Visa Upgrades Systems To Support 3D-Secure 2.0

Visa announced Tuesday (May 30) that it is rolling out enhancements to its Verified by Visa service, a global solution designed to make online purchases more secure by helping ensure payments are made by the rightful owner of the Visa account.

In a press release, the credit card company said that with the upgrade, financial institutions and merchants  would be better able to authenticate consumers and reduce fraud on transactions made via a mobile or desktop browser, app or connected devices. As part of the upgrade, Visa said it was enhancing its systems to support 3-D Secure 2.0, the next generation of a security platform that was pioneered by Visa and is underpinning the Verified bv Visa Service.

“Authentication technology has come a long way since the days of magnetic stripes and signatures. As the way we make payments has changed, so too has the need for innovation to keep transactions secure. The vast majority of Europeans have used a mobile device to make payments, but fraud and security concerns remain the number one deterrent,” said Mike Lemberger, Visa’s senior vice president for product solutions Europe in the press release. “By helping to lead the development of 3DS 2.0, we are able to offer an enhanced authentication service that makes these payments both faster and more secure. For European retailers, this helps address the ongoing challenge of reducing cart abandonment in an e-commerce market.  This update also provides all the necessary tools to ensure PSD2 compliance for card payments – a major benefit which should not be underestimated.”

According to Visa, the technology behind 3-D Secure 2.0 provides more tools for issuers and merchants to customize the authentication process and at the same time ensure the consumer experience remains easy and fast.  Visa said studies show checkout time can be reduced by 85 percent and, in turn, cart abandonment is anticipated to decline by as much as 70 percent thanks to the new technology.

Visa said it will keep in place current rules for merchant-attempted transactions using 3-D Secure until March 2019, and that the new rules will take effect at the beginning of April 2019, giving merchants and issuers time to pilot and test the system. Merchants and issuers are already working on their implementations, and Visa expects early adoption to begin in the latter half of 2017, the company noted in the press release.