It’s easier to pay for things online than ever before. But that means that there are more and more people out there looking to take advantage by stealing card details and information.
This means keeping customers protected from online fraud should be a major priority for merchants.
To help protect more and more people against card fraud, Sage Pay will be rolling out 3D Secure 2.0 in September 2019.
Better known as ‘Verified by Visa’ and ‘Mastercard SecureCode’, 3DSecure is a Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) mechanism that will be introduced by merchant banks and acquirers over the coming months.
Sage Pay has advised that how a merchant’s website is integrated with Sage Pay will determine the steps they need to take to ensure they are ready for these changes. It’s also important that merchants have the right compliance tools in place for when 3D Secure 2.0 is introduced.
What’s Strong Customer Authentication?
Strong Customer Authentication is an additional level of security authentications required for online payments in excess of €30. It forms part of the EU Payments Service Directive – better known as PSD2 – and works as follows.
There’s a requirement for a two-step authentication process in order to verify online payments. These steps include:
- Something you know, like a PIN number
- Something you have, such as your mobile phone
- Something you are, like your fingerprint
Come September, transactions may be declined if they don’t have this two-step validation.
Once introduced, 3D Secure 2.0 will be the main way of authenticating card payments. That means that online retailers looking to ensure they’re adhering to the highest levels of online payment security should enable it on their Sage payment gateway.
Updated November 2019
While Strong Customer Authentication was anticipated to come into force in September 2019, an 18-month extension was announced by the Financial Conduct Authority.
What does this mean for ecommerce businesses?
In short, the new cut off date is March 2021 giving businesses significantly more time to become compliant. However Sage Pay have said that official support for 3DSv1 will end in January 2021, meaning merchants have a little over 12-months to act.
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