protect their money. Intelligent Environments is also known to be the provider of mobile payments software to UK high street banks, including Lloyds Bank and Halifax.
