• Built for
  • CFO
  • CISO
  • Head of Payments
  • eCommerce & Digital Teams

The Cost of a Misaligned 3DS Strategy

3%

of total U.S. traffic is sent to 3DS, often representing the highest-risk transactions, causing over-inflated friction and drop-out on 3DS volume3

~56%

of people in the U.S. experience a false fraud decline2

40%

of traffic sent through 3DS is challenged, and up to 30% of that fails4

29%

of consumers stopped buying from a brand due to poor checkout experiences5

Many merchants globally view 3DS’ sole purpose to shift fraud liability, or to comply with regional regulations. As a result, 3DS causes negative impact to payment KPIs. But optimizing 3DS strategy in line with your payment priorities can improve authorization performance by reducing false declines and controlling friction, control costs by bypassing 3DS for low-risk customers, and control fraud exposure by passing high-risk liability to issuers.

Meet Payment Optimization

Optimize Payment Performance with a Clear 3DS Strategy

Accertify’s Payment Optimization solution helps you build smarter 3DS strategies using AI-driven risk decisioning, real-world issuer performance insights, and 3DS features — helping merchants maximize authorization revenue, while reducing processing costs, and shifting fraud liability to issuers where appropriate.

3DS strategies can drive value beyond regulated markets. While requirements vary by country and region, a smarter 3DS approach can improve payment performance across the EU, UK, North America, APAC, and many other global markets.

How It Works

Optimize every transaction by risk level.

STEP 1

Approve Low-Risk Customers

Recognize trusted shoppers to provide frictionless checkout, or SCA exemptions in Europe.

STEP 2

Optimize Medium-Risk Transactions

Route eligible transactions through data-only or exemption flows to limit 3DS friction and reduce false fraud declines from issuers.

STEP 3

Authenticate High-Risk Transactions

Send higher-risk transactions to issuer-driven 3DS flows, and protect yourself from fraud liability.

STEP 4

Reject Clear Fraud

Stop obvious fraud and policy rejects before they create avoidable costs, chargebacks, or operational burden.

Maximize Authorization Revenue

Improve authorization outcomes through AI-driven 3DS strategy and SCA exemptions.

Minimize Processing Costs

Lower interchange and operational costs by applying 3DS more selectively, in line with Visa’s DCAP incentive, helping protect margin while providing a smoother payment experience.

Reduce Fraud Liability

Decrease fraud exposure by applying 3DS where it can protect you from liability, helping reduce fraud losses without adding unnecessary friction to every transaction.

97%

of fraud liability, on average, shifted to issuers using Accertify’s solution6

Payment Optimization can uplift authorization performance by up to 200bps, and on average recommends an exemption for 70%+ of European transactions — while reducing 3DS costs by up to 50%.6 That means you can say yes to more good transactions, improve the purchase experience, increase authorization revenue, and manage liability all at once.

Capability Highlights

Everything needed to run a smarter
3DS strategy.

Capability Description Details
AI-Driven 3DS Routing Employ 3DS routing strategies and data-only flows in low- to no-regulation markets (Australia, US, Canada) to reduce processing costs and improve approval outcomes. Up to 50% reduction in authentication costs. (Accertify Client Data, 2026)
SCA Optimization Safely maximize SCA exemptions under PSD2/PSR 2017 regulated markets, maintaining strict compliance while reducing customer friction and lowering authentication costs where possible. Up to 70% of transactions on average are eligible for an exemption in SCA regulated regions. (Accertify Client Data, 2024)
Risk-Based Authentication Apply dynamic authentication decisioning unique to any global region to protect from fraud liability and control costs. 97% of fraud liability, on average, shifted to issuers. (Accertify Client Data, 2026)
Continuous Refinement Maintain performance over time as risk patterns and issuer behavior evolve. Accertify’s Predictive Yes Platform has helped support 98.10% transactions approved, with 47% of clients achieving >99% transactions approved (2025 Accertify Client Data)
Action-Oriented Details Provides more than a yes or no — a “when” and “how” behind 3DS strategies, to help promote best performance. Up to 2% uplift in authorization performance on optimized traffic. (Accertify Client Data, 2026)
Unified Trust Platform Connect payment optimization to existing Accertify fraud integrations for a unified, one-platform approach. Accertify helped prevent over $5.8B USD in fraud and abuse in 2025. (Accertify Client Data, 2025)

The Predictive Yes Platform

Built Into the Predictive Yes Platform

Payment Optimization doesn’t work alone. It’s one piece of Accertify’s Predictive Yes Platform, which joins identity, behavioral, and transaction signals across the entire customer lifecycle — from account creation through checkout and beyond. That means 3DS isn’t solely compliance: it helps improve future authentication decisions by applying Accertify’s transaction intelligence, to help you create seamless, frictionless customer experiences.

ACCOUNT CHECKOUT 3DS DECISION POST-PURCHASE Account Protection Fraud & Payments Payment Optimization Abuse Prevention

Explore the Platform

The rest of Accertify's fraud and risk
solutions.

Abuse Prevention

Stop returns abuse, refund fraud, and policy exploitation.

Fraud Management

Real-time approve/decline decisions at checkout.

Chargeback Management

Automate dispute defense end to end.

Account Protection

Stop account takeover, credential stuffing, and fraudulent account creation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions About Payment Optimization

Payment Optimization is Accertify’s approach to improving payment outcomes across the full authorization journey. It brings together 3DS strategy, PSD2 SCA exemptions, and Payment Authorization Optimization to help merchants increase authorization rates, reduce unnecessary customer friction, minimize processing costs, and shift fraud liability where appropriate. By using AI-driven insights, issuer intelligence, and risk-based decisioning, Accertify’s Payment Optimization helps merchants apply the right action to the right transaction — whether that means approving trusted customers, using SCA exemptions, routing through 3DS, or preventing clear fraud — so every payment decision is smarter, faster, and better aligned to revenue and risk goals.

Contrary to popular belief around 3DS, less is not always more. 3DS best practice is founded on more data, more transactions, and more insights. Learn more about 3DS Best Practice here. Accertify’s Payment Optimization solution helps merchants improve payment authorization rates by building smarter 3DS strategies with AI-driven routing. It uses historical issuer behavior and transaction-level data to guide authentication decisions, helping merchants route transactions through 3DS for maximum benefit, not just the highest-risk ones. This is how fraud decisioning improves payment authorization rates. Merchants can apply SCA exemptions when appropriate, and reduce unnecessary friction, cost, fraud, and lost revenue. Over time, the solution continuously refines these decisions as risk patterns and issuer behavior evolve, supporting higher authorization revenue, lower processing costs, and stronger fraud liability management.

Accertify stands apart because Payment Optimization is built within a fraud-first decisioning platform. With deep fraud expertise, issuer intelligence, and transaction-level risk data, Accertify helps merchants build more connected 3DS strategies that improve authorization performance, reduce unnecessary friction, manage processing costs, and shift fraud liability where appropriate. For merchants already using Accertify’s Fraud Platform, Payment Optimization creates a more seamless experience by bringing fraud and payment decisions together in one place, without requiring another standalone platform.

Accertify’s Payment Optimization gives merchants a way to strengthen 3DS strategy with the scale, experience, and fraud intelligence of Accertify behind it. Rather than looking at payment optimization as a standalone decision, Accertify helps merchants use transaction-level risk insights to determine when to approve, exempt, authenticate, or reject transactions in support of authorization performance, processing cost control, and fraud liability management.

 

That strength is supported by measurable company scale. In 2025, Accertify processed more than 10 billion transactions, protected over $1.2 trillion in commerce, and delivered a 98.10% average approval rate across the business. Approximately 45% of clients achieved greater than 99% transaction approval, giving merchants confidence that Accertify can support high-volume operations while helping them say yes to more legitimate customers.

 

Those numbers help demonstrate Accertify’s ability to operate at scale while supporting smarter payment and fraud decisions. Accertify brings data intelligence and fraud expertise to help teams build more effective 3DS strategies that balance revenue, cost, customer friction, and fraud exposure.

Accertify differentiates against Adyen by bringing payment optimization into a fraud-first decisioning environment. In one solution, Payment Optimization provides the benefits of Adyen’s Uplift, Protect, and Authenticate products. For SCA regions, Accertify’s solution does not simply focus on when 3DS is required under SCA regulation, but seeks to safely maximize merchant exemptions, giving merchants greater control over their customers’ experience. Accertify applies deep fraud intelligence, transaction risk data, and 3DS strategy within the fraud platform merchants already rely on, helping merchants make smarter decisions about when to authenticate, when to exempt, and how to protect revenue without adding unnecessary friction.

Accertify differentiates by bringing payment optimization expertise to U.S. and global merchants through a fraud platform already built for enterprise fraud operations. While Ravelin has roots in the U.K. and Europe, Accertify is a U.S.-based partner that understands how to help merchants adopt 3DS strategies in a way that fits U.S. payment and fraud dynamics, helping turn 3DS from an underused or misunderstood tool into a strategic lever for improving authorization performance, reducing processing costs, and shifting fraud liability.

Payment Optimization is available for clients using Interceptas.

Sources: 1. 2025 Datos Insights, The Smart Approval Advantage: Reducing Unnecessary Declines in Card Payments. 2. PYMNTS.com, 2024. 3. PaymentsDive, 2024. 4. Industry Partner ACS, 2024. 5. PwC, 2025 Customer Experience Survey. 6. Accertify client data.

Say Yes to Boosted Authorization Revenue. No to More Fraud Liability.

Payment Optimization helps you say yes to more good transactions, improving the purchase experience, increasing authorization revenue, and managing liability. See it in action.