What is PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication?
The Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) was proposed in 2018 and enacted in 2019 by the European Commission and European Central Bank in order to fight fraud and increase security for eCommerce and online transactions in Europe. The PSD2 updates implemented the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) process for online transactions which requires cardholders to go through 3 layers (2 are mandatory) of authentication when making an online or e-commerce payment. PSD2 is applicable only for businesses and cardholders located in the European Economic Area (EEA) – but the standards are increasingly shaping authentication practices for online payments globally.