Supermarket chain Tesco is to make its self-service checkouts chip-and-PIN-compliant within the next few months.

At the moment, customers using Tesco’s self-service tills are not required to enter their PINs or sign for transactions, despite the 14 February industry deadline for chip-and-PIN-enabled systems, which shifted liability for fraud to retailers.

Banking industry body Apacs says up to 15 per cent of retailers have yet to install chip-and-PIN systems (Computing, 22 June).

A Tesco spokeswoman told Computing that the company is aware of the issue, but says the technology encounters low levels of fraud.

‘None of the self-service checkouts is chip-and-PIN compliant, but we are in the process of developing and testing the technology and will hopefully have full rollout by the end of the summer,’ said the spokeswoman.

‘We have a number of other security measures that detect if a card has been reported as stolen or if it is a cloned card. There are also limits on how much customers can spend before a signature is required,’ she said.

Other major retailers such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have all installed chip-and-PIN at their supermarket self-service checkouts.

And London Underground says its self-service ticketing and Oyster card machines are also compliant with the technology.

Shell’s pay-at-pump service, another popular self-service option, is chip-and-PIN compliant, but many Tesco petrol stations are not.

Apacs spokeswoman Sandra Quinn says Tesco will have to bear the cost of financial fraud committed at non-compliant tills, and that all organisations must make a business decision based on the risk that they will be forced to pay for any fraudulent transactions.

‘Most self-service checkouts without chip-and-PIN will have either a spend limit or a list of items that cannot be bought at those checkouts,’ she said. ‘Most major retailers are chip-and-PIN compliant, but Tesco is not.’

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Further reading

DIY chain uses chip-and-PIN

Firms opt to delay PIN tills

Retailer adapts till system for chip-and-PIN