SCA exemptions

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To minimize friction during customer authentication, Airwallex will assess if certain user actions qualify for exemptions under the SCA guidelines set by the regulation. These exemptions will be applied as appropriate.

Exemptions currently applicable

Each exemption category has its own independent criteria. Every exemption type on this page (low-value, trusted beneficiary, low-risk, and so on) qualifies on its own terms. Any amount limit, cumulative cap, or transaction count listed under one exemption applies only to that exemption — it does not apply to, limit, or accumulate against any other exemption, and exemptions are not additive. For example, the low-value transaction caps (30 EUR per transaction, 100 EUR cumulative, and five consecutive transactions) do not affect trusted beneficiary eligibility, which has no transaction amount limit.

The following table summarizes each exemption type and its independent criteria at a glance. Note that the trusted beneficiary exemption has no amount or cumulative limit — transaction size does not affect eligibility.

Exemption	Amount limit	Cumulative cap	Key requirement	API field / setting	Currently applied?
180-day transaction data retrieval	None	None	SCA was applied for the same action within the last 180 days	None (assessed automatically)	Yes
Trusted beneficiaries	None	None	Beneficiary designated as trusted	`sca_exemptible: true` on the beneficiary	Yes
Low-value transactions	30 EUR per transaction	100 EUR cumulative; up to 5 consecutive exempted transactions	Both the amount and count conditions are met	None (assessed automatically)	No
Low-risk transactions	None	None	Assessed as low risk by Airwallex's risk engine	None (assessed automatically)	No
Same person (entity) transfers	None	None	Transfer to another Airwallex account owned by the same legal entity	None (assessed automatically)	No

180-days exemption for transaction data retrieval

Accessing payment account balance or transaction data executed in the last 90 days may be exempted from SCA if the following condition is met:

SCA was applied for the same action in the last 180 days.

Trusted beneficiaries

Note: To ensure full compatibility with the latest trusted beneficiary exemption, please verify that you are integrated with Client API version 2024-09-27 or later.

Trusted beneficiaries are specific contacts or bank accounts that you designate as trustworthy. Payments or withdrawals to these beneficiaries may be exempted from Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

You can add any individual or organization created via the Beneficiaries API as a trusted beneficiary. These are created with an intent to transfer funds by specifying the bank details and payment method.

You can mark a beneficiary as trusted by setting the sca_exemptible attribute to true. By default, this field is set to false if no value is specified for this field. You can do this when creating a new beneficiary or updating an existing one via Beneficiaries API. Note that SCA will still apply when a user creates one or multiple trusted beneficiaries or updates trusted beneficiaries information.

Transaction amount is not a factor in this exemption — once a beneficiary is marked sca_exemptible: true, transactions of any size to that beneficiary may qualify, subject to issuer/ASPSP acceptance. The low-value transaction caps (30 EUR per transaction, 100 EUR cumulative, and the five-transaction limit) described elsewhere on this page do not apply to trusted beneficiaries.

If you wish to remove a beneficiary from the trusted list, update the beneficiary and set sca_exemptible to false. Subsequent payouts to this beneficiary may require SCA.

Shell

1curl -X POST https://api.sandbox.airwallex.com/api/v1/beneficiaries/create \
2  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
3  -H 'x-on-behalf-of: {{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_OPEN_ID}}' \
4  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}' \
5  -d '{
6    "beneficiary": {
7      "company_name": "Complete Concrete Pty Ltd",
8      "entity_type": "COMPANY",
9      "address": {
10        "city": "Melbourne",
11        "country_code": "AU",
12        "postcode": "3000",
13        "state": "VIC",
14        "street_address": "100 Collins Street"
15      },
16      "bank_details": {
17        "account_currency": "AUD",
18        "account_name": "Complete Concrete Pty Ltd",
19        "account_number": "123456789",
20        "account_routing_type1": "bsb",
21        "account_routing_value1": "013010",
22        "bank_country_code": "AU",
23        "bank_name": "ANZ Bank"
24      }
25    },
26    "nickname": "Complete Concrete Pty Ltd",
27    "sca_exemptible": true,
28    "transfer_methods": [
29      "LOCAL"
30    ]
31  }'

For more information on trusted beneficiary exemption, see Whitelisting for payouts SCA compliance.

Exemptions currently not applicable

As with the exemptions above, each exemption type in this section has its own independent criteria. The conditions listed under one exemption — including any amount or transaction limits — do not apply to, limit, or accumulate against the others.

Low-value transactions

SCA may be exempted when payment transactions meet both of the following conditions:

Payment transaction amount does not exceed 30 EUR, and the cumulative amount of previously exempted payments does not exceed 100 EUR.
The number of SCA exempted transactions since the last SCA was applied doesn't exceed five consecutive payment transactions.

These amount and count limits apply only to the low-value transaction exemption. They do not apply to, limit, or accumulate against any other exemption. If you need an exemption with no transaction amount limit, see Trusted beneficiaries for an uncapped alternative.

Low-risk transactions

Payment transactions that are considered low risk based on Airwallex's risk engine may be exempted from SCA.

Same person (entity) transfers

Payment transactions to another Airwallex account owned by the same legal entity may be exempted from SCA.

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