Chargebacks & Fraud Mitigation

1. The Cardholder contacts the card issuer to dispute a transaction.
2. The Card Issuer reviews the transaction for chargeback eligibility. If appropriate, they will return the transaction (charge it back) to the merchant's acquiring bank (electronically) through the applicable card network.
3. The Card Network electronically screens the chargeback for technical criteria compliance. If appropriate, they will forward the chargeback to the merchant's acquiring bank (electronically).
4. The Acquiring Bank receives the chargeback and resolves the issue. Once complete, they forward to the merchant.
5. The Merchant receives the chargeback.
   • If appropriate, and under certain conditions, they can re-present the chargeback to the acquiring bank.
   • If conditions aren't met, the merchant may have to accept the chargeback.
6. If re-presented, the Acquiring Bank forwards the re-presented item to the card network.
7. The Card Network electronically screens the re-presentment for technical criteria compliance. If appropriate, they will forward the re-presented item to the card issuer (electronically).
8. The Card Issuer receives the re-presented item and, if appropriate, re-posts the transaction to the cardholder's account. If the chargeback issue is not appropriately addressed, the card issuer may submit a dispute back to the card network.
9. The Cardholder receives the resolution information for the initial dispute. Depending on the outcome, they may be re-billed for the re-presented item or they may receive credit back to their account.

The chargeback process is contingent on deadlines. Both cardholders and merchants must adhere to the debit and credit card chargeback time limit set forth by the individual card networks.

• Cardholders:  Generally have up to 180 days to file a chargeback, but this can vary.

• Merchants: Have 15 days to respond to a chargeback in Dispute Manager. We recommend responding to all chargebacks within 10 days to allow time for processing.

Important: The chargeback time limits are subject to change and are determined by the individual card networks. SVB does not have the authority to make exceptions.

Visa® and MasterCard® may enter a merchant into an excessive chargeback or fraud monitoring program with possible fines levied if the thresholds, shown below, are exceeded. A case will be closed after thresholds have been maintained below the required limits for three consecutive months.

Visa® Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP)

Visa® Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP)

MasterCard® Excessive Chargeback Program (ECP)

Monthly Threshold: 100 chargebacks and 1.5% chargeback (current month) to sales ratio (previous month).

MasterCard® Excessive Fraud Merchant (EFM) Program

In order for a merchant to be flagged in this program, all of the following thresholds need to be met in any given month:

• At least 1,000 eCommerce transactions.
• At least $50,000 USD in monthly net fraud dollars reported.
• At least 50 basis points in current month fraud chargeback count to previous month sales count.
• 3DS and/or data-only transactions are less than 10% of total card-not-present volume.

Important: Chargeback and fraud ratios should consistently remain under 0.50%. SVB encourages clients to adopt best practices for chargeback and fraud mitigation.