UnionPay International Rolls out 3DS solutions to Make Online Shopping Frictionless
UnionPay is adding more technologies to its e-commerce toolkit to better meet the demand of online payment during the pandemic
2020-07-14

UnionPay International unveiled today the UnionPay 3-D Secure (3DS) online payment authentication solution, a product based on the EMVCo Specifications, aiming at making payment authentication easier for overseas E-commerce merchants. International institutions such as NEXI in Italy is among the first group to launch this product. With UnionPay 3DS, UnionPay cardholders home and abroad can claim “This is my card” in a much easier way and make more seamless and secure payments.

In line with industry practices, UnionPay’s online payment business is carried out in the four-party business model. So far, more than 20 million online merchants in over 200 regions take UnionPay cards. Besides, more and more consumers are used to online shopping at home since COVID-19 broke out. As a response to the trend, UPI, while constantly expanding its online acceptance, has been working hard on enriching its repertoire of online payment technologies to improve payment experience as well as security.

The UnionPay 3DS authentication product launched by UPI effectively makes online payments more frictionless by simplifying authentication and shortening the time needed for authorization. The way of authentication is automatically selected based on purchase data. With UnionPay 3DS, low-risk purchases are completed through the frictionless flow, facilitating speedy authentication by reducing page redirects and information input before payments. The potentially risky purchases will trigger a challenge flow, requiring cardholders to complete additional authentication through SMSs, security questions and other means in order to avoid fraud. With increasing purchase data, 90% of payments in the future will be completed faster.

Moreover, the launch of UnionPay 3DS will result in the upgrade of UnionPay online payment services in several ways. Firstly, it will improve compatibility. UnionPay 3DS can be applied to online purchases initiated through web browsers as well as mobile apps. Secondly, it offers unified standards to meet requirements in different jurisdictions and regulatory systems, which reduces the cost for partner onboarding. Thirdly, it provides diverse authentication options. Apart from the commonly seen one-time passwords, the product can also integrate with emerging authentication technologies that involve tokens, fingerprint and facial recognition.

This 3DS product is also helpful for UPI to further expand its online merchant portfolio. Taking Europe as an example, NEXI, the largest acquirer in Italy and the first European institution to launch the product, enabled UnionPay cards to be accepted by over 7,000 registered online merchants. As several other major Italian acquirers also expressed interest in supporting UnionPay 3DS, UnionPay online acceptance coverage is expected to reach 95% in the country.
In addition to Nexi, international institutions such as UOB in Singapore, LH Bank in Thailand, Solid Bank in Russia have also launched UnionPay 3DS. A large number of financial institutions in Europe, Southeast Asia and Russia have made requests to introduce the solution. It is estimated that 50 overseas organizations will be supporting this product within this year.

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