The 2nd Payment Services Directive of the European Union (PSD2), which aims to make European payment transactions safer, more convenient and more innovative, has been in force since 13 January 2018. The strong customer authentication (SCA) contained therein will become mandatory on 14 September 2019. For online payments, customers must prove their identity by using at least two of the following three independent elements:
- something only the user knows (a password or PIN)
- something only the user possesses (a card, a mobile phone)
- something the user is (biometric feature such as fingerprint or iris recognition)
Many shop systems will certainly be affected by the changes to the payment systems. We are curious as to whether this new directive will actually be safer, more convenient and more innovative once it has been implemented, and whether it will have a negative impact on usability.