If you put your card in a cash machine the first thing it asks for is the PIN, Right.
If you get the pin wrong does/should it tell you/reject card at that stage or does it allow you to request a service, i.e. cash withdrawal then deny you.
The reason for asking is I have for the first time tried to use a card from a bank that I thought I knew the PIN for. It let me in to choose what service I required, but rejected a £10.00 cash request. I thought that it should 'kick me out' at the first point. Anyone??
Yeah I think it's all to do with speeding up the service - it presents the "requirements" screen while checking your PIN, thus saving some milliseconds.
The differing terms for Republic/Six Counties between those from the Republic and the groupings north of the border are an interesting subject to study.