Payments & Strong Customer Authentication - A Guide to the New Requirements for Financial Services

Introduction

The requirements on strong customer authentication (‘SCA’) are designed to enhance the security of payments and reduce the risk of fraud.

They are bringing significant changes to how payments are made/verified.

The requirements affect not only authorised firms that provide payment services (such as merchant acquirers, payment processors and card issuers) but also unregulated firms that accept payments (such as online retailers and high street shops).

For payment firms which are directly subject to these requirements, it is therefore important to understand what the requirements are and what expectations the regulator has with respect to their implementation.

Whilst SCA has already been implemented in the EU, the UK had in place a transition period for card-based e-commerce transactions, given the complexity and potential impact on the industry.

The transition period expired 14 March 2022, so non-compliance may result in supervisory or enforcement action from the Financial Conduct Authority.

This new virtual classroom seminar is primarily directed at authorised payment service providers, with a detailed discussion on the SCA requirements, the exemptions available and the issues/debates surrounding some of the requirements.

Unregulated firms such as merchants are also welcome as it may be beneficial to understand for example, the reasons behind some of the requirements requested by their payment service providers because of implementing SCA.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• SCA requirements
• The three elements of SCA - knowledge, possession, and inherence:
• What each element means
• What may constitute each of the three elements
• The differences between the EU and UK
• Exemptions from SCA, including who can use the relevant exemptions
• Timing of implementation (EU v UK)
• Implications for cross-border payments

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.