Arcot

Arcot is a provider of digital authentication and fraud prevention technology used by financial institutions, payment processors, and enterprises to secure online transactions and customer access.

• 3-D Secure and strong customer authentication solutions for card-not-present transactions (payment security)
• Risk-based and step-up authentication using device, behavioral, and transaction data (fraud detection)
• Cloud-based and on-premises (on-prem) deployment options for authentication and authorization workflows (identity and access management)
• APIs and integration frameworks for card issuers, acquirers, and merchants to embed authentication in payment flows (developer tooling)
• Compliance-focused controls for PSD2 Software Composition Analysis (SCA), EMV 3-D Secure, and related payment security standards (regulatory compliance)

More About Arcot

Arcot focuses on authentication and fraud prevention technologies that are used in payment ecosystems and enterprise access control environments. Its platforms are typically deployed by banks, card issuers, acquirers, and payment processors to secure e-commerce and remote transactions, with capabilities aligned to 3-D Secure and related card-brand protocols (payment security). The company’s offerings support strong customer authentication workflows that address regulatory and scheme requirements while aiming to reduce friction for end users.

In enterprise and institutional settings, Arcot’s services are positioned as part of broader identity and security architectures, often integrated with existing customer identity and access management systems (CIAM) and transaction monitoring tools (identity and access management). The technology is used to evaluate risk at the time of login or payment, decide whether to allow frictionless authentication, and trigger step-up methods such as one-time passwords, out-of-band verification, or additional knowledge-based checks, depending on the institution’s policy.

Arcot’s solutions typically incorporate device recognition, behavioral analysis, and transaction context to assign risk scores in real time (fraud detection). These signals can include device fingerprint characteristics, IP reputation, historical usage patterns, and spending behavior. The risk engine works alongside EMV 3-D Secure flows to determine whether a transaction can qualify for low-friction authentication or requires further challenge, enabling issuers and merchants to refine their balance between fraud loss, conversion, and regulatory compliance.

The company exposes core capabilities through APIs and integration toolkits aimed at technical teams at issuers, acquirers, gateways, and merchants (developer tooling). These integration options support embedding Arcot’s decisioning and challenge flows into existing payment gateways, mobile applications, and web channels, while coordinating with card brands’ directory servers and access control servers. This allows organizations to maintain their existing payment stacks while adding Risk-Based Authentication (RBA) as a distinct layer.

From a marketplace taxonomy perspective, Arcot is positioned across payment security, fraud detection and prevention, and customer authentication within the broader identity and access management category. Its alignment with EMV 3-D Secure and strong customer authentication requirements makes it applicable to regulated payment environments such as PSD2 in the European Economic Area and similar frameworks in other regions (regulatory compliance). The company’s focus on transaction-level risk analysis and authentication orchestration places it in the same general segment as vendors that provide fraud detection platforms and strong customer authentication for digital payments and online banking.