As Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is implemented throughout Europe, consumers have to get used to some added friction when shopping online. And this added friction has been a significant concern among e-merchants ever since the regulations first were introduced. But why?

By moving the authentication choice (and the responsibility) from the merchant to the issuer, e-merchants loose some control over their users’ shopping experience. If their customer’s bank happens to provide a bad or faulty SCA experience, and this directly leads to a lost sale, there isn’t much the e-merchant can do about it. Ultimately, this puts a lot of pressure on issuers to provide a good SCA user experience for users. But why should issuers care? 

There are many reasons why issuers themselves should care about the SCA user experience. Yet, for this article, we will dive into one of them: customer loyalty. Over the past year, one statement I have heard a lot of is “we trust banks”. I personally, as a general rule, do also believe this to be true. However, trusting our bank does not inherently make us loyal customers. Let’s take a closer look.

Today’s end-users are becoming ever more knowledgeable and digitally aware, making bad user experiences less and less acceptable. In general, consumers are more demanding than ever before and are far more easily annoyed if an experience is not frictionless. In a world of endless choices, what happens when someone is not happy with a service? They look for other providers that can offer better service.

With no lack of bank service providers, credit cards or eWallets, it is easy to switch between banks, especially when their offers and services are available and comparable online. This makes us as users feel like we no longer have to limit ourselves to any one single provider. Why not have your mortgage and your “regular” baking with one bank and simply supplement that with a few credit card providers and eWallets?

Let’s look at my personal banking preferences. I’ve been with the same bank since I was born. I have my mortgage there, I get my salary paid out to an account there, and I pay my bills there. It all works well, and I’m happy with their digital user experience. 

However, I also have credit cards with a few different credit card issuers. And among these, I also have a preference: there is one credit card provider in particular that I use almost every time I make a purchase, whether online or in a store. 

Looking at when we moved into 2021 and SCA went into effect in Norway, my preferred credit card issuer suddenly had problems. For some reason, they opted to go with in-app SCA rather than BankID, which ended up causing issues within the first month. As a user, I was then forced on multiple occasions to use a different payment option when making my online purchases. If the issue had continued, I would have stopped using that card simply because of a few bad online experiences. Switching also would have been easy, as I already have a couple of other credit cards available to use.

On the topic of multiple credit cards, I am not the only one. On average, a typical British citizen owns 2.49 credit cards. This may mean that providing a good user experience might be the area you as an issuer need to master if you want to beat out the other 1.49 competitors to become a customer’s preferred credit card provider.

Ensuring that your SCA solution is well tested and working as intended from the first day of operation is vital. As you can see from my story, users are not patient when “simple” things do not work (in our case, making online payments). That is why making sure the payment works is a key part of your offering. Otherwise, you can plan on losing customers - fast. 

Try to make your SCA process as simple and frictionless as possible. Seemingly simple things, such as sending the user back to the original app after a mobile app triggered the authentication, can make all the difference. 

You can also educate your customer: once they come to understand what is happening and why it is happening, they are much more likely to have a positive attitude towards the changes in the authentication process. It might even improve their trust in you!

Remember that the SCA deadlines are firm dates that signify when you, as an issuer, must meet compliance requirements. However, that does not mean that you cannot improve your SCA user experience after these dates. Devices, technology, and preferences will continue to change, and so should your SCA solution. 

Europe will continue to experience an increase in online shopping as people adapt to the rise and integration of technology. In 2020 alone, 95% of British citizens between the ages of 15 and 79 shopped online at least once during the year. These users expect to have an excellent online shopping experience after the SCA deadline in the UK this coming September. To make that happen, it is ultimately the issuers’ responsibility. 

Okay is a fully PSD2 compliant SCA Platform that provides transaction and authentication security to apps, shielding the entire authentication process from any threats. We help all issuers, remittance services, and e-wallet providers comply with PSD2's SCA requirements to deliver multiple authentication methods, including biometrics and strong security mechanisms at the point of transaction.

Get in touch today to learn more about Okay, and how we can help you maintain customer trust.