Chuka Umunna, the Liberal Democrat MP for Streatham, today asked the secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy what assessment his office had made on the effects of the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules for both retailers and consumers.

He also called on Government to “ensure no enforcement action will be taken for at least 18 months to give our retail sector breathing room to adapt to these new changes”.

Umunna described the new anti-theft rules, which are contained within the wider EU second Payment Service Directive (PSD2), as a “ticking time bomb” for retailers that could “cause major disruption”, particularly for online payments.