Visa and Mastercard Take Different Paths to Cut Fraud

Visa and Mastercard have adopted different compliance programs to reduce fraud and chargebacks on their card networks. Visa enforces a single-ratio program called VAMP. Mastercard has created a multi-ratio framework under GMAP.

Under Visa’s Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), Visa measures the sum of fraud reports (TC-40s) and chargebacks (TC-15s) divided by total cleared transactions. The merchant-level threshold is 1.5%. Penalties for merchants apply only when a merchant records more than 1,500 TC-40s and TC-15s in a single month; merchants that meet those conditions pay $8 per disputed or fraudulent transaction. VAMP also sets acquirer portfolio thresholds. Portfolios with a fraud-plus-chargeback ratio above 0.5% are charged $4 per incident, and portfolios above 0.7% are charged $8 per incident. Visa implemented a single VAMP ratio in 2025.

Mastercard’s Global Merchant Audit Program (GMAP) retains several legacy monitoring programs and adds new standards. Existing programs include Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM), High Excessive Chargeback Merchant (HECM) and Excessive Fraud Merchant (EFM). ECM’s merchant threshold is scheduled to decline over time: 1.5% in 2028, 1.3% in 2029, 1.1% in 2030 and 0.9% starting in 2031. GMAP also adds four new programs, two focused on merchants and two on acquirers. Merchant-focused additions include High Dispute Merchant (HDM) and Excessive Dispute Merchant (EDM). HDM flags merchants whose combined fraud reports and non-fraud chargebacks exceed 5% of cleared transactions; Mastercard calculates the chargeback numerator from the current month and the transactions denominator from the previous month. EDM applies at a 50% ratio.

Enforcement under GMAP combines financial assessments with ecosystem measures. HDM breaches can lead to assessments and the network reporting flagged merchants to issuers. Merchants that exceed EDM standards may lose the automatic fraud liability shift that 3-D Secure (3DS) provides. Mastercard’s GMAP timelines extend into the next decade for some metrics, with key threshold reductions phased through 2028–2031.

The networks also use different dispute platforms and lifecycles. Visa introduced Visa Claims Resolution (VCR) in 2018 on the Visa Resolve Online platform. VCR separates disputes into Allocation (fraud and authorization) and Collaboration (processing errors and consumer disputes) flows. Allocation cases may start at pre-arbitration, which can shorten some dispute lifecycles to around 70 days; Collaboration disputes typically follow first-presentment evidence collection and can run to about 100 days. Visa shortened the merchant response window from 45 to 30 days.

Mastercard implemented the Mastercard Dispute Resolution Initiative (MDRI) on the Mastercom Claims Manager platform. MDRI consolidated reason codes into a single flow and set a lifecycle near 120 days while retaining a 45-day merchant response window.

Visa’s enforcement relies primarily on per-dispute fees for merchants and portfolio-level charges for acquirers. Mastercard’s enforcement mixes assessments, issuer reporting and removal of 3DS liability shift. The rules and thresholds apply to merchants, acquirers and issuers according to their transaction patterns and business models, and several GMAP provisions are scheduled for phased implementation through 2031.