What do I need to know about PSD2 Compliance?

The PSD2 regulation

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) is the latest version of the Payment Services Directive, a European regulation requiring Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) to make online payments in the European Economic Area (EEA) more secure.

Who needs to be compliant?

PSD2 applies to banks, intermediaries and indirectly impacts businesses. Intermediaries (for example platforms) who come into possession or control of funds may also be in scope of PSD2. 

PSD2 also introduces the requirement of strong customer authentication (SCA). Merchants may be indirectly impacted by this new requirement as they could be held liable where strong customer authentication (SCA) was not performed and the issuing bank suffered a loss. Issuers may also refuse transactions that are not compliant with PSD2 so merchants are encouraged to make sure their transactions comply with SCA requirements.

Are your payments affected?

Answer a few questions and check if your transactions fall under PSD2 Compliance guidelines.

Out of scope transactions

Out of scope transactions are transactions not covered by the PSD2 SCA requirements. For these transactions, shoppers won’t be presented with an authentication challenge, unless businesses specifically ask for 3D Secure in their payment request. 

Stay PSD2 compliant

If you are using Adyen’s authentication and/or authorization service, Adyen takes care of the majority of the complexity for you by routing in scope transactions to 3D Secure when required.