Visa VAMP: Are You Ready To Use the New Regulations?
Across the payments space, card providers have spent the past few years updating the way they track and monitor card not present (CNP) transactions. Following the roll-out of the Compelling Evidence 3.0 framework, Visa specifically has now created a new set of regulations, the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP).
VAMP changes the way merchants measure combined fraud and dispute ratios and how acquirers oversee merchants. Becoming compliant with the new regulations should be a priority for your business as failure to keep up with VAMP rules could result in your business falling behind the newly established VAMP thresholds for acceptable fraud and dispute ratios. This can lead to placement in monitoring programs and related issues such as fees or the loss of the right to work your chargebacks.
What Is Visa VAMP?
VAMP is Visa’s latest set of anti-fraud and dispute regulations, designed to be both simpler and more comprehensive than the systems that were in place before. According to Visa’s announcement of the program, the goal is to address four times more fraud, targeting $2.5 billion in global annual fraud losses around Visa payments.[1]
VAMP was active as of April 1, 2025, but is not being enforced. Following the launch, Visa is engaging acquirers and merchants in an extended advisory period through September 30, 2025. Merchants can spend these six months getting controls and processes up to date with the new requirements.[2]
What are those requirements? As a merchant, you should be aware of:
- New dispute and fraud ratio metrics: There is now one combined dispute and fraud ratio for each company, calculated monthly based on a new formula. Companies with less than 1,500 monthly fraudulent and disputed transactions aren’t eligible to enter the program.
- A unified acquirer program and single dispute resolution process: While Visa once operated multiple fraud and dispute programs and many remediation processes, these mechanisms have been replaced by one acquirer program and a single remediation process.
- Aligned fraud thresholds around the world: Rather than using different fraudulent transaction ratios for domestic or cross-border CNP Visa transactions across regions, Visa is defaulting to globally aligned domestic and cross-border VAMP thresholds.
- Criteria around enumerated transaction attacks: VAMP includes criteria to help companies adopt best practices that will prevent attacks, in which sophisticated fraudsters bombard companies with requests to try and break anti-fraud defenses.
- A focus on lifecycle risk management: Visa is using the rules to push merchants into a new method of fraud prevention based on protecting their entire ecosystems. This is a contrast to methods that focus on outliers and shutting down individual instances of fraud.
Visa’s focus on streamlining and simplifying processes can provide clarity in the long term. Dealing with the changes in the present, however, may require your organization to adjust some of its processes and practices. Keeping up with this evolution will be important as you seek to avoid penalties and other consequences.
Why Does VAMP Compliance Matter?
Companies that can’t keep up with the new standardized dispute and fraud ratio thresholds within VAMP may end up dealing with multiple kinds of consequences. Unless you can internalize the new processes, you may encounter difficulty with Visa itself and with your acquirers.
Specific issues to watch out for include:
Inclusion in Monitoring Programs
If you run at too high a level of either disputes or fraudulent activity, your organization may receive extra scrutiny in a monitoring program. Fraud and dispute ratios that would have been considered acceptable under the previous Visa payments rules are no longer acceptable according to VAMP, which adds pressure to keep a close eye on your rates and implement the necessary practices to lower them.
The Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) and Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) involved separate ratios for disputes and fraud. Under VAMP ratio calculation rules, you effectively now add those two ratios together to produce a combined VAMP ratio. Anything over 150 basis points (1.5%), as of April 2026, will be considered grounds to place your company under monitoring, up from the old rate of 220 basis points (2.2%).[3] Being named a high-risk merchant due to higher VAMP ratios is something to avoid if possible.
Increased Attention and Fees From Acquirers
Direct interactions with Visa aren’t the only consequences if your business can’t keep up with the new standards associated with VAMP. Acquirers may also change the way they monitor merchants’ performance regarding dispute and fraud ratios. This pressure could come with new fee structures.
In fact, fee changes are a major feature of VAMP overall. The merchant account fee is now $8, but acquirers’ fees may increase in turn if merchants are unable to adapt to the new best practices prescribed under VAMP. Staying aware of all these moving parts and adapting quickly to the new thresholds will be essential for keeping fees from increasing.
What Do You Have To Do To Get in Line With VAMP?
Adapting to the new landscape of standardized and unified dispute and fraud ratios — and complying with Visa’s VAMP targets for these metrics — means taking a close look at your payment infrastructure and fraud prevention tools. Areas to address include:
- Refreshing your thinking around dispute and fraud rates: The combination of these two metrics is one of the major adjustments associated with VAMP. If your current performance in these two areas yields a higher combined rate than the new benchmark of 1.5%, take action to lower it.[4]
- Use of the right methodologies: The ability to use the Compelling Evidence 3.0 framework is crucial. Transactions processed with Compelling Evidence 3.0 are not counted toward your company’s fraud ratio. In addition, Visa products such as Visa Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR), Verifi’s CDRN Alerts, and even Ethoca’s Chargeback Alerts product can help to manage your VAMP ratio calculation.
- Resetting relationships with acquirers: The relationship between merchants and acquirers is set to change because of VAMP rules. Acquirers may alter both their assessment criteria and fee structures in response to a threshold change by Visa. It is important you understand how your acquirer will provide visibility to your current VAMP ratio.
- Adjusting to new fees: The new lower merchant account fee, along with other adjustments via acquirers, will affect your organization’s financials. Staying aware of the changes and budgeting accordingly will help you avoid an awkward transitional period as VAMP comes into force.
Entering this new VAMP era is easier with the right partner organization on your side to offer consulting, technology, and more.
How Can Accertify’s Technology and Expertise Help You?
Having the correct fraud and chargeback management platform in place can make a huge difference in the way you deal with new requirements such as those laid out in VAMP. This is why it’s so important to work with an expert provider like Accertify.
With Accertify’s technology, you’re sure to receive:
- Fraud and chargeback monitoring: Accertify solutions can detect potential issues within your payment processing operations, alerting your team and giving time to make corrections before issues escalate and cause bigger problems.
- Updates: As an Accertify customer, you receive periodic information and insights about new requirements. If you know about the details and potential impact of rules like VAMP, you can prepare effectively rather than scrambling to catch up.
- Chargeback response automation: Automated chargeback responses enable you to easily determine when a disputed transaction is worth challenging. Quick, effective chargeback responses are one of the major factors in maintaining a compliant ratio under VAMP, and the Accertify chargeback management solution uses Compelling Evidence 3.0 data, as specified by the new regulations.
- Enhanced fraudulent activity prevention: Accertify also offers a powerful suite of fraud prevention tools, incorporating real-time analytics, machine learning, and analysis of data for faster, more accurate potential fraud detection. As with chargeback responses, the fraud prevention elements of the Accertify platform support Compelling Evidence 3.0 data.
This combination of up-to-date tech and expert oversight can assist with your compliance plan as VAMP becomes Visa’s fraud and dispute standard. See how our Fraud Detection and Chargeback Management solutions can support your organization with its specific needs.
Enter the VAMP Era With Confidence
Getting into line with new requirements can have a huge positive impact on your brand’s performance, and failing to keep up can have the opposite effect.
Request a demo of our platform and learn to move at the speed of right, even as conditions change.