The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) is Visa’s unified compliance framework designed to monitor and manage merchant risk across fraud, disputes, and content integrity. Launched as a successor to multiple legacy programs including the Visa Integrity Risk Program (VIRP), Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP), and Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP). VAMP consolidates these initiatives into a single, lifecycle-based risk management system.

Effective April 1, 2025, VAMP introduces a proactive and standardized approach to monitoring merchant behavior, placing greater responsibility on acquirers, PayFacs, and ISOs to detect and mitigate risks before they escalate.

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Key Components of VAMP:

• Consolidated Oversight: Combines fraud, dispute, and content risk monitoring under one program.
  
• Global Thresholds: Introduces updated, globally aligned benchmarks for fraud and chargeback ratios.
  
• Lifecycle Risk Management: Moves from outlier-only enforcement to continuous, portfolio-wide risk evaluation.
  
• Risk Triggers: Acquirers may be flagged if merchants exceed thresholds for transaction fraud, chargebacks, or non-compliant content (e.g., illegal goods, unlicensed services).

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Examples of VAMP Violations:

• A merchant exceeding acceptable fraud-to-sales volume ratio thresholds
  
• A high number of chargebacks within a 30-day window
  
• The sale of prohibited or unlicensed products, such as drugs or counterfeit goods, detected via web monitoring
  
  

Why VAMP Matters for Payment Providers:

• Liability & Fines: Acquirers are held directly responsible for repeated or uncorrected violations across their merchant portfolio.
  
• Enforcement Actions: May include fines, compliance plans, or required merchant termination.
  
• Risk Transparency: Empowers Visa to take earlier action against systemic merchant risk issues.

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To remain compliant, payment providers must:

• Maintain robust onboarding controls (KYC/KYB, MCC accuracy)
  
• Continuously monitor merchant transactions, disputes, and website content
  
• Take swift corrective action when VAMP thresholds are approached or exceeded
  
  

In summary, VAMP is Visa’s next-generation compliance model, providing a unified view of merchant risk and demanding a more proactive approach to fraud, dispute, and content monitoring from all acquirers and facilitators in the ecosystem.

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