PYMNTS: 47% of Merchants Say False Declines Cost Them Sales

Digital commerce spans credit cards, digital wallets and real-time payments, leaving merchants to manage multiple payment gateways and risk tools at once. Fragmented systems can easily misclassify legitimate transactions as fraud. PYMNTS Intelligence said payment orchestration can unify identity, device, behavioral and routing signals, helping merchants prevent fraud while preserving approval rates and the checkout experience.

PYMNTS Intelligence reported on March 11, 2026, that 47% of merchants estimated false declines affected up to 5% of legitimate orders, with industrywide losses estimated at $50 billion. A March 24 update showed that 85% of merchants ranked reducing checkout friction for legitimate customers as their top fraud-prevention challenge. Separately, 53% of U.S. financial institutions have adopted payment orchestration, while 16% are implementing it.