Okay launches in the UK, partners with Open Banking Excellence

By Sunniva Kolostyak

Norwegian customer authentication platform Okay is launching its services in the UK after becoming the newest sponsor of FinTech community Open Banking Excellence (OBE).

The fully compliant Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) platform is fully PSD2-compliant and verifies customers’ identity while protecting digital transactions and reducing fraud on web and mobile.

By partnering with OBE, Okay will get access to a community of FinTechs, banks, BigTechs and institutions looking to build a dynamic sector following the introduction of the financial services legislation Open Banking.

The SCA specialist joins OBE sponsors Mastercard, Railsbank, Token and TrueLayer.

Fabien Ignaccolo, CEO of Okay, commented: “We see the Open Banking Excellence community as key in pulling together experts in the industry to draw out genuine excellence. As banking becomes more and more digital, we need the best standards embedded into banking as a whole to protect customers from fraud while delivering outstanding levels of service. We are delighted to be joining them as a sponsor.”

The platform works to incorporate the requirements of the second stage of the European Payment Services Directive – looking at customer rights in areas including complaints handling, new rules on surcharging and currency conversion, enhanced security through SCA criteria and enablement of third-party access to account information, providing a framework for new payment and account services.

On behalf of OBE, Co-Founder and Chief Excellence Officer Helen Child said: “We are delighted to have the support of Okay, who are leaders in the field of customer authentication, which plays an important role in payment innovation and safety. This is particularly important right now as the number of consumers using digital payments has ballooned during the coronavirus lockdown.”

Okay uses six security mechanisms in the authentication and validation process – server-side screenshots, floating windows, robot detection, obfuscation, continuous encryption and honeypots. It protects the transaction and related information via a new encrypted storage for each new transaction.