TECHNOLOGY
“PAYMENTS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A TRADE-OFF BETWEEN SECURITY , COST , AND EASE OF USE ”
ANDREW NEESON MANAGING EDITOR & RESEARCH DIRECTOR , VIXIO
Editor and Research Director at regulatory intelligence firm VIXIO . “ This trinity can often feel like a fine balancing act , with the exertion of one typically being at the expense of the other . For example , it is possible to add so many layers of security that a payment could be made virtually impenetrable to fraudsters . However , in doing so , it could also mean prohibitively high costs and a level of complexity that would frustrate users .
“ Contactless is a great example of how this can work in practice . While it makes payments easier for both consumers and merchants , there is a trade off in terms of a cost to security ( no PIN authentication ), which is balanced by maximum spend limits to minimise risks . This can be adjusted as risk becomes better understood or for public policy reasons , such as the increase in contactless limits during COVID-19 in many parts of the world . Regulators often deal with this trade off .
“ In terms of transactional security , one of the big pieces of regulatory interventions in the EU and UK was the introduction of Secure Customer Authentication . With some notable exemptions , banks require two forms of identification at checkout , in the form of something the user knows , something the user has and something the user is . fintechmagazine . com 75