Situation

Our client, a major payments network, was struggling to understand the inconsistencies that existed during the authentication portion of 3D-Secure payment transactions.  Realizing that poor issuer decisions lead to friction in the cardholder purchase experience, ultimately increasing purchase abandonment, the card network turned to Glenbrook to help them develop a long-term strategy to enhance their issuer authentication performance.

Approach

Glenbrook’s helped our client to gain a thorough understanding of the issuer authentication ecosystem, quantifying the types of technologies and vendors that issuers were using to perform real-time authentication decisions.  We then highlighted the differences in strategies utilized by issuers, as well as the strengths and shortcomings of each of these approaches.  Data was obtained through interviews with ecosystem participants, including card network SMEs, issuers, merchants, and technology service providers. 

We provided the client with a recommended approach and roadmap to help improve authentication standards and better engage with issuers.   We also recommended various strategies related to internal technology, rule, and regulatory enhancements.

Impact

The client has utilized our recommendations to spawn several related strategy projects.