This is in fact the only reason for a signature, it does fuck all to identify somebody, even if merchants were to check it, which they never do.
But with the amount of CCTV nowadays, that's probably more reliable than a signature.
Also ironic that anybody would describe PINs as the next step, I can't remember a time before PINs were used. Even EMV contactless payments are pretty common now, and provide benefits to the banks (liability shift/less chance of PIN compromise) and customers (quicker).
It's not a tech problem, it's a cultural one. You don't realise how much less friction, less hassle it can be until you've lived it. From my time in the US, it seems like it isn't exposed to outside ideas that much, maybe due to it's size.
I wouldn’t call it a cultural problem: there are many people in the US who really want contactless payments, and there is no group of voters or consumers campaigning against them for “tradition’s sake” (or any reason).
It seems like a legacy tech problem, held up by the same institutional forces that keep large financial systems in COBOL or FORTRAN.
This is in fact the only reason for a signature, it does fuck all to identify somebody, even if merchants were to check it, which they never do.
But with the amount of CCTV nowadays, that's probably more reliable than a signature.
Also ironic that anybody would describe PINs as the next step, I can't remember a time before PINs were used. Even EMV contactless payments are pretty common now, and provide benefits to the banks (liability shift/less chance of PIN compromise) and customers (quicker).
It's not a tech problem, it's a cultural one. You don't realise how much less friction, less hassle it can be until you've lived it. From my time in the US, it seems like it isn't exposed to outside ideas that much, maybe due to it's size.