Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) plays a vital role in maintaining the integrity of the payment system, offering a structured way to monitor transactions, prevent fraud, and ensure merchants and acquirers comply with high standards of transaction security. As Visa continues to evolve its monitoring protocols, it’s essential for acquirers and merchants to stay informed and adapt to new regulations.
Why?
Visa is consolidating its risk monitoring programs under the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) to streamline oversight of acquirer and merchant risk. As part of this update, Visa is retiring the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) and the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP).
VAMP will now track fraud rates, chargebacks, and disputes while introducing a new metric: enumeration ratios. Enumeration refers to large-scale attacks where criminals test stolen payment information through brute-force methods, also known as card testing or BIN attacks.
When?
Starting April 1, 2025, Visa will integrate VDMP and VFMP into a unified VAMP framework with stricter thresholds. Initially, Visa announced an advisory period for the first three months after VAMP goes live (April 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025). However, Visa has now extended this advisory period until October 1, 2025, giving businesses additional time to adjust without penalties. A second set of even stricter thresholds will go into effect on January 1, 2026.
Who?
For acquirers and merchants, this means avoiding excessive chargeback rates and ensuring that they remain below specific thresholds. Compliance with these standards is critical, as failure to meet VAMP criteria can result in penalties, increased scrutiny, and the potential loss of the ability to process Visa transactions.
New Thresholds
Visa is enhancing its risk monitoring with updates to the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), setting stricter thresholds for acquirers and merchants in card-absent transactions.
Acquirers will be enrolled in VAMP if their overall card-absent portfolio exceeds program thresholds. Initially, an “excessive” classification will apply, with an “above standard” classification introduced in 2026 at lower thresholds.
Merchants are enrolled if their VAMP ratio meets or exceeds:
- 1.5% (150 basis points) in the U.S., Canada, Europe, CEMA, and AP regions
- 0.9% (90 basis points) in the LAC region
Even if an acquirer’s portfolio remains below VAMP limits, individual merchants exceeding thresholds will be flagged as excessive, facing fines and potential closure.
Minimum Dispute Requirements:
To be enrolled in VAMP, an entity must exceed the following dispute minimums in a given month:
- Acquirers: 1,000 or more card-absent disputes (fraud and non-fraud combined)
- Merchants: 1,000 or more card-absent disputes (fraud and non-fraud combined)
From 2026, the “above standard” classification will apply to merchants with a 0.3% dispute ratio, while “excessive” merchants will be those exceeding 0.9%, with a minimum of 1,000 disputes required for enforcement.
VAMP Ratio Calculation
The new VAMP Ratio is calculated as follows:
(Reported fraudulent transactions + Non-fraud disputes) / Total settled transactions
- Only card-absent transactions are included.
- Fraud data is based on TC40 reports.
- Non-fraud disputes include reason codes 11, 12, 13, and TC 15 messages.
- Disputes resolved through Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR), CDRN, or CE 3.0 are excluded; however, this applies only to non-fraud/TC15 items.
VAMP Enumeration Ratio
Visa will also introduce a separate VAMP Enumeration Ratio to monitor card testing fraud (also known as enumerated transactions). Merchants with fewer than 300,000 enumerated transactions will be excluded.
VAMP Fees and Compliance Challenges
Visa will impose enforcement fees for exceeding thresholds:
- Acquirers “Above Standard” – $5 per fraudulent or disputed transaction
- Acquirers “Excessive” – $10 per fraudulent or disputed transaction
- Merchants “Excessive” – $10 per fraudulent or disputed transaction
For first-time offenders, Visa will grant a six-month grace period (April – September 2025) where no penalties will apply. However, enforcement begins October 1, 2025.
Best Practices for Compliance
To stay compliant, acquirers and merchants should:
- Invest in fraud prevention tools like AVS, CVV validation, and real-time fraud detection.
- Implement chargeback reduction strategies, including Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR) and prevention alerts.
- Regularly train staff and update fraud detection technology.
- Monitor dispute ratios and transaction trends closely to stay below the new thresholds.
Let Payscout Help!
Staying ahead of Visa’s evolving compliance standards requires a proactive approach. Payscout provides tailored fraud prevention solutions, chargeback management tools, and expert guidance to help merchants and acquirers stay compliant and avoid penalties.
Don’t leave your compliance to chance—contact Payscout today at sales@payscout.com to secure your business against fraud and disputes!