Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP): How to Stay Compliant with Cardstream

Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP): How to Stay Compliant with Cardstream

Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) will come into effect on October 1, 2025, changing how fraud and disputes are monitored across the payment ecosystem. VAMP will replace the existing Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) and Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) with a single, unified framework.

Under the new rules, Merchants who exceed Visa’s thresholds will face automatic fines, while Acquirers risk portfolio-level penalties if their Merchants are consistently non-compliant. Stricter thresholds will follow on January 1, 2026, making early preparation essential.

You can read Visa’s official announcement here: Introducing the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP).

What Is VAMP?

VAMP introduces stricter monitoring of fraud and disputes to improve security across the Visa network. The key changes include:

• Automatic penalties for Merchants that exceed set thresholds.
• Portfolio-level accountability for Acquirers, who must monitor their entire Merchant base, not just high-risk accounts.
• Two-stage rollout — enforcement from October 2025, followed by stricter thresholds in January 2026.

A key feature of VAMP is that performance will be measured using fraud and dispute ratios. The calculation is straightforward: the VAMP ratio is the total number of TC40 fraud transactions plus TC15 non-fraud disputes, divided by the total monthly number of settled Visa transactions:

This means both fraud and non-fraud disputes now count toward compliance thresholds, not just confirmed fraud. Even small increases in customer service issues or chargebacks could push a Merchant over Visa’s limits.

You can view the full breakdown of ratios and thresholds in Visa’s official VAMP Fact Sheet (PDF).

Why VAMP Matters

These changes mean:

• Merchants can no longer afford to sit close to the thresholds without risk of penalty.
• Acquirers and Partners need to proactively monitor their portfolios, as Visa will hold them responsible for collective performance.
• Fraud prevention and dispute reduction will become critical to avoiding penalties and maintaining compliance.

How Cardstream Helps Partners and Merchants Prepare

Cardstream provides a suite of built-in fraud prevention tools within its Payment Gateway and Merchant Management System (MMS), as well as an advanced third-party integration with Kount, an AI-powered fraud solution. These tools allow both Partners and Merchants to strengthen their defences ahead of Visa’s new rules.

Built-in Fraud Monitoring Tools

Available to all Merchants via the MMS, Cardstream’s standard fraud checks are designed to give direct control over risk management:

• Velocity checks — Limit the number or value of transactions per card in a set period (e.g., per day or per hour).
• Address Verification System (AVS) — Confirms that the billing address matches the cardholder’s bank records.
• Card Security Code (CV2/CVV) checks — Validates the security code on the back of the card.
• EMV 3-D Secure v2 — Adds an additional authentication step for card-not-present transactions, reducing liability for fraud.
• IP configuration and country blocking — Restricts payments from specific IP addresses or countries with higher fraud risk.
• Real-time transaction monitoring — Merchants can view and analyse transactions instantly through the MMS, making it easier to spot suspicious activity as it happens.

AI-powered Fraud Protection with Kount

For Merchants requiring more advanced protection, Cardstream offers integration with Kount, a market-leading fraud prevention solution powered by AI and machine learning. Kount’s features are especially valuable under VAMP because they directly target the areas Visa will monitor.

• AI-driven risk scoring — Analyses billions of global transactions in real-time, detecting fraud patterns that traditional rule-based checks may miss. This helps Merchants keep their TC40 fraud count down.
• Adaptive authentication — Seamlessly verifies legitimate customers while challenging or blocking suspicious activity, helping reduce false positives and lowering the chance of customer disputes that feed into TC15.
• Order validation and dispute prevention alerts — Tools such as order insights and Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR) help resolve issues before they escalate into disputes, directly reducing the dispute ratio.
• Address and CVV verification — Strengthens transaction authentication, reducing fraudulent chargebacks.
• Customisable business policies — Merchants can set rules tailored to their risk appetite, e.g., stricter controls for high-value goods or cross-border orders, ensuring they remain under VAMP thresholds.
• Fraud trend reporting — Provides detailed reporting and dashboards, giving Merchants visibility into fraud and dispute performance so they can identify when they are approaching thresholds — and take corrective action early.

By combining built-in MMS checks with Kount’s advanced analytics and prevention tools, Merchants and Partners gain both control and foresight, which are essential under VAMP’s stricter framework.

What Partners Should Do Now

• Monitor Merchant portfolios using Cardstream’s reporting and alerts to identify at-risk Merchants.
• Engage with Merchants to ensure they understand VAMP and how to use fraud prevention tools.
• Strengthen compliance processes before the stricter January 2026 thresholds.

What Merchants Should Do Now

• Activate and configure fraud checks in the MMS to control risk effectively.
• Adopt Kount for advanced protection if fraud levels are close to Visa’s thresholds.
• Track disputes in real time and work with their Acquirer(s) to manage chargebacks quickly and prevent escalation.

Preparing for VAMP with Cardstream

With enforcement set to begin in October 2025, Partners and Merchants should act swiftly. By combining Cardstream’s built-in fraud tools with Kount’s AI-driven protection, Merchants and Partners can significantly reduce fraud and dispute levels, ensuring they remain compliant under Visa’s stricter rules.

Cardstream provides the visibility, flexibility, and protection needed to help safeguard against VAMP penalties.

If you have any questions or would like to explore how Cardstream’s tools can further strengthen your fraud prevention efforts, please contact your Relationship Manager or our Support Team.