We are living through unparalleled times. The COVID 19 pandemic is causing worldwide disruption on a scale that few thought possible – stocks and shares in free-fall, restrictions on travel, on socialising, entertainment, and on sport. There’s panic buying in the shops and online grocery sales are booming even as retailers struggle to manage the demand.
Amid all this confusion, the European Bank’s new PSD2 rules and regulations about Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) are still coming quickly down the line. Arguably, as more customers choose to shop online and self-isolate at home, the need for greater security for online transactions is getting ever more urgent. Especially as unscrupulous fraudsters and profiteers are accelerating their efforts to cash in.
It does feel a little wrong to be talking ‘business as usual’ at the moment, or indeed to promote a technology solution. We are certainly not in a ‘business as usual’ situation, but the requirement to be able to apply an SCA-compliant process to any online transaction above the €30 limit is becoming very urgent for retailers and consumers.
The problem, as I see it, is that many of those in the payment process chain are relying on others to solve the problem and deliver the solution. Whether it is the merchants, the payment gateway providers, the payment acquirers, or the card issuers; I fear there is a belief that someone will solve the SCA problem for them all.
The card issuers were, in fairness, working towards a solution using SMS messages to deliver authentication codes. Unfortunately, the European Bank has ruled that method is not compliant with the new rules – we explained why in our earlier blog here.
Therefore, as things stand, transactions are going to be slowed down significantly when the rules come into force. Without a compliant technical solution, shoppers will face unwanted extra steps in their check out process and sales will suffer. Those retailers, merchants and others in the transaction change that take the right steps to put in place SCA compliant check-out systems themselves, rather than waiting for others, will be at a market advantage.
Our patented Onescan Padlock payment exchange uses a tokenised QR code to trigger and authorise a completely secure transaction. Fully compliant with PSD2 and the SCA regulations, the codes can be displayed on-screen, on POS terminals or even on printed material.
Onescan is truly ‘contactless’. Simply pointing your smartphone camera at the image on your own computer or tablet screen, or at point-of-sale terminal or a poster is enough to trigger the secure check out process on your screen – and in the case of a screen-based purchase interaction, there is also confirmation on that screen when the secure transaction in completed.
Onescan transactions also have no upper or lower limit, making it ideal to buy the streaming box sets that are keeping us all entertained at home, as well as place the order for the weekly grocery shop online.
For the customer, there’s no need to download any software or applications in advance. They simply use the camera on their smartphone to capture our Padlock QR code which triggers the Onescan secure payment authentication process. Onescan’s Padlock environment is much more than a web link – the patented process protects your personal data while using a ‘token-based’ system to exchange information with the payment company.
Onescan is easy for those in the payment chain to integrate, and as the consumers have nothing to install, there is a vast army of shoppers already set up and ready to use Onescan.
To find out more about how you could deploy quickly, contact us.
Richard
Richard H Harris