Signifyd, the market leader in ecommerce guaranteed fraud and consumer abuse protection, introduced an expanded team of veteran SCA experts today from the retail, banking and financial technology fields to serve as trusted advisors to merchants struggling to comply with the new payment regulations under PSD2.

The EMEA team expansion is the next step in the evolution of Signifyd’s European mission, which benefits well-known retailers including Samsung, Emma, Mango, The WatchShop, Maplin, Pure Electric, Public Desire, CurrentBody, FOREO and Natural Baby Shower. The added expertise around PSD2’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirement complements a core of experts already established across the UK and Europe, while the added marketing capabilities will continue to expand operations within Europe. 

SCA rolled out across most of Europe on the 1st January 2021. Its UK enforcement is set to begin on the 14th of September. The assembled team will help merchants across Europe better understand SCA and further strengthen the Signifyd Seamless SCA solution.

To that end, Signifyd is pleased to announce the addition of Shagun Varshney, Okan Ozaltin and Amal Ahmed to the EMEA team.

Signifyd Senior Product Manager Shagun Varshney was a strategy consultant at Accenture before joining Signifyd. At Accenture, Varshney held the primary responsibility for designing, implementing and evaluating the strategy that brought UK Challenger Bank’s digital commercial banking into compliance with PSD2’s SCA requirement. She also helped develop the SCA solution for contactless credit cards for one of the UK’s top high street banks.

The Challenger Bank system that Varshney successfully implemented affects 1.8 million customers and anticipates 130 different SCA-affected customer journeys, including log-in, international and domestic payments and other high-risk processes.

Okan Ozaltin, Signifyd’s General Manager, Payment Solutions, has deep experience in both financial services and consumer products, which places him at the intersection of payments security and consumer experience. His vantage point is particularly apt for the dramatic shift SCA represents for brands and merchants. 

Ozaltin comes to Signifyd from Fiserv, a payments and financial technology company, where he was vice president of product management — acquiring. Among the many efforts he led were the initiatives around PSD2 and customer digital experience. He also served as a non-executive director for the NetPay Solutions Group and as an executive director for J.P. Morgan Chase. 

Amal Ahmed, Signifyd’s Head of EMEA Marketing, has extensive experience presenting complicated technology and its intersection with complex regulation in clear, actionable ways. Prior to Signifyd, she was senior marketing manager at Orc Group, where she also worked on the rollout of Orc Group’s suite of products for MIFID II, a key piece of financial markets regulation. When the company rebranded as itiviti, Ahmed led its content marketing, public relations, and communications efforts. Prior to Itiviti Ahmed helped lead marketing at Imprima, which developed an AI-based system for conducting due diligence in complex business transactions. 

“The European ecommerce market is one of the most innovative in the world,” Signifyd Managing Director, EMEA Ed Whitehead said in announcing the enhanced team. “The expansion of the EMEA team will enable us to continue our work with merchants to build incredible customer experiences while increasing payment security. Getting SCA right provides a fantastic opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves by providing a seamless shopping journey from end-to-end.” 

SCA, which requires robust two-factor authentication for many transactions, is aimed at protecting consumers from online fraud in a time when online fraud is increasing in frequency and scope. While merchants and consumers alike would welcome extra protection against fraud, navigating a post-SCA landscape without adding friction to the checkout experience is proving to be much more of a challenge than many anticipated.

To learn more about SCA and Signifyd’s initiatives to support merchants in implementing it, register to join EMEA team member Varshney and Forrester Senior Analyst eBusiness & Channel Strategy Jacob Morgan on the 31st March for “Moving Beyond Compliance: How to Take Advantage of the New Opportunities Provided by PSD2 and Create a Winning SCA Strategy in 2021.”