ComBank enables Senkadagala to be first local finance co. to activate EMV 3DS on Visa cards

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has enabled Senkadagala Finance PLC to become the first finance company in Sri Lanka to activate EMV 3DS fraud prevention technology in the authentication of Visa card transactions of the latter’s customers. 

Commercial Bank has been extending card services to other local banks and finance companies via ‘ComBank Gold net’, a product the bank introduced in 2007. 

With the activation of Visa Secure, built on EMVCo’s 3DS 2.0 protocol, users of debit cards issued by Senkadagala Finance will be provided the additional assurance of the technology’s sophisticated OTP (One Time Password) methodology that ensures customer convenience and advanced security, the Bank said. This is the first instance of Commercial Bank enabling 3DS services for an associate card issuer.

EMV 3D Secure is a global protocol specification released by EMVCo. It offers risk-based authentication and frictionless processing, further reducing the possibilities of e-commerce frauds and authentication failures. Commercial Bank was the first bank in Sri Lanka to deploy the technology in collaboration with Visa for authenticating payments made by credit, debit and pre-paid cards issued by the Bank.

This authentication process involves the merchant sending certain data needed to validate a transaction to the card issuer. The Bank has the capability to enable low-risk purchases to be completed through the frictionless flow, facilitating speedy authentication by reducing page redirects and entering the information before payment. Potentially risky purchases on the other hand, will prompt cardholders to complete additional authentication through SMS, security questions and other mechanisms such as emails in order to avoid fraud and validate the transaction.