The numbers that decide
whether you stay live.
Approval is the beginning. What ends an account is almost never the category, it is a ratio nobody was watching. We monitor against the scheme programmes and, above all, against the stricter internal limits your acquirer enforces long before a network ever does.
What the networks measure.
The networks set the outer boundary. Your partner's contract sets the limit that actually governs, and it is always the stricter of the two.
VAMP
Fraud and dispute monitoring consolidated into a single programme, replacing the two legacy schemes. One ratio: reported fraud plus disputes, measured against settled card-not-present volume. Tightened again in 2026 and enforced through per-item fees.
ECM, EFM and BRAM
Excessive Chargeback Merchant requires both a ratio condition and a volume condition to be met before enrolment. Fraud is monitored separately on its own programme. BRAM covers transaction laundering, MCC miscoding and brand-damaging content, and is the quiet account killer.
Where we hold the line.
Your acquirer's limit, not the network's
Every partner sets its own tolerance, and it always bites before a scheme programme does. That is the number we manage to: theirs, not a published one.
Prevention over recovery
Descriptors, alerts and pre-dispute resolution. Representment recovers money; only prevention repairs a ratio.
Per-MID visibility
Ratios are read per MID, never blended across the account, so a single product line cannot hide inside the average.
Categories rarely close accounts. Unwatched ratios do.
Stay live, not just approved.
Stewardship is a monthly retainer, not an introduction followed by silence.
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