The fraud landscape is moving faster than ever with new payment types, AI‑enabled commerce, and increasingly sophisticated scams are raising the bar for how merchants and acquirers manage risk. The 2026 Paladin Vendor Report, created in collaboration with the Merchant Risk Council, offers a clear view of the fraud prevention ecosystem and what it takes to help stay ahead.
The report reinforces a simple truth: staying ahead of fraud isn’t about reacting faster, it’s about preempting risk before it becomes friction.
How businesses are keeping up with fraud
With recent significant changes in how people shop and buy using AI agents, Paladin believes it’s critical to stay focused on optimizing fraud detection and prevention without adding unnecessary checkout friction or rising false positives. Their experts maintain a high-level view of the fraud prevention landscape as well as a comprehensive understanding of every solution and challenge.
But as the number of providers and services grow and technology evolves, the options are becoming increasingly complex and varied. To adapt, the most prepared businesses are adopting connected, lifecycle‑wide strategies that help them:
- Stop scams before they disrupt customers
- Reduce false declines and manual reviews
- Apply smarter, risk‑based authentication
- Protect revenue across the entire transaction, from authorization to disputes
How Visa Acceptance Solutions ranks in Paladin’s report
Visa Acceptance Solutions was recognized in this year’s vendor report in the categories of 3DS and consumer authentication as well as fraud platforms and decision engines. Paladin notes that Visa Acceptance Solutions offers 12 of the 14 core functionality features they evaluated, including critical capabilities like third-party APIs, payment gateway, AI, historical sandbox testing, and account takeover detection. That breadth reflects that our solutions are built not just to respond to threats but to see them coming—so you can stay ahead, always of what’s next.
Powered by network‑level intelligence, advanced AI, and flexible fraud and authentication tools, Visa Acceptance Solutions has the tools built to help merchants and acquirers stay ahead of fraud, ahead of friction, and ahead of change—always.
An overview of the Visa Acceptance Solutions fraud offerings
Visa Acceptance Solutions offers two core fraud prevention and detention solutions, Decision Manager for enterprise businesses and Fraud Management Essentials for small and medium-sized businesses. These solutions apply advanced AI-powered fraud management capabilities, using actionable intelligence and machine learning-driven risk models to automate decision-making, balance risk and revenue, and enhance customer experience. The Featurespace platform is another Visa solution that offers acquiring risk solutions and transaction management tools to help merchants detect fraud and manage risk throughout the payment lifecycle.
With Global Identity Services, merchants that use Decision Manager can add behavior signals and risk scores from third-party providers already integrated into the platform. And Account Takeover Protection is a fully customizable way to help them prevent all kinds of pre-transaction attacks.
Additional solutions include Watch List Screening, which offers real-time screening for globally sanctioned and denied parties lists. Delivery Address Verification detects and fixes errors in real time to help reduce shipping and customer service costs. And Payer Authentication provides an end-to-end authorization flow and an additional layer of protection with 3-D Secure.
Further down the transaction flow, Verifi Post-Purchase Solutions help merchants prevent and resolve disputes with compelling evidence, data transparency, and merchant-initiated or rules-based refunding.
Lastly, Visa’s fraud and risk management solutions are supported by experts with extensive experience, and merchants can work with a Visa Managed Risk Consultant for personalized support building and refining their fraud management strategies.
What makes Visa Acceptance Solutions different
With AI at their core, Visa’s tools integrate powerful risk scoring, dynamic identity signals, and tailored business parameters for more customization and control. This layered approach helps support decisions that are fast, scalable and “context-aware,” adapting to real-world behavior, evolving threats, and the nuances of each business environment.
By combining predictive models with behavioral intelligence and merchant-specific logic, solutions like Decision Manager helps enable smarter approvals, fewer false declines, and a more frictionless customer experience. These elements help create solutions that are not only intelligent, but also deeply aligned with each merchant’s reality.
Helping you stay ahead of fraud
Read the full report to explore how merchants are protecting themselves against fraud, understand the current landscape, and see how Visa can help your business grow with confidence.