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More than a year after Visa Inc. launched the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, acquirers and their vendors are adapting to the new way of keeping tabs on fraud and chargeback levels.
Known as VAMP, the program, according to Visa, consolidated five fraud and dispute programs and reduced 38 distinct remediation processes into one program. A year later, Visa has released six new or updated dispute-resolution services.
These changes may seem daunting, but they don’t appear to be turning out that way.
“The process hasn’t changed a lot; the rules have changed,” Ben Trombley, chief executive at Encryto, told attendees at the Southeast Acquirers Association conference in Miami Beach, Fla., this Tuesday. Encryto is an information-technology services provider. “The process of getting rid of the chargebacks has remained the same for the most part. We’re trying to get rid of the chargeback before it becomes a dispute.”
While VAMP—especially in the runup from its announcement in 2024 to implementation— generated a lot of concern, the acquiring industry is adapting.
VAMP also put the liability on acquirers, said Mark Standfield, chief strategy officer at AltoPay, a Miami-based payments provider. “The ISO really sits in the middle. They’re trying to balance what the acquirer threshold is and how merchants contribute to that,” Standfield said.
Trombley likened the uncertainty around VAMP to the questions that arose when the Durbin Amendment to regulate pricing on debit card transactions was passed in 2010. Acquirers were among many in the payments industry uncertain about its potential impact.
“What happened with Durbin when it came into the market?” Trombley asked. “It became a revenue producer. Any time there’s a mountain, there’s an opportunity.”
Trombley said VAMP is an opportunity for revenue. That’s because it creates more opportunity to communicate with merchants, which can be a retention opportunity. It also could be a moment to pitch a chargeback-reimbursement program.
“Every crisis is an opportunity,” said Wayne Johnson, an executive advisor at Newton, Mass.-based Wellesley Hills Financial, echoing Trombley. “People want to be educated.”
The communication opportunity isn’t the only adaptation. VAMP now also holds the acquiring bank responsible, which means independent sales organizations sponsored by the bank can have a role in mitigating errant merchants.
The overarching theme of VAMP is a joint responsibility for corralling merchants, Johnson said. That means acquirers need to take a preventive approach. “There has to be a tracking of transaction types when things start to go awry,” he said.
