Visa’s new fraud monitoring framework will get its enamel on October 1, 2025, when retailers’ buying banks are held to a brand new chargeback and fraud customary and a brand new price construction.
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program changed two Visa fraud and chargeback packages in April 2025, introducing a mixed measure known as the VAMP ratio.
Visa granted buying banks and, not directly, retailers six months to arrange for VAMP ratio enforcement and its potential charges. The “advisory” interval ends September 30, 2025, and a few acquirers may incur a $10 price (or extra) per chargeback. VAMP enforcement, nonetheless, rolls out in phases by means of 2026.
Visa estimates the brand new VAMP framework may assist acquirers detect 4 occasions extra fraud than the previous system, probably saving greater than $2.5 billion in annual losses.
Visa’s VAMP framework goals to cut back bank card fraud.
Oblique Affect
The VAMP targets acquirers — the banks, processors, and fee facilitators that present retailers with entry to the Visa community. Visa imposes penalties on these acquirers because it contracts with these firms, not retailers immediately.
For enterprise-level ecommerce or omnichannel retail companies, this acquirer distinction may matter lower than one may assume.
Acquirers are accountable for their service provider portfolios and are more likely to maintain them to VAMP requirements. Thus, if a service provider’s dispute or fraud charges climb, the acquirer could reply with greater charges, stricter guidelines, and even account termination as a final resort. (As an apart, Shopify Funds is an acquirer and thus topic to VAMP.)
VAMP Ratio
The VAMP ratio is this system’s key metric. Visa calculates the ratio by including reported fraud circumstances (referred to as TC40s) and chargeback circumstances (TC15s), then dividing by the variety of settled Visa transactions.
Visa points TC40 studies when a client studies an unauthorized cost, no matter whether or not the declare evolves right into a full-blown dispute.
Conversely, a TC15 or chargeback is a transaction dispute which will or will not be associated to a fraud declare.
One wrinkle is that VAMP counts fraud-related chargebacks twice — as soon as as fraud (TC40) and as soon as as a dispute (TC15).
This double-counting makes VAMP ratios comparatively extra strict than the previous system. Visa’s reported rationale is that fraud, which escalates right into a chargeback, is doubly damaging and may carry extra weight.
So-called pleasant fraud, when a buyer lies about not receiving items, would additionally, sadly, be counted twice.
Thresholds
VAMP has three major thresholds on the time of writing.
- Acquirer Above Normal consists of processors with a portfolio-wide VAMP ratio of 0.50% or greater. Buying banks on this class shall be topic to a Visa penalty of $5 per fraudulent or disputed transaction, efficient January 1, 2026.
- Acquirer Extreme describes processors with a portfolio VAMP ratio of 0.70% or greater. These acquirers pays $10 per dispute, efficient on October 1, 2025.
- Service provider Extreme is the VAMP threshold for particular person retailers throughout the acquirer’s portfolio which have a ratio of two.20% or greater, with a minimum of 1,500 fraud and dispute transactions in a month. Acquirers should pay an extra $10 per disputed transaction for these sellers.
Briefly, Visa desires acquirers to take chargebacks and fee card fraud rather more significantly.
Enumeration Assaults
VAMP additionally screens and penalizes acquirers for retailers that fail to stop large-scale “enumeration” or card quantity testing assaults, the place fraudsters run hundreds of authorization makes an attempt to guess card particulars.
Acquirers are topic to fines or different actions when a service provider’s enumeration makes an attempt exceed 300,000 per thirty days or when 20% of complete authorization requests come from fraudsters.
Comparatively easy steps, akin to CAPTCHA checks or limits on authorization makes an attempt, ought to thwart most assaults.
Affect
VAMP applies solely to sellers with 1,500 or extra disputed costs (TC40 plus TC15) per thirty days. Thus most ecommerce SMBs will proceed to pay $15 to $30 for a chargeback however won’t incur additional Visa monitoring.
Giant retailers, nonetheless, could wish to monitor their VAMP ratios to keep away from warnings, reserve necessities, and even offboarding from their acquirer.
On the whole, retailers with no vital points underneath Visa’s fraud and chargeback packages are more likely to expertise minimal influence from VAMP.
