Barclaycard Payments, which processes almost 40 per cent of card transactions in the UK, is to provide merchant customers with real-time fraud detection software from Kount.

Kount uses artificial intelligence algorithms to detect fraudulent transactions in real-time, at the point of check-out, by scanning a network comprised of 32 billion annual interactions from more than 6,500 customers across 75+ industries.

Barclaycard says the software will help customers overcome the barriers erected to frictionless transactions by the introduction of Strong Customer Authentication rules across Europe. The fraud module takes advantage of SCA-approved Transaction Risk Assessment (TRA) exemptions - which is where transactions are judged to be sufficiently genuine, and therefore allowed to skip the two-factor authentication process up to pre-agreed thresholds.

With Kount’s fraud analysis, all transactions are analysed in real time and scored on a spectrum of low to high risk. The merchant’s gateway then uses this score to identify the transactions which qualify for TRA exemptions. Higher-risk transactions requiring further inspection will still go through two-factor authentication, or be immediately declined, in accordance with the regulation and customer risk appetite.

David Jeffrey, director of product, Barclaycard Payments says: “Thanks to Kount’s award-winning fraud detection software, the new module will not only help customers to fight fraud and prevent unwanted chargebacks, it will also help them to maximise sales, improve customer experience, and better prepare for the introduction of SCA.”