Are you authentic? Maybe not until March 2022

The FCA has announced an additional six-month extension for e-commerce-related transactions being subject to PSD2 strong customer authentication obligations, meaning that they will not be enforced until 14 March 2022 at the earliest. SCA obligations were originally due to come into force in September 2019. However, technical issues and a lack of industry readiness, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, meant that regulators around Europe have pushed the deadlines for compliance back several times.

The FCA's deadline extension is good news for internet-based retailers and the parties they engage to provide their online payment processing. It means that disruption to payments should be minimised at a time when there is increased online traffic for retailers.

However, in the past the FCA has still expected firms to continue with their preparations as quickly as possible, and we envisage that the FCA will still be checking in with firms and industry bodies that their implementation programmes continue to progress.