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Mastercard UCAF Collection Downgrade Indicator

The UCAF Collection Downgrade Indicator is a field returned by Mastercard when an Identity Check (3DS) transaction is downgraded to a non-authenticated transaction. The codeUCAF value in the response indicates the reason for the downgrade.

When the codeUCAF value is (0) missing or (1) invalid, the transaction is downgraded to a non-authenticated transaction, which affects fraud chargeback liability and Identity Check protection.

ValueDescription
0Missing Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF)
1Invalid Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF)
2Invalid Security Level Indicator (SLI). If you receive this code, Contact TabaPay Support or email [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"
  }
}

If no codeUCAF is returned in the response, no downgrade occurred and the authentication did not have an issue.

How to Use UCAF

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

FAQs

What is UCAF, or codeUCAF

UCAF, or Universal Cardholder Authentication Field is a Mastercard field that includes authentication data passed to the issuer.

codeUCAF is a TabaPay field that represents UCAF values that indicate a 3DS transaction has been downgraded to a non-authenticated transaction.

What is downgraded?

Downgraded means a (3DS) transaction trying to authenticate the customer has possibly failed it's authentication due to issues with the request. The transaction still completes, but the merchant loses Identity Check protections, including liability shift for fraud chargebacks.

What is liability shift?

Liability shift is when the issuer becomes responsible instead of the merchant for fraud chargebacks. When it does not apply, the merchant remains liable for the disputed funds.

What are liability shift qualifiers?

If the codeUCAF field is not present, then the authentication should be successful, and liability shift applies.

ECI is also returned in 3D Secure Authenticate API and added to the Create Transaction API.

  • If [ECI(/reference/3ds-eci-values#/)] is marked as fully authenticated (02), then the liability shift applies.
  • If [ECI(/reference/3ds-eci-values#/)] is an Attempted Authentication Transaction, and UCAF is present, then the transaction may typically receive liability shift protection.

Other Resources


Updated 17 days ago