Beyond Fraud: How to Get the Most Out of EMV 3DS
5 ways a richer data set and advanced analytics give merchants more control—and a competitive advantage
When it becomes mandated for issuers in 2019, EMV 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) will lay a new foundation for deterring card not present (CNP) fraud. That’s great news for merchants: CNP fraud now accounts for 81% of total fraud losses, according to Javelin Research.
EMV 3DS is an authentication protocol that provides a means to pass a wealth of information to all parties involved in a transaction. This data can be used by issuer and merchant fraud prevention systems to identify whether a transaction is genuine or fraudulent—creating new opportunities to reduce fraud rates, false declines, and abandoned shopping carts.
In fact, EMV 3DS provides a ten times as many data fields as 3DS 1.x. With this rich data, seasoned providers like CA Technologies have created a comprehensive real-time behavioral analytics network that includes e-commerce authentication transaction data across global issuers and merchants. Merchants can get even more value via real-time rules engines that make it easy to manage customized paths based on a user’s risk level.
These same providers can add a host of additional data such as device ID and transaction velocity to create a 360° view of cardholder activity.
Foundation for Better Intelligence
For CA Technologies, this comprehensive data set is just the beginning. The company uses neural networks to analyze transactions in real time and machine learning to continuously refine and update its predictive models. Here are five ways that CA Technologies uses EMV 3DS enhanced data exchange between merchants and issuers to support better fraud decisions.
1. Stop Fraud Faster: CA creates a risk score that merchants can use to make a confident decision of whether to allow, deny, or step-up a transaction based on their policies.
CA Technologies’ real-time behavioral analytics network analyzes e-commerce authentication transaction data from global issuers, merchants, and financial institutions in real time. Real-time multidimensional capabilities allow for a deeper analysis of historical cardholder data across a network of issuers, connecting transaction data with devices in real time. This means issuers stop fraud faster and prevent related disruptions to the online customer experience.
“When you combine the enhanced data with advanced analytics, you can get a very good statistical likelihood of whether a transaction is genuine or fraudulent,” explains James Jenkins, senior director of Solution Sales for CA Technologies.
2. More Merchant Control: CA Technologies allows merchants to configure and manage authentication based on their risk policies, giving the merchant ultimate say on how they want to handle transactions. The merchant has the benefit of real-time rule creation allowing them to create rules instantly allowing them to adapt to fraud patterns without having to wait for or rely on the vendor.
“EMV 3DS is a real game-changer,” says Jenkins. “We’re very excited about giving the control to merchants. We don’t see anyone else in the industry taking that approach.”
3. Less Customer Friction: With CA Technologies, EMV 3DS provides merchants data they can use to more definitively approve or decline transactions.
“The enhancements in EMV 3DS give us the data we need to help merchants decrease fraud rates and false declines, while significantly enhancing the customer experience,” says Jenkins. “The customer must come foremost in everything we do.”
4. Choice of Authentication Challenges: Based on their risk assessment and preference, merchants can use CA Technologies’ solution to employ a variety of authentication methods as needed, including push notifications and one-time passcodes (OTP). CA Technologies also supports biometrics, enabling merchants to authenticate customers using fingerprints or facial scans.
The goal is to provide merchants with choice. “We won’t prescribe a standard authentication challenge method,” says Jenkins. “Merchants can decide and align the method with their needs, as well as their customer’s needs.”
5. Additional Intelligence: Merchants can use a variety of tools to extract the data for use cases beyond fraud decisioning. For example, since the data is gathered from a variety of channels including mobile and online, merchants can analyze the shopping and buying behaviors of customers to design products, improve their business model, or create a more seamless omni channel experience.
Jenkins notes that CA Technologies and its merchant partners have only scratched the surface of the types of insights that EMV 3DS 2.0 data can bring and adds that CA Technologies is working closely with merchants to unlock even more value.
The Power of Data Intelligence
With EMV 3DS, merchants have an opportunity to leverage data from across the industry. To unlock this rich cardholder and device data, which includes payment history, merchant category, and the purchaser’s device type and IP address, merchants will need to partner with a recognized leader in the EMV 3DS space with the data science capabilities to extract intelligence from 3DS data, and to apply that intelligence to additional use cases. The winners will be able to leverage the data generated by EMV 3DS to optimize the customer experience, drive intelligent business decisions, and reduce fraud.
About CA Technologies
CA Technologies, a Broadcom Company, is an industry leader in payment and identity fraud prevention, with friction-free transaction authentication powered by patented artificial intelligence. As a pioneer in data analytics for online fraud, CA delivers a unique 360-degree view of transactions for issuers, processors, and merchants, across all payment schemes. Learn more at
