3D Secure rates around the world: 2026 rankings and year-on-year analysis

Ravelin's Global Payments Report 2026 goes beyond simply reporting authentication rates; this year, we are benchmarking performance against the previous year to measure the real-world impact of recent technological and regulatory developments.

The global perspective and the frictionless challenge

Ravelin’s latest data reveals a mixed global performance in transaction authentication. 3DS success rates have slightly increased across the board, with this trend primarily driven by a significant rise in the USA, which we’ll examine in more detail below.

3DS challenge success rates are at about the same levels as last year.

Frictionless authentication, however, has declined in all three aggregate regions we are tracking: globally, in the US and in Europe. Fewer consumers are enjoying smooth shopping experiences – which can result in cart abandonment and increase the customer insult rate.

The decline in frictionless authentication is concerning, particularly given the strong merchant demand for it: 78% of merchants now report using exemptions, an increase from last year. This suggests that while merchants are trying to reduce friction by requesting exemptions, issuers are tightening their fraud assessments and denying those requests more frequently.

Turning the vicious circle into a virtuous circle

This observed decline in frictionless rates creates a vicious circle, but merchants can reverse this trend. The key to improving performance is two‑fold:

1. More data: Merchants must provide richer data to the issuer to support the legitimacy of the transaction.
2. Optimized exemptions: Nobody is leveraging exemptions as effectively as they could be. Merchants must employ smarter systems to manage their exemption strategy to successfully increase the number of smooth, frictionless checkouts.

Local insights: Consumer habits remain tied to local culture

We should note that aggregate rates fail to capture the complete story. The payments industry doesn’t operate on a global level. Country-specific and region-specific data is more relevant to those payments and fraud managers who aspire to improve conversions and make the most of opportunities.

Despite globalization, local payment culture continues to drive consumer habits. In many countries, card usage is not as commonplace as in the UK or the USA. German consumers have always embraced bank transfers. Brazil’s Boleto Bancário system is also worth noting, as is Pix – the South American country’s unique real-time payment method, which launched in 2020.

For the first time, real-time account to account payments (A2A) ranked among the top three payment types in two of the Report’s 37 countries, landing at number three in Germany and number two in the Netherlands. Different nations have a preference for different types of payments, yet this particular change seems to indicate a wider shift, with the EU taking notice and more countries, such as Belgium, exploring this option. Is this a sign of things to come?

Each region has its own uniqueness. But the payments ecosystem involves multiple players: regulators, PSPs, issuers, schemes. For merchants who sell across borders or planning expansion, a deep understanding of local payment culture is critical and can be the single factor that determines success or failure in new markets.

3DS evolution, VAMP, and friction

Authentication performance is improving but the industry is seeing a decline in frictionless checkout. The United States saw a significant leap of 47% in the average 3DS success rate this year. This was potentially influenced by the shift away from the older 3D Secure 2.1 standard, a trend we expect to continue as the deprecation of 2.1 is fully completed.

For one more year, the UK leads the way in 3DS success rates. But there is still room for improvement in terms of frictionless rates. Both regions show a need to focus on improving the customer experience – which may account for the 51% of British merchants who would like to see PSD2 SCA abolished in the UK.

In fact, frictionless rates are falling globally and in 76% of countries. Of the 37 countries in our authentication report, 28 registered declining or plateauing frictionless authentication rates. This widespread decline demonstrates that simply adopting 3DS is not enough: Issuers are tightening their fraud models, resulting in more challenges and fewer smooth shopping journeys.

Frictionless rates are in decline because merchants are not submitting enough data – or not submitting the right data. The upcoming 2.3 standard introduces new fields that can provide the necessary context to satisfy issuer requirements. Ravelin is prepared for 2.3, but the wider industry’s pace of adoption remains a major unknown.

More than technical announcements, it’s financial implications that drive real-world change. Visa’s new monitoring program, VAMP, introduced new calculations and penalties for excessive disputes and card testing. Visa started handing out penalties in October 2025, but most merchants felt the impact of these changes starting in January 2026.

While this report’s metrics were unaffected, VAMP penalties will soon incentivize merchants to prioritize optimized authentication and fraud prevention to protect their bottom line.

The key to reversing the frictionless decline is sophisticated optimization. There is a common misconception that merchants should always request the highest available exemption, at any cost. This is suboptimal because issuer risk tolerances vary widely. A sophisticated, adaptable model can calculate what works best, for each individual issuer and each individual transaction.

Frictionless rates speak volumes to the value of having someone like Ravelin as a partner to provide adaptive, data-driven optimization using machine learning. It’s key to listen to the data received back from the issuer and learn from it..

By examining opportunities, doing risk assessments and optimizing transactions, a robust solution can improve frictionless rates, delivering smoother customer experiences, and therefore driving higher conversions.

3DS success rates in 2026 – best and worst performing countries

Here are the countries that fared the best and the worst for 3D Secure success, which we defined as the rate of successful 3DS challenges as a proportion of all 3DS secure challenges issues for cards issues in that country.

We'll also look at the full rankings for all 36 countries below.

The complete rankings for average 3D Secure authentication success stand as follows:

3DS challenge success rates – best and worst performing countries

For the 3D Secure challenge success rate, we looked at the percentage of cardholders that successfully authenticated themselves when there was a 3DS challenge. In other words, we defined this as the rate of successful 3DS challenges as a proportion of all 3DS challenges for cards issued in that country.

Frictionless authentication success rates 2026 – best and worst performing countries

Frictionless is key to smooth customer journeys. The frictionless rate in Ravelin's Global Payments Report 2026 describes the proportion of all authentication attempts were authenticated without a 3DS challenge.

Global SCA rankings and data

As you consider the latest success rates around the world, remember that Secure Customer Authentication should not be applied always, and that compliance does not always mean introducing challenges.

Depending on your locale, several types of transactions do not fall within the scope of SCA, and many others may be exempt. To be able to optimize your transactions and make the most of opportunities for minimal friction, make sure to read our guide to exemptions and out of scope transactions for SCA.

Authentication strategies should not be set-and-forget. Make sure you and your 3DS partner are aligned on:

• What’s working

• Why it’s working

• How it’s working

• What’s not working

• Why it’s not working

• What can be improved

Reach our to the Ravelin team if you have more questions – we'd love to share our learnings with you.

Related content

• Webinar on-demand: Mastercard and Ravelin share research findings around PSD2, managing payment flows and authentication exemptions
• SCA transaction optimization guide & differences between out-of-scope, TRA and other exemptions

• Video on-demand: 3D Secure: Why you should care (with Scalapay and Ravelin)

• Ravelin Insights: PSD2 and SCA

• National Payments Vision: Is the UK abolishing PSD2 SCA?

• Case study: Paylolly: Getting to market fast with Ravelin 3DS

• What do PSD3 and PSR mean for your business?

• Case study: Glovo – Winning on 3D Secure with Ravelin