On this page
- What GMAP replaces (as-of 2026-07-30)
- How GMAP measures performance (as-of 2026-07-31)
- Merchant tiers (as-of 2026-07-30)
- HDM — High Dispute Merchant
- EDM — Excessive Dispute Merchant
- Acquirer tiers (as-of 2026-07-30)
- HDA — High Dispute Acquirer
- EDA — Excessive Dispute Acquirer
- ECM staged threshold tightening under GMAP (as-of 2026-07-30)
- QMAP changes (same April 1, 2027 effective date) (as-of 2026-07-30)
- Programme exit (as-of 2026-07-31)
- Reason code (as-of 2026-03-10)
- Relationship to VAMP
- What practitioners report
- Key terms
GMAP (Global Merchant Audit Program)
GMAP (Global Merchant Audit Program)
Mastercard's unified fraud and dispute monitoring programme, effective April 1, 2027, replacing the legacy ACMP (Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program), Excessive Fraud Merchant (EFM), Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM), and HECM (High Excessive Chargeback Merchant) programmes under a single combined framework that monitors both merchants and acquirers. It is widely described as Mastercard's equivalent to Visa's Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP).
Programme name — Chargeblast (2026-07-13) calls it "Global Mastercard Acquiring Program." All later sources — Chargeback Gurus (2026-07-30), Solidgate (2026-07-31), and the official Mastercard eLearning page at mastercard.com/elearning/gmap/story.html — use "Global Merchant Audit Program." The latter name is almost certainly definitive; the "Acquiring Program" label appears to be an early or erroneous label from when details first leaked. Both names abbreviate to GMAP.
What GMAP replaces (as-of 2026-07-30)
GMAP consolidates four existing Mastercard programmes (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30):
- ACMP (Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program) — acquirer-level chargeback tracking
- EFM (Excessive Fraud Merchant) — merchant fraud monitoring
- ECM (Excessive Chargeback Merchant) — merchant chargeback monitoring
- HECM (High Excessive Chargeback Merchant) — severe merchant chargeback tier
Open EFM, ECM, and HECM audits carry over into GMAP; their month counters do not reset in the migration (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
How GMAP measures performance (as-of 2026-07-31)
GMAP combines confirmed fraud (reported to Mastercard's Fraud and Loss Database, which replaces the SAFE (Mastercard)|SAFE system) and non-fraud chargebacks into one monthly combined ratio, divided by the previous month's cleared transaction count (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
Critically, this includes fraud that never resulted in a chargeback — so a merchant's fraud reporting rate matters independently of its dispute rate (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30).
Submerchant-level monitoring: where a submerchant ID is populated, Mastercard shifts monitoring to that level — meaning a Payment Facilitator (PayFac)|payment facilitator's aggregate volume no longer masks a single high-risk seller (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
Merchant tiers (as-of 2026-07-30)
HDM — High Dispute Merchant
Threshold: ≥5 cleared transactions and ≥$5,000 combined fraud+disputes and combined ratio ≥500 basis points (5%) (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30).
| Months in programme | Monthly assessment |
|---|---|
| 1–6 | $0 |
| 7–11 | $5,000 |
| 12–18 | $10,000 |
| 19+ | $25,000 |
After two months above HDM, Mastercard may alert issuers, which can pull down approval rates — even before the merchant reaches EDM (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
EDM — Excessive Dispute Merchant
Threshold: ≥5 cleared transactions and ≥$10,000 combined fraud+disputes and combined ratio ≥5,000 basis points (50%) (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30).
| Months in programme | Monthly assessment |
|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 |
| 2 | $25,000 |
| 3–11 | $100,000 |
| 12–18 | $200,000 |
| 19+ | $300,000 |
Additional EDM consequences (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30):
- After two months above EDM threshold: fraud-liability shift — the merchant becomes liable for all fraud-related chargebacks tied to transactions from the three months before identification and for fraudulent transactions during the next six months.
- Mastercard plans to publish a list of EDM merchants; issuers may use reason code 4849 (Questionable Merchant / Global Merchant Audit Program) to recover 100% of the transaction amount on any dispute.
Solidgate (2026-07-31) notes that unlike VAMP — where Visa's primary lever is fees — GMAP's most severe pressure comes from issuer visibility and fraud-liability shift: an EDM merchant absorbs fraud losses that it otherwise could have represented.
Acquirer tiers (as-of 2026-07-30)
Both acquirer tiers apply only when the acquirer has ≥1,500 cleared transactions and ≥1,500 transactions reported as fraud or charged back for non-fraud reasons during the month. Mastercard evaluates card-present and card-not-present activity separately (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
HDA — High Dispute Acquirer
Threshold: combined ratio ≥50 basis points (0.5%) (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30).
| Months in programme | Monthly assessment |
|---|---|
| 1–11 | $0 |
| 12–18 | $25,000 |
| 19+ | $10,000 |
HDA 19+ months assessment — Chargeback Gurus (2026-07-30) reports the monthly assessment decreases from $25,000 (months 12–18) to $10,000 at 19+ months. This is an unusual structure where the penalty falls at the highest severity tier. It may be an error, or may reflect that licence-level enforcement (Franchise Management Program review or suspension) supersedes the financial penalty at this stage. No second source confirmed this independently.
EDA — Excessive Dispute Acquirer
Threshold: combined ratio ≥70 basis points (0.7%) (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30).
| Months in programme | Monthly assessment |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | $0 |
| 3–6 | $10,000 |
| 7–11 | $25,000 |
| 12–18 | $50,000 |
| 19+ | $100,000 |
Long-term non-compliance consequences (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30):
- ≥12 months noncompliant: Franchise Management Program review at the acquirer's own expense
- ≥19 months: restrictions, suspension, or termination of Mastercard licence
Acquirers are flagged at 0.5% — well below the 5% HDM merchant threshold — meaning acquirers feel pressure well before their merchants do. Each acquirer decides what internal controls to extend to its portfolio (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
ECM staged threshold tightening under GMAP (as-of 2026-07-30)
The ECM chargeback ratio threshold tightens in stages post-GMAP launch (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30). The 100-chargeback count minimum remains unchanged.
| Period | ECM chargeback ratio |
|---|---|
| 2027–2028 | 1.5%–2.99% (unchanged) |
| 2029 | 1.3%–2.99% |
| 2030 | 1.1%–2.99% |
| 2031 | 0.9%–2.99% |
QMAP changes (same April 1, 2027 effective date) (as-of 2026-07-30)
Simultaneously with GMAP, Mastercard is revising the Questionable Merchant Audit Program (QMAP) (Chargeback Gurus, 2026-07-30):
- Minimum transaction volume for a QMAP case: $50,000 → $10,000
- Standard case period: 120 days → 30 days (extensible to 60 days)
- Removal of the rule limiting non-bustout merchant identification to businesses ≤6 months old
Programme exit (as-of 2026-07-31)
A merchant or acquirer exits a GMAP audit by staying below both relevant thresholds for three consecutive months; once maintained, the audit closes and the counter resets (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
Reason code (as-of 2026-03-10)
Mastercard Reason Code 4849 — Global Merchant Audit Program: used when a merchant is listed on GMAP. Cardholders and issuers have 120 days to file a dispute; merchants have 45 days to respond (Justt.ai, last modified 2026-03-10).
Relationship to VAMP
Both programmes are distinct — each has its own metrics, thresholds, and implications — but the trend is consistent: both Visa (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP)) and Mastercard are tightening fraud and dispute monitoring at the merchant and acquirer level, placing more accountability on both (Solidgate, 2026-07-31).
The key structural difference: VAMP (Visa) focuses primarily on financial penalties at the acquirer level; GMAP (Mastercard) applies pressure through issuer visibility and fraud-liability shift at the EDM merchant tier, in addition to financial assessments.
What practitioners report
No Reddit or YouTube practitioner data retrieved in this harvest (Reddit MCP unavailable; Apify unavailable; no public GMAP video confirmed on YouTube). This topic would benefit from a follow-up Reddit run once the MCP is connected.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| GMAP | Global Merchant Audit Program — Mastercard's unified fraud+dispute monitoring from Apr 2027 |
| HDM | High Dispute Merchant — 5%+ combined ratio tier |
| EDM | Excessive Dispute Merchant — 50%+ combined ratio tier (severe consequences) |
| HDA | High Dispute Acquirer — 0.5% combined ratio at acquirer level |
| EDA | Excessive Dispute Acquirer — 0.7% combined ratio at acquirer level |
| ACMP | Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program — legacy acquirer programme replaced by GMAP |
| ECM | Excessive Chargeback Merchant — legacy programme folded into GMAP |
| EFM | Excessive Fraud Merchant — legacy programme folded into GMAP |
| HECM | High Excessive Chargeback Merchant — legacy severe tier folded into GMAP |
| QMAP | Questionable Merchant Audit Program — concurrent Mastercard programme also revised Apr 2027 |
| RC 4849 | Mastercard reason code for GMAP-listed merchants |
| Fraud and Loss Database | Replaces SAFE system; feeds confirmed fraud data into GMAP combined ratio |
See also: Chargeback Representment · Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) · mastercom · SMMP (Scam Merchant Monitoring Program) · Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) · Excessive Fraud Merchant (EFM) · Hard Decline · Merchant Advice Codes (MAC) · Chargeback · Payment Facilitator (PayFac)