Frictionless authentication uses a risk-based approach to determine the risk attached to a transaction and, based on the risk level, whether the customer should be challenged with additional authentication steps. Additional information will only be requested if the risk is high, meaning that this would only take place for a small amount of transactions.

If the transaction is deemed low risk, no further action is required on the cardholder’s part. The issuer sends the authentication result to the Merchant who, in turn, submits the transaction for authorisation with a flag indicating the authentication result.