Terminated Merchant File (MATCH List): What It Is, the Reason Codes, and How Removal Works

Quick answer: The Terminated Merchant File (TMF), now Mastercard's MATCH Pro system, is a database of merchants whose card processing was terminated for a listed reason, such as excessive chargebacks or fraud. Acquirers must check it before signing a new merchant. Records stay five years, then Mastercard purges them automatically.

What is the terminated merchant file (TMF) list? It is the industry's name for MATCH ("Mastercard Alert To Control High-risk Merchants"). When a bank or payment facilitator ends your merchant account and one of Mastercard's reason codes applies, it must add you, your business and up to five principal owners. Every acquirer that later reviews a merchant account application for you will see that record.

If you've been declined and the reason given was vague, or a processor mentioned "MATCH" or "TMF" and hung up, here's what's actually happening and what your options are.

What is the MATCH list, exactly?

MATCH is a database maintained by Mastercard that acquiring banks and processors query when they underwrite a new merchant application. Mastercard's Security Rules and Procedures, Merchant Edition (4 August 2026) calls it mandatory for Mastercard acquirers: they must add a terminated merchant within five calendar days of the decision to terminate when a reason code applies, and they must check MATCH before signing a new merchant. It exists so that a business terminated by one processor for cause can't simply reapply somewhere else without that history showing up. The name Terminated Merchant File predates MATCH and is still the term most bank compliance teams and industry write-ups use interchangeably for the same practice: an account gets closed for a qualifying reason, the acquiring bank reports it, and the merchant is flagged for anyone who checks.

Getting listed isn't a court judgment or a criminal record. It's an internal industry flag, applied unilaterally by the bank that terminated you, and it follows you into every underwriting conversation you have afterward, regardless of what actually happened.

Why does this hit high-risk verticals harder than most?

Any merchant can end up on MATCH, but the businesses that land there disproportionately are the same ones that get flagged as high-risk to begin with: CBD and hemp, vape, adult, forex and trading, gambling and iGaming, supplements and nutra, peptides. These categories already run higher dispute ratios, sit on merchant category codes banks treat cautiously, and get terminated abruptly and without much explanation more often than lower-risk categories. Once that termination is reported, the same vertical exposure that got you flagged in the first place makes every future application harder, because underwriters see both the category and the MATCH entry stacked against you.

What are the MATCH reason codes?

Acquirers can only list you if one of Mastercard's defined reason codes is met or suspected when they decide to terminate. Mastercard also bars acquirers from using or threatening a MATCH listing as a collection tool for minor issues. This is the official list from Table 11.4 of the Security Rules and Procedures, Merchant Edition, summarized:

The gaps in the numbering (02, 07, 11) are not in the current edition. Older guides still list "02 Common Point of Purchase" as its own code; Mastercard now folds it into code 01.

For most high-risk merchants, code 04 is the one to watch. A business can trip it without bad intent: a subscription with unclear cancellation, a promotion that draws disposable-account buyers, or a category where cardholders dispute purchases as "unrecognized" instead of asking for a refund. Code 10 is the other quiet risk: a store coded under a softer merchant category code than its products deserve can be listed for inaccurate data.

How long do you stay on the terminated merchant file?

Five years. Mastercard's Security Rules and Procedures say MATCH merchant records remain on the system for five years and are then purged automatically, and inquiries search records reported during the past five years. There is no shorter clock for a "minor" code. Acquirers must keep their own MATCH records for at least two years after the merchant agreement ends, but that does not extend your listing.

How do you get removed from the MATCH list?

Removal is narrow, but the process is clearer than most guides suggest. Under Mastercard's Security Rules and Procedures:

1. Ask the acquirer that listed you. Any listed merchant may contact the acquirer to request removal, and Mastercard states there is no requirement to hire a lawyer to do it. The request must include your current or previous business name and address, the principal owner's first and last name, and your website URL if you have one.
2. The acquirer has deadlines. It must answer a removal request within 30 calendar days and a question about the listing within seven calendar days. It must also give you the ICA (its Mastercard member number) and the reason code it used.
3. Know the two grounds Mastercard accepts. Mastercard may remove a listing when the acquirer reports it was added in error, or when the listing is for code 12 (PCI noncompliance) and the merchant has become compliant. A code 12 request needs the acquirer's attestation and a letter or certificate from a Mastercard certified forensic examiner. If the acquirer will not file it, the merchant can submit the request to Mastercard directly.

If the listing was accurate (a real chargeback breach under code 04, for instance), no removal ground applies and the record runs its five years. Mastercard's rules also say acquirers are responsible for the accuracy of their listings, so a listing with wrong data is worth challenging on that basis.

Can a listed merchant still get a merchant account?

Yes, in principle. Mastercard's rules say plainly that an acquirer may onboard a merchant listed in MATCH Pro; the inquiry exists so the acquirer can make its own risk decision. In practice most mainstream acquirers decline, and the ones that approve price the risk in with higher rates and a rolling reserve.

What happens to your business while you're listed?

An account already open and in good standing with a different processor isn't automatically closed because you're on MATCH; the flag matters at the point of applying for a new account. That's exactly the trap: if your current processor terminates you, drops you for a policy change, or you simply need a second account for volume reasons, you're now applying while listed, into a pool of underwriters who see the flag before they see anything else about your business. Some high-risk specialist processors will still approve MATCH-listed merchants case by case, but expect it to cost meaningfully more than standard high-risk pricing, on top of whatever pushed you onto the list in the first place.

How ePayVista sidesteps the MATCH problem entirely

ePayVista isn't a traditional card-network merchant account, so there's no underwriting application for a MATCH entry to sink. Your customers still check out with a card at your WooCommerce store exactly the way they do today. What's different is what happens after checkout: funds move over our managed, non-custodial settlement layer, our rails, directly into an account only you control, instead of landing in a processor's account first while a risk model decides whether to release it. Pricing is a flat 1%, with no monthly fee, no gateway fee, and no rolling reserve. Getting started is configuration, not an underwriting application you can fail: install the WooCommerce plugin, connect your settlement account, and you're live in about five minutes.

One thing to be clear on: ePayVista is not the card processor. The card step runs through Stripe ("Pay by card", US cards) or Coinbase ("Pay with Coinbase"), and those providers alone decide approvals, declines and any verification the customer sees. ePayVista is built for US merchants selling to US customers; card payments outside the US are not guaranteed.

This doesn't erase a MATCH listing that already exists, and it isn't a way around any legal obligation your business has. What it removes is the specific mechanism, a merchant account application scored against your processing history, that MATCH is designed to block.

Is this for you?

If you've been terminated, declined with "MATCH" or "TMF" mentioned somewhere in the conversation, or you're actively shopping specialist high-risk processors because a listing narrowed your options, this applies whether your business is in CBD, vape, forex, gambling, supplements, adult, peptides, or another category that runs into the same pattern. If you're mid-freeze right now rather than already terminated, the merchant account freeze breakdown covers that stage specifically.

FAQ

The listing follows the account. It doesn't have to follow you.

MATCH exists to flag merchant accounts, not to ban a business from ever accepting a card again. The fastest way past it isn't finding a processor willing to overlook your file. It's a setup that was never a card-network merchant account to begin with.

Download the WooCommerce plugin or connect through the API and start taking payments settled into an account only you control, flat 1%, with no application for a MATCH entry to fail.

ePayVista helps legal, high-risk merchants, including those with a prior processor termination on file, accept card payments and receive settled funds into an account they control, for a flat 1%, with no chargebacks and no freezes. Setup is a WooCommerce plugin, not an underwriting application. Licensing, KYC/AML, and any vertical-specific legal obligations remain the merchant's responsibility and run exactly as they do today.