Bermuda-based credit card payment processing firm First Atlantic Commerce (FAC) has teamed up with a Latin American company to try to crack down on online credit card fraud in the region.

FAC has implemented a unique, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode cardholder "authentication-only" solution for Promocion y Operation S.A de C.V (PROSA), the largest provider of electronic transactions in Latin America.

The system will help banks to determine chargeback liability for their online merchants in advance of the actual payment transaction authorisation, thereby providing advance information to assist with reducing fraud and mitigating risk. PROSA operates one of the most important payment processing switches in the world, processing more than 1.3 billion transactions annually and facilitating the majority of transactions made at point of sale terminals throughout Mexico and Latin America, including American Express, Visa and MasterCard, as well as the ATM's of HSBC, Santander, Scotiabank, Banorte, Banjercito, Banca Afirme, Interacciones, Ixe, Invex, Banregio, and other financial institutions in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Latin America.

The unique 3-D Secure implementation was designed for the burgeoning Mexican online business market, where there is sophisticated online credit card processing, but limited online transactional risk management, and is serving various industries across the region from airlines and hotels to large retailers.

"PROSA Mexico was looking for a way to reduce increasing online credit card fraud in the Mexican market," FAC chief executive officer Andrea Wilson said.

"This type of implementation was not available domestically so we worked with PROSA to develop a solution to pre-authenticate all of their online consumer transactions in advance of the online credit card payment."

As a result of the implementation, Mexican acquiring banks and merchants can see an immediate reduction in online Visa and MasterCard credit card fraud; in some cases by up to 85 percent, FAC said.