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Is your business ready for changes to how you take payments online?

Check your readiness to comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) by 14 March 2022.

24 Feb 2022, 2 min read

What is Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)?

A new set of rules that aims to make online card payments more secure. Your customers’ checkout experience will be different: they will be required to complete an extra security step to complete the purchase

When does it apply?

The rules apply in full for card payments on 14 March 2022.

Why does it matter to you?

If merchants, booking agents and solution providers do not act, noncompliant e-commerce card-based payment transactions could be declined.

Implementation of these new rules may require testing and specific changes to your payment process. You should take steps now to ensure that your business is not at risk of declined transactions.

What do I need to do now to minimise business disruption?

  1. Contact the organisation processing your online card payments for help getting ready
  2. Familiarise yourself with SCA and understand the impact on your customers’ checkout experience
  3. Update and test your checkout processes in advance to minimise your customers’ online card payments from being declined

The CBI worked with industry and the financial services sector to secure an extension to the implementation of SCA in 2019. These measures are designed to tackle online fraud, particularly for card not present transactions, and will apply when a customer accesses their account online, when making an electronic payment and when carrying out any action through remote channels.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) subsequently announced and agreed to a managed rollout for SCA with UK Finance – giving the industry extra time to implement SCA.

The final deadline will be 14 March 2022 and the CBI is working with the FCA to assess merchants’ readiness for these changes.

Issuers of credit and debit cards are ramping up the number of soft declines of transactions that are not compliant with SCA, or otherwise increasing checks on the compliance of all e-commerce transactions that are in-scope for SCA.

UK Finance’s expectation is that the ramp up will help to encourage merchants to be ready to comply.

With the deadline approaching, we’re keen to understand your experiences of the ramp-up, and the current state of merchant readiness.

Speak to Megan to let us know if your business is ready or if you have any concerns.