New eftpos anti-fraud tools aim to make Aussie merchants and consumers more secure online

eftpos is scheduled to launch two new eCommerce anti-fraud tools later this year, aimed at helping Australians make more secure payments online.

eftpos CEO Stephen Benton said with more Australians moving their everyday spending into the digital economy, eftpos was rolling out the eCommerce capabilities to help drive competition, provide choice and enhance online payments security.

Mr Benton said an important part of this rollout was the introduction of two new anti-fraud capabilities by the beginning of November 2021:

• Network Fraud Scoring – to help financial institutions assess the risk associated with individual transactions.
• eftpos Secure (EMV 3-D Secure) – two-factor authentication for consumers, which helps reduce risk for both consumers and merchants.

These new anti-fraud tools have been in development for several years and follow the earlier introduction of enhanced security and fraud services from eftpos, including the eftpos Tokenisation service in 2016 and the upgraded Disputes and Chargebacks platform in 2017.

“The introduction of these new anti-fraud services means we can extend eftpos payment options for consumers and merchants into higher risk categories of the online payments environments with confidence, and keep driving competition in this space,” Mr Benton said.

“This is a vital step in opening-up online payment options and not repeating the mistakes of the past when eCommerce card payments were first rolled out by others, particularly at a time when more Australians are relying on the digital economy for their everyday spending.”

The vast majority (84%*) of reported card fraud in Australia occurs in the online environment. eftpos’ current eCommerce card-on-file solution has experienced zero fraud because of the low-risk approach taken to minimise risk across the ecosystem.

Mr Benton said eftpos had taken a cautious approach to its entry into eCommerce, with the new anti-fraud tools and capabilities being in development for the past few years.

“The introduction of these enhanced anti-fraud tools completes the market-wide enablement of omni-channel processing support for purchase transactions. This allows eftpos to support transformational digital commerce experiences for all Australians,” Mr Benton said.

eftpos launched its first eCommerce service in August last year for Australian businesses that accept recurring card-on-file transactions from their customers.

eftpos has also upgraded its network to support Deposit & Withdrawal messages, enabling secure and low-cost real-time transfer of funds for person-to-person (P2P) payments, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Government-to-Consumer (G2C) disbursements.