I live in France, and I have a debit card issued by my bank. When it expires, I receive a new one with the same pin number. I recently asked my banker to issue another card (a different one, for another bank account), and he told me it can have the same pin number as the previous card.
Does that mean that my bank, or Visa, is actually storing, or is able to access, pin numbers of every credit card they issue? If so, is a specific method used to ensure the security of this information?