Seylan Bank Upgrades Online Transaction Security for All Cards

Becomes one of the first banks to obtain EMV Three Domain Secure (3DS) protocol 2.0

Seylan Bank, the Bank with a Heart, announced the enhancement of its online transaction security protocol to EMV 3DS 2.0 for both Issuing and Acquiring stages, becoming one of the first banks in Sri Lanka to do so. This upgrade will ensure superior fraud prevention ability and a seamless customer check-out experience for Seylan customers on their Master and Visa card-based transactions.

At present, transactions increasingly take place through digital touchpoints, ranging from computers, smartphones, tabs and various Internet-of-things (IoT) devices such as Alexa and Google Home. While this transition makes payment activities faster and more convenient, opening up more opportunities for engagement, it also requires intense security processes for fraud detection, authentication and authorization of transactions.

With client security at the forefront of its core deliverables, Seylan Bank continuously ensures that processes and protocols are updated to best suit the evolving transaction behaviour of customers. As such, the Bank had already enabled all its Cards with the Three Domain Secure (3DS) protocol previously. This authenticates Cardholders when they perform card-not-present (CNP) transactions such as online payments on e-commerce websites using Credit and Debit cards. The upgrade to 3DS 2.0 will further secure the customers in their card transactions ensuring better customer experience resulting in fewer false declines and reduced stepped-up authentication.

Commenting on the latest upgrade, Ruchith Liyanage – Head of Cards of Seylan Bank stated, “We take pride in being one of the first leading banks to upgrade to 3DS 2.0, which validates our commitment to ensure customer safety, while providing convenient banking services. The biggest challenge banks face at present is to offer the right mix of technology and security that can detect fraudulent activity and minimize false declines. The combination of enhanced data exchange and risk-based authentication will reduce CNP fraud as well as make Seylan Cards a card that is easier to transact with. As a result, our customers will have to face no hesitation in using the card in any payment touchpoint.”

The new and improved version of 3DS adds several upgrades to the existing version. The secured data sharing between the bank and merchants helps to make better informed authentication and authorization decisions, which will increase authorization rates and reduce CNP fraud. The new version also expands the safety network to the mobile app and IoT devices. The mobile friendly protocol is an important feature as mobile commerce continues to grow rapidly. In addition, EMV 3DS requires more secure and user-friendly authenticators such as one-time passwords (OTPs) and can also utilise biometrics, instead of static passwords that are security threats. It also complies with the multifactor authentication for CNP transactions that is increasingly required in a number of countries across the globe, making Seylan Cards compliant in several regions in the world.

Seylan Bank, the Bank with a Heart, operates with a vision to offer the ultimate banking experience to its valued customers through cutting-edge technology, innovative products, and best-in-class services. The Bank has a growing clientele of SMEs, Retail and Corporate Customers, and has over 540 access points across the country. Seylan Bank has been endorsed as a financially stable organization with performance excellence across the board by Fitch Ratings, with the bank’s national long-term rating revised to ‘A’(lka).