What VDMP and ECP are
Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) and Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Program (ECP) are card-scheme surveillance regimes that flag merchants whose chargeback ratios exceed set thresholds.
A merchant enters a programme once its ratio crosses the threshold in a monitoring window and remains under review until it stays below the threshold for the required consecutive cycles.
Time in a programme is expensive: assessments, remediation plans, and — in tail cases — closure of the merchant.
The thresholds you should watch
VDMP standard: 0.9% chargeback ratio and 100 chargebacks in a month.
VDMP excessive: 1.8% and 1,000 chargebacks in a month.
ECP standard: 1.5% chargeback-to-transaction ratio and 100 chargebacks.
Card-scheme rules are updated periodically — always corroborate against the current Visa Rules and Mastercard Chargeback Guide.
Why merchants get there
Descriptor mismatch: cardholders don't recognise the charge and file a dispute.
Poor consent flows: subscription renewals and add-ons that lack explicit cardholder confirmation.
Refund friction: merchants that make refunds harder than disputes.
Fraud concentration: a single compromised product or geo can spike a ratio in days.
The OneAI workflow
Chargeback governance: per-MID and per-portfolio ratios in one dashboard, monitored against VDMP and ECP thresholds continuously.
MID Governor: when the ratio trends toward a threshold, OneAI proposes a reserve hold, threshold change, or descriptor lock. Maker-checker gates the change.
Case management: every chargeback links to a case with the transaction, the merchant, the reason code, and the analyst notes.
SAR-ready packs: when the case tips into suspicious territory, the export lands with the audit trail intact.
What good looks like
Ratios visible daily, not weekly.
Every MID has a written policy (reserve, threshold, descriptor) approved by a named individual.
Every material change is proposed by the Governor, versioned, and approved.
Regulator or sponsor-bank asks for a pack — you produce it in one click.