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UK retailers lost £130 million in sales in first month of SCA rules

UK retailers lost £130 million in sales in first month of SCA rules

New data from Barclaycard Payments reveals UK retailers have so far lost out on £130m worth of sales as a result of not being fully compliant with new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules which came in to effect last month.

In the biggest change to payments regulation since the roll out of Chip & Pin in 2006, all online transactions over £25 have been subject to two-factor authentication checks since 14th March, to help combat online fraud.

Data from Barclaycard Payments, which processes £1 in every £3 spent on credit and debit cards in the UK, shows that over 22,000 transactions a day, worth £4.3m, have been declined in the month since SCA became mandatory.

The data shows two in five online businesses (37 per cent) have not introduced any new payments technology on their website over the past two years. However, of those that have, 92 per cent agree that the technology they invested in has improved the checkout experience for their customers - one example being technology that can help reduce the number of SCA-related declines, with other benefits including in-depth analysis of where and when basket abandonment takes place.

Barclaycard Payments transaction data shows that over the past month, 93 per cent of transactions processed through the Barclaycard Transact platform were approved on the first attempt, compared to just 49 per cent of transactions going through less secure, non-SCA compliant channels.

Rob Cameron, CEO of Barclaycard Payments, comments: “One month on from the introduction of mandatory SCA checks, it’s clear that too many businesses are still not compliant and are losing out on millions of pounds in sales as a result.

“The message to retailers is clear; prioritise SCA compliance, simplify the customer journey and take advantage of the latest payments technologies to avoid losing out on sales and customers.”

Comments: (3)

Lennard Sigling
Lennard Sigling - WLPayments - Amsterdam 15 April, 2022, 14:40Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Mindboggling numbers as businesses are losing revenue where they don't need to. Check out this recent educational webinar on the subject.  https://www.bigmarker.com/the-paypers1/Optimise-your-3DS-strategy-to-increase-your-success-rates?utm_bmcr_source=Social-media

Michael Kyritsis
Michael Kyritsis - ACI - London 19 April, 2022, 16:251 like 1 like

It's an eye-catching headline but is it really going to translate to a dip in merchant's profit & loss statements? I am sure that customers who want to buy an item and get a decline will try a different card, or perhaps PayPal for example. Or customers would become so frustrated with a site that they go to a different merchant, which is a lost sale for the first merchant, but a win for the second; and net zero for the UK industry overall. So the call-to-action should be for merchants to ensure that their payments provider is up-to-date with the latest mandated requirements because payments is not just a commodity, it can be a differentiator in the last small but vital step of capturing an online purchase.

Ketharaman Swaminathan
Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 20 May, 2022, 13:18Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

This is only the beginning.

What's worse, if, despite SCA, fraud happens, I can bet that banks will pushback on customers saying "you've undergone SCA, you only must have made the payment" and fob off legitimate fraud claim / chargeback s/ disputes.

We will realize that SCA is there to protect the interest of banks, not consumers.

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