[HN Gopher] Payments down 20% in my SaaS after EU introduced PSD2
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Payments down 20% in my SaaS after EU introduced PSD2
        
       Author : rokkk
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2021-05-10 20:45 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.globalbankingandfinance.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.globalbankingandfinance.com)
        
       | xbar wrote:
       | Does the EU regulatory environment lead in onerousness or is it
       | working well?
        
       | Gravityloss wrote:
       | Finland has been an early adopter in internet banking. In general
       | it's been working well. I've heard horror stories from other EU
       | countries with very very weak authentication schemes.
        
       | Merem wrote:
       | Don't have a mobile phone, so I guess I would count towards those
       | numbers. A shop branch I used to buy at had 3-D Secure for years
       | but after asking nicely, they disabled that authentification for
       | me. However, ever since they merged with the main website earlier
       | this year, it's no longer possible. So theoretically, it would be
       | impossible for me to buy anything anymore...if not for the fact
       | that they now allow you to buy "points" via PayPal with which you
       | can then buy products in the shop. It's more complicated, takes
       | longer and has other disadvantages (such as not buying the
       | products directly) but for now, it works. Other websites which
       | don't have such a workaround will simply end up with an
       | "abandonment".
        
       | hocuspocus wrote:
       | So, some VP at a fraud prevention company recommends merchants to
       | avoid using 3DS and use a fraud detection platform, got it.
       | 
       | I don't know if we can find better data somewhere else but I
       | would assume that abandonment rates will decrease _thanks to_
       | PSD2:
       | 
       | - SMS tokens are finally on their way out; more and more people
       | are installing their bank's mobile app, which is used as the
       | second factor (you get a push notification, you have to unlock
       | and accept the transaction).
       | 
       | - We'll see some harmonization across EU/EEA merchants. No more
       | cases of "the German website doesn't trigger 3DS but the French
       | one does".
        
         | TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
         | Here in Sweden, some major banks already refused to let you do
         | card transactions without SCA/3DS, before PSD2 was even passed.
         | As a result, PSD2 finally being implemented is a welcome relief
         | for me, because those annoying services that would always cause
         | a card decline are now being forced to show a 3DS prompt
         | instead. That prompt is also pretty convenient here because of
         | the wide deployment of _Mobile BankID_.
         | 
         | (The experience before was: pray this merchant supports 3DS,
         | discover that it doesn't, fish out your phone and open mobile
         | banking, authenticate with mobile banking, find and use the
         | toggle that temporarily allows non-3DS transactions. Now I just
         | bring up the authentication app when prompted.)
        
           | toxik wrote:
           | Meanwhile, Sweden's response to PayPal, Klarna, "integrate"
           | with your internet bank by logging in to it and pretending to
           | be you. The authentication prompt you get clearly says "you
           | are logging in to $yourBank" when you do it too.
        
             | cinntaile wrote:
             | This is also the result of regulations. Opening up the
             | banks "APIs" to outsiders.
        
           | SahAssar wrote:
           | While I mostly agree with you the fact that BankID does not
           | support (desktop or non-android) linux at all or other secure
           | auth methods like U2F for any platform is sad. If you want to
           | be a modern citizen in sweden today you need to use at least
           | one device with a non-free OS just to access basic services.
        
           | SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
           | I don't know payments infrastructure super well, but reading
           | your comment it makes me wonder if what you are talking about
           | is related to the card woes that I had when I lived there in
           | 2018. Not having a Swedish bank account and paying for larger
           | sums with my American credit card would often trigger
           | declines and I would have to contact my card issuer to
           | authorize the payment to go through frequently. I
           | specifically remember having a lot of trouble whenever I
           | would pay a company that used the Swedish company called
           | "DIBS" to authorize my payment.
        
             | TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
             | You were most likely experiencing a problem on the opposite
             | end: the merchant (or their payment processor) rejecting
             | you, rather than your card issuer.
        
         | Macha wrote:
         | So the effects of PSD2 I've noticed:
         | 
         | 1. My bank now _requires_ SMS 2fa, for many actions like
         | logging in, viewing transaction history > 1 month, or making
         | purchases online. 2. My bank has killed their mobile web page
         | in favour of their app. The desktop web page still works, but
         | if you try visit it with a mobile UA you still get told to use
         | the app. 3. Not 100% sure this is PSD2 related, but my bank
         | have made their password policies less... dumb. It used to be
         | max 8 chars, case insensitive, anything longer was silently
         | truncated. In addition, the signup form used to allow
         | alphanumeric characters, but the change password form only
         | allowed alphabetical. 4. Presumably because of 1, they now no
         | longer randomly decline transactions to smaller vendors. They
         | used to then send you a text asking you to phone the fraud
         | department to clear it. The first couple of times, I thought
         | the text _was_ the fraud.
         | 
         | Now it's entirely possible my bank have just misinterpreted
         | what's required of them, their prior actions show they aren't
         | the most technically competent, but that's not what they were
         | chosen for.
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | The main issue to SMS tokens going away are all those people,
         | specially elderly ones, that now are forced to buy a phone they
         | cannot understand how to deal with.
         | 
         | Just like the clever idea some cities have had to initially
         | only offer covid vaccination appointments over their website.
        
           | thefounder wrote:
           | Well...if they use the internet to shop online a mobile app
           | should not be that hard to deal with given it's
           | installed/configured by the bank clerk. All the mobile phones
           | are "smart phones" now anyway.
        
             | pjmlp wrote:
             | Plenty of dumb phones available at the shopping malls over
             | here.
             | 
             | Besides the UX of the Internet is not the same as the phone
             | and these are the kind of users that end up with the
             | browser full of extensions trying to make pesky dialogues
             | go away.
        
             | withinboredom wrote:
             | > a mobile app should not be that hard to deal with
             | 
             | My grandma can't even use a smart phone to call people
             | with. She only answers if you call because she is literally
             | terrified of technology.
        
         | estaseuropano wrote:
         | 100% agree, this is self-interested drivel with nonsense data
         | and no actual evidence. Intention is to sell their product.
        
         | withinboredom wrote:
         | > which is used as the second factor (you get a push
         | notification, you have to unlock and accept the transaction).
         | 
         | This breaks more often than you'd think. I'm still locked out
         | of Facebook on one device because I can't seem to receive the
         | unlock notification and I'm terrified to reinstall Facebook on
         | my phone and then be actually locked out. I'm not a fan of
         | Facebook, but it's the only way to contact some of my
         | friends/family these days via video.
         | 
         | I've also had similar issues with actual banks where the
         | notification appeared and I accidentally tapped "decline" or
         | even dismissed the notification by accident. I've also never
         | received them (mostly with ~Transfer~Wise). Edit to add: I've
         | also been too lazy to walk to the phone charger to press
         | "accept" and just given up.
         | 
         | I think it's a pretty well known phenomenon in ecommerce that
         | the more "clicks" you add to checkout, the less % of people
         | that will make it to the end. I don't see this decreasing cart
         | abandonment at all.
        
           | judge2020 wrote:
           | Google, Duo, and Authy all seem to do fine even in low-data
           | (1 bar non-lte 4g) scenarios, so that's probably a bank &
           | facebook issue. They probably rely on the push notification
           | to carry and push state to the user's device with no backup
           | mechanism for when this fails.
        
             | withinboredom wrote:
             | Of those three, I've never had an issue -- and I pretty
             | regularly wander around with 1 bar non-lte quality service.
        
         | summm wrote:
         | These apps are worse. Each of them has its own horrible
         | interface and horrible surveillance functionality. For Android
         | they usually check if you have an officially sanctioned and
         | non-rooted google phone. If I wanted to be patronized by the
         | phone manufacturer, I would buy apple... I indeed do want to
         | have full control over my phone. It is a freedom we are
         | gradually losing. RMS was right all along... But if course they
         | do not care about actual security, that means if your phone has
         | current security patch level. So for old phones with no
         | official patches you can't even install Lineage and you're
         | worse off.
        
         | andraz wrote:
         | If Mastercard or Visa did an app that would work across all of
         | their cards, that would be ok. But how can a separate app from
         | each bank be considered better than SMS? It's just an annoying
         | lock-in. And the quality of apps from many banks is sub-par.
        
         | Rafert wrote:
         | 100%. 3DS is for card payments and using Netherlands and
         | Germany as examples here is just plain bad - in these countries
         | bank-based payment methods are more popular: iDEAL in NL (which
         | has used 2FA for years), Sofort and Giropay in DE.
         | 
         | See: - https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/guides/global-
         | payment-me... - https://stripe.com/en-us/payments/payment-
         | methods-guide#paym...
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | At least the German services also need 2FA these days, though
           | (since they access bank accounts, which require 2FA for all
           | outgoing payments as well).
        
         | sib wrote:
         | >> more and more people are installing their bank's mobile app,
         | which is used as the second factor (you get a push
         | notification, you have to unlock and accept the transaction
         | 
         | Great - so much for those times where I've been traveling
         | internationally, been able to make a purchase using a web page
         | hosted on a shared computer or one owned by a companion, but
         | don't have mobile phone access to get a push notification.
         | 
         | Thanks, regulators!
        
         | pmontra wrote:
         | SMS are not much on their way out. I just got an OTP via SMS
         | for an online credit card payment. Then I had to insert my
         | secret PIN too. Friction friction friction.
         | 
         | Some banks authorize operations with their apps: it's either
         | fingerprints, PINs or codes by SMS. Usually a combination of
         | two of them. One bank also requires a kind of captcha. Of
         | course I'm hating all of this. I wish they pay me for the extra
         | work.
         | 
         | We were better off when things were worse /s
        
         | bjohnson225 wrote:
         | > some VP at a fraud prevention company recommends merchants to
         | avoid using 3DS and use a fraud detection platform, got it.
         | 
         | Yeah, if PSD2 had an impact as dramatic as the article says
         | then there would be a massive amount of noise from all EU/UK
         | retailers. Instead we get an article from somebody with
         | something to sell.
        
       | unilynx wrote:
       | How many of these 3DS failures switch to an alternative payment
       | method?
       | 
       | A drop in EU e-commerce sales between 20% and 50% would be big
       | news we wouldn't have missed, so where are these sales going ? Or
       | are these transactions still a tiny bit of the overall e-commerce
       | value? If users opt for a cheaper (and not easily clawed back)
       | payment method because they can't complete the 3DS challenge, the
       | merchants may still win.
        
       | codethief wrote:
       | I absolutely hate 3DS, for two reasons:
       | 
       | 1) I now have to do the 3DS procedure for amounts as small as
       | 1,80EUR
       | 
       | 2) My bank's 3DS "website" requires me to enter my online banking
       | PIN (the one for my entire account, not just my credit card PIN!)
       | and since that website gets opened in an Android WebView I can't
       | even be sure that the app invoking the WebView doesn't actually
       | obtain my PIN through a key logger. Fantastic.
        
         | Jolter wrote:
         | Does your bank not have a phone app? Consider switching to one
         | that has.
        
         | opheliate wrote:
         | I've personally always found 3DS a bit worrying from a security
         | POV. I'm sure much smarter minds than mine designed it, and had
         | reasons for doing so, but I've seen it implemented in iframes
         | on websites I use before. It really doesn't seem to encourage
         | good security practices in normal users where they're being
         | encouraged to enter their bank password when the URL they see
         | doesn't match. Plus the URL itself often refers to Arcot, the
         | company who make 3DS, rather than the bank whose branding is
         | all over the page. Very weird.
        
           | AnssiH wrote:
           | I've noticed that domestic Finnish online stores (most of
           | which have had 3DS for over a decade now) generally do not
           | use iframes and I can see my bank's domain on the address bar
           | when performing 2FA for card transactions, whereas most
           | international stores (most of which only recently have
           | started using 3DS) seem to almost always use iframes, hiding
           | my bank's domain.
           | 
           | However, it doesn't matter that much with my bank nowadays
           | since I don't have to enter anything on the browser - I just
           | accept the transaction details shown by the bank app on my
           | phone.
        
         | 988747 wrote:
         | Before 3DS I had my credit card details memorized, so I could
         | shop online conveniently. Now I have to keep my phone around
         | and type in SMS passwords everywhere.
        
           | estaseuropano wrote:
           | 3DS should do the exact opposite, away with SMS.
        
           | robert_foss wrote:
           | It doesn't have to be SMS password. Some banks are way more
           | convenient. I only need my phone+fingerprint.
        
         | mattmanser wrote:
         | In the UK they introduced it ages ago, and have now changed it
         | so it remembers your IP and browser, so it never, ever asks for
         | the pin now.
         | 
         | Kinda defies the point, and makes it very easy to forget the
         | code as I put it in like once a year.
         | 
         | But there is less friction, you click buy, it redirects
         | somewhere else (fairly slowly, perhaps by design), then done.
        
         | estaseuropano wrote:
         | For me it opens the bank app which shows amount, seller,
         | subject line and asks me to confirm with pin or fingerprint,
         | taking all of 2 seconds. No more entering bank card numbers.
         | Not sure what bank youi are using but this seems like bad
         | implementation not bad idea.
        
         | bjohnson225 wrote:
         | 1 could be a bad implementation from the merchant. There is an
         | exemption for low value (<EUR30) transactions and you can do
         | five low value transactions before needing re-authentication.
        
         | robert_foss wrote:
         | Switch to a more modern bank. I've got both a crappy German one
         | and a good one. The difference in friction is big.
        
       | RicoElectrico wrote:
       | Meanwhile in Poland I use BLIK [1]. Simple and reasonably secure,
       | the downside being no chargeback facility.
       | 
       | The bonus is that Przelewy24 is often presented as a payment
       | option in global shops like Steam or AliExpress, so I can use it
       | there as well.
       | 
       | [1] https://blik.com/en
        
       | globile wrote:
       | We developed an internal 3DS attempt strategy to try to remedy
       | this [0], but it is not ideal.
       | 
       | Basically, try 3DS (with no authentication), then try regular
       | charge (NON 3DS), then if all else fails try a full 3DS charge.
       | You'd be surprised by the disparity, especially internationally,
       | and we do recoup some charges at the expense of triggering some
       | unintended blockage.
       | 
       | When asking our provider (Stripe in our case) about the best
       | strategy for this, it always comes down to , "Let SCA (Strong
       | Customer Auth) rules and logic handle everything", but this
       | simply doesn't work well.
       | 
       | I really wish the likes of Adyen, Stripe, etc...would help out
       | with better decline ratio strategies.
       | 
       | I think we are all plagued by "do_not_honor" and
       | "transaction_not_allowed" codes that do little to move us in any
       | direction...
       | 
       | [0] https://medium.com/@globile/using-stripe-to-sell-
       | internation...
       | 
       | EDIT: Fixed the order of actions...
        
       | ojagodzinski wrote:
       | In Poland we have something called "Blik"
       | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blik) state of the art internet
       | payment system. https://blik.com/ Sadly it has to be supported by
       | bank (to be specific their mobile app) so not usable by all EU
       | customers. But since it is also operated by banks (they share
       | cost of IT infrastructure) commission is much lower than
       | Visa/MasterCard and milion times easier to use.
       | 
       | In 2020 Blik had 7 million users and processed 424 million
       | transactions. In 2019, the number of Blik transactions exceeded
       | the number of transactions made on the Polish Internet with
       | payment cards.
       | 
       | In PSD2/3DS world paying with card is real pain in the ass, only
       | advantage is transaction insurance and chargeback.
        
         | arthurcolle wrote:
         | is that per calendar year or in total?
        
         | isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote:
         | It's probably worth noting that online transactions with
         | payment cards were never the dominant form of payment, many
         | people preferred to send a bank transfer directly (with delay
         | until next payment session) or use a number of services which
         | work as middle men to settle these transactions instantly.
         | 
         | Card payments are often seen as the least secure way of paying
         | for stuff, but they are mildly more convenient than sending a
         | bank transfer.
        
         | kjagiello wrote:
         | Sweden has adapted something similar, Swish[1]. Co-owned by
         | banks and so far without any fees for private entities. The
         | adaption rate has been really incredible. Already 75% of the
         | population has signed up for it and, in 2020, made over 600
         | million transactions.
        
       | the_mitsuhiko wrote:
       | On the other hand PSD2 improved the quality of 2FA flows
       | tremendously. I can now use face id to approve creditcard
       | transactions where previously I had to go through an awkward text
       | based flow.
        
       | gray_-_wolf wrote:
       | > Users may also choose to abandon a transaction simply because
       | there are additional steps to complete, giving them more time to
       | contemplate their purchase.
       | 
       | Why is it a bad thing that people have more time to think about
       | things?
        
       | dr_faustus wrote:
       | EU did not "introduce" PSD2 this year, it was/should have been in
       | effect since Sept 2019!
       | 
       | However, the member states (and therefore the EU) have cut the
       | banks an inordinate amount of slack to get their shit together,
       | even though they have been heavily involved in the writing of
       | PSD2 and had since 2015 (!) to implement everything. Here in
       | Germany, in September 2019, which should have been the hard end
       | of a one year grace period, practically no bank actually had a
       | working PSD2 API or had implemented 2 factor authorization
       | properly.
       | 
       | So all the whining about PSD2 six years after it passed is
       | ridiculous. Everybody had plenty of warning and time to get their
       | site prepared and checkout processes optimized. And quite
       | frankly, unless the author of the article is running some kind of
       | one-click order scam, I find the drop of up to 50% in conversion
       | highly unlikely. From my experience with dozens of e-commerce
       | site, the drop is negligible. And considering the rampant credit
       | card fraud, 2FA was long overdue.
        
       | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
       | The practical outcome looks more like:
       | 
       | - Customers who have had their card on file will fail the next
       | subscription payment. Many are going to discover they have been
       | paying for months/years for something they didn't really need,
       | and walk away.
       | 
       | - Incorrect 3D-Secure integration will cause payments from EU to
       | fail straight away. Even some payment gateways didn't understand
       | how it worked back when the enforcement loomed for the first
       | time, and this is literally their job. The solution is to read
       | the documentation carefully and fix your stuff.
       | 
       | It's a misconception that people are going to get confused by
       | PSD2. We in Europe, depending on the bank, have had it for two
       | years now. We got used to it and if we really want to pay, we
       | will.
        
         | bjohnson225 wrote:
         | Subscription payments are exempt. Only payments initiated by
         | the customer require authentication.
        
         | Aerroon wrote:
         | > _It 's a misconception that people are going to get confused
         | by PSD2. We in Europe, depending on the bank, have had it for
         | two years now. We got used to it and if we really want to pay,
         | we will._
         | 
         | When a (random) app opens a bank login page for me and asks me
         | to type in my back login information in a third party app, then
         | that very much does confuse me. That's one of the ways people
         | get scammed through phishing attacks. And now this is
         | effectively mandated by law.
         | 
         | I've definitely chosen not to pay for a few things, because I
         | didn't trust the app enough with my bank's login information.
         | With a credit card I could easily dispute false charges. With
         | bank authentication, I doubt it'll be as easy.
        
       | WheelsAtLarge wrote:
       | There's always going to be a decline in sales when new friction
       | is added to a process. But, as people get used to the process
       | those sales come back. The idea that nothing can change because
       | it will hurt sales is short sighted. It leads to a stagnated
       | system where competition will beat you out of existence.
       | 
       | PSD2 is a process that's system wide and needed so if things need
       | to change this is the best way to do it where everyone takes the
       | hit together as a way to move forward.
        
       | estaseuropano wrote:
       | Consumer protection legislation protecting consumers. I don't see
       | the issue.
       | 
       | > Since many consumers are not familiar with the 3DS process,
       | there is a higher chance of abandonment during the authentication
       | process. Users may also choose to abandon a transaction simply
       | because there are additional steps to complete, giving them more
       | time to contemplate their purchase.
       | 
       | The data here is not really provided so we have no way of
       | verifying they are stating e.g. simply that conversion in Germany
       | went from 80%+ to 40%+ just due to PSD2 requirements to verify
       | identify. 50% of consumers stop their purchase because they have
       | to verify their CC? That seems absurd.
       | 
       | If the reason as cited above is unfamiliarity this means it is a
       | purely temporary impact. If its birthing issues of implementation
       | that too should be temporary. If consumers stop their biy due to
       | reflection or realising that they don't trust the shop that too
       | is a good thing.
        
       | Jiocus wrote:
       | Doesn't sound too strange considering it's a change consumers
       | need to adjust to, maybe set up proper 2FA. Just give it some
       | time, if that's the case. Another way to see it, is that 3-D
       | Secure works, but they don't want to see it that way.
       | 
       | From the tone of the article, I imagine the author was resisting
       | 3-D Secure from the beginning and settled their minds already and
       | so, they will only see their own negativity reflected back on
       | them when trying to make sense of it.
        
       | opheliate wrote:
       | Should the title of this submission be changed? It's not the
       | title of the original article, and the author doesn't even seem
       | to run a SaaS, it seems like it might be the experience of the
       | OP?
        
       | thegeomaster wrote:
       | >Users may also choose to abandon a transaction simply because
       | there are additional steps to complete, giving them more time to
       | contemplate their purchase.
       | 
       | Good. Means you've manipulated people into spending their money
       | very intensely if they will abandon the transaction once the
       | first rational thought comes in. I would personally add a third
       | factor for good measure.
        
       | foepys wrote:
       | I had my first encounter with a PSD2 measure the other day. It
       | was very straightforward with my bank. The shop redirected me to
       | my bank's website where I logged in with MFA and clicked OK.
       | Done.
       | 
       | A subsequent order worked by just entering my CC details.
        
       | morpheuskafka wrote:
       | > The first thing that can reduce conversions is the higher rate
       | of 3DS triggered user abandonment. Since many consumers are not
       | familiar with the 3DS process, there is a higher chance of
       | abandonment during the authentication process.
       | 
       | This would presumably go away once PSD2 is fully implemented and
       | all purchases require it, which is a benefit of requiring it by
       | law rather than letting merchants choose whether or not to
       | require it. Requiring it is a common good in the sense that it
       | reduces the economy's overall loss due to fraud.
       | 
       | Additionally, as the article mentions, using 3DS shifts liability
       | for charge not authorized disputes from the merchant to the bank.
       | Thus, the decreased rate of conversions must be compared against
       | decreased losses due to chargebacks.
        
         | razius wrote:
         | I agree, the change needs to be viewed overall. The liability
         | shift is a godsend, it also decreases customer support contacts
         | to verify if the order is fraud or not.
         | 
         | Also, paired with 3DS2's frictionless flow we actually saw a
         | small uptick.
        
         | globile wrote:
         | It quickly gets complicated. There are many more variables to
         | take into account.
         | 
         | - SCA exemptions - Prepaid Cards (with no built in 2FA support)
         | - Banks in less developed markets (No 3DS) - "We encountered a
         | 3DS processing error" is a common nondescript message which
         | occurs with international payments
         | 
         | For regular merchants, the decrease in conversion (double
         | digit) is VERY far away from any improvements in chargebacks.
         | Bear in mind that most merchants need to stay below 0.75-1%
         | chargeback regardless of conversion/decline ratios.
         | 
         | EDIT: Spelling
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | Depends on the business though, right?
           | 
           | In a high-value, low-margin business, reducing chargeback
           | losses to almost zero might be worth the cost of a double-
           | digit conversion drop. In other circumstances, the same
           | numbers can be catastrophic.
        
       | aza05001 wrote:
       | what is PSD2?
        
         | scrollaway wrote:
         | A set of directives by the EU to make online payment
         | transactions more secure and reduce fraud. Some of those
         | directives impact UX, including 3DS requirements, which is a
         | form of 2fa for payments.
        
         | red_trumpet wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive?wpr...
        
         | nsxwolf wrote:
         | It is the Revised Payment Services Directive requirements for
         | Strong Customer Authentication. An EU directive that applies to
         | credit cards issued by EU merchant banks for transactions that
         | occur within the European Economic Area.
         | 
         | Basically a popup that will request some extra form of security
         | verification for relevant transactions.
        
       | ballenf wrote:
       | Kind of a side point, but I think it could be argued that some
       | transaction friction is a good thing at a societal level. (So
       | long as the friction is agnostic to demographic or income level.)
       | 
       | My spending, consumption and general wasteful consumerism is
       | healthier when I don't have Amazon Prime. I'm more thoughtful
       | about what I need and will batch up purchases, often removing a
       | portion of the cart.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | cabirum wrote:
       | 3DS is a type of 2FA that makes stolen card credentials harder to
       | use. It does not replace but augments existing antifraud
       | techniques.
       | 
       | 3DS is merely a positive marker for antifraud system. This means
       | a 3ds transaction is less likely to trigger antifraud rejection,
       | and antifraud declines are the reason for user abandonment - you
       | can't simply retry a payment attempt in that case.
        
       | willeh wrote:
       | Purely anecdotal but I have never had any problems with increased
       | authentication for purchases. It feels safe to digitally sign
       | every single purchase I make and with a good UX on the store
       | front it can be a great experience.
        
       | vineyardmike wrote:
       | Very interesting to hear about the impact of this regulation on
       | industries many here work in but I have many questions that were
       | answered...
       | 
       | What is PSD2?
       | 
       | What is 3DS?
       | 
       | Why do these exist and what did they solve?
       | 
       | Edit: Thanks for the responses everyone!
        
         | moooo99 wrote:
         | The 3DS is a handheld console by Nintendo.
         | 
         | Just kidding, 3DS is short for 3D-Secure and is an approach to
         | make payments with credit cards more secure. Things like 3DS
         | are mandated by the PSD2 which came into effect a while ago.
         | 
         | PSD(2) is short for payment services directive, its a set of
         | rules to make online payments more secure and reduce the risk
         | of fraud. It has some requirements, such as two factor
         | authentication (3DS) etc for basically any service that is
         | processing payments online.
        
         | lrem wrote:
         | 3DS is 2FA for credit card transactions. PSD2 is the law
         | requiring it in EU.
        
         | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
         | 3d-Secure is basically a form of 2FA for payments. It has been
         | around for almost two decades. US banks seem to have happily
         | ignored it, as well as EMV/NFC cards even when good ol'
         | magstripe had been shown to be hackable with a potato, and thus
         | companies who lived in the US come to do business in Europe,
         | find an "impenetrable wall" of having to integrate correctly
         | with a 2FA process they don't understand. Same as GDPR, really.
         | "How come it's opt-in and not opt-never?"
        
         | robinjfisher wrote:
         | I'll link up Stripe's docs for SCA[1] as they have been very
         | helpful for me in getting Leavetrack[2] set up for SCA.
         | 
         | PSD2 is the Second Payment Services Directive from the EU. A
         | directive is required to be implemented in national law no more
         | than two years after it is passed and whilst there have been
         | delays, the past 12 months have seen a ramping up of banks
         | implementing Strong Customer Authentication.
         | 
         | 3DS (3D Secure) is like 2FA for debit/credit cards. In my case,
         | I bank with Monzo and if a transaction requires 3DS, I have to
         | open the Monzo app on my phone and confirm it. There are other
         | aspects to SCA e.g. if I have used contactless payment
         | frequently, I am more likely to be prompted to enter my PIN to
         | confirm I still have my card.
         | 
         | [1] https://stripe.com/gb/payments/strong-customer-
         | authenticatio... [2] https://leavetrackapp.com/
        
           | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
           | Stripe has one of the best pieces of API documentation out
           | there, and their sandbox actually simulates SCA to the
           | fullest extent possible.
           | 
           | The only things missing from their testing arsenal are a
           | debit card that triggers SCA past X amount, and a debit card
           | that has limited funds.
        
         | slaymaker1907 wrote:
         | The biggest thing with PSD2 seems to be the introduction of
         | mandatory 2FA (CVC code/card number are not sufficient).
        
           | thefounder wrote:
           | cvc has alaways been a joke
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | PSD2 is an initiative/set of laws that force banks to have some
         | kind of API available to trusted parties so other companies can
         | access customers' financial data (with explicit consent by the
         | user, of course). This allows the banking app from bank A to
         | work with the bank account of bank B, if bank A implements bank
         | B's API. It also includes some other stuff, like adding
         | security requirements to online payments, like the 3DS system
         | is doing.
         | 
         | Companies that make use of these APIs need to fulfil some
         | requirements so that not just any shitty company can ruin your
         | life by hiring shit developers that accidentally add zeroes to
         | the amount of your transactions.
         | 
         | 3DS probably refers to "3D secure", a way to secure credit card
         | payments online. I don't use a credit card for anything but
         | paying for American services so I don't know the details of it,
         | but it seems to be a way to redirect credit card users to the
         | checkout page of their bank so that extra security (like 2FA)
         | can be added to online payments.
        
         | moksly wrote:
         | PSD2 is an EU directive that changed how online payments can
         | take place within the EU. The key points are basically these:
         | 
         | Strong customer identification is required. In Denmark we
         | handle this with our national identity system NemID (soon to be
         | mitID). Which is a national two-factor system, that we
         | previously mainly used for stuff like online banking or
         | interacting with the public sector but is now also required
         | when you buy something online.
         | 
         | Releasing the ownership of your financial data from the banks.
         | Meaning that you can give third party companies access to your
         | banking data. In Denmark this has revolutionised budgeting
         | because the area was disrupted by companies that saw a gap in
         | the age old online banking systems. As an example, my
         | "overview" in my netbank was basically just a table of the data
         | they used to physically mail me, today it offers all sorts of
         | BI like tools to show me how I spent my money because an app
         | named Spir or Spiir or something like it completely
         | revolutionised the area. As you may be able to tell, I'm still
         | doing my budgeting in my own spreadsheet, but the spiir app is
         | one of the most popular apps in Denmark.
         | 
         | Over all it has been pretty well recover in Denmark. Having to
         | utilise two-factor identification when you buy stupid shit
         | online is annoying, and it's likely costing some sales as
         | people have a few more seconds to think while they pick up
         | their phone, but over all people are happy with the increased
         | protection it also offers them.
        
         | vishnugupta wrote:
         | > What is 3DS?
         | 
         | 3DS stands for 3 _D_ omain _S_ ecure. Payment processing
         | requires a lot of service providers to co-ordinate; card
         | issuer, merchant acquirer, card network to name a few.
         | 
         | The three domains in 3D refers to the domains of Issuer (the
         | bank that issued the your card), Acquirer (the bank that the
         | merchant has their account in), and the Network (Visa,
         | Mastercard etc., which connects Issuing banks and Acquiring
         | banks).
         | 
         | I'm vastly simplifying because now a days there are new
         | entities which are difficult to typecast into one of
         | Issuer/Acquirer/Network because depending on the scenario they
         | can act as any or all three.
         | 
         | Unlike the Internet which has reasonably well defined
         | protocols/services to provide end user services (HTTP, SMTP,
         | DNS etc.,) online payment processing has evolved by monkey-
         | patching systems as newer challenges have arose. There are no
         | well defined protocols or standards so you have these vast
         | network of systems that somehow work-together to process online
         | payments. Once in a while it fails exposing its innards like
         | how people came to learn about T + 2 settlement during Gameshop
         | saga.
         | 
         | > Why do these exist and what did they solve?
         | 
         | 3DS is kind of a protocol that'll enable a card holder to
         | authorise a payment while minimising the number of service
         | providers that have access to their card details. A typical
         | implementation of 3DS requires card holder to authorise a
         | payment through PIN. Another is through second factor auth such
         | as SMS OTP, or RSA tokens, Apple's Face ID.
         | 
         | > What is PSD2?
         | 
         | This is a European specific regulation to make payments more
         | secure. 3DS is one of its requirements.
        
       | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
       | Then make your service compelling enough for me to go through the
       | motions of confirming the payment in my banking app.
       | 
       | Or integrate with Android Pay/Apple Pay.
       | 
       | Cry me a river, but I rather prefer to be in control about who
       | gets to withdraw money from my card, and how much.
        
         | marcosdumay wrote:
         | Those are pretty big transactions as the law will only apply to
         | small ones later. It's really hard to believe people are
         | leaving multiple 1000s of Euro transactions just because they
         | didn't bother to learn how to check an app.
         | 
         | I think it's much more likely that some payment methods became
         | completely unusable, so people are abandoning their
         | transactions to redo them elsewhere. And also, some of those
         | must have been fraudulent, but probably very few.
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | Seriously, if having to stand up and get whatever 2FA token
         | thing your bank needs is too much effort for a purchase on your
         | site, then I have strong doubts about how much your service is
         | really worth.
         | 
         | Another explanation would be that customers run into trouble
         | because they don't know how to use secure online payments. In
         | my opinion, those customers probably shouldn't be doing any
         | online banking on their own with the massive fraud risk that
         | comes with stuff like this.
         | 
         | This line says it all, in my opinion:
         | 
         | > Users may also choose to abandon a transaction simply because
         | there are additional steps to complete, _giving them more time
         | to contemplate their purchase_.
         | 
         | PSD2 saved a lot of people from making bad financial decisions
         | by the sound of it.
        
           | WesolyKubeczek wrote:
           | Seriously, I'm used to a bit of _contemplation_ before I hit
           | that final  "Buy" and proceed to the payment gateway. I like
           | it. I like that I have to enter my billing/shipping
           | addresses. Decide if I want an invoice for a business or an
           | individual. Think again. Go-around hunting for a better
           | option one last time.
           | 
           | Lately, I've had a _harrowing_ experience of misclicking on
           | Amazon. The bastards have put  "Add to Cart" and "Buy with
           | 1-Click" so close together that I clicked Buy thinking I was
           | adding to the cart.
           | 
           | I promptly got emails about my order having been finalized.
           | No confirmations, no whatnot. Like those annoying traffic
           | lights on some streets that go straight from red to green,
           | without amber in between. I felt a bit robbed. True, I wanted
           | to buy the stuff, so I didn't cancel, but damn it, not like
           | this.
        
             | karatinversion wrote:
             | If you don't cancel the purchase on principle, it was the
             | correct (revenue maximising) design.
             | 
             | Not that I can talk, this is how I started my print
             | subscription.
        
       | underyx wrote:
       | This sounds wonderful to me. 20% of would-be buyers were saved
       | from mindlessly consuming and paying for stuff they don't need --
       | by just a tiny little UI friction. Imagine what a mandatory essay
       | about the reason for your purchase would accomplish.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Jiocus wrote:
         | You actually have a point. I think 3-D Secure both fulfills
         | it's purpose to increase consumer protections when paying
         | online, while at the same time, as you suggest, it's acts as a
         | soft obstacle reminding the consumer to maybe re-evaluate their
         | purchase.
         | 
         | I'm not saying it's frictionless nor perfect, but things were
         | worse earlier. Card and identity fraud is increasing, and will
         | continue to be a valuable target, not least because we're
         | moving towards a cashless society (some say).
        
         | warkdarrior wrote:
         | That's nice of you to decide for the would-be buyers that they
         | didn't need the stuff they wanted to buy. Do you offer this as
         | a service?
        
       | hnarn wrote:
       | What's the alternative? As a customer, I find the idea of
       | loosening transactional security for the benefit of companies
       | mildly nauseating.
        
       | kristofferR wrote:
       | I'm really glad my bank got FaceID 3DS right as PSD2 were
       | introduced, it's really quite painless to do the 2FA (just tap
       | the notification, look at your phone and put it back).
       | 
       | Previously you had to use an ancient SMS based SIM app on your
       | phone or use a dongle to authenticate, took over a minute
       | usually.
       | 
       | A way for retailers to "bypass" 3DS is to use Klarna or similar
       | (free in-app invoice that needs to be paid within 14 days). Even
       | though it's usually quite simple to use my debit card, it's still
       | more of a hassle than paying whenever I want within 14 days, so
       | that's what I choose when I'm in a hurry.
        
       | Denvercoder9 wrote:
       | This article would be significantly better if it introduces what
       | PSD2 and 3DS actually are, for those unaware of the
       | abbreviations.
       | 
       | PSD2 -
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive#Rev...
       | 
       | 3DS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure
       | 
       | Furthermore, I want to note that the author works for a company
       | that sells products that "eliminate unnecessary 3DS friction" (in
       | their own words).
        
         | Matthias1 wrote:
         | I found those links slightly difficult to understand. Am I
         | correct in summarizing these definitions as follows?
         | 
         | PSD2--The EU law requiring your bank/card issuer to establish
         | SCA for online purchases.
         | 
         | SCA--Strong Customer Authentication: something in addition to a
         | credit card number, e.g. your bank account password, a mobile
         | push notification, a SMS code.
         | 
         | 3DS--3-Domain secure, the protocol used by online merchants to
         | communicate with the bank in order to establish SCA. This seems
         | to be complicated by the fact that most banks aren't
         | implementing this protocol themselves, but using a third party.
         | So you get redirected to the website of that third party in
         | order to authenticate a transaction.
        
           | lxgr wrote:
           | > something in addition to a credit card number
           | 
           | Two things, actually. The credit card number doesn't count as
           | a "thing" anymore.
           | 
           | This is why SMS-OTP alone is not sufficient (representing
           | only possession), but mobile phone app based solutions are
           | (they represent possession of a linked device and usually ask
           | for biometrics or a PIN code).
        
           | jameshart wrote:
           | This is an accurate summary, yes.
        
           | Aerroon wrote:
           | > _SCA--Strong Customer Authentication: something in addition
           | to a credit card number, e.g. your bank account password, a
           | mobile push notification, a SMS code._
           | 
           | I've run into this a few times and it has made me _very_
           | hesitant. You 're effectively being asked to log into your
           | own bank account from a link on a third party website or,
           | even worse, an app.
           | 
           | It makes me uneasy, because I feel like a malicious site or
           | app could intercept this and access the account directly. Or
           | do some other kind of trickery that I cannot foresee.
        
             | chrischen wrote:
             | With the way it currently works people can just charge your
             | credit card with the account number only, more or less
             | (everything publicly printed on your credit card).
        
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