Worldpay Launches AI-Powered Service to Increase Payment Approvals

Worldpay has launched a service that is designed to increase payment approvals and reduce friction for merchants using 3D Secure (3DS) to authenticate payments.

This Authentication Optimization Service is widely available to merchants that accept payments in non-3DS regulated markets, the company said in a Monday (Oct. 27) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“With the Authentication Optimization Service, we’re using AI [artificial intelligence] and deep transaction insights to help merchants capture more revenue and deliver seamless payments, especially in markets where strong consumer authentication isn’t required,” Cindy Turner, chief product officer at Worldpay, said in the release.

The service uses AI to leverage insights from billions of global transactions processed by Worldpay and makes real-time decisions on when to apply 3DS to authenticate the transaction or directly authorize the payment based on risk, issuer preference and other factors, according to the release.

It routes transactions to 3DS authentication only when necessary, thereby reducing friction while maintaining security and compliance standards, the release said.

During a two-month pilot study, the service delivered a 5.5% improvement in authorization rates for a company that uses 3DS on all transactions, and a double-digit improvement in markets that do not require strong consumer authentication, per the release.

Visa is part of the Authentication Optimization Service, according to the release.

“Data-driven, adaptive approaches like this can help bridge the gap between merchant needs and issuer risk management — delivering better outcomes for everyone in the payments ecosystem,” James Mirfin, senior vice president, head of risk and identity solutions at Visa, said in the release.

Worldpay announced in June that it partnered with Visa to develop a 3DS solution that helps merchants reduce fraud while easing consumer friction and boost authorizations.

Turner said at the time in a press release that fraud mitigation is a balance of security, authentication, authorization, fraud detection and the impact on the shopping experience.

“This is why we partner with card networks like Visa to enhance authorizations — at the end of the day, it helps merchants achieve the highest standards of security while improving the overall customer experience,” Turner said.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and Worldpay collaboration “Going Global: How Payments Optimization Can Power an International Commerce Strategy” found that the right payments infrastructure can help boost authorization rates, reduce fraud and chargebacks, enhance user experience, increase global conversion and support improved cash flow.