• How SCA impacts your business

    Four students sitting outdoors, with one reading a book, another using a smartphone, a third looking at a laptop, and all casually interacting. Four students sitting outdoors, with one reading a book, another using a smartphone, a third looking at a laptop, and all casually interacting.

What is Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is new requirement that came into force in your country, which introduces security measures known as two-factor authentication to make online and in-store payments even more secure for customers. It includes measures designed to provide customers who make payments using Visa cards with greater confidence and protection during the transaction. These new rules help banks make sure that the payment is made by the genuine Visa cardholder.

How SCA works

After implementation of SCA, your customers may need to confirm the payment when paying with a Visa card by taking an additional step using two elements from the following categories:

Possession:

  • Pre-registered mobile phone
  • Card reader and card
  • Key generation device
  • OTP generated or received on the device

Inherence:

  • Selfie
  • Fingerprint
  • Voice recognition

Knowledge:

  • PIN
  • Password
  • Questions whose answers are only known to the payer.

Purpose of Regulation

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Reducing the risk of fraud

A man with curly hair and a beard, wearing an apron, smiles while using a tablet in a café or restaurant setting with shelves and lights in the background.

Improving payment security

Two people are sitting together with a laptop. One person is holding a credit card and smiling while the other is pointing at the laptop screen.

Increasing of customer confidence

If your business is ready for SCA, you will be able to offer your customers fast and easy payments with Visa and benefit from the implemented changes. Learn more about how you can prepare your business for SCA to integrate the new customer authentication in payment process with Visa.

How to prepare your business for SCA implementation

Contact your Acquiring partner

Find out and discuss what you need to do, and what changes to implement, to prepare for SCA integration

Implementation of 3-D Secure

Use Visa Secure to authenticate your customers' online payments

How to prepare your employees for SCA

For a successful SCA implementation, it is critical that your employees and customers are aware of the changes. To help you familiarize your employees with the changes, we have created:

Information for website

Staff manual with answers for frequently asked questions

Communication Support Materials

This should help your employees feel more confident and relaxed about SCA matters. If your customer has specific questions about SCA, ensure that your staff is informed about the need to refer the customer to the issuer.

Protect your business and take a step towards even more secure payments with Visa

Contact your Acquiring partner to learn more about SCA implementation and how Visa can help you to improve the security and trust of your customers.

Marketing Communications guidebook

We’ve created this guidebook to help your business prepare for the rollout of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in your country.

Frequently asked questions and answers