Mastercard to Bid Farewell to Signature Requirement in 2018

ETA member Mastercard Inc. will drop its rule requiring merchants to get signatures for transactions made with its credit and debit cards in North America, the card network announced Thursday morning.

The change will go into effect April 13, 2018, Mastercard Executive Vice President of U.S. Development Linda Kirkpatrick announced in a blog post, citing state-of-the-art security systems like tokenization and new biometric authentication capabilities as reasons for the signature’s growing obsolescence.

“While security remains paramount, we know that convenience is also a large part of what consumers want when they are shopping and paying,” Kirkpatrick said in the post, “The move will help merchants speed customers through checkout, provide more consistent experiences for every customer with every purchase and should decrease costs associated with safely storing signatures. ”

The move away from the original payment card authentication tool is an indication of overall market trends as ultra-secure yet frictionless payment experiences continue to be in high-demand from merchants and consumers alike.

“Layers of security are the best means for protecting transactions, accounts and cardholders,” said ETA CEO Jason Oxman, “ETA applauds Mastercard for focusing on innovative security initiatives beyond the signature, which will drive benefits for our members and the payments ecosystem.”