Business Overview

The use of risk-based authentication allows issuers to accept transactions without having to challenge cardholders, which results in a frictionless process for both cardholders and merchants. The merchants benefit from adopting the 3DS protocol by protecting against fraudulent chargebacks and ensuring that the cardholders are secure from fraudulent transactions, while the cardholders have a seamless experience using the merchants’ platform as they are not being challenged. This reduction in Challenge Flow interactions may lower the drop-off rate caused by using the 3DS protocol.

In the Frictionless Flow, the Cardholder’s identity is verified automatically by the Issuer without the need for additional authentication steps or Cardholder interaction.

The Frictionless Flow is achieved through real-time risk assessment that takes into account various types of information, such as:

  • details of the transaction (amount, currency, Merchant, recurring or non-recurring…)
  • device used by the Cardholder to perform the transaction
  • the Cardholder’s transaction history and relation with the Merchant
  • technical information such as device location or IP address

to determine the level of risk associated with the transaction.


To enhance transaction risk assessment, the Issuer can use two 3DS features:

  • Trust List enables the cardholder to create a list of preferred merchants. Enabling the cardholder to provide their spending habits improves the Issuer’s risk assessment. For additional details, refer to Trust List in the Technical Features section.

  • Device Binding enables the Cardholder to link the Device used for e-commerce transactions to their payment card (Cardholder Account Number). In return, the Issuer uses this information in transaction risk assessment as an indicator that the genuine Cardholder is performing the transaction using the same payment card on the same device. For additional details, refer to Device Binding in the Technical Features section.

The Frictionless Flow of the 3DS protocol provides a convenient and secure experience for online transactions. The automatic verification process based on real-time risk assessment helps to reduce the risk of fraud while keeping the transaction secure. The integration of the Frictionless Flow into the transaction provides a seamless shopping experience to both the Cardholder and the Merchant, making it an important aspect of online payment security.