Merchants and issuers are heading into the holiday season with growing confidence in 3-D Secure, as data-only (RCI-06) and TRA-based (RCI-05) transactions mature and deliver stronger authorization performance. Merchants are shifting from using 3DS mainly for liability protection to using it as a true data-exchange channel, while issuers adopting The Arcot Smart Ruleset are seeing meaningful reductions in fraud and friction driven by automation. Enabling these capabilities promptly is critical, as waiting only sacrifices valuable fraud savings and authorization improvements when they matter most.