Barclaycard: So Far, So Good for Strong Customer Authentication

Barclaycard: So Far, So Good for Strong Customer Authentication

Barclaycard has reported no negative impact from introducing Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) last weekend. 





The new user authentication rules mandated by the European Union's revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) were introduced by the UK's leading acquirer on Saturday, September 14. 





Barclaycard analyzed transaction data from September 14 and 15 to check what effect the new two-step authentication rules were having. The company found that merchants had not experienced an increase in abandoned transactions, nor had they seen a spike in declined payments.  





"Our data offers encouraging news for merchants, whose transaction volumes have been, so far, unaffected by the go-live of SCA," said Paul Adams, director of acquiring at Barclaycard Payment Solutions.





SCA legislation officially came into force across Europe on September 14; however, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has given each member state the option to apply for extensions. 





One country that took them up on the offer was the UK, which secured an 18-month extension to the deadline. The UK's financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), announced in August that the country's payments and e-commerce providers would have until March 14, 2021 to achieve full compliance. 





Action will not be taken by the FCA before that date against firms that haven't implemented SCA, provided that "there is evidence that they have taken the necessary steps to comply with the plan." However, the FCA is expecting third-party providers to implement SCA for online banking by  barclaycard strong customer authentication