Operations

Mastercard scraps signature requirement

Restaurant servers will no longer have to ask guests paying with Mastercard to sign their receipts as of April 2018, a move intended to speed transactions.

The credit card giant revealed the change in policy on Friday, saying a signature no longer provides much additional security in an age of card-embedded chips and biometric verification. It also noted that 80% of Mastercard transactions are already completed without a signature, and noted that consumers had voiced a preference for skipping the custom in the remaining 20% for the sake of speed.

mastercard

The signature requirement will be dropped for both credit and debit cards, Mastercard said.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Marketing

Meet the restaurant industry's new government adversary

Reality Check: The FTC wants the business to change several longstanding operating conventions. Has it heard why that's a bad idea?

Financing

Why are so many restaurant chains filing for bankruptcy?

The Bottom Line: A combination of rising costs and weakening sales, and more expensive debt, has caused real problems for restaurant chains. But the industry is also really difficult.

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Trending

More from our partners