Stripe, a San Francisco-based payments technology provider, has acquired Touchtech Payments, a Dublin-based firm, according to a press release.  Stripe said it expects that the acquisition will help it strengthen European banks identity authentication capabilities in advance of new European regulations scheduled to go into effect later this year.

European regulators have mandated a new digital verification system, Strong Customer Authentication, starting Sept. 14, at which time more than 300 million consumers will need to use a password, phone or fingerprint to verify their identity when making an online purchase.

Merchant customers served by Stripe and banks served by Touchtech must update their respective payments systems to comply with the new rules or risk having transactions declined.

"Stripe and Touchtech serve very different customers," a Stripe spokesman told Mobile Payments Today. "Both are critical stakeholders in the upcoming SCA regulation and neither are ready."

Touchtech technology is used by many leading European banks and fintechs, including N26, Transferwise and other firms, according to the release. The company will continue to operate out of the Stripe R&D hub in Dublin.

Stripe also said that it has launched a Payment Intents API that will enable merchants to design their own SCA-ready payment forms and accept authentication methods — e.g.,  Apple Pay, Google Pay or 3D Secure 2 — through a single integration.