How is SCA Impacting the Payments Sector?

In order to comply with SCA guidelines, merchants, issuers and acquirers across Europe have had to completely change how they operate – a change which takes time.

Speaking to EPI, Tony Hammond, Senior Vice President for Global Product Delivery at FreedomPay Europe, discusses how the regulation has altered the payments landscape.

He says: “The SCA changes affect the entire payment eco-system from card issuers, to acquirers, to gateway service providers, point of service software providers and so on. When the PSD2 was published, it would inevitably take time for the major card schemes to develop new changes.

“These changes not only need to look at how an account holder was authenticated but also how industry practices would be affected such as the obtaining of card information ‘by proxy’ as is common in the hotel, car hire and other sectors. This has had a major impact on the way that companies in that sector can operate and go forward.”

Hammond argues the card industry did not have enough time to prepare for the deadline.