Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in your customer payment flow

Modified on Thu, 25 May 2023 at 11:32 AM

The new European directive on online payments introduces the notion of strong customer authentication (SCA) when you process with an online transaction (more info on our blog article on strong authentication for VOD services).

When you start an online payment, there will now be a two-factor authentication system, which will differ according to the banking institutions. Without authentication, many payments will be refused by your customers. banks.

The most common method of payments authentication is called 3D Secure. You may know 3D Secure by its trade names such as “Visa Secure” or “Mastercard Identity Check”. There is a new version, called 3D Secure 2, which will be available later this year.

No matter what method you use, customers must be on-session to authenticate, which means they need to be using your platform or app.

 

What changes for you and your customers?

Payment flow

This new step therefore adds several changes to the payment process:

  • At the time of payment, a new window will open (managed by the bank) with the request for strong authentication (e. g. 3D secure)

 

  • Once this window appears, there are 3 cases:
    • your customer gives the wrong authentication details, in which case the bank does not accept the payment
    • your customer does not have the information for the double authentication, and in this case he has 72 days to fill it in. On the OKAST side, no problem, we will automatically send an email with the link to continue the authentication. If this is not done, it will expire and your customer will have to restart the payment process
    • your customer gives the correct authentication parameters and these are accepted by the bank, the payment is then validated. It is possible that in some cases the bank may take up to 7 days to debit, in this case

 

 

Customer status in OKAST back-office

From your OKAST back-office, in Analytics > Customer transactions, you will be able to follow the different statuses related to transactions on the platform that are in “error”:

  • “incomplete” : in this case, the customer has not completed the double authentication process, he has 72 hours to finalize it. We will send an automatic email, but it is also recommended that you contact him on your side to encourage him to complete the process.
  • “incomplete_expired” : in this case the customer has not completed the authentication within 72 hours, he will have to start the payment process over again.

(to see all payment errors, see article HERE)