To continue to process e-commerce card transactions you must be Payments Service Directive Compliant

From 8th March 2022, as part of the implementation of EU Payments Service Directive SCA (Strong Customer Authentication), certain e-commerce card transactions must be processed in line with the SCA standards.

Failure by the merchant (i.e. your Business/Member) to do so correctly may result in disruption for some e-commerce card transactions. The transactions in scope for these new standards are often referred to as Merchant Initiated Transactions (‘MITs’) and include recurring transactions, transactions that involve a subscription to a service or where the cardholder is attempting to save their payment details for future use.

Payments service providers have continued to work with and support online service providers and the wider e-commerce community to ensure a smooth transition and seamless payments experience for customers and to prevent any disruption for their business and customers.

However, it is expected that there will be a level of disruption and some merchants may not be ready. This will mean that cardholders will experience declines on their debit/credit cards for these transactions.

If you think any of your members may have a reliance on payment mechanisms of this nature in their business, we would encourage you to ask them if they are working with their Acquirer*** to be ready for these changes. If they are not already preparing for this change, then they should make contact with their Acquirer as soon as possible to see what changes are necessary to be ready.

** The EU Payments Service Directive (PSD2) aims to increase security and reduce fraud on payments.

***Acquirer – is the Merchant Acquirer who provides your Member / Customer with their service to enable them accept Card payments in their business. There are many Acquirers providing this service in the Irish market and they are providing this service separate to your Members/Customers main banking relationships, nonetheless the smooth operation of this service for your Member/Customer from 8th March onwards, must be in conjunction with the Acquirer themselves.

Electronic & cash payments and rules on surcharges – Your Europe (europa.eu)