Not quite. In New Zealand it's common to have a PIN on Visa and MasterCard cards, but not on Amex. The PIN on my Visa & MC can be used for a Cash Advance at an ATM, or to approve a credit account purchase at an EFT terminal rather than signing. Amex does not support this.

There is no 'chip', and the PIN is encoded on the card. When you receive the first issue of the card, you have to go to the bank and get it encoded with the PIN. Subsequent card issues come with it pre-encoded.

BNZ a few years back tried really hard to launch a Smartcard enabled Visa, but it had almost no customer uptake (something like 15k accounts) so they killed it off. A number of EFT terminals around the place look like they could use Smartcards (infact I know a bunch of the white Omron ones can), but they've never been used for it.

Visa AsiaPac decreed in 2003 that all Visa cards issued must have Smartcard chips by 2006. Strangely enough my NZ Visa issued towards the end of 06.... doesn't.