Sign no more: Card networks drop signature requirement

Signing a receipt can now be a thing of the past.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover dropped the signature requirement in the US in April.

Merchants will no longer be required to collect shopper signatures for US card-present transactions. In other words, in retail settings, consumers can zip through checkout— no pen or paper required.

This announcement from the card networks does not introduce any EMV changes.

Merchant terminals must continue to support selection of a signature as a card verification method (CVM), even if a cardholder does not sign. There is no change to cards, card design, or liability shift for merchants.

The switch takes pressure off of retailers and other companies to store signatures and process retrieval requests.

Since businesses will not need a shopper’s signature forchargebackdefense, they can begin to break US consumers of the “sign-on-the-dotted-line” habit. In exchange, merchants can provide customers with a faster and more convenient payment experience.

“This is a huge time-saver for retailers, and for consumers,” says Jean-Marc Thienpont, Adyen’s Managing Director of point of sale solutions. “Other types of security measures keep consumers far safer than the signature requirement.”

If merchants elect to no longer require a signature, they will need to update their point of sale systems if their terminals are integrated.

This may include no longer printing a signature line on paper receipts, or no longer prompting for digital signatures.

For standalone terminals, the change is completed remotely through Adyen’s platform, at merchant request.

Businesses may also choose to continue requiring a signature at checkout.

Please reach out toPOSSupport@adyen.comor your account manager if you wish to no longer collect shopper signatures.

Our team of payment experts can help assess if Adyen alone can support this change, or if additional changes will need to be made by your point of sale provider.