Fraud liability

Learn about platform fraud liability for connected account disputes.

Availability

Fraud liability debits are available only for supported Issuing platform and connected-account arrangements in applicable regions. Contact your Stripe account manager or Stripe Support to confirm eligibility and availability.

Platforms are liable for losses from fraudulent transactions on their connected accounts (“fraud liability”). This guide explains how local regulations determine fraud liability and how Stripe creates an API-observable process for maintaining that liability, which is called fraud liability debits.

US platforms

Regulation Z (Reg Z) is a US law meant to, among other things, protect credit card account holders. One section is especially relevant to Issuing: protections of business-purpose credit card account holders from fraud and other types of “unauthorized card use”, which means the use of a card by a person who doesn’t have the authority to use it. In most cases, Reg Z-qualifying account holders are protected from fraud losses: they must be refunded for fraudulent transactions unless a “reasonable investigation” concludes that fraud didn’t occur.

From an Issuing perspective:

• These “account holders” are your connected accounts.
• A connected account qualifies for Reg Z protections if it has issued fewer than 10 cards as part of a business-purpose credit card programme

When a Reg Z-qualifying transaction is disputed for fraud, Stripe or the card network are compelled to conduct a “reasonable investigation” into the cardholder’s claim. If we determine fraud occurred, we must reimburse the cardholder (your connected account). Often, this determination is made through the card network dispute process and the transacting business will pay for the reimbursement. But if the card network dispute process doesn’t rule in favour of the connected account (either it ruled against your connected account or dispute rights were never granted in the first place), then Stripe makes the determination.

If we determine that the cardholder’s fraud claim is valid, then we directly reimburse the connected account, disbursing a credit to their Issuing balance.

As a platform, you’re liable for losses from fraudulent transactions. Reg Z fraud dispute reimbursements are one form of loss you’re liable for. To maintain fraud loss liability, Stripe will debit your Issuing balance for any reimbursements we make to your connected accounts while complying with Reg Z.

EU and UK platforms

European and UK payment services regulations require Stripe to reimburse all unauthorised or incorrectly-executed transactions by the end of the next business day after the account holder (your connected account) notifies Stripe of the issue with the transaction.

Connected accounts notify Stripe of unauthorised or incorrectly executed transactions by submitting a dispute. If Stripe can’t submit the dispute to the card network due to lack of dispute rights, we’re still responsible for determining whether the connected account has a valid fraud claim and reimbursing them within one working day if so.

Stripe investigates all non-disputable EU and UK unauthorised transaction disputes within one business day of when the connected account submits the dispute to us. This investigation aims to find out if the transaction was unauthorised. If we believe it was, Stripe is required to directly reimburse the connected account. Otherwise, we won’t reimburse them.

As a platform, you’re liable for losses from unauthorised transactions. EU and UK non-disputable fraud dispute reimbursements are one form of loss you’re liable for. To maintain fraud loss liability, Stripe debits your Issuing balance for any reimbursements for unauthorised transactions we make to your connected accounts.

Find fraud liability debit information

You can use the Stripe API and other reporting interfaces to query for fraud liability debits:

• Tracking debits in real-time: Integrate with the issuing_fraud_liability_debit.created webhook. See Connect webhooks for more information.
• Querying historical debits: You can use the BalanceTransaction API or the Fraud Liability Debit API. If you’re using the BalanceTransaction API, search for transactions with a type of issuing_dispute_fraud_liability_debit. If you’re using the Fraud Liability Debit API, you can request a list all debits over a period of time and see the dispute that a caused each debit.
• No-code reporting: Use the Balance report. You can find credits by filtering for the reporting_category of issuing_dispute_fraud_liability_debit.