Entersekt announces RealSync to address a common fraud vulnerability and improve customer experience for FIs

Entersekt is proud to announce the release of RealSync, a ground-breaking application programming interface (API) designed to automate cardholder updates to the EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) Access Control Server (ACS) and close the gap in e-commerce payment card fraud. RealSync is a single, unified, integrated API that solves numerous legacy issues around card data drift, authentication response delays, and errors.

With RealSync, card issuing banks and credit unions can bid farewell to outdated batch upload processes and embrace real-time synchronization between their EMV 3DS ACS and cardholder status and information stored in the bank’s systems, such as Card Management System (CMS) and Customer Identity and Access Management System (CIAMS).

The key advantages of RealSync for financial institutions are:

• Reduced fraud: Real-time API reduces the vulnerability window between stolen cards reported and the transfer of that information to the ACS so it can be locked down.
• Improved customer experience: Eliminates lag time in customers making changes to card status or authentication details, and seeing those adjustments activated.
• Streamlined operations: Replaces manual efforts associated with high-frequency, error-prone batch upload process, and inherent data discrepancies between systems.
• Simplified development: A single API connects to relevant data elements in the bank’s card and account-holder management systems, saving hundreds of hours of development work.
• Lightweight, improved system performance: A single API integration to synchronize data across bank systems, instead of batch uploads or multiple complex APIs.

Today, many ACS providers and financial institutions rely on batch uploads to update card status in the ACS. Batch uploads scheduled at fixed intervals resulted in a gap of hours or more before a cardholder’s change was actioned on the ACS. This meant a cardholder who canceled a stolen payment card could be annoyed and concerned to see fraudulent transactions proceed after they reported the card and left the bank to absorb the loss. Considering that “40% of all fraudulent activity associated with an account takeover occurs within a day,” closing that gap in updating the ACS can have a significant impact on reducing fraud losses.

Historically, ACS providers weren't able to offer a more efficient option than batch upload because the need for multiple APIs could cause latency in retrieving card status from the bank to transmit to the card brand directory servers. This delay could result in declined transactions and penalties to the bank for not complying with card brand response time requirements for 3D Secure. RealSync, as an efficient, real-time solution, returns responses instantly, eliminating this concern.

Committed to the most effective authentication solutions that stay ahead of evolving fraud threats while balancing exceptional customer experiences, RealSync supports Entersekt’s Context Aware™ Authentication solution to optimize fraud management, reduce friction, and engage customer preferences in real-time across systems, channels, and locations. Using the single API also helps banks significantly cut down on the ACS server load associated with legacy batch file sharing, improving its overall performance.

What’s more, with Entersekt’s EMV 3DS platform featuring RealSync, the ACS does all the heavy lifting to authenticate by issuing a challenge to customers only when the risk-based signals warrant it, via each customer’s preferred channel, then communicating this back to the bank.

In recent years, some banks have built multiple APIs that have been able to achieve real-time synchronization. “The development effort to create multiple APIs was a significant hurdle for issuers and processors in replacing the antiquated batch process,” explains Ellezane Williams, Global Head of Solution Architecture at Entersekt. “This single API reduces the development time by hundreds of hours making the move away from error-prone, batch-based process more feasible. It’s just one of the steps we’re taking to help financial institutions future-proof their authentication processes to be more customer-centric, secure, and agile in responding to current and emerging fraud vectors,” he says.