The U.K.-based Financial Conduct Authority agreed to delay the implementation of an 18-month phased implementation of stronger customer authentication requirements, following numerous requests from industry groups and European regulators who agreed that many retailers, banks, consumers and other participants were not ready. 

The original Sept. 14 deadline was scheduled to begin a new set of anti-fraud rules for online merchant transactions that required a two-out-of-three step authentication process to make sure purchases were being made by authorized consumers. 

"The FCA has been working with the industry to put in place stronger means of ensuring that anyone seeking to make payments is not a fraudster," Jonathan Davidson, executive director for supervision, retail and authorizations, said in a release from the agency. "While these measures will reduce fraud, we want to make sure they don't cause material disruption to consumers themselves, so we have agreed to a phased plan for their timely introduction."