Introduction to SCA

Strong customer authentication (SCA) was introduced under the revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) to all kinds of financial institutions and payment service providers (PSP). It is a form of multi-factor authentication (MFA, also 2FA), where a user authenticates using evidence of different categories (knowledge, possession, and inherence).

As a regulated electronic money institution (EMI), Mangopay is introducing SCA for the end users of your platform who hold a Mangopay Account. Our SCA solution allows your platform to protect users’ funds and payment activity via a Mangopay-hosted experience.

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Scope

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Actions requiring SCA

The regulations require Mangopay to apply SCA to situations where a OWNER user accesses their payment account or initiates certain payment activities, or to other situations considered at risk.

SCA has an impact on OWNER users at certain moments of their activity with Mangopay. Your platform must change its implementation as a result (see integration required).

Prior to being able to authenticate actions, the user must:

• Enroll at Mangopay Account creation (when a user is assigned the OWNER UserCategory)
• Re-enroll if their contact details change (Email, PhoneNumber)

The actions taken by OWNER users that require SCA to be performed are:

• Bank account registration (by OWNER users for use with payouts)
• Transfer initiation (between two OWNER users)
• Mangopay Account access by OWNER users to view wallet balance or list transactions

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Integration required for SCA

The table below lists the mandatory integration that we require your platform to undertake, along with their availability in Sandbox to start implementation.

Integration required	Available
New user-creation endpoint for enrollment when you register a Owner user for the first time (Natural and Legal, all types).	Now
New user-categorization endpoint for enrollment when you transition a Payer to Owner (Natural and Legal, all types)	Now
New user-modification endpoint to re-enroll an enrolled Owner if contact details changed (Natural and Legal Soletrader).	Now
New endpoint to enroll an existing Owner (Natural and Soletrader) at an appropriate moment in your user journey	Now
Webhooks for the OWNER user account, when enrollment is triggered and completed: USER_ACCOUNT_VALIDATION_ASKED USER_ACCOUNT_ACTIVATED	Now
SCA enrollment and authentication for Business, Partnership, and Organization types of Legal user	See Legal user integration, date to be announced
SCA on Recipients (bank account/payment account registration), including webhooks	Mid-April
SCA on Transfers (user-initiated between Owners) and use of ScaContext	Mid-April
Webhooks for transfer event types: TRANSFER_NORMAL_CREATED TRANSFER_NORMAL_FAILED TRANSFER_NORMAL_SUCCEEDED	Now
SCA on Mangopay Account access (wallet balance and transactions history)	Mid-May

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Deadline for integration

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Hosted webpage

Mangopay is introducing SCA across its API through a secure and hosted webpage.

On relevant endpoints across Mangopay’s API, the base URL for a user’s session is provided in the response parameter PendingUserAction.RedirectUrl. You are able to define a specific page for the user to be returned to after the session.

For the user, Mangopay’s SCA session provides a user-friendly experience that guides them efficiently through all the necessary steps relating to all required factors.

Mangopay’s hosted SCA session handles both enrollment and authentication.

Read how to redirect for an SCA session →

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Factors

Mangopay’s hosted SCA session allows the user to both enroll in SCA and authenticate using the required factors.

All factors must be enrolled by the individual because they are all required for authentication.

Availability	Factor	Type	Description
Available	Phone-based one-time passcode (OTP)	Possession	The individual receives a 6-digit OTP via SMS to the phone number provided during enrollment.
Available	Personal identification number (PIN)	Knowledge	The individual enters a 6-digit code they defined during enrollment.

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Exemptions on actions

The regulations allow for certain exemptions to be applied to certain actions. The exemptions available are different depending on the action being authenticated.

Enrollment cannot be exempted, because it is necessary to enable SCA to be performed.

For Transfers and account access, platforms will have a degree of visibility over whether an exemption was applied or not, based on the response from the API.

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Exemptions available to Mangopay

Action	Exemptions applicable by Mangopay
User being assigned OWNER category (creation or categorization)	None, because this represents SCA enrollment
Change of SCA contact details	None, because this represents SCA re-enrollment
Recipient (bank/payment account) registration	None. Systematic SCA on Recipients enables your users to benefit from an SCA exemption when they request a payout, because the account can be considered a trusted beneficiary.
Transfer initiation between OWNER users	Two kinds of exemptions may be applied by Mangopay on Owner-initiated transfers to other Owners. Note that for transfers between wallets held by the same Owner, SCA does not apply. An Owner also can’t transfer to a Payer. Low-amount transfers Transactions under €30 may be exempted from SCA until they reach one of the following limits: More than 5 consecutive transactions More than €100 in cumulated transactions Low-risk transfers Transaction risk analysis (TRA) calculations, done by Mangopay, may be able to exempt SCA on transactions up to €500 (in the absence of detected risks). The regulations apply thresholds of transaction amounts based on Mangopay’s overall fraud rate for transfers and payouts. The data and calculations used will not be shared with platforms.
Account access (wallet, transaction history)	Accessing wallet balances and listing transactions may be exempted if the last SCA for either of these actions occurred less than 180 days ago. SCA performed for a different action not related to account access, such as registering a Recipient (bank/payment account) or initiating a transfer, cannot be used to exempt account access.

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Notes on other actions

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Payouts

While the payouts are in scope of SCA as per the regulations, Mangopay automatically applies the trusted beneficiary exemption because the Recipient registration was authenticated with SCA.

This means that OWNER users will not be asked to perform SCA on payout requests.

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KYC and UBO

Submitting KYC Documents and UBO Declarations for review will not require SCA.

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FX conversions

Because FX conversions take place between two wallets held by the same user, conversions are not impacted by SCA.

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Refunds

Refunds of all types will not be impacted by SCA. Pay-in and transfer refunds will continue to be possible for PAYER users. Furthermore, refunds that use payouts (by citing the reference of the initial transaction as the PAYIN_REFUND reason) will continue to be possible for PAYER users, because a Recipient can be created for this purpose (see Recipient scopes - Pay-in).

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Disputes

The dispute process is unaffected by Mangopay’s SCA features.

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Pay-ins

In a pay-in context, a PAYER (or OWNER) is asked to authenticate the transaction by their issuing bank or PSP. This authentication may also be mandated by the same European regulations (PSD2). For example, 3DS on card transactions addresses the requirements of SCA.

On pay-ins, Mangopay enables redirection for users to perform this authentication with third-parties, such as card networks, issuing banks, and payment method providers. In the API, this takes place via the SecureModeRedirectURL (e.g. direct and recurring card pay-ins, preauthorizations, etc.) or other RedirectURL (e.g. on APMs and web card pay-ins) that Mangopay returns in response to the pay-in request.

However, in the pay-in scenario, the issuing bank or PSP of the user is in charge of applying SCA and allowing any exemptions.

Mangopay’s introduction of SCA on OWNER users does not have any impact on pay-in authentication or your existing checkout or payment page integrations.

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Connecting to the Mangopay Dashboard

Your platform’s team members use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to log in to the Mangopay Dashboard. This security feature is not changing and will remain in place, and it is entirely separate from the SCA requirements regarding end users of Mangopay’s payment and/or e-money services.

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Using the Mangopay Dashboard

SCA is applicable to all the listed actions that the OWNER user takes, whether via the API or via the Dashboard. Initially, your platform needs to change its API implementation.

Mangopay is defining a strategy for Dashboard-based actions. Until then, your usage of the Dashboard can continue as before.

When actions are executed on behalf of Mangopay Account holders without direct user authentication, each case will be evaluated individually to determine the appropriate SCA process. It is essential that we understand the context and legal justification for such actions, as bypassing direct user consent could expose us to security risks. We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance.

The Dashboard will integrate the API-based SCA-features (e.g. Recipients), but presently it has the legacy user endpoints integrated.

Note that if you change a PAYER to OWNER via the Dashboard, that action uses the legacy PUT Update a User endpoint, and as such it will not trigger SCA, even if the PAYER was created using the new SCA-enabled endpoint. Such a user will still need to enroll as an existing user via the POST Enroll a User endpoint.

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Platform user category

The UserCategory value PLATFORM indicates a specific user approved by Mangopay that represents the platform.

Initially, SCA will not be required a User whose UserCategory is PLATFORM. SCA is applicable to actions taken by these users, however, and Mangopay is defining a suitable solution.

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Your platform’s MFA features

Your platform may already require users to complete multi-factor or two-factor authentication (MFA or 2FA) when they connect to your platform.

Any existing MFA features your platform operates cannot be used to substitute or replace Mangopay’s independent SCA on OWNER users. The regulations require Mangopay Account holders to perform SCA with Mangopay directly.