What is SCA?

SCA (strong customer authentification) is a new European requirement created to make online payments more secure. It means that if customers are making a payment within the EU, additional authentication levels are required at the time of the transaction.

SCA is based on the use of two or more of the following elements – categorized as Knowledge, Ownership and Inherence:
– Something that only the user knows (e.g., password, code, personal identification number).
– Something that only the user has (e.g. token, smart card, mobile phone).
– Something that the user is (e.g. biometric features, such as a fingerprint).

The reason why SCA must be adhered to in the case of Sofortüberweisung is because customers as the payer:
(a) access their payment account online;
(b) initiate an electronic payment transaction;
(c) carry out the operations online, i.e. via an external channel that poses an increased risk of fraud or other misuse.