Belgium rolls out two-factor authentication for online payments

Starting this Tuesday, all online payments above €1,500 will have to be carried out with a method known as two-factor authentication in an attempt to make internet shopping safer. 

Consumers will no longer be able to make expensive purchases by only relying on their credit card number and the security code on its back. To comply with the additional second safety step, there are different options available.

Rodolphe de Pierpont, spokesman for the Belgian financial services federation Febelfin, explains: "It can be your credit card code, the so-called digipass, your card reader, the PIN code, or even your fingerprint which you validate with an app on your smartphone." 

The method, now obligatory for large payments only, will be mandatory for all online purchases, even minor ones, starting on 17 November, in line with a European directive coming into effect in January 2021.

While many Belgian companies have already been employing the two-step procedure, it isn't necessarily the case for webshops in the United States or China, which will have to adapt their payment systems as well.

In 2019, 12,000 cases of online fraud were counted in Belgium by Febelfin.