Payments processor Stripe has acquired Dublin-based Touchtech Payments to ready itself for the impending Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regulation.
The new EU regulatory requirement is to be enacted on 14 September 2019 and will require European consumers to confirm their identities for online purchases with 2-factors of authentication. This can be either something they know, like a password, something they have such as a phone and something physical about them like a fingerprint.
In order to prepare for the looming deadline, Stripe will integrate the SCA-ready authentication technology of Touchtech Payments. Following the close of the acquisition, Touchtech will continue to grow its products and operate from its Dublin office.
Touchtech offers financial services, including N26 and Transferwise, with authentication tools for payments. Its mobile solution can authenticate payments without the need of passwords, with biometrics and eSignatures available to aid verifications.
Stripe has also released a number of SCA-ready authentication methods for the checkout page. Its Payments Intents API will now let enterprises design a SCA-compliant payment form and choose authentication methods they want.
Stripe chief product officer Will Gaybrick said, “On the modern internet, payments should be everything you’d expect: easy, secure, and fully compliant with the latest regulations. Unfortunately, these three attributes are often at odds with one another, making it nearly impossible for an individual business to keep pace with regulatory changes and build a great payments product experience for their customers.
“Touchtech adds yet another layer to the economic infrastructure Stripe is building for the internet, which is designed to help businesses comply not only with SCA but also with the entire next generation of regional payment regulations.”
Stripe is a payments processor which helps businesses to design and use online payment solutions. The company recently closed a $100m funding round which valued it at a colossal $22.5bn.
