April 2026 RELEASE GUIDE

OVERVIEW

Card Network updates

The card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) introduce and make updates to their operating rules throughout the year. Most of the changes come during two release periods – Spring and Fall.

These network updates typically include fee introductions or updates, new mandates, new features, program changes, or updates to existing features.

While many of the updates require no action for merchants, some updates can require integration changes, fee impact, or forced adoption of services.

PayPal Braintree teams have worked together to identify the key updates for April 2026 and beyond and these updates are below. The updates provide the nature of the update (fee change, mandate, new feature/update), the network implementing the change, and the regions in scope.

Key April 2026 and 2027 Network Releases (please note, some releases have varying due date timelines outside of just Spring 2026. (select to jump to specific update)

VISA – Key Updates

Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program

PROGRAM CHANGE | VISA | GLOBAL

Effective Dates: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Merchant awareness of new fraud/dispute thresholds.

Effective April 1, 2026, the merchant VAMP threshold will drop from 220bps to 150bps.

Program Thresholds and Fines (April 1, 2026)

Merchants should be aware that if their acquirer breaches VAMP thresholds, then fines will be applied to merchants with a VAMP ratio of 50bps or higher:

• $4 per count if acquirer is Above Standard

• $8 per count if acquirer is Excessive

Visa Commercial Enhanced Data Program

PROGRAM & FEE CHANGE | VISA | US

Effective Dates: February 24, 2026; March 3, 2026; April 2026

Merchant Impact: Visa making additional changes to the CEDP program and sunsetting interchange incentive for Level 2 transaction data.

4/1/26 – Level 2 interchange programs for Small Business and Commercial Credit products will be phased out.

Visa released an update on 2/19/26 which made the following changes to CEDP:

• Effective 2/24/26, Visa restarted the Verification process.

• Effective 3/3/26, Visa reduced lagged interchange process from 10-15 days to 7/12 days.

• Effective 2/24/26, Visa implemented a merchant exclusion process where merchants gaming the system will be removed from CEDP.

• Visa added machine learning upgrades to improve adjudication standards.

Visa Non-Domestic Settlement Currency Fee Changes

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU, US, CA, CEMEA, LAC

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased fee

Visa is raising the Non-Domestic Settlement Currency fee is EU, US, CA, LAC, and CEMEA. The fee applies when a transaction settles in a different currency than the local currency of the merchant.

For Europe, the fee applies to intra-European transactions and international transactions. Visa is raising the fee 5bps over the next 3 years

For US, CA, LAC, and CEMEA, the fee is increasing 10bps to to 25 bps effective April 1, 2026.

Introduction of the Visa E-Commerce Experience and the Future of Payments in Europe

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU

The Visa E-Commerce Experience (“Vee”) is a multi-year initiative designed to improve performance and security of e-commerce transactions. Vee aims to standardize and elevate transaction quality through tokenization, enhanced authentication, improved data quality, and intelligent risk scoring.

As part of Vee, Visa is updating 3 fees in the EU:

• 3DS pricing

• E-Commerce Token Facilitation fee

• Digital Commerce Services Fee

Fee are determined by Groups below:

3DS Fee Details

Visa is raising the rate for 3DS authentication requests in EU. The fee is charged per 3DS request.

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased and variation of fee

Current Fee: EUR 0.02

Data Quality can be met by populating required 3DS mandated 3DS data fields by device channel:

E-Commerce Token Facilitation Fee

The VTS Acquirer Authentication Service fee is being renamed the E-Commerce Token Facilitation Fee and the fee will be updated.

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of name change and increased fee

Current Fee: EUR 0.02

Updated Fee:

Digital Commerce Services Fee

Visa is introducing the Digital Commerce Services Fee (DCSF) in the EU. The DCSF is a bundle of services provide by Visa for a flat fee. Visa will no longer bill for these services individually and merchants can use them as much as they want.

Effective Date: April 1, 2027

Merchant Impact: Awareness of services in bundle and new fee

Bundles services included in DCSF:

• Visa Account Updater (VAU) and Real Time VAU

• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VDCU)

• Address Verification Service (AVS)

• Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2)

Fee Details:

Visa Account Verification Enhancements and Pricing Revisions Will Be Introduced in Europe

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased fee for using zero-dollar auths to verify customer’s payment credentials.

Visa is making improvements to account verification messages and raising rates. Account Verification (AV) messages are zero-amount authentication transactions used by merchants to verify payment credentials.

Improvements:

• Visa’s Payment Account Validation (PAV) API now supports AV for PAN and tokens and provides same checks as traditional AV messages used for Account Verification Service (AVS), Account Name Inquiry (ANI), and Card Verification Value/Card Verification Value 2 (CVV/CVV2) checks.

• Visa Token Account Verification (VTAV) allows token requestors (TRs) and TR-token service providers (TR-TSPs) to request AV via the Get Payment Data API when fetching a cryptogram. VTAV supports the same verification checks as PAN-based AV messages.

Revised Pricing:

Visa Revised System Integrity Fees for Noncompliance Interregional Authorization Attempts

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU, US, CA, CEMA

Effective Date: April 25, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of increased fees for cross-border excessive retry attempts.

Visa is raising the rates for cross-border excessive retry attempts is EU, US, CA, and CEMEA. Merchants are allowed a certain number of retries on declined transactions before incurring fees for excessive retries.

Fee Applies:

• Category 1: No retries allowed and fee applies on any retry.

• Categories 2-4: 20 retries allowed in 30 days and fees applies on 21^st retry in 30 days.

Current Fee: $0.15

Updated Fee: $0.25

Visa Updates to Digital Commerce Service Fee and Tokenization Programs in the US

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU, US, CA, CEMEA

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new services available and increased fee

Visa will add 4 services to the Digital Commerce Services Fee (DCSF) in the US and increase pricing. The DCFS was introduced in the US in October 2023 and included Account Verification Service (AVS), Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2), and Merchant-Initiated Transaction (MIT) Service. The fee is charged on every authentication attempt.

Services Added as of April 1, 2026:

• Token Authentication Verification Value (TAVV)

• Visa Account Updater (VAU)/ Real Time VAU

• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VDCU)

• Visa Credential Enrichment Service (VCES)

Current pricing: 0.75 bps with $0.0075 min per authentication attempt.

Updated pricing:

Visa Revised Digital Commerce Services Fee in AP

FEE CHANGE | VISA | AP

Effective Date: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new services available and increased fee

Visa will add new services to the Digital Commerce Services Fee in certain countries in the Asia Pacific region and increase pricing. The fee was introduced to certain countries in the AP region in July 2025 and was called the Digital Commerce Fee. The services included the fee included:

• Visa Account Updater (VAU)

• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VCES)

• 3DS

• Digital Authentication Framework (DAF)

• Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2)

Visa will be adding the following services to the renamed Digital Commerce Services Fee (DCSF) and will no longer bill for these services separately:

• Token Authentication Verification Value (TAVV) Cryptogram

• Token Lifecyle Management (TLCM)

• Visa Card Enrollment Hub (VCEH)

• Card-on-File Data API (Cof-D API)

• Visa Verify for Address Verification Service and Account Name Inquiry

Applicable to: Brunei, Cambodia, Guam, Laos, Malaysia, Micronesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.

Visa will revise pricing of the DCSF:

Current Fee: 0.75bps

Updated Fee:

Visa Introduction of the Digital Commerce Authentication Program In the US

FEE CHANGE | VISA | US

Effective Date: April 18, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new interchange incentive program

Launch of the Digital Commerce Authentication Program

DCAP is an optional program which provides Consumer Credit interchange incentives for qualified Consumer Credit CNP transactions. Transactions must be tokenized and share the following enhanced data:

• Device ID

• IP address

• Email address

• Billing address

New Consumer Credit Interchange Incentive Tiers

New Enhanced Data Program Fee

Effective 4/18/26, Visa will introduce a new Enhanced Data Program Fee in the US on transactions with enhanced data.

Fee: 5bps (0.05%)

Visa Introduction of the Digital Commerce Services Fee in Canada

FEE CHANGE | VISA | CA

Effective Date: June 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of services available and new fee

Effective 6/1/26, Visa will introduce the Digital Commerce Services Fee in CA and it will include the following services:

• Token Authentication Verification Value (TAVV)

• Visa Account Updater(VAU)/Real Time VAU

• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VDCU)

• Visa Credential Enrichment Service (VCES)

• Address Verification Service (AVS)

• Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2)

These will no longer be billed separately as of 6/1/26.

MASTERCARD – Key Updates

Mastercard Modifications to Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE Program Criteria

FEE CHANGES | MASTERCARD | AP/CAN/LAC/MEA/US

Effective Dates: April 1, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of change in fee applicability

Effective April 1, 2026, any preauthorization request that is subsequently followed by one or more incremental preauthorization will be excluded from the Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE program.

Additionally, for preauthorizations where no clearing message is submitted, acquirers must ensure a full reversal is submitted within 30 days from original auth date.

Mastercard Updating Services and Fees in the Digital Enablement Fee in US

FEE CHANGES | MASTERCARD | US

Effective Date: April 6, 2026

Merchant Impact: Awareness of additional services and updated fee structure

Mastercard is adding services to the Digital Enablement Fee (DEF) and updating the billing structure. The DEF is a bundle of services included in one fee charged at authorization. Mastercard will no longer line-item bill for services included in the DEF.

New services:

• Return Risk Intelligence – Intelligence merchants can use for return fraud and abuse prevention.

• BIN Lookup – Allows merchants to optimize transaction routing, enhance fraud detection, and reduce false declines.

• Token Authentication Framework

Updated billing structure effective April 6, 2026:

Current services included in DEF:

• Automatic Billing Updater (ABU)

• Account Status Inquiry (ASI)

• Address Verification Service (AVS)

• CVC2

• First Party Trust

• Identity Risk Score API

• Transaction Fraud Monitoring

Mastercard New and Updated Specialty Merchant Registration Program Fees

FEE CHANGES | MASTERCARD | CA, EU, JP, AP/LAC/US

Effective Dates: May 1, 2026; June 3, 2026; Oct 1, 2026; January 1, 2029

Merchant Impact: Awareness of fees

Mastercard is updating a fee and introducing new Specialty Merchant Registration Program fees:

*Updated fee; remaining fees are new

Effective Dates of Fees:

Fee will be applied on any purchase transaction for:

• TTI P70 or P76 – cryptocurrency

• P71 – high risk securities

• P72 – any other specialty merchant category

Exclusions:

• Fees do not apply to funding transactions populated with a funding transaction TTI.

• For EU, MCC 7995, 5122, 5912, and 9406 will be excluded

Specialty Merchants:

Mastercard Introducing Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE Program Pricing in Europe

FEE CHANGES | MASTERCARD | EU

Merchant Impact: Awareness of new fee

Mastercard is introducing the Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE program in Europe. Fee applies when an approved preauthorization is not cleared or fully reversed within 30 calendar days from the authorization date.

This fee is live in rest of world.

Fee is not applicable when the :

• Transaction is for Automated Fuel Dispenser

• Transaction is transit aggregated

• Transaction is approved offline

• Preauthorization is followed by one or more incremental authorizations

Mastercard Revised Authorization Acquirer Exemption Indicator Fee in Europe

FEE CHANGES | MASTERCARD | EU

Merchant Impact: Awareness of revised fee

Mastercard is updating the billing for the Acquirer Exemption Indicator. The AEI is used to identify transactions which are exempt from Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2. It is necessary to inform issuers an exemption is being used to prevent the issuer from declining the transaction due to lack of SCA.

Current Fee: 0.02 EUR

Updated Fee Structure:

• 5bps Domestic

• 10bps Intraregional

• 15bps Interregional

Fee will apply to both approved and declined transactions.

For domestic and intraregional transactions, the fee applies to all exemptions except:

• MIT

• Recurring

• SCP (Secure Corporate Payment)

• AOE (Authentication Outage Exception)

For interregional, fee only applies to:

• Low-risk TRA

• LVP (Low value payment)

• SCA (Strong Customer Authentication Delegation)