Not quite true. THe correct verfison of the statement would be: "only CUs are issuing them to new customers".

That qualification is necesarry, since Bank Of Montreal/Harris Bank is quite happy to send anyone who already has a Diners Club account a chip & PIN card. So they are issuing them, and they are a bank. It's just that they aren't accepting new applications for (personal) Diners Club accounts (yet?). But that doesn't the fact that they are a bank and they are issuing true chip & PIN cards.

But what from I jsut read above, I'm not sure what the difference is between not accepting new applications and making your application process so convoluted it's impossible to complete it without losing your mind!