Q4 is Here. VAMP Is Live. The Risk Game Just Changed.

Welcome to the new frontier of merchant risk management. With Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) now officially live, the underwriting, compliance, and dispute mitigation landscape is shifting fast—and merchants, ISOs, and Payfacs who aren’t already adapting may find themselves in hot water come November.

In this episode of the Payments Experts Podcast, Matthew Steinbrecher from Sound Commerce (https://sound-commerce.com/) returns to break down what he's seeing across the portfolios before the hammer drops. We dive deep into:

Tightening CNP underwriting standards

Why ISOs are requiring RDR & Ethoca enrollment upfront

And how siloed dispute data across platforms is killing response times, costing everyone margin

But this isn’t just about hypotheticals. We drop into a real-world Stripe case study that should send a chill through any merchant with recurring revenue:

7 years of clean processing, low chargeback ratios, and yet—suddenly terminated.
Funds frozen. Tokens locked. Access cut.
No refund runway. No warning.

Is VAMP pressure triggering automated purges? Or are platforms increasingly willing to let algorithms decide who survives, regardless of long-term merchant performance?

The Critical Risk Management Questions

Where does the duty of good faith lie when termination is automated?

If tokens aren’t portable and refund access is blocked, is that risk management—or engineered chargebacks?

How can ISOs and merchants regain control when everything from dispute visibility to billing mechanics is split across vendors?

Your Playbook to Stay Ahead

We don’t just raise red flags—we hand you the map:

✅ Monitor TC40s and VAMP metrics in near real-time
✅ Track VAMP ratios MID-by-MID, not portfolio-wide
✅ Negotiate API-level visibility if your ISO owns the RDR/Ethoca integration
✅ Reengineer long-tail service billing to cut refund optics and reduce late chargebacks

And if you're thinking bigger:

💡 We outline when to go full Payfac, how to structure a responsible merchant offboarding (hint: token portability + escrow-backed refund flow), and why modular compliance tooling may be your best defense in 2025.

Who Should Watch?

ISOs building agent programs or managing large CNP portfolios

Merchant acquirers seeing dispute ratios creep upward

SaaS & eComm founders scaling MRR or navigating friendly fraud

Ops & compliance teams hunting for practical wins before policy hits become brand damage

This isn’t theory—it’s what's already happening behind the scenes. Stay proactive. Stay protected.

**Matters discussed are all opinions and do not constitute legal advice.  All events or likeness to real people and events is a coincidence.**

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A payments podcast of Global Legal Law Firm