Independent research and analysis

To advance fairer, faster, and more transparent payment dispute resolution.

Independent research. Shared understanding. Better outcomes.

Independent Research on Payment Disputes & Chargebacks

Every side of the dispute.

Better payment dispute outcomes don't come from rules alone. They come from the people who design, operate and live within the system understanding each other. Today the problem sits in pieces: each participant sees only its own corner, and no one carries the whole.

The Payment Dispute Institute exists to close that gap — bringing independent research and every perspective into the same room. A challenge that belongs to the entire ecosystem, examined as one.

Independence

The dispute challenge belongs to the whole ecosystem, yet no single participant can champion it — each can only argue its own corner. PDI answers to the problem itself, not to any party within it: we advocate for the issue, not a side. That is the independence that lets every participant trust us to hold the whole.

Fairness

When the rules are unclear, every party fills the gaps with its own assumptions, and the outcomes drift apart. PDI holds neutral cross-party conversations that bring those gaps into the open, so the system becomes more predictable for everyone inside it.

Clarity

The dispute ecosystem carries ambiguity at every level — in the rules, in the evidence, and in who absorbs the cost. PDI turns that contested, complex territory into clear, shared analysis the whole ecosystem can actually reason from.

External Coverage

As featured in

PDI research and analysis on chargebacks, first-party misuse and payment dispute policy has been covered in national media and industry publications, and founder Nina Kutzner speaks at industry conferences as a named expert on payment disputes.

Latest Research

Recent publications

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August 2026

Submission to RBA Issues Paper - 7 Aug 2026

In June the RBA's payments policy team issued their latest issues paper seeking feedback from the industry on a range of topics across account-to-account payments, agentic payments, mobile payments etc under the considerations of competition, efficiency and financial safety. PDI made a submission specifically to argue for a fundamental reform of Australia’s dispute resolution mechanics - across payment rails. With first-party fraud driving significant economic loss - which we estimate, based on a back-of-napkin assessment due to a lack of official reporting, to be in excess of $1 billion annually by 2028 - this submission highlights the urgent need to move beyond outdated, inconsistent, and one-sided chargeback rules. We propose a new, standardised framework that ensures consistency across issuers and restores the integrity of the payments landscape.

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August 2026

Consumers Can Complain to AFCA About Chargebacks. Merchants Can't. Should They Be Able To?

Consumers can complain to AFCA if they're unhappy with how a bank handled a chargeback. Merchants, who often carry the financial liability, can't — though not always: depending on the transaction, authentication, and presentment, liability can also sit with the bank or with the consumer. Setting that complexity aside for a moment, the asymmetry this piece set out to test was simple: should merchants get the same right to complain?

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July 2026

Why Consumers Choose Chargebacks Over Refunds — And What Merchants Can Do About It

Reflections from a panel on chargebacks and friendly fraud at Online Retailer Conference & Expo, alongside Warwick Ponders (Independent Payment Forum) and moderator Brad Kelly (Payment Services).

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