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The Bank of Israel’s Oversight Payment Systems Division announces the principles set out for strong customer authentication (SCA) when using a payment card. These principles were set out in order to mitigate the existing risks when making digital payments, which include fraud, identity theft, counterfeiting, and abuse. The standards set by the market participants as part of the payment cards committee[1] will contribute to increased effectiveness and increased safety of use of advanced means of payment for everyone’s benefit.

 

The implementation of SCA will be based on two or more of the following categories:

  1. Knowledge (Something You Know) - Information only the user knows.
  2. Possession (Something You Have) - Something only the user possesses. Possession refers not only to physical possession, but also to nonphysical possession.
  3. Inherence (Something You Are) - This category includes biological, behavioral, and biometric features.

 

In other words, to perform SCA the user must be identified according to two or more elements, where each element is from a different category. These elements must also be independent of each other, so that the breach of one does not compromise the reliability of the others and confidentiality of the data is protected.

The elements in each category were determined after reviewing the elements set in Europe by the EBA[2], and adapting them to conform with Israel’s market needs and characteristics so that they can be considered SCA compliant.

 

The components in the specified categories will be updated from time to time according to changes and developments in the field.

 

In order to make the SCA principles accessible to the public, the Bank of Israel has formulated a series of public information steps:

 

Link to a dedicated website (Hebrew) with a list of elements that may be considered SCA-compliant in each category, and additional requirements for SCA implementation.

https://e-umb.boi.gov.il/%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D/supervisionregulation/%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%92%D7%91%D7%A8/

 

  1. Explanatory video clips – There are two dedicated video clips, one for merchants and one for payment cardholders, illustrating the principles. The Bank of Israel encourages the public to view, download, and share the video clips, due to the importance of the issue for the economy and in order to increase the public’s awareness.

 

SCA for consumers:

 

SCA for merchants

 

(The Bank of Israel’s material is attached for your viewing and use.  Credit: Bank of Israel.)

The position paper attached

 

[1] The Payment Cards Committee is a market committee that discusses broad topics relating to the payment cards market.

[2]  https://www.eba.europa.eu/file/104475/