Following pressure from the BRC and other industry bodies, and in light of the impact of Covid-19 on stretched retailers, the FCA has today announced an additional six months to implement strong customer authentication (SCA) for e-commerce, to a revised date of 14 September 2021. The FCA statement can be found here.

The SCA Programme Management Steering Group, which includes the BRC, have developed a revised implementation plan and the high level plan to be agreed and will be published in due course.

Commenting on the announcement, Andrew Cregan, BRC Head of Retail Payments Policy said:

"Momentum in readying customers and merchants for these new measures must be maintained, but we welcome this recognition from the UK regulator that additional time is needed due to the impacts of the pandemic."