Elavon’s Transaction Risk Analysis

LONDON (7 September 2022) – Global payments provider Elavon Merchant Services today announced its Transaction Risk Analysis solution now offers Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) exemption to low-risk transactions up to €500, double the typical SCA exemption limit.

Elavon’s current customer fraud rates means it is the only major acquirer that can enable exemptions for low-risk online transactions up to €500* across Europe, increasing transaction approval rates for major retailers such as Puma and some of the world’s biggest airlines.

Typical SCA exemptions across the payments industry are €100-250. 

On average, Elavon’s merchants using the TRA solution are experiencing transaction approval rates 3.5% higher than the industry average of 88%, leading to a superior buying experience for customers, reduced cart abandonment, and increased revenue for merchants.

TRA has proven most beneficial to large retailers processing high volumes of low-value transactions.

Pari Sawant, Global Head of Product at Elavon, says, “Retails can deliver a seamless customer experience by materially reducing transaction friction with fewer authentication steps and maintaining high security standards.” 

SCA across the European Economic Area is designed to make e-commerce more secure. However, this extra layer of protection can result in long or complicated checkout processes, leading to cart abandonment and reduced customer satisfaction. 

The latency and low acceptance can see almost one in five (19%) payments lost.1 TRA optimises the payments process by providing a frictionless payment experience for consumers while preventing fraud by using real-time risk analysis and scoring. With the Average Transaction Value in the airlines industry around €170, and between €30-50 for large retailers, boosting approval rates has potential to unlock billions in untapped revenue.

Hemlata Narasimhan, President of Elavon Merchant Services, says, “Security in e-commerce is paramount, and TRA allows payments to flow seamlessly and safely. Providing the highest exemption across Europe of all major acquirers, €500, has been a huge advantage for Elavon customers, like retailers and airlines, processing high volumes of low-value transactions.”

One Elavon merchant experiencing challenges during the UK ramp-up of SCA implementation was losing more than a third of sales transactions on average, and up to 74% during phase three. Once TRA was enabled, the customer’s approval rates soared to over 92%, reaching 100% in some cases.

Other merchants to benefit from Elavon’s TRA 500 include Puma and Magix.  

Marcus Riese, Senior Payment Specialist Ecommerce Europe at PUMA, adds, “Elavon was a strong partner in supporting PUMA eCom Europe during a time of high uncertainty by providing an innovative technical approach to cover the downsides of PSD2 regulations. As a result, PUMA has been able to keep its authorisation rates at high levels - ensuring that transactions are processed in a PSD2-compliant manner while reducing friction for payments which were validated to be secure.”

Martin Raschke, Senior controller of German software company, Magix, says, “As a creator of cutting-edge software, it’s critical that our customers can shop securely on our website. PSD2 regulations make online payments safer, but the necessary security checks can frustrate consumers. TRA makes online checkout smoother and safer without annoying our customers, resulting in approval rates of around 95%. Well done, Elavon!”

Elavon’s TRA solution was crowned Best Service to Business in the Card and Payment Awards 2022 and Silver in the Best B2B Payments Programme category in the UK Emerging Payments Awards 20213.

Find out more about Elavon’s TRA solution here. 

^{* Subject to individual merchant fraud rates and subject to change, exemption levels may be lower than €500}