Visa launches new fraud prevention program Visa will enforce a new fraud prevention and dispute management program starting October 1. The initiative, known as Vamp, consolidates five older programs and aims to make merchants and their banks more accountable. It follows a testing phase that began in April. Under the new rules, merchants and acquirers will face fees and possible fines if fraud or disputes exceed Visa’s thresholds. Larger retailers may be less affected due to special arrangements, while smaller businesses could feel greater pressure. Visa expects the program to reduce global fraud losses by up to $2.5 billion. The program also targets “friendly fraud,” where consumers exploit chargebacks for profit. Such disputes reached $11 billion last year, rising nearly 50% since 2019, according to Datos Insights. Acquiring banks will gradually take on more responsibilities under Vamp. Visa’s move comes amid rising digital attacks, including credential “enumerations” that caused $1.1 billion in losses last year. Rival Mastercard is pushing tokenization to protect transactions by 2030. Both card networks aim to balance fraud prevention with smooth, low-friction payments.
Mastercard debuts on-demand authorization decisioning tool Mastercard has unveiled a new solution called On-Demand Decisioning (ODD), aimed at giving financial institutions more control over authorization decisions. The company describes it as a first-of-its-kind tool that lets issuers set decisioning criteria directly on the Mastercard network. The launch was announced on Sept. 9 and will be available globally starting Oct. 1. According to Mastercard, ODD allows institutions to automate and enforce their own business logic for transactions. This can result in instant approvals or declines, tailored to their customer needs. The tool is positioned as a way to improve both agility and personalization in decision-making. The solution debuted at Mastercard’s RiskX cybersecurity summit in Rome. There, institutions saw use cases such as prioritizing approvals for high-value cardholders and reducing declines caused by card reissuance. Porto Bank noted ODD improved its authorization strategy without implementation effort or added operational risk. Mastercard says ODD reflects its broader strategy of enhancing fraud prevention and decisioning capabilities. The company argues that flexibility and reliability are critical in digital payments, and this tool will help issuers meet those expectations. Industry experts call it a “game-changer” for balancing security with customer experience.