Issuing banks use 3-D Secure to help prevent fraud in e-commerce payments. When a merchant runs an e-commerce payment, they can send details about the payment to the 3-D Secure service. The 3-D Secure service then sends these details to the issuing bank to assess the risk of fraud for the payment.
If the risk of fraud is too high, the issuing bank then asks the cardholder to verify their identity. For example, if a cardholder wants to buy an expensive item from an online store, the issuing bank prompts the cardholder to log in to their banking app to verify their identity.
3-D Secure is also known as:
- Visa Secure
- Verified by Visa
- Mastercard identity check
- Mastercard SecureCode
- American Express Safekey
How 3-D Secure works
Mermaid source
flowchart TD
A([Cardholder submits a payment on the merchant's checkout page]):::blue
B[Merchant's POS sends the payment details to the 3-D Secure service]:::neutral
C[The 3-D Secure service sends the payment details to the cardholder's issuing bank]:::neutral
D[Issuing bank assesses the payment details for risk of fraud]:::neutral
E{Is there a high risk of fraud?}:::yellow
F([Issuing bank approves the payment]):::green
G[Issuing bank prompts cardholder to verify their identity]:::neutral
H{Does the cardholder verify their identity?}:::yellow
I([Issuing bank declines the payment]):::red
A --> B --> C --> D --> E
E -->|No| F
E -->|Yes| G --> H
H -->|Yes| F
H -->|No| I
classDef blue fill:#0051C2,stroke:#001D4E,color:#FFFFFF
classDef green fill:#00E0B8,stroke:#001D4E,color:#001D4E
classDef yellow fill:#F4F7FE,stroke:#0051C2,color:#0051C2,font-size:15px
classDef red fill:#DC2626,stroke:#991B1B,color:#FFFFFF
classDef neutral fill:#E5E5E5,stroke:#636363,color:#001D4E