Strong Customer Authentication

A PSD2 Requirement

What is it?

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is a regulatory requirement to reduce fraud and further secure online, contactless payments.

This requirement is put forth and made mandatory by the EU Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2).

For merchants and financial institutions in Europe to accept and adhere to SCA, they must incorporate additional authentication methods into the checkout flow using 3DS solutions.

Requirements

SCA requires authentication to include at least two of the below three elements

Location

Most card payments and all bank transfers within Europe require SCA, they are considered customer-initiated transactions.

For online payments, mandated SCA applies to transactions involving businesses and cardholders with issuing banks located in the European Economic Area (EEA).