CyberSource upgrades UK payment gateway to support fraud detection initiatives

[May 15th 2002]

CyberSource has announced that it has upgraded its payment gateway in the UK to fully support a number of industry initiatives designed to reduce fraud in Credit Card Not Present (CNP) sales channels, such as Internet stores, call centers and IVR systems. The upgraded infrastructure now supports the Address Verification Service (AVS), card verification and the Electronic Commerce Indicator (ECI).

Neil Cook, managing director, CyberSource UK said, "Through support of these initiatives, along with the advancement of CyberSource's robust risk management products, such as CyberSource's fraud screen product and its Risk Manager platform, CyberSource continues to demonstrate its commitment to help protect businesses worldwide from the burden of CNP fraud. We are confident these new enhancements will provide more value to our payment service customers by helping reduce chargebacks and minimize product loss."

Details of the most recent initiatives supported by the upgraded CyberSource payment gateway in the UK include the following:

• Address Verification Service (AVS) checking for UK bank-issued cards -- allows verification of the billing address details provided by the cardholder, with the actual billing address details held on file by the cardholders issuing bank. This real-time check will now be carried out as part of the authorization process facilitated by CyberSource and a response, based on the validity of the provided address, will be returned to the merchant. Although not foolproof, this check will allow merchants to better control fraud exposure through the knowledge that the billing address given by the consumer can be verified as genuine for that card.

• Card Verification -- a system introduced by several card brands to assist the acquiring bank, issuing bank and merchant in validating CNP transactions. The check is based around three or four additional digits, distinct from the account number, that are printed on the front or back side of the card. They do not appear either in the magnetic stripe or chip. These digits help validate the card as genuine and assist in determining that the consumer is actually in possession of the physical card. As a measure to reduce the risk of fraud, merchants can request these card verification digits on their website payment page or verbally as part of a telephone order. This code is now authenticated as part of the standard authorization process facilitated by CyberSource with the card-issuing bank in the UK.

• Electronic Commerce Indicator (ECI) -- an indicator flag for all transactions that are generated via e-commerce. This flag is intended to identify to the banking network all e-commerce transactions, allowing card schemes to properly monitor transaction volumes and the associated fraud risk.

Links
CyberSource		http://www.cybersource.com