Tim Sherwin, Co-Founder & EVP CardinalCommerce: "We allow merchants to configurate rules to selectively authenticate customers"

The companys proprietary, patented solutions facilitate the addition of new technology for remote distribution channels including merchants, banks, processors and transaction supply chain providers through a friction-free single connection. This allows merchants to securely accept payments from the entire financial transaction ecosystem.

The universe of payments spans from credit and debit card brands like MasterCard and Visa, to established and emerging alternative payment brands like PayPal, Green Dot and Alipay. In accommodating this growing number of payment brands and methods, and these technology and authentication approaches within legacy infrastructure, Cardinals platforms serve as universal switches, supporting virtually all merchant platforms, wallets, processing systems and authentication methodologies.

This year, your company has won the METAward at the MRC annual conference. Could you elaborate a bit on the degree of innovation your product delivers?
CardinalCommerce’s Centinel Select platform received the Merchant Risk Council’s 2013 Emerging Technology Award in the existing company category. Centinel Select is the world’s first smart authentication system designed to work in real-time with issuing banks giving merchants choice and control when implementing.

Our new approach to authentication allows merchants to configure rules on how to selectively authenticate their customers. For example, merchants can choose to authenticate based on product price, product type, payment choice, IP location, shipping location, failed fraud screening and more. Beyond control of who and when to authenticate, Cardinal and MasterCard partnered on MasterCard SecureCode+, a seamless display of authentication at checkout. MasterCard SecureCode has been designed to proactively reduce merchant and cardholder concerns at the point-of-checkout. It simplifies the integration of SecureCode and addresses all of the user experience pain points discovered in previous implementations by normalizing all Issuer generated data for a consistent merchant controlled display. Merchants can choose from display options such as an inline or modal frame best suiting the brand and payment flow.

Beyond authentication, the Centinel Select API offers an immediate and flexible extension into alternative payments including digital wallets and localized payment options for targeted markets.

How does your technology contribute to the commercial and operational success of merchants?
We have changed the way authentication works for merchants and looks for consumers. We did this by giving merchants a choice in deployment, through a configurable rules engine, choice in display with MasterCard SecureCode+ and control over authentication for each and every transaction. With Centinel Select, merchants can configure rules on how to authenticate based on their own requirements. Merchants now have unparalleled flexibility with authentication. Create rules designed to filter which transactions they’d like to challenge with authentication. Rules are based on any data captured, from product SKU to transaction amount, to buyer location. This choice, along with our exclusive display options with our partner MasterCard, delivers a seamless consumer authentication experience to maximize sales.

In what way does your Centinel Select platform give merchants choice and control when it comes to deploying consumer authentication?
Centinel Select for the first time let’s merchants make program adjustments in real-time maximizing sales opportunity. The program performs real-time issuer auditing to help reduce auto-declines along with the ability to capture international transactions, minimize consumer abandonment and improve margins and consumer experience. Centinel Select provides the same benefits of running traditional consumer authentication including interchange savings, liability shift on applicable fraud transactions with control of the deployment and display of consumer authentication ensuring a seamless checkout experience.

In your position as a leader on the market for more than 10 years (active since 1999), you have monitored key developments in the transaction space for a long time. What has been the most revolutionary development in the past years that has an impact in the payments / transaction space even today?
With constant innovation in the payments/transaction industry (mobile payments, digital wallets, new fraud practices, etc.), Cardinal is focused on normalizing all of our payment and fraud related products through one simple connection granting access to over 100+ global brands including Consumer Authentication programs such as MasterCard SecureCode, Verified By Visa, alternative payments and digital wallets.

Cardinal is focused on eliminating distractions introduced by API’s, program changes and technology barriers letting merchants, banks, processors and transaction supply chain providers adapt and add payments much faster and easier. Cardinal takes the ‘technology’ piece out of the equation for all of our partners allowing them to make smart business decisions for their growing and evolving businesses.

What is your definition of payments and what will be the future of payments?
Payment to me is the process and service that automates payment transactions between a consumer and merchant on any device, anywhere. Cardinal is focused on future proofing our partners business by being technology agnostic offering consumer authentication, alternative payments, digital wallets and more through a single connection hosting over 100+ global bands.

The future of payments for Cardinal is going to be greatly shaped by the introduction of EMV in the US market. As we’ve learned from other parts of the world, as EMV is introduced fraud tends to creep up in less secure channels such as mobile and e-commerce.

Your technology makes a positive impact in the industry because …
Our technology is built to ‘Future Proof’ our merchants business. We normalize all of our payment related products through one simple connection granting access to over 100+ global brands including consumer authentication, alternative payments and digital wallets. Cardinal eliminates distractions from API & program changes, allowing merchants to adapt and add payments much faster and easier. We act as a universal switch, supporting virtually all merchant platforms, wallets, processing systems and authentication methodologies.