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Americas

United States
Puerto Rico

Europe

Denmark
Germany
Ireland
Norway
Poland
Sweden
United Kingdom
Spain

What has PSD2 and Strong Customer Authentication really achieved?

The Payment Services Directive 2 was more than the catchily-named sequel to the initial Payment Services Directive. It intended to make modern, cross-border digital payments easier, faster, and safer for everyone.

Although PSD2 was the name of the regulation itself, at its core was Strong Customer Authentication, also known as SCA.

SCA introduced a process to better identify genuine card holders by having them provide two or more of the following: 

  • Knowledge: Something the user ‘KNOWS’ (a password or PIN)
  • Possession: Something the user ‘HAS’ (a smartphone or token)
  • Inherence: Something the user ‘IS’ (a fingerprint or facial recognition)

SCA also paved the way for payments optimisation based on Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA) - one of the available SCA exemptions - to help businesses maximise online sales while minimising fraud.  

If you have a high volume of low-risk transactions under €500 or equivalent in local currency, our award-winning Transaction Risk Analysis is a service enabling SCA exemption for eligible transactions, providing a frictionless checkout for customers, reducing cart abandonment and increasing sales for your business. While the industry norm for exemptions tops out between €100 and €250, our ability to offer €500 exemptions is due to our below average fraud rates and expertise in this field. Talk to us to find out more.

For the support we gave our customers throughout the PDS2 regulation changes, Elavon Europe was named Best Service to Business at the UK Card and Payment Awards 2022. Our Transaction Risk Analysis was an integral part of that overall achievement.

How has PSD2 and SCA benefitted my business?

What have been the downsides to PSD2?

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