Several weeks ago, my colleague, Dave Lott, wrote a post addressing the question "Does More Security Mean More Friction in Payments?" Having had several weeks to ponder this concept while attending multiple payments conferences and participating in similar discussions, I can say that I believe that securing payments does mean more friction. Friction may not be seen as good for commerce, but it can be good for security. An enormous challenge that those in the payments industry face is determining the right balance of friction and security. This challenge is heightened since consumers have a range of choices in payment types, yet do not often bear financial liability for fraudulent transactions.
It is absolutely critical to secure the enrollment or provisioning of the payment instrument on the front end. However, this introduces friction before a payment transaction is even attempted. And if consumers deem the process too onerous, they can reject that payment instrument or seek alternative providers. The recent media coverage of fraud occurring through Apple Pay highlights the challenge in the onboarding process. Consumers and pundits have raved about the ease of provisioning a card to their Apple Pay wallet through what they already have on file with iTunes. But fraudsters have taken advantage of this easy onboarding process. I should stress that this isn't just a mobile payments or Apple Pay problem—fraudsters are well-versed in opening bank accounts, credit cards, and other payment instruments using synthetic or stolen identities.
Let's assume that a person's payment credentials are in fact legitimate. Verifying that legitimacy introduces more friction into the payment process. A transaction that requires no verification obviously comes with the least friction, but it is the riskiest. Signatures and PINs bring a small amount of friction to the process, with very different results in terms of fraud losses. We don't know yet what kind of friction, if any, different biometric solutions create during both provisioning and the transaction. Issuers must enable the various forms of verification, and it is up to the merchants to implement solutions that will use various verification methods. Yet consumers, who bear less of the risk of financial loss from fraudulent transactions than the merchants, can choose which payment method, and sometimes which verification method, to use—and they often do so according to the amount of friction involved, with little to no regard for the security.
Issuers and merchants will offer the right balance of friction and security based on the risks they are willing to take and the investments they make in security processes and solutions. But it is the consumer who will ultimately decide just by accepting or rejecting the options. With limited or no financial liability, consumers are often willing to trade off security in favor of less friction—and the financial institutions and merchants have to bear the losses. So I'll ask our Take On Payments readers, how do you balance friction and security in this environment?
By Douglas A. King, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed