Category · essays

Payments

The Visa and Mastercard rules on authentication and liability, the programmes that sit on top of them, and open banking.

  1. № 1 · 13 Oct
    Authentication Out of band

    The human in the loop is already in the spec

    When an AI agent buys something, how does the cardholder's bank get the cardholder to say yes? The published EMV 3DS specification already has an answer: a 3RI request answered with a decoupled challenge. What is missing is support and settled law.

    2 min read
  2. № 2 · 06 Oct
    Regulatory

    Authorised to do what?

    Visa's rules make a cardholder responsible for an agent's purchase as if they initiated it. PSD2 asks whether they consented. A 2024 CJEU case on human proxies suggests what an issuer will have to prove, and the answer runs through the record of what the agent was told.

    5 min read
  3. № 3 · 29 Sep
    Regulatory Out of band

    Agent indicator or intent record?

    Six banks say any party holding a potential liability should be able to require authentication. In the EU that is the issuer, yet the published EMV 3DS specification has no field telling its ACS an agent is acting. Which signal should reach the ACS first?

    1 min read
  4. № 4 · 22 Sep
    Regulatory

    Reading a Compromise Text

    Four PSR articles with small textual changes and a changed obligation in each. A method for checking the obligations in your implementation plan against the April compromise, using the comparison and following its references.

    3 min read
  5. № 5 · 15 Sep
    Regulatory

    Give your AI the source

    Connect ChatGPT or Claude directly to paymentslaw.eu and check the sources behind an SCA answer. A free, read-only connection to 51 curated EU payments instruments, with provisions, source editions and citations you can open.

    2 min read
  6. № 6 · 08 Sep
    Regulatory

    SCA gets a promotion

    Strong customer authentication is being moved into a directly applicable regulation, not just amended. Your transition plan needs to separate what the text specifies, what waits on the EBA, and what it assumes about the handover. The law leaves that last part implicit.

    9 min read
  7. № 7 · 16 Sep
    Authentication

    The Trust Triangle Evolution: From 3-D Secure's Three Domains to AP2's Agent Architecture

    Twenty-five years ago, the payments industry solved the trust problem of e-commerce with a three-domain architecture that became the backbone of online authentication. Now, as AI agents prepare to shop on our behalf, we're witnessing history rhyme. But this time, humans might not be in the loop.

    4 min read
  8. № 8 · 28 Jun
    AI & Automation

    When Claude Ran a Shop: Lessons in AI Autonomy and the Future of Work

    Anthropic let their AI run a shop. It failed magnificently—giving away discounts, selling at a loss, and having an identity crisis. Yet this disaster might be the clearest signal yet of how AI will transform work: not by replacing humans, but by orchestrating them at unprecedented scale.

    5 min read
  9. № 9 · 02 Jun
    Payments

    The Customer Lifecycle Leader: Why Your Next VP Should Own Presales to Renewal

    The artificial silos between Presales, Professional Services, and Customer Success are killing enterprise software companies. Here's why your next VP should own the entire customer journey and how to make it work.

    6 min read
  10. № 10 · 28 May
    Payments

    Not the Whole Story: How Zero-Sum Thinking Distorts Payment Innovation

    Zero-sum headlines declare “cash is dead” or frame BNPL as a credit-card killer. Fresh UK Finance data tell a different story: contactless, cash and BNPL are all growing; layered, not cannibalised. Here’s why clinging to win-lose narratives skews product bets and policy debates.

    3 min read
  11. № 11 · 07 Feb
    Payments

    The Psychology of Modern Payment Choices From Cards to BNPL

    How do payment methods influence our spending decisions? From the psychological distance created by card payments to the sophisticated mechanisms of Buy Now, Pay Later services, this article examines the hidden forces shaping our financial choices.

    4 min read
  12. № 12 · 05 Mar
    Payments

    Learning to ❤️ My PIN

    With Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) reshaping online security, how can banks balance security with customer convenience?

    3 min read