✔ Prepare for SCA
We talked before about Strong Customer Authorisation – a new standard of authentication that your higher value transactions will need to pass. For transactions that aren’t exempt, your customer will need to provide two of the three following forms of authentication: possession, knowledge, and inherence.
It’s not your responsibility as a merchant to ensure that your systems are SCA compliant – that lies with the issuing bank (i.e. your customer’s bank). But you can prepare for the SCA by getting ready for 3D Secure 2.0 – the upcoming standard for card transaction authorisation.
Make sure the current checkout experience on your website is optimised. This means that your online checkout needs to contain the right fields to let you verify a payment under the new regulations. By calibrating the experience for your customer with SCA methods, you’ll be paving the way to be fully PSD2 compliant by September.
✔ Evaluate your current checkout payment process
The biggest PSD2-related worry for you is increased friction at the online checkout stage. And it’s a relevant worry – if you don’t clue yourself up on what the new regulation means for your business, it could have an impact on your sales and conversion rates.
Different payment methods are suitable for different industries and business types. While there won’t be too much upheaval with face-to-face transactions, ecommerce businesses will be affected. If this is you, you’ll need to ensure you’re giving customers as many ways to verify themselves as possible.
But that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice style – you’ll need to also make the flow of authentication in an online payment as smooth and seamless as it can be.
✔ Become a Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP)
Remember the PISPs we just talked about? New digital services that make payment smoother, and quicker? Well, turns out your business can become one. This would allow you to connect directly to your customer’s account, and thus result in less friction – and less cost – when taking payments online.
Because of the rigorous checks and application process involved, this option is better-suited to larger ecommerce merchants. To apply, you’ll need to go through the FCA.
✔ Encourage customers to whitelist your business
Customers that have ‘whitelisted’ your business are automatically exempt from SCA requirements. And in this new, fertile payments landscape, being on your customers’ whitelist is gold dust.
Not only will you be a business that inspires trust and confidence, but you’ll be able to offer your customers instant verification – even on higher value payments. The moral? If you’ve got frequent customers, make sure they’re putting you on their whitelist.
✔ Consider who you use to take payments
All banks are mandated to have SCA compliance in place by September 14th this year – at the latest. However, there will likely be key differences in how those banks support the merchants that they work with.
Get in touch with your acquiring bank to find out what kind of support they can offer you in the transition to PSD2 and SCA compliance. Ask it about its progress towards the deadline of compliance, and how the changes will impact on your current fraudulent transaction rate. The bottom line? If your current bank or PSP isn’t performing, it might be time to consider ringing the changes.