R E G U L A T I O N ,A U T H E N T I C A T I O N ,S E C U R I T Y ravelin.com C O N T E N T S 3I N T R O D U C T I O N S E C T I O N A: AU T H E N T I C AT I O N R E P O R T 3D Secure success rates globally, per-card scheme, and per-country, as well as frictionless rates,all from Ravelin’s internal data. 28S E C T I O N B: G LO B A L L A N D S C A P E A N A LY S I S The state of payments around the world, including authentication and SCA, payment trends, andregulation – as well as our global SCA mandates map. 36S E C T I O N C: PAY M E N T S & AU T H E N T I C AT I O N T R E N D SWhat do merchants really think about payments and authentication? Findings, comparisons and takeaways from our annual, global survey of 1466 merchants. 45M E T H O D O LO G Y I N T R O D U C T I O N Authentication, regulation and online payment fraud comprise an ever-shifting landscape – one that anyone who accepts card payments online is advised to be aware of. In this year’s edition of Ravelin’s Global Payments Report, we have gone further, tracing the upwards and downwards trends of 3D Secure rates over time – compared tolast year (as well as merchant attitudes to payments). Ravelin’s Global Payments Report 2026 features three sections, namely: SECTION B SECTION A SECTION C Attitudes to regulation, payments andpayment fraud: Analysis, payment trends, and adviceto merchants: Authentication report: Ravelin’s 3D Secure data from 37 countriesaround the world – with comparison tolastyear. Get detailed information and solidrecommendations to interpret ourfindings, understand the latest trends inCNP payments, and navigate paymentfraudchallenges. Merchant attitudes around 3DS, PSD2,payment methods and channels, andsellingonline. Our aim is for our readers to gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to online payments, including potential new risks andopportunities. Enjoy reading, and please reach out to us with any questions or comments. |GLOBAL PAYMENTS REPORT 2026 K E Y TA K E AWAY S 2 3 5 4 Account-to-account(A2A) real-timepayments are pickingup, as are digital wallets,with authenticationbecoming more dynamic– but e-wallet and BNPLfraud is up. The UK tops theauthentication ratingsfor one more year. It willbe interesting to see theimpact of announcedchanges to UK SCAmandates – which 51%want to see removed. 3DS success ratesare not optimal – withmodest improvementsin the USA driving upthe global average. Aremerchants sending allrelevant data along withtheir request? Agentic AI, VAMP,the EUDI wallet andstablecoins are allexpected to reshapethe landscape – butfraudsters will adapt tochanges and adopt newtech to support andscale their schemes. Frictionless rates havedropped globally –in 76% of countries.Issuers, schemes andlegislators are tighteningtheir assessments andputting more pressure onmerchants. >The 3DS data in Section A is internal and comes from Ravelin’s paymentfraud and optimization recommendations, as well as from managingauthentication itself. >Section B is based on the authors’ expertise in the online paymentlandscape, including card scheme bulletins, legislators’ announcements,key industry reports, and the media. >Section C shares previously-unreleased data from Ravelin’s annualSurvey, the latest version of which had 1466 participants – all enterprisemerchants who sell products or services online. For detailedmethodology and breakdown,please visit page 45. S E C T I O N A: AU T H E N T I C AT I O N R E P O R T RAVELIN’S GLOBAL 3D SECURE AUTHENTICATION REPORT FINDINGS WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION In this section, you’ll find authentication data for 37 key countries, aswell as global averages per card scheme and region. >Across the board, 3DS success rates are lower than ideal –with modest improvements inthe USA driving up the globalaverage. Are merchants sending all relevant data along withtheir request? For each, we’ll look at: 3DS SUCCESS RATE: The rate of success of 3D Secure authentication as a proportion ofall payments sent to authentication. In this sense, the 3DS successrate can also be called the 3DS authentication success rate. >For one more year,the UK tops the comparison charts. Inaddition to very high authentication and challenge successrates, the frictionless rates have also improved by 7%. It willbe interesting to see how the announced changes to UK SCAwill affect these metrics. 3DS CHALLENGE SUCCESS RATE: Where there has been a 3D Secure challenge, what percentage ofcardholders successfully authenticated themselves? In other words,this is the rate of successful 3D Secure challenges as a proportion ofall 3D Secure challenges. >We observed a +47% increase in the United States’ 3DSsuccess rate. It seems that thepressure is building upfor acquirers and merchantsto more closely follow cardscheme recommendations and authenticate securely. FRICTIONLESS RATE: How many of all authentication attempts were authenticatedwithout a challenge