DCAP explained: Boosting approval rates and reducing fraud with Visa's new program

Visa is rolling out DCAP across the world, and it’s one of the more meaningful shifts in card-not-present payments we’ve seen in a while, promising up to 5 basis point net savings for eligible transactions.

Here’s your short yet meaningful explainer of what it means for merchants.

What is DCAP – the Digital Commerce Authentication Program?

DCAP is Visa’s voluntary program to improve authorization performance and reduce fraud by encouraging merchants/acquirers/payment partners to share richer risk signals with issuers – without adding checkout friction.

Instead of treating every CNP transaction as “issuer sees very little, merchant sees a lot”, DCAP pushes toward better data symmetry.

What data does DCAP refer to?

DCAP can include device ID, IP address, email/phone, billing address, and related context that helps issuers distinguish legitimate customers from suspicious activity that could be related to fraud.

How does the data get shared?

There are a few different rails that DCAP can use, but two common patterns are:

1. Within the 3D Secure flow (data-only/enriched authentication)

Risk and context gets attached inside the authentication message flow – often positioned as “data-only 3DS”.

2. Via a separate data-sharing API + a link key in the auth message

Risk data is sent to Visa first. Then, the authorization request references it via a match key so issuers can access the context when deciding to approve or decline.

The benefits of DCAP and how to implement

Reasons for merchants to consider the voluntary DCAP program include potential for fraud reduction, more approvals and lower costs.

1. Higher approval rates (especially for good customers): DCAP enables issuers to say “yes” with more confidence – thus reducing friction.

2. Lower fraud: Better signals reduce blind spots.

3. No extra step for the customer: The goal of DCAP is security by better data, not more friction.

4. Cost implications: There are financial incentives tied to meeting data-quality requirements (so data quality starts to matter commercially, not just technically) as well as potential interchange reductions. Visa promises up to 5 basis points of savings for eligible transactions, made up of 10 basis points interchange incentive minus 5 basis points in fees.

To qualify for DCAP interchange benefits, merchants must meet specified data quality standards.

If you’re a merchant (or work at a PSP/acquirer), look into what applies in your locale, and keep in mind that there are different rollout dates for different regions.

It’s worth pressure‑testing:

• what risk signals you already capture reliably

• where your coverage is weak (common gaps: mobile device IDs, billing address completeness)

• how consistently those fields are passed through your payment/auth flows

Ravelin’s approach to DCAP is about making sure the right signals are captured cleanly and passed through consistently.

If you already use Ravelin for 3DS or for payment fraud detection, please don't hesitate to reach out to your AM to discuss.

To hear more about our data-focused, AI-first approach to payments and fraud, please reach out to the Ravelin team.

CNP payments are increasingly won or lost on decisioning quality. And DCAP is Visa signalling that better context will be a first-class input to authorization.