Overview

VISA retired its previous dispute and fraud monitoring programs on April 1, 2025, introducing the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP). 

This unified framework streamlines how Visa tracks acquirers and merchants by combining both fraud and dispute monitoring into a single model. 

Since launch, Visa has continued refining VAMP based on acquirer and merchant feedback. The latest update revises the calculation method for ratios and adjusts the thresholds that trigger scheme fees.

VAMP Calculation

Under VAMP, acquirers and merchants must maintain both fraud and dispute ratios below Visa’s defined limits. The new formula now includes fraud transactions, fraud disputes, and non-fraud disputes - providing a holistic view of overall risk.

VAMP % = ((Fraud/TC40 Reports + Chargebacks) / Total Settled Transactions) x 100

Example Calculation:

Merchant X has processed 10,000 VISA transactions in a month and received 50 chargebacks and 250 TC40 fraud reports.

Their VAMP % would be:          (50 + 250) / 10,000) x 100 = 3%

What are the Thresholds?

VISA is enforcing the below on acquirers and Merchants:

A Merchant must also not exceed a VAMP count of 1500 per month.

*A Merchant must exceed both requirements - the VAMP % and the VAMP Count - simultaneously within a single month in order to be classified under the VAMP program. 

How is QashPay managing VISA VAMP?

QashPay proposes to manage its own Visa VAMP ratios under the following structure:

Additionally, in cases where QashPay is categorised as either above Standard or Excessive and an individual Merchant is also identified under the VAMP program, that Merchant will be subject to fees only under the Merchant VAMP category, as per the Merchant VAMP fee table and not under both programs.

Mitigation and Prevention Processes

QashPay uses several automated processes to prevent risk breaches:

• Pre-vet Risk Assessment: evaluates potential excessive Visa VAMP ratios during onboarding.
• Smart Declines: merchants projected above 2.0% are automatically declined.
• Portfolio Impact Simulation: assesses onboarding effects on the wider portfolio.
• Agent Accountability: ISOs and Agents have defined 0.5% ratio limits and are subject to internal fines if their Merchants are not managed correctly.
• Progressive Onboarding: Agents must onboard low-VAMP merchants before high-VAMP ones.

QashPay has extensive expertise in real-time portfolio monitoring. Using data science-driven alerts and dashboards, we provide 24/7 oversight of QashPay’s master portfolio, ISO and Agent portfolios and individual merchant performance. This provides warning notifications before any breach has occurred.

To request a demo of our VAMP processes, please contact our sales team at contact@qashpay.com.