Мониторинг Mastercard

What is Мониторинг Mastercard (Excessive Chargeback Program)?

Excessive Chargeback Program (ECP) is a Mastercard program for merchants whose disputed payments (chargebacks) exceed the permitted threshold. The program runs on the scheme side: issuers file disputes, and the system counts the number of chargebacks and their share of the merchant's transactions over the reporting period.

## How it works

Mastercard calculates metrics monthly for each merchant (merchant ID and descriptor). If both the number and the ratio of chargebacks exceed the thresholds, the merchant enters the program. The specific threshold values change, so they should be checked against the current edition of the Chargeback Guide, not taken from third-party materials or forums.

## Where it applies

The program most often affects fintech merchants and payment aggregators, as well as high-risk verticals: online casinos and betting (including merchants with overlapping MCCs), nutra with aggressive offers, and dating with subscriptions. Card acquiring in these niches is usually monitored more strictly, so the PSP and acquiring bank may request a chargeback reduction plan before the official notice arrives.

## Impact

Entering the program means fines for each excess chargeback, a requirement to submit a plan to reduce the metric, and the risk of losing the ability to accept Mastercard cards. For the acquirer this is a direct risk, so it often introduces a rolling reserve, tightens transaction review, or disables part of the traffic and geos.

## Common mistakes

Typical mistakes include counting only explicit complaints and ignoring refund requests that turn into chargebacks; failing to separate descriptors and merchant accounts, which mixes metrics across different products; ignoring friendly fraud and not building evidence for disputed payments; and reacting only after a notice instead of tracking trends in advance.