Is the Travel Industry Prepared for Strong Customer Authentication?
The recent report by Amadeus, a global travel technology company, shows that many trammel companies still doubt whether they’re ready to comply with Strong Customer Authentication (two-factor authentication). To know more about the new mandate and find an exceptional travel merchant account, just read below.
Strong Customer Authentication&Travel Merchant Account
Being part of the Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2), the new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regulationis designed to make electronic payments more secure and mitigate fraud.
So, the SCA mandate is for tackling CNP (card-not-present) fraud and fight fraud coming from card numbers used fraudulently to make an online purchase. 65% of airlines and agents think SCA won’t bring positive impact on sales.
According to Jean-Christophe Lacour, head of merchant services at Amadeus, merchants are anxious about poor customer experience that might be caused by online interactions customers haven’t faced before.
What about you? Is your travel company ready for the new reality? What are you doing to fight online payment processing fraud? If you aren’t working with a true payments specialist to get the most advanced fraud prevention techniques, it’s high time you did. With a reputable credit card processor, you can get approved for a secure and cheap travel merchant account with ease.
What to Expect from SCA
According to Lacour, if travel companies can’tenable customers to use two-factor authentication, the banks mayrefuse to accept payments, thus hitting conversion rates.
Card issuers bear responsibility for applying SCA to a particular transaction. Acquirers and merchantscan’t go on using old systems. Without upgraded systems, they won’t be able to handle two-factor authentication.
Based on a survey by Amadeus, 97% of companies are aware of SCA. Here’re some recommendations for travel companies from the new Amadeus report:
- Educate your travelers: the thing is that less than 1/5 of companies are letting their travelers know about the impact of the new regulations
- Apply new 3D secure 2.X protocol across systems, mainly your website
- Estimate the rates associated with payment authentication acceptances
To sum up, the new regulation, SCA,aims to provide numerous benefits for businesses. It aims to make their transactions safer, providing improved client experience at a lower cost.
Author Bio: Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, screenwriter and for over a decade has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest rated high-risk merchant account processor in the country that offers the most reliable and cheapest travel merchant account in the industry. He has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.