FCA extends SCA deadline for merchants by six months
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given merchants another six months to implement strong customer authentication (SCA) for ecommerce due to the “exceptional circumstances” of coronavirus.
“This will minimise potential disruption to consumers and merchants,” the regulator says. The old deadline of 14 March 2021 will be replaced by the new timeline of 14 September 2021.
The regulator expects firms “to take all necessary steps to comply with the revised detailed phased implementation plan” which will be discussed with UK Finance, the UK’s trade association for the banking and financial services sector.
“Over 70% of payments processed today are not compliant with SCA,” says FIS
If firms do not meet the new September deadline, the FCA says they will face the “risk of enforcement action”.
UK Finance will liaise with all stakeholders and agree on a phased implementation plan with the regulator “as soon as possible”.
“In the meantime, firms should continue with the necessary preparatory activities such as robust end-to-end testing,” the FCA adds.
FIS’ SVP of product strategy for Worldpay Merchant Solutions, Charles Damen says the deadline extension is “a welcome relief for merchants given the current situation” of coronavirus.
“The manner in which payments are processed needs to fundamentally change ahead of a revised SCA deadline,” says Damen.
“Over 70% of payments processed today are not compliant with SCA so there is much for merchants to do in becoming ‘SCA-ready’ well in advance of this deadline.”
Damen says this means merchants implementing the capability to authenticate payments using the latest version of 3D Secure. But for those merchants looking to maximise acceptance rates, Damen says this will also mean implementing support for SCA exemptions and exclusions.
