Acquirers commercialize fraud intelligence for revenue

Visa lowered the Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) threshold from 220 to 150 in April 2026. VAMP measures combined fraud and dispute counts divided by total settled Visa transactions, and the lower threshold raises the number of portfolios that can trigger remediation or penalties.

The change has shifted procurement priorities for merchants. Requests for Proposal now commonly include false-positive rates and chargeback management on par with price when selecting an acquiring bank. The Merchant Risk Council found that about 65% of merchants estimate e-commerce false-positive rates between 2% and 10% in 2026.

Analysts project global merchant losses from false positives will exceed $231 billion in 2026, while card fraud losses are forecast at $39.6 billion. Merchants that cannot absorb chargeback or fraud losses can leave the acquirer as the ultimately liable party.

Acquirers are investing in technology and operations to reduce fraud and false declines. Artificial intelligence is being used to make real-time decisions across card-not-present, in-store and alternative payment methods. Digital identity checks and network intelligence are being layered to build a fuller view of customers. Firms are also implementing explainability so automated decisions can be audited and traced.

Banks are adjusting how they price and package fraud services. Some offer tiered fraud-protection products, performance guarantees or shared-liability arrangements that align incentives with merchants. Those offers depend on measurable outcomes such as lower false-positive rates and faster chargeback handling.

Scheme and regulatory pressure requires continuous monitoring of portfolio-level fraud and dispute ratios and readiness to take corrective action. Acquirers are focusing on faster dispute processing, improved merchant onboarding and clearer data sharing to reduce compliance risk while maintaining transaction flow for legitimate customers.

Industry events and vendor forums are addressing use of AI, explainability and network intelligence to meet the lower VAMP threshold and to package fraud performance metrics for merchants.