April 2025 RELEASE GUIDE

OVERVIEW

The card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, etc.) introduce and change operating rules and mandates throughout the year. Many of these changes occur twice per year, in April and October. These network updates typically include fee introductions, fee changes, new mandates, new features, or updates to existing features. The changes can be broad and may include updates such as mandates to comply with new regulations, implementing new fees, or requiring merchants to use schemes such as 3DS 2.0 to help reduce fraud.

KEY APRIL 2025 NETWORK RELEASES

PayPal Braintree teams have worked to identify the most impactful network updates for April 2025. The chart below identifies ten updates merchants should know about. We have called out which network the update comes from, the relevant markets, and the type of update, such as a fee change, mandate, or new feature.

Visa

Mastercard

VISA - KEY UPDATES

What is the update about how Arbitration Case Review Fees will be Revised in the US?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | US

Effective Date: April 1, 2025

Merchant Impact: Merchant awareness of new fees

Effective 4/1/25, Visa will raise the rates for arbitration case filing reviews from $500 to $600 per case filing. This increase is an incentive to prevent unnecessary arbitration.

Visa is also removing the bundle case filing structure. The increase in fee is meant to drive resolution before a case reaches the arbitration phase. A similar fee increase was effective on 10/1/2024 in AP, CA, CEMEA, and LAC.

Cyber Threat Protection Fee Will Be Introduced in EU update

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU

Effective Date: April 1, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of fee with intent to improve cyber security in ecosystem

Effective 4/1/2025, Visa will introduce a fee of USD 0.0005 for European acquirers, charged per authorization. This fee will fund cyber threat protection to improve protection against large-scale fraud attacks.  

Visa Direct OCTs and AFTs will not be affected by this fee.

VAMP Enhancements and Retirement of VDMP and VFMP

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | VISA | Global

Effective Date: April 1, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new thresholds to simplify monitoring programs, expand enforcement mechanisms, and new fee structure.

Effective 31 March 2025, Visa will retire the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) and the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) in Europe.

Starting 1 April 2025, VDMP and VFMP programs will be consolidated into the enhanced Visa Acquiring Monitoring Program (VAMP). The new VAMP will introduce updated criteria for identification thresholds.

VAMP Criteria Changes

• VAMP ratio thresholds will be calculated by the Total Disputes (Reported Fraud + Non-Fraud Disputes) divided by Total Settled Transactions.

• VAMP Enumeration (or card testing) Ratio will be calculated by the number of confirmed enumerated transactions divided by the number of settled transactions.

First time offenders will get a three-month grace period within a 12-month rolling period. All data is calculated by Central Processing Date (CPD), which is the date Visa received the transaction.

Along with the above changes, VAMP introduces a new fee structure. Merchants will incur a $10 per count above threshold if they are in the program. There is no enumeration fee announced at this time.

Fees apply when a merchant meets or exceeds thresholds for 3 consecutive months. Once in the program, merchants must be below thresholds for 12 consecutive months to exit the program.

Merchants will be expected to submit a remediation plan within 15 days of being notified they are in the program.

Additional Information

There will be a transition period from 1 April 2025 - 31 December 2025 where the VAMP ratio for merchants must not exceed 1.5% monthly. VAMP enumeration must not exceed 20%. Starting 1 January 2026, VAMP ratio may not exceed 0.9%, VAMP enumeration remains 20%. Additionally, the combined number of fraud transactions and non-fraud chargebacks must not exceed 1,000 per month.

A comprehensive summary of changes related to VAMP may be provided upon request.

Update to Changes to Authorization Response Codes

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | VISA | Global

Effective Date: April 11, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of simplified response codes.

Two new response codes in Field 39 and these will be Category 2 response codes:

• 5C (Transaction not supported/blocked by issuer)

• 9G (Blocked by cardholder/contact cardholder)

For CNP responses, convert the following two response codes received from issuer in response messages to 05 (Do not Honor)

• 12 (Invalid transaction)

• 15 (No such issuer)

What is the Authorization Retries and System Integrity Fee Program Changes update?

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | VISA | Global

Effective Date: May 25, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness that merchants are allowed more retry attempts.

Effective 5/25/25, authorization retry criteria will be updated to include CIT vs MIT transaction identifier. As a result, there will be separate SIF counters for CIT and MIT authorization requests and retries.  

Effective 5/25/25, the number of retries permitted for Category 2, 3, or 4 response codes will increase from 15 retries to 20 retries in 30 days. Changing issuer and consumer trends indicate more approvals are being seen after the 15th retry.  NOTE: No new fees associated with this bulletin.  

Update to Changes to Support Visa Commercial Enhanced Data Program Processing in the US

BEHAVIORAL & FEE CHANGE | VISA | US

Effective Date: April 11, 2025, October 2025, April 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of changes to data monitoring for any merchant who passes Level 2 and 3 data.

Visa's Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) aims to improve data quality for commercial card transactions, providing merchants opportunities for reduced interchange rates while ensuring better data validation. Below are key updates to the program: 

• Data Quality Validation:

• Visa conducts daily reviews to ensure compliance with enhanced data standards. Non-compliant transactions face adjustments to higher, non-incentive interchange rates 30–45 days after settlement. 

• Interchange Incentives:

• Merchants providing high-quality invoice-level data will qualify for lower rates, reducing transaction costs.

• Reporting Enhancements:

• Merchants receive detailed monthly reports to track their compliance with program standards and areas for improvement.

• A new CEDP flag enables transactions to signal eligibility for interchange benefits. This must be included in specific transaction fields.

• Updates to V.I.P. and BASE II systems to handle data adjudication, reporting, and transaction-level adjustments.

• Revised Visa Settlement Service (VSS) reports will reflect CEDP transaction types and associated charges.

April 2025:

• Initial launch of the CEDP with core system updates to support data adjudication reporting for transaction quality.

• Use of the "CEDP flag" (Requested Special Service indicator) is required for Level 3 and Large Ticket transactions to qualify for the program - no action required for merchant to pass the flag.

• A 5bps fee will be applied to flagged transactions. This fee to pay Visa to validate transactions.

• Existing Level 2 standards can be used for Small Business and Commercial Credit programs until April 2026.

October 2025:

• CEDP-related interchange rate modifications become effective, incentivizing high-quality transaction data. Interchange rates can be provided upon request.

• Issuers begin aligning systems with the new interchange adjustment mechanisms.

• Visa will implement transaction-level TC 20 reporting for fund disbursements based on data adjudication results.

April 2026:

• Phase-out of Level 2 interchange programs for Small Business and Commercial Credit products, excluding Fleet fuel-only transactions.

Digital Commerce Fee in AP Update

FEE CHANGE | VISA | AP

Effective Date: July 1, 2025

Merchant Impact: New fee and discontinued line-item billing for other fees.

Visa is introducing the Digital Commerce Fee with a new bundle in certain territories in the AP region. A fee of 0.75bps (0.0075%) will apply to all domestic and cross-border CNP transactions.   

Visa will no longer bill individually for the following services:

• Visa Account Updater (VAU)

• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VDCU)

• Visa Credential Enrichment Services (VCES)

• Visa Secure (3DS)

• Digital Authentication Framework (DAF)

• Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) Submission and Verification

Applicable to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand - a similar fee launched in July 2024 in Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Pacific.

Updated Rules and Behavioral Fees for the Secure Credential Framework in EU

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU

Effective Date: October 1, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased fee with intent to drive token adoption and 3DS usage. This fee was introduced in the EU in October 2023.  The fee will be charged when a PAN is passed instead of using a token or using 3DS authentication.  

Effective October 1, 2025, Visa is raising the rate of the Secure Credential Framework.

• Current Fee: 2.5bps

• Updated Fee: 7.5bps

How to avoid the fee:

• Use Visa tokens OR

• Use 3DS

Fee will be effective in Israel 9/30/2025. Fee remains out of scope for Turkey.

MASTERCARD - KEY UPDATES

Revised Standards for New Acceptor Business Code mandate

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | Mastercard | Global

Effective Date: April 11, 2025

Merchant Impact: Mastercard is adding one new MCC to support online marketplaces: MCC 5262.

The new MCC will be added for online merchants that bring together buyers and third-party sellers and which offer multiple lines of goods and services. This MCC may be used when no other MCC better describes the merchant’s business.

Revised Merchant Advice Code TPE Criteria in EU and US mandate

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | Mastercard | Europe, US

Effective Date: May 1, 2025, in EU; January 1, 2026, in US

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new criteria and possible logic adjustment, merchants need to not retry on these MAC declines.

Mastercard will assess TPE fee in each instance when:

• A CNP auth request is submitted that is ultimately declined with MAC value of 03 or 21.

• A transaction on the same card and at the same merchant was declined with MAC 03 or 21 in the past 30 days.

• A MAC value of 03 or 21 is intended to send a clear message to acquirers and merchants that a transaction should not be resubmitted.

• Value 03 = sent by issuers indicating account is closed or fraudulent

• Value 21 = sent by Mastercard PCS to indicate issuers have established a block on CNP in the MC auth and clearing platforms at the cardholder's request.

The change Mastercard is making is excluding the transaction amount to count as a retry. This now matches Visa logic in that the MACs are telling merchants to not retry on a card regardless of amount.  

Introducing Decline Response Code Values mandate

BEHAVIORAL CHANGE | Mastercard | Global

Effective Date: June 3, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new decline response codes to be able to understand permanent vs temporary declines more clearly.

Mastercard is adding 2 new decline response codes to clarify if a decline is related to a closed account or an account not yet activated.

• 46 - Closed Account

• 72 - Account Not Yet Activated

The purpose is to be able to understand permanent vs temporary declines more clearly.

Revised Acquiring Intra-European Cross-Border Fees mandate

FEE CHANGE | Mastercard | EU

Effective Date: July 14, 2025

Merchant Impact: Awareness of the fee for updated rates for cross-border transactions.

Effective July 14, 2025, Mastercard is revising the rate for intra-European cross-border transactions.

This fee is applied when merchant and issuer are in different countries but in the same region. Fee is based on domicile of merchant.

Fee: 12bps for consumer products and 17bps for commercial products.

Country Rate Changes

Revised Acquirer Fees in the UK mandate

FEE CHANGE | Mastercard | EU

Effective Date: July 14, 2025 Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased rates for certain transactions. MC is revising the following fees in the UK: Interregional cross-border fee:

• Old rate: 45bps
• New rate: 75bps Applies when merchant is domiciled in UK and consumer is outside of SEPA. Interregional CNP fee:
• Old rate: 5 bps
• New rate: 15bps Applies when merchant is domiciled in UK and consumer is within SEPA. Interregional Fee
• Old rate: .102 EUR
• New rates (see table below):

Transaction Fee Table

Applies when merchant is domiciled in UK and consumer is within SEPA.

Modification to Processing Integrity Fee-Not Reversed Cleared Undefined Authorization in the US and CA Regions mandate

FEE CHANGE | Mastercard | US, CA

Effective Date: July 1, 2025 (US), October 1, 2025 (CA)

Merchant Impact: Awareness of fee and possible change in auth logic for merchants using Undefined Authorizations.

Mastercard is renaming the Processing Integrity Fee-Not Reversed/ Cleared Undefined Authorization in United States to Undefined Authorization Not Allowed TPE with updated fees.

MC will charge a basis point fee on a weekly basis for all approved undefined auths. Mastercard confirmed the purpose of the fee is to discourage the use of undefined auths and they will not block these transactions.

US Fee Schedule

Billing Event Table

Canada Fee Schedule

Billing Event Table

NOTE: Merchants should only use Final auth or Pre-authorization when submitting auth requests.