Kount and Barclaycard Payments Partnership is New Horizon in eCommerce Fraud Prevention

Barclaycard Payments and Kount announced a new partnership that will give Barclaycard customers access to Kount’s award-winning fraud detection software. The partnership has multiple benefits and will help businesses: Protect against eCommerce fraud Maximize sales Improve customer experience Help businesses better prepare for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) by allowing them to take advantage of ‘TRA’ exemptions Barclaycard and Kount – An Industry Leading Team Barclaycard Payments processes almost 40 percent of card transactions in the United Kingdom. They introduced the U.K.’s first credit card in 1966 and have been working ever since to make things as simple as possible for shoppers and businesses – whether that’s contactless technology or mobile payments. Kount, based in Boise, Idaho, is an advanced fraud prevention solution that uses adaptive AI and machine learning combined with the Identity Trust Global Network to protect businesses from eCommerce fraud including chargebacks and false positives. In addition to their partnership, Barclays and Kount are introducing Barclays Transact, a suite of tools designed to help merchants make their online transactions both simpler and safer. The powerful new partnership means Barclays Transact customers now have access to award-winning fraud detection software via a fraud module. Kount and Barclaycard will hold a webinar on Thursday, June 25, 2020. How Does Barclaycard Transact’s New Fraud Module Work? Transact’s new fraud module, powered by Kount, uses complex data linking within the Identity Trust Global Network and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to detect fraudulent transactions in real-time, at the point of check-out, helping protect the business from false positives and chargebacks. It accomplishes this with the Identity Trust Global Network, the largest network of trust and risk signals, which is comprised of 32 billion annual interactions from more than 9,000 customers across 75+ industries. Kount’s AI uses both supervised and unsupervised machine learning to detect emerging and existing complex fraud. Kount’s customers have reported results such as a 99% reduction in chargebacks, 70% reduction in false positives, and an 83% reduction in manual reviews. “The Kount and Barclaycard Payments partnership is a mutually beneficial relationship,” said David Mattei, Senior Analyst at Aite Group. “Barclaycard Payments gains access to Kount’s Identity Trust Global Network to bring insights and protection to its global merchants, especially those in Europe requiring PSD2 and SCA support. Kount broadens its global visibility with a significant increase in UK card transactions. The real winners are merchants using Barclays Transact for advanced AI-driven fraud mitigation and prevention.” New Partnership Aids Business as They Prepare for the EU’s PSD2 SCA Regulation The fraud module can also help businesses better prepare for the introduction of the EU’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) regulation, which aims to tackle growing rates of fraud and cybercrime. Issuers and merchants face challenges to become PSD2 SCA compliant and address these new regulations in their online business practices. SCA requires that all EEA transactions go through a two-factor authentication process, unless they qualify for an exemption. One consequence of this regulation is that the authentication process will introduce a degree of friction into the shopper journey, which may result in an increase in cart abandonment, and ultimately in lost revenue for retailers. Transact’s fraud module can help businesses overcome this friction by taking advantage of SCA-approved Transaction Risk Assessment (TRA) exemptions – which is where transactions are considered genuine, and therefore allowed to skip the two-factor authentication process up to pre-agreed thresholds. With Kount’s state-of-the-art fraud analysis, all transactions are analyzed in real time and scored on a spectrum of low to high risk. The merchant’s gateway then uses this score to identify the transactions which qualify for TRA exemptions. Kount acts as the first line of defense in a transaction to prevent fraud before the transaction is approved. In combination, when Kount screens for multiple types of fraud prior to checkout, and 3DS2 passively authenticates more customers, the need for step up verification is greatly reduced. This results in a frictionless payment journey and a faster checkout experience for customers, ultimately resulting in lower levels of cart abandonment and increased sales. Higher-risk transactions requiring further inspection will still go through two-factor authentication, or be immediately declined, in accordance with the regulation and customer risk appetite. Bringing Together Innovation to Combat Emerging Fraud Strategies Brad Wiskirchen, CEO, Kount says, “The eCommerce environment is rapidly growing and changing. This partnership between Barclycard and Kount brings together both stability and innovation to provide merchants with an innovative solution to combat emerging fraud strategies while providing a seamless payment experience for customers. By leaving fraud prevention and regulation management up to the experts, businesses can focus on what they do best.” David Jeffrey, Director of Product, Barclaycard Payments says, “We are really excited to be partnering with Kount, because they share our goal of collaborative innovation, and a drive to deliver best-in-class shopper experiences.”