Visa is overhauling its VAMP monitoring framework for fraud and disputes and now moving into full enforcement mode, with significant implications for high-risk digital sectors such as telemedia, subscription billing and carrier billing services.
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) is a new global framework designed to track and control fraud and chargebacks across the payments ecosystem. It replaces multiple legacy systems, including the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) and Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP), with a single, unified model. The changes come into effect on 1 April this year.
At its core is a new ‘VAMP ratio’, which combines fraud reports and disputes as a percentage of total transactions, creating a single metric that Visa uses to assess risk. The programme also introduces monitoring of enumeration attacks (card testing), broadening the scope beyond traditional chargebacks.
Visa says the goal is to “create clarity and consistency” while reducing fraud and disputed transactions globally.
The rollout of VAMP has been phased, but the most impactful changes are now taking hold:
- April 1, 2025 – VAMP launched, replacing previous monitoring programmes
- April–September 2025 – Advisory period with no formal penalties
- October 1, 2025 – Full enforcement begins, with fines and compliance actions possible
- 2025 thresholds introduced – e.g. ~1.5% for merchants, 0.5% for acquirers
- 2026 tightening (Jan–April) – thresholds drop further (e.g. ~0.9% for merchants, ~0.3% for acquirers)
The key structural changes include the move to a single combined ratio replacing separate fraud and dispute metrics, lower thresholds, particularly for acquirers, greater accountability upstream, placing pressure on payment processors and inclusion of more transaction types, including non-fraud disputes and authorisation issues.
Why this matters: a shift in accountability
One of the most important aspects of VAMP is that it shifts responsibility from merchants to acquirers.Visa is now holding acquiring banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to stricter portfolio-wide thresholds. This means even low-risk merchants can face consequences if their activity contributes to an acquirer breaching its limits.
As a result, acquirers are already imposing stricter internal thresholds than Visa’s official limits, monitoring merchants more aggressively and terminating or restricting accounts that pose risk to their portfolio.
For telemedia businesses, particularly those operating subscription services, adult content, gaming, or mobile billing, VAMP represents a material shift in risk exposure. Telemedia has long been associated with elevated chargeback rates due to billing disputes, unclear descriptors and customer dissatisfaction. Under VAMP’s tighter thresholds, these characteristics are more likely to trigger enforcement action.
Industry analysis already notes that sectors like adult entertainment, dating and gaming are among the most affected by the new rules.
There will also be reduced tolerance for disputes. With merchant thresholds dropping toward ~0.9% and acquirer thresholds as low as ~0.3% in 2026, even moderate dispute volumes can become problematic.
For telemedia firms, where refund requests and “friendly fraud” are common, maintaining compliance becomes significantly harder.
Because acquirers now bear more risk, telemedia companies will increasingly dependent on PSP willingness to onboard or retain them, more stringent onboarding and ongoing monitoring and potential rolling reserves, higher fees, or outright account closures.
Even businesses below Visa’s official thresholds may be offboarded if they threaten an acquirer’s overall ratio.
This could see telemedia firms having to invest more heavily in fraud prevention tools, pre-dispute resolution systems such as alerts, refunds before chargebacks and clearer billing descriptors and customer support. This also reflects a broader shift toward “prevention-first” dispute management, as disputes often count toward ratios even if later resolved.
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson / Alpha Stock Images
