Mastercard UCAF Collection Downgrade Indicator

A Mastercard Identity Check transaction is downgraded to a non-Identity Check transaction if an Accountholder Authentication Value (AAV) or UCAF is not present or is invalid when providing 3DS payload to TabaPay in the Create Transaction API. The result of this downgrade is provided in the UCAF Collection Downgrade Indicator

Value	Description
0	Missing Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF)
1	Invalid Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF)
2	Invalid Security Level Indicator (SLI). If you receive this code, please let TabaPay know via [email protected]

Use Cases

Risk Decisioning: Use the indicator to understand whether a transaction was downgraded and therefore not fully protected under Identity Check.

Transaction Fraud Review: Flag downgraded transactions for closer review or additional risk checks, since they lack strong cardholder authentication.

3DS Performance Improvement: Monitor downgrade rates to identify integration issues (e.g., UCAF not being passed correctly) and improve 3DS setup over time.

Where to Find UCAF

UCAF Collection Downgrade Indicator is specific to transactions performed using an authenticated Mastercard payment credential.

{
  "SC": 200,
  "EC": "0",
  "transactionID": "TabaPay_TransactionID_",
  "network": "MasterCard",
  "networkID": "123454646545645",
  "networkRC": "00",
  "status": "COMPLETED",
  "approvalCode": "000000",
  "additional": {
    "codeUCAF": "2",  <---------Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF)
    "par": "5001005642207382549510767179"
  }
}

How to Use UCAF

Interpret the Indicator Map the values (0, 1, 2) to understand whether the transaction was downgraded.
Transaction Decisioning: Decide whether to accept, review, or decline downgraded transactions based on your risk appetite.
Feedback Loop: Use the UCAF and downgrade data to fine-tune your upstream 3DS authentication flows and minimize downgrade frequency.

Other Resources

Updated 30 days ago