Mastercard has unveiled its plan to broaden the First-Party Trust programme across the Asia Pacific region in response to the rising incidents of “friendly” fraud.
“Friendly” fraud occurs when legitimate transactions are mistakenly or intentionally challenged by cardholders. Ecommerce has transformed transactions, increasing the need for payment transparency for merchants and small businesses. Customers can dispute unrecognised debit or credit card transactions, leading to chargebacks, where card issuers decide on refunds. The global cost of chargebacks is expected to reach USD 42 billion by 2028, with nearly half reported as fraudulent, according to Mastercard's 2025 State of Chargebacks report.
Chargeback volume in the Asia Pacific is expected to rise by 35%, leading to costs of USD 6 billion by 2028, necessitating targeted solutions. Mastercard is expanding its First-Party Trust programme to this region and others, assisting businesses with resource-intensive issues like claims research. The programme increases data-sharing during transactions or disputes, enabling issuers to differentiate between first-party and third-party fraud, thereby improving the resolution of cardholder disputes.
Optimising dispute resolution
The programme provides two methods for sharing updated insights between merchants and card issuers. Merchants can either include data during the authorisation process or submit it after the transaction during disputes. This initiative seeks to optimise dispute resolution through:
- Enhanced signals for issuers that deliver deeper insights into the cardholder's purchase history, device details, delivery information, identity elements, and geographical location;
- New rules that define compelling evidence to distinguish genuine purchases from fraudulent ones, helping to prevent unnecessary disputes. This includes merchant chargeback protection for disputes that comply with First-Party Trust data sharing standards.
In addition to this programme, Mastercard is partnering with stakeholders throughout the payments ecosystem to tackle various forms of first-party fraud, such as refund and return abuse. Earlier in 2025, Mastercard launched a new industry working group dedicated to addressing this growing challenge directly.
