Findings from a joint report by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Central Bank (ECB) highlight the scale of the challenge facing European financial institutions: payment fraud across the European Economic Area reached €4.2 billion in 2024, with emerging threats increasingly focused on manipulating legitimate customers into authorizing fraudulent transactions.
For banks, authentication therefore remains a critical line of defense – but its role is becoming more sophisticated. The challenge is no longer simply how to authenticate a customer, but how to deliver strong security while keeping legitimate payment experiences as seamless as possible.
For SEB and Entersekt, this challenge is grounded in a long-standing working relationship. SEB Baltic currently uses Entersekt’s hosted 3-D Secure Access Control Server (ACS) to support its payment authentication strategy, including 3-D Secure (3DS) transactions and background authentication methods.
The relationship illustrates the value of combining proven authentication technology with a technology partner that understands the practical realities of operating in a complex and highly regulated payments environment.
SEB Baltic’s use of Entersekt’s hosted ACS provides the foundation for its payment authentication strategy. The platform supports a range of authentication methods, giving SEB flexibility in how authentication is delivered and helping to protect customers while avoiding unnecessary interruptions to legitimate payment journeys.
But for SEB, the value of the relationship extends beyond the technology itself: in a payments environment where authentication requirements, fraud techniques, regulatory expectations and scheme developments continue to change, having a technology partner that can respond to evolving requirements is increasingly important.
“For us, a successful technology partnership is about more than the capabilities of the platform. It is about having a partner that understands our challenges, listens to our requirements and works with us to find practical solutions as the market evolves. Entersekt has consistently demonstrated that level of collaboration,” says Gintautas Giržadas, Chief Product Owner of Cards & Payments Solutions at SEB Baltic.
SEB has highlighted Entersekt’s responsiveness, deep expertise in 3-D Secure, and strong service availability as important strengths of the relationship.
That combination of technology expertise and operational trust has helped create a partnership based not only on what the platform delivers, but on how the two organizations work together.
Technology is only one part of the payment security equation. Financial institutions also need to navigate regulatory requirements, scheme developments, data privacy considerations, and the practical realities of operating payment infrastructure at scale.
This is an area where the relationship between SEB and Entersekt extends beyond the day-to-day operation of the platform.
The organizations engage on shared market and technology challenges, including GDPR considerations around data processing, improvements in customer authentication experiences, and the future role of risk-based authentication.
These conversations reflect an important aspect of the partnership: the ability to look at a challenge from both a technology and business perspective.
Rather than treating each issue as a standalone technology problem, SEB and Entersekt can work together to understand the requirement, assess the available options and determine the most practical way forward.
“The payments environment is becoming more complex, not less. Having a partner that is willing to engage with us on the regulatory, technical and operational challenges – not just provide a product – is extremely valuable. It allows us to plan for what is coming while continuing to deliver for customers today,” says Giržadas.
As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, access to meaningful data allows financial institutions to gauge performance, efficacy, and the impact on customer experience. At the same time, financial institutions operating in regulated markets need to ensure that customer privacy and regulatory obligations remain protected.
Entersekt’s approach incorporates de-identification and pseudonymization of authentication data to support GDPR requirements while enabling systems to identify patterns associated with fraud. And the principle is straightforward: better decisions do not necessarily require collecting more customer information. They require using relevant data responsibly and appropriately.
For financial institutions operating across highly regulated markets, that balance between intelligence, security and privacy is increasingly important.
The relationship between SEB and Entersekt demonstrates how payment authentication partnerships can deliver value beyond a technology deployment.
SEB has an established authentication environment supporting its 3DS and background authentication requirements, while Entersekt brings deep expertise in authentication, payment security and the operational realities of the payments ecosystem.
The partnership also provides a foundation for continued dialogue as the market evolves:
“The strongest partnerships are built around a shared ambition, not a fixed technology roadmap. Our work with SEB is about continuously asking how authentication can do more – protect customers more effectively, reduce unnecessary friction and adapt to the changing payment landscape,” says Alessio Massagrande, Customer Success Manager at Entersekt.
“That is what makes this relationship so valuable.”