DIY chain Wickes is poised to achieve chip-and-PIN compliance more than six months after the banking industry’s deadline for firms to have compatible devices.
The company has been using chip-and-PIN at its home improvement shops, but opted to delay implementation at its specialist showrooms.
Bank industry body Apacs says up to 15 per cent of retailers have yet to upgrade their systems for chip-and-PIN, about the same number as at the 14 February deadline.
‘There was a lot of discussion about how critical chip-and-PIN compliance is in the showroom,’ said Wickes IT business manager for store systems Carl Collins. ‘It is not as urgent because it tends to involve large orders delivered direct to customers, and the potential for fraud is lower.’
Datamonitor analyst Kieran Hines says some medium-sized companies delayed chip-and-PIN compliance because they could not see the financial benefits.
‘Merchants that do not offer chip-and-PIN are now liable for any fraud that could otherwise have been prevented,’ he said.
‘There are anecdotal reports that card thieves have been going to shops that they know do not have chip-and-PIN, so the risk is that these merchants will encounter higher levels of fraud.’
Wickes is rolling out S1 Corporation’s Postilion payment processing software to manage payments at 1,300 tills in 178 stores.
Collins expects significant savings from reduced fraud and £200,000 annual cost savings that Wickes previously incurred through rental of a payment processing system.
‘It is still early days, but before chip-and-PIN we noticed the number of fraud transactions was going up markedly,’ he said.
‘We are seeing very little fraud but some has moved to cheques, so we also automated an integrated cheque guarantee system.’
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