Effective April 1, 2025, Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) will replace both the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) and the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP).
What to Expect?
- The upcoming changes will have a significant impact on how EU merchants manage disputes. Tools such as CDRN, RDR, and Order Insight with CE3.0 will be vital in minimizing dispute exposure. Additionally, merchants can anticipate higher authorization rates and lower reserve requirements as a result of reduced dispute ratios.
The updated VAMP program will introduce a new transaction count-based metric that will assess reported fraud and non-fraud chargebacks together. This will be complemented by fresh criteria based on confirmed enumerated transactions, identified and verified by the Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) Score system, rather than transactions blocked by the Risk Operations Center (ROC).
Moreover, VAMP will shift from non-compliance assessment-focused enforcement to risk-based enforcement. This will offer clients greater flexibility and cater to different risk appetite levels.
Adjusted Thresholds and Enforcement Levels for the VAMP Program
An acquirer will be in the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program if they meet or exceed either the new fraud and disputes ratio or the new enumeration ratio. These ratios are calculated as follows:
The current program thresholds and the new thresholds set to take effect in January 2025 as outlined in the table below:
Acquirers who exceed the identification thresholds are flagged for the VAMP and must take corrective actions. VAMP identifies two levels of performance issues:
"Above Standard” Level
- Acquirers at the "Above Standard" level have experienced a significant increase in fraud, dispute, or enumeration activities. These acquirers are required to investigate these activities and show how they are addressing the issues to bring their performance back in line with program standards. Visa oversees these activities within the acquirer’s portfolio to ensure compliance.
“Excessive” Level
- Acquirers identified at the “Excessive” level have shown the most severe increase in fraud, disputes, or enumeration activities compared to market standards. Visa will monitor the performance of individual merchants within an acquirer’s portfolio. Merchant descriptors may be grouped to identify and analyze larger or group-type merchants. Visa will also implement strategies to analyze the performance of payment facilitators and other participants.
- Acquirers who exceed the identification thresholds are flagged for the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) and must take corrective actions. Identified acquirers will be notified of their status by Visa and are expected to respond. The notification will explain the reason for the identification, response timeline, consequences for noncompliance, and best practices (when applicable).
- Acquirers must strengthen their risk control environment and address the issues that led to their identification. They are required to submit a remediation plan within 15 calendar days that addresses the root causes of the performance issues. Failure to comply may result in fines, penalties, and non-compliance assessments.
As your trusted partner in chargeback management, Chargeblast is dedicated to continuously improving our services to provide exceptional support to merchants worldwide. With our Europe-based merchants set to benefit from the VISA VAMP adjustments, we are committed to delivering optimal service and ensuring their success in the ever-evolving market.
