Interestingly, I've never received a default bank pin in Ireland that wouldn't have 2 repeated digits in it. I have a theory they do this to make pins easier to memorise.
I stuck with my old bank who used a secure entry keypad so I could set my pin.
When I last did it the PIN was a secure keypad, and online banking required them to send a letter and then authenticate in branch.
Photo ID was required for both steps.