What exactly is Visa CEDP?

Visa’s Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) is an initiative to mandate high-quality, line-item data for commercial card transactions, replacing older Level 2/3 processing to improve fraud prevention and data accuracy, with full enforcement starting October 2025.

If a merchant consistently submits richer transaction details with eligible commercial card transactions, Visa classifies those transactions as CEDP-qualified, which reduces the interchange fees charged.

💰 Benefits

1. Lower interchange costs

• Commercial card interchange is normally high

• CEDP-qualified transactions can see meaningful fee reductions

• Savings can range from 10–40+ basis points, depending on card type and data quality

2. More competitive B2B pricing

• Helps merchants selling to businesses or governments stay price-competitive

• Particularly valuable for B2B SaaS, wholesalers / distributors, travel, fuel, healthcare, government

3. Better reconciliation for buyers

• Corporate cardholders get cleaner data in their ERP/accounting systems

• This often encourages customers to prefer card payments over ACH/check

⚠️ Risks

1. Partial qualification

• If some required fields are missing, transactions may fall back to higher non-CEDP interchange or qualify only partially

• This often shows up on statements as mixed results

2. Processor  dependency

• Not all processors pass enhanced data correctly

• Merchants may think they’re compliant but data is dropped upstream

• Common failure points: POS/gateway not configured for Level III; incorrect field formatting, tax data mismatches

3. Ongoing compliance

• Visa updates rules periodically

• What qualifies today may change next year

• Requires keeping integrations current, monitoring of statements