New EU Online Payment Security System – deadline 14 Sept

EFSA is affiliated to the 2 European Ecommerce bodies – EMOTA and Ecommerce Europe. Both are warning their members to prepare to meet their obligations under the new “Strong Customer Authentication” (SCA). SCA is the new European regulatory requirement to reduce fraud and make online payments more secure.  SCA requires  European consumers to use two factor authentication (2FA). A second factor such as a password or fingerprint will be required before the transaction is completed. If ecommerce businesses do not implement these changes, banks will automatically decline payments that do not meet the SCA criteria.

In SA we use the 3D security system that usually requires the consumer to wait for an OTP pin in order to verify payment. This leads to purchases being dropped and has been a bone of contention for some time. The Payments Association of SA (PASA) is now working on the introduction of a more user friendly but securer system, 3DSv2, which will reduce reliance on an OTP pin. 3DSv2 should be introduced by the end of the year. We will be covering that in future Newsletters.

We have also asked PASA to start the annual discussion on the preparation for Black Friday. We started this process with PASA, BankServ Africa and the credit card operators in 2017, and there has been a marked improvement in the treatment of online sales during this pre-Christmas sale. Takealot has launched its own special sales in July this year.