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3D Secure adds friction and drops conversion rates. FaceSign provides a faster, more secure alternative for payment step-up authentication: instead of redirecting to a bank’s challenge page, your payment flow opens a FaceSign session that verifies the cardholder is present, confirms the payment details through an AI conversation, and returns a result you can pass to your payment processor.
PSD3 and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) — FaceSign satisfies the two-factor requirement for SCA under PSD2/PSD3 by combining inherence (biometric liveness) with possession (email OTP) or knowledge (conversational verification). Consult your compliance team to confirm FaceSign meets your specific regulatory obligations.

How it works

  1. Your payment processor flags a transaction as high-risk (large amount, new card, unusual merchant, or risk model trigger).
  2. Instead of initiating a 3DS challenge, your backend creates a FaceSign session with liveness detection and a conversation node that reads the payment details to the user.
  3. You embed clientSecret.url as an iframe src inside your checkout page — the verification runs inline on your domain, keeping the user in your store. Redirecting the user to the hosted URL is the fallback when an iframe can’t be used (e.g., strict parent-frame CSP, native mobile wrappers without a webview).
  4. FaceSign verifies the cardholder is a live person and confirms they intend to make this payment.
  5. Your webhook handler receives the result and sends the authorization decision to your payment processor.

Build the flow

1

Define the verification flow

Create a session with liveness detection and a conversation node that describes the payment details. For SCA compliance, add an email OTP as the second factor.
Payment Authentication Flow
2

Create the session from your payment backend

When your payment processor returns a high-risk flag, create a FaceSign session instead of (or alongside) a 3DS challenge.
services/payment-auth.js
3

Handle the webhook and authorize the payment

When the session completes, send the authorization decision to your payment processor.
api/webhooks/facesign.js

SCA compliance mapping

FaceSign satisfies Strong Customer Authentication by combining two of the three SCA factors: A FaceSign session with liveness detection + email OTP satisfies the two-factor requirement. The conversation node provides additional assurance but is not strictly required for SCA compliance.

FaceSign vs. 3D Secure


Payment processor integration

The integration point varies by processor:

Troubleshooting


Next Steps

Wire Transfer Authorization

Step-up verification for high-value wire transfers

Step-Up from Anomaly Detection

Trigger FaceSign from your fraud detection platform

Production Checklist

Prepare your FaceSign integration for production traffic