There was a marvellous movie back in the 80’s called “The Year of Living Dangerously”. It chronicled the struggles of a group of people trying to go about their lives during a period of civil unrest. The film’s title has since entered popular culture and language. Substitute ‘pandemic’ for unrest and the title might be appropriate for both of the last two years.

There is a well-known saying about only delaying the inevitable – and that seems to be applying to the UK’s implementation of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) systems under the terms of the European Bank’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

If there’s one thing the technologists love, it’s a three-or-four letter abbreviation. And the world of e-commerce is awash both with the abbreviations , and also with solutions that claim to solve the problems associated with adopting or implementing the technology concerned.

The European Union’s PSD2 regulations first came into force more than three years ago – January 2018 to be precise. However, some aspects of the regulations have proven harder to bring into play than others. Just this month for example, the EBA published an opinion and set deadlines on the need to remove obstacles that are preventing compliance with secure account access regulations for some payment providers.

Payments consultancy CMSPI believes the looming deadline in Europe for retailers to comply with the regulations around Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for online sales could cause further damage to an industry already suffering from the effects of severely reduced in-store footfall.

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, on sport. There’s panic buying in the shops and online grocery sales are booming even as retailers struggle to manage the demand.

January 31, 2020 sees the UK ‘leave’ the European Union and begin the process of determining its future trading relationship with EU member countries and indeed the rest of the world. And it’s worth remembering that EU regulations tend to have impact on countries both within and without the European Union.

Regardless of Brexit, or the speed of adoption of PSD2, or the success of the challenger banks, or indeed the involvement of third parties, our Onescan solution provides the basis for consumers, retailers, and all the other players in the payments field to securely and speedily authorise transactions.

But you definitely can (SCA) with Onescan

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a new opinion on the Secure Customer Authentication (SCA) regulations scheduled to come into force this September. In a view that has caught many by surprise, the EBA says that those approaches that simply rely on One Time Passcodes (OTPs) sent by SMS do not actually comply with the new rules.