Visa cardholders: we have big news to share with you.
On April 1, 2025, Visa introduced a new version of the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, consolidating its previous monitoring programs: the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program, the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program, the Digital Goods Merchant Fraud Monitoring Program [1]Stripe Docs “Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs“. Accessed August 13th, 2025. , and the existing version of VAMP. While VDMP was initially responsible for monitoring chargeback rates and VFMP handled monitoring fraudulent transaction rates, VAMP will evaluate these issues together via the VAMP Ratio. The new version of VAMP will also replace thirty-eight existing remediation processes, effectively streamlining them into one single process.
Key Takeaways
- Visa is replacing its two monitoring programs, VDMP and VFMP, with an updated version of VAMP that consolidates their functions.
- Instead of measuring fraud rates and chargeback ratios separately, VAMP will evaluate these issues together with the VAMP Ratio.
- The program introduces new thresholds to put merchants into the “Excessive” classification when exceeded.
- There will be no more early warning system; merchants will be considered compliant or excessive.
As a result of the unification of VAMP’s two core monitoring programs, merchants will need to track their fraud rates and chargeback dispute ratios closely. The program will introduce new, globally aligned thresholds for domestic and international card-not-present transactions[2] Visa “Introducing The New Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program“. Accessed August 13th, 2025. . While VDMP had an excessive classification threshold of a 1.8% dispute ratio and VFMP’s Excessive threshold was a 1.8% fraud rate, VAMP will place merchants into the Excessive classification if their VAMP Ratio exceeds 1.5% (this figure will decrease to 0.9% in 2026).
VDMP and VFMP initially issued early warnings if merchant dispute ratios and fraud rates hit a threshold of 0.65%. VAMP removes this category, classifying merchants as either Compliant or Excessive.
Another metric the program will use is the Enumeration Ratio for Card-Testing Fraud [3] Visa “Anti-Enumeration and Account Testing
Best Practices for Merchants“. Accessed August 13th, 2025. . The Enumeration Ratio will flag merchants if 20% of their authorization requests are card-testing attempts. This holds true unless the overall number is under 300,000. This metric tracks the number of fraudulent authorization attempts initiated by criminals testing stolen credit card details.
| VAMP Ratio | ** VAMP Enumeration Ratio |
|---|---|
| Sum of card-not-present (CNP) | # of CNP enumerated authorization transactions |
| Sum of card-not-present (CNP) | # of CNP authorization transactions |
*Number of CNP fraud [TC 40] by postdate + number of nonfraud disputes [TC 15, Dispute Condition Codes 11, 12, and 13] by Central Processing Date [CPD]
**approved + declined
Acquirer Performance
| Fraud/Dispute Count | Dispute to Sales Count | |
|---|---|---|
| Excessive | > 1,000 | > 0.5% |
| Standard | > 1,000 | > 0.3% > 0.5% |
Merchant
| Fraud/Dispute Count | Dispute to Sales Count | |
|---|---|---|
| Excessive | > 1,000 | > 1.5 % |
| Excessive (January 2026) | > 1,000 | >0.9 % |
Enumeration (auth attempts)
| Header 1 | Fraud/Dispute Count | Dispute to Sales Count |
|---|---|---|
| Excessive | > 300,000 | > 20% |
| Excessive (January 2026) | > 300,000 | > 20% |
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Impacts of VAMP
VAMP’s revamp will have several consequences. Merchants will now share liability for excessive fraud and chargeback disputes with their payment processors. If merchants exceed these new thresholds, they will have to pay an additional fee of $10 per dispute. However, under Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE3.0) [4] Visa “Compelling Evidence 3.0 Merchant Readiness“. Accessed August 13th, 2025. , merchants will also now have the chance to shift liability back onto the card issuer if they can provide a history of legitimate transactions.
There are also new compliance deadlines [5]PayPal BrainTree “April 2025 Release Guide” to keep in mind. Accessed August 13th, 2025. . Now, merchants enrolled in VAMP must submit a remediation plan within 15 days of being flagged to reduce disputes or fraud on their accounts.
Did you know…
To officially exit the VAMP program, merchants must stay under the control thresholds for fraud rates and chargeback disputes for three consecutive months.
What Merchants Need To Do
Merchants running eCommerce businesses or accepting card-not-present payments must monitor their transactions closely to track their fraud rates and dispute ratios. These merchants must also implement stronger fraud prevention methods and tools. These tools include (but are not limited to) Address Verification Services, CVV checks, real-time fraud detection, and 3-D secure authentication.
Visa’s intent with the updated VAMP system is to create a more comprehensive fraud detection system. As the payments ecosystem evolves, so does the threat of fraud, not to mention chargeback disputes and enumeration attacks. Consolidating all their monitoring programs into one enables a more streamlined approach to risk management using a unified metric system in the VAMP Ratio.
