The MATCH list, formerly called the TMF or Terminated Merchant File, is Mastercard's shared database of businesses and their owners that a processor terminated, and a listing makes a standard merchant account very hard to get. You avoid it with proper underwriting, accurate disclosures, and active chargeback management, and a listing stays for five years and is difficult to be removed from early.
What MATCH and TMF actually mean
MATCH stands for Member Alert to Control High-risk merchants. It is the modern name for what the industry used to call the TMF, the Terminated Merchant File. Mastercard runs it, and it is a shared database of businesses, and the owners behind them, whose merchant accounts a processor has terminated for a risk-related reason.
When you apply for a new merchant account, the acquiring bank checks this database as part of underwriting. If your business or your name comes back as a match, the application is usually declined outright or pushed into a stricter, more expensive high-risk arrangement. You are effectively flagged industry wide, which is why understanding MATCH before it happens matters so much.
One thing to be clear about: MATCH is not a warning program. It is a record of terminations that already happened. The card networks run separate monitoring programs that warn you when chargebacks or fraud climb toward a threshold. MATCH is what can come after, once an account has already been closed.
The 14 reason codes that put you on it
Every MATCH listing carries a reason code that travels with it, and the next acquirer sees that code when they screen you. Knowing the list tells you exactly what to protect against. The current Mastercard reason codes are:
01 Account Data Compromise. 02 Common Point of Purchase. 03 Laundering. 04 Excessive Chargebacks. 05 Excessive Fraud. 07 Fraud Conviction. 08 Mastercard monitoring program violations. 09 Bankruptcy, liquidation, or insolvency. 10 Standards violations. 11 Merchant collusion. 12 PCI DSS non-compliance. 13 Illegal transactions. 14 Identity theft.
Some of these reflect deliberate misconduct, like laundering or illegal transactions. Most of the ones that catch ordinary business owners off guard are operational: code 04 excessive chargebacks, code 05 excessive fraud, and code 12 PCI DSS non-compliance. A chargeback ratio approaching or crossing 1 percent is the classic trigger, and that is a problem you can see coming and prevent.
How long a MATCH listing lasts
A MATCH listing stays active for five years from the date it is added, and that duration is set by Mastercard and applies across all reason codes. After five years the record drops off automatically, with no application required, as long as no new listing was added in the meantime.
Accuracy matters here, because many owners are told the figure is seven years. The correct number is five. That is shorter than the rumor, but it is still a long and serious flag on your business, and there is no general way to shorten the clock through good behavior once a valid listing is in place.
There is also no formal notice when you are added. Mastercard does not call you. Most owners discover the listing the hard way, by applying for a new account and getting declined again and again until a processor finally tells them why.
The narrow paths to early removal
Early removal exists, but only in specific situations, and only the acquiring bank that submitted the record can request the correction. If you were listed in error, through misidentification, the wrong reason code, or an administrative mistake, that bank can fix it.
Identity theft listings under code 14 can qualify for removal when you can show the activity was fraud committed in your name and outside your control. PCI DSS non-compliance under code 12 has its own opening: once you become compliant and the acquirer verifies it, they can update or remove the record.
Outside of those cases, a valid listing runs the full five years. That reality is exactly why prevention beats cleanup every time, and why the smartest move is to never give a processor a reason to terminate in the first place.
How to protect your account before it happens
Prevention comes down to a few habits. Keep your chargeback ratio well under 1 percent with clear billing descriptors, accurate product descriptions, fast customer support, and a published refund policy customers can actually find. Our article Why Your Business Needs Written Refund Policies and Terms walks through how those policies double as dispute evidence.
Stay current on PCI DSS so code 12 never applies to you. If you are unsure what that even involves, read What Is PCI Compliance, and Do I Really Need It, which lays out the self-assessment questionnaire and the annual scan in plain English. And disclose your business type accurately when you apply, because a misrepresented or prohibited business type is one of the fastest routes to a termination.
The strongest protection is a properly underwritten account in your own business name, set up by someone who reviews it correctly before you process. These habits come standard on the accounts I set up.
What to do if you think you are already listed
If you have been declined more than once with no clear explanation, you may already be on MATCH. Start by asking the bank that terminated your old account which reason code they reported, then ask the processors declining you to confirm what they see. You cannot fix what you cannot name.
From there, you have real options. North's family of high-risk specialists, Humboldt Merchant Services and Signature Payments, works with complex merchant histories that standard processors will not touch. Just as important, the right setup helps you fix the underlying behavior, the chargebacks or the disclosures, so you are building toward a clean record instead of papering over a problem.
Send me your situation and your last statement and I will give you a straight read, free. If a real account is within reach, I will show you the path. If the honest answer is to wait out part of the clock and tighten up first, I will tell you that too. Book a free statement review and let's look together.
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