3-D Secure transactions growth fueled by card-not-present explosion and PSD2

A massive $100 billion in transactions in 2021 alone have been protected by 3-D Secure payments authentication technology, Outseer reveals.

The report also reveals continued explosive growth of worldwide 3-D Secure transactions due to skyrocketing adoption of online shopping and new PSD2 mandates.

According to the report, 3-D Secure transactions, a global standard to authenticate digital payment transactions, have grown by an impressive 79% over the past 18 months, with Q2 year-over-year growth of 44%.

For the latest standard using EMV 3-D Secure 2.x technology specifically, the report shows a continued, steady increase across all geographies. Europe recorded the most significant jump, where 2.x transactions comprised a 46% share of all 3-D Secure transactions examined in Q2, 2021, growing nearly seven times from the 7% share reported in Q3 2020. The Americas witnessed nearly four times growth, with 2.x transaction volume jumping from a 10% share in Q3, 2020 to a 37% share in Q2, 2021.

3-D Secure transactions to be regulated

This global share increase in 2.x transactions can be attributed to a pandemic-fueled spike in card-not-present (CNP) transactions in addition to looming Payment Services Directive (PSD2) enforcement dates. Moreover, the 2.x authentication standard from EMVCo supports consumer-friendly experiences in native mobile app environments tailed to the merchant.

As the 3-D Secure standard directly supports PSD2 and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regulations, adoption of the 2.x version to authenticate payment transactions will increase beyond March of 2022 when PSD2 regulations go into effect across all of Europe.

“As the pandemic fuels an unprecedented spike in digital shopping globally, we’re excited to see card issuers and merchants embrace the gold standard of payment authentication technology,” said Armen Najarian, CMO and Chief Identity Officer at Outseer.

“The latest 3-D Secure standard delivers the shopping experiences consumer demand, with the positive economics and growth that card issuers and merchants require. We expect the global payments ecosystem to deepen its use of 3-D Secure to authenticate digital transactions.”

Other notable insights

• Over 49,000 attacks detected in Q2 2021 alone
• Brand abuse attacks continue to be the most dominant attack vector for the third consecutive quarter, comprising 49% of all attack types
• 70% of fraudulent transactions in digital banking originated through the mobile channel, with the biggest rise seen in mobile app fraud
• The presence of Rogue Mobile Apps increased 66% from last quarter and 140% year-over-year. Fraudsters are creating fake banking apps and uploading them to various app stores to infect consumers’ devices with malware and harvest user credentials for account takeover activities
• Over 4.5 million unique compromised cards and card previews from online card stores and fraud communication channels recovered in Q2 2021