The MATCH List: What It Is and How to Get Off It

MATCH stands for Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants. Mastercard runs it through a system called MATCH Pro. When an acquiring bank (the bank that holds your merchant account and pays out your card sales) closes a business for one of Mastercard's listed reasons, it must add that business to MATCH. The record includes the business name, address, owners and the reason code.

Visa keeps its own terminated merchant file, often called the TMF list. It works the same way: a bank that ends a merchant for listed causes must report it.

Banks check new applicants against these lists as part of underwriting. So a listing follows the business and its owners from one processor to the next. That's why a MATCH list merchant account application needs a different approach from a clean one, which we cover below.

If you're applying for a high risk merchant account, a MATCH listing is one of the factors that puts you in that category. Our guide to what makes a business high risk explains the others.

Every MATCH listing carries a reason code. The code matters more than anything else when a new bank reviews your file. These are the codes in Mastercard's current rules.

Last checked: September 27, 2026 (Mastercard Security Rules and Procedures, Merchant Edition, 4 August 2026 edition, Table 11.4). Mastercard updates this manual about twice a year.

Reading older articles? Codes 02, 07 and 11 are no longer listed in the current manual. Any guide that quotes them, or says the chargeback trigger is 1%, is out of date. For how card networks count chargebacks today, see our guide to chargeback ratio limits.

The bank that closes your account decides whether to list you. The deadlines differ by network:

• Mastercard MATCH: within five calendar days of the bank's decision to terminate. The same deadline applies when the merchant ends the agreement itself, or when the bank learns of a problem that fits a reason code.
• Visa terminated merchant file: no later than close of business on the day after the bank gives notice that it intends to terminate. Only the bank that added the listing can ask Visa to delete it.

Closing your own account doesn't avoid a listing. If the reason fits a code, the bank can still add you.

Does a platform shutdown put you on MATCH?

Not automatically. A payment app closing you because it doesn't allow your product is different from a closure for fraud or chargebacks, and it doesn't fit most reason codes. But the listing decision belongs to the bank behind the platform, so don't assume either way. Ask in writing. Our guide for businesses shut down by Stripe, Square or PayPal covers the rest of that situation, including held funds.

There's no public search. MATCH and the TMF list are only open to card-network member banks and their processors. Two routes work:

1. Ask the bank or processor that closed you. Under Mastercard's rules, the bank that listed you must give you its listing ICA (the Mastercard ID number of the listing bank) and the reason code. It must answer your questions about the listing within 7 days.
2. Watch for it in a new application. If a new processor declines you or asks about MATCH, ask which listing it found. Then go back to the listing bank with that information.

What to include when you ask: your current and any previous business names, business address, the principal owner's name and your website URL. Put the request in writing and keep a copy.

The honest answer: most listings stay for the full term. A MATCH record lasts five years, and then it's purged automatically. You don't have to do anything for that to happen.

Mastercard allows early removal in only two cases:

If your listing is code 12, fixing compliance is the fastest way back. Our PCI compliance guide explains the steps.

For every other code, a listing that was accurate stays until the five years run out. What you can change is how the next bank reads your file (see the next sections).

Mastercard's current rules give listed merchants these protections:

• A 30-day answer. The bank must respond to a removal request within 30 calendar days.
• The facts of your listing. The bank must tell you who listed you and why, and answer questions within 7 days.
• No lawyer required. You can make a removal request yourself.
• No MATCH threats to collect money. The bank may not use MATCH as a collection tool. It can't threaten a listing, or hold one over you, to get you to pay a disputed balance.

A note on removal services. Some firms charge large fees to "get you off MATCH". They work under the same rules you do. If your listing wasn't made in error and isn't a PCI listing, no one can remove it early. A service may help you write a clear request, but you can send that request for free.

A MATCH listing isn't an automatic ban. Mastercard's rules state that an acquirer may onboard a merchant listed in MATCH Pro. Whether a bank will is its own risk decision. These are the things that make a file approvable:

• The reason code. A PCI (12) or chargeback (04) listing with a clear fix is a very different file from fraud (05), laundering (03) or identity theft (14).
• Time since the listing. A listing from four years ago with clean processing since reads better than one from last month.
• What changed. New fraud tools, a clearer refund policy, better descriptors, a different fulfillment partner. Be specific.
• Documentation. Recent processing statements that show lower dispute rates, a PCI attestation, and a short written explanation of what happened.

Disclose the listing up front. The bank will find it during underwriting. A merchant who explains it first looks organized. One who hides it looks like a risk. Our high-risk approval checklist lists the rest of the documents to prepare.

Expect terms to reflect the risk. A bank that approves a listed merchant may ask for a reserve or a lower monthly limit at the start. Our guide to high-risk rates, fees and reserves explains how those work and what to negotiate.

START is a registered MSP/ISO of Elavon and has worked with Authorize.Net for more than 20 years. Whether we can place a MATCH-listed business depends on the reason code and the rest of the file.

Most listings come from problems a business can see coming. Match your prevention to the reason codes:

• Chargebacks (04): know your ratio every month and act well before 1.5%. Our guide to chargeback ratio limits shows how Visa and Mastercard count them.
• Fraud (05): use address and security code checks, velocity limits and order review. See our overview of fraud prevention tools, including the Authorize.Net Advanced Fraud Detection Suite.
• Data compromise (01) and PCI (12): keep card data off your servers with a hosted payment form, and file your PCI questionnaire every year. See PCI compliance requirements.
• Laundering (03) and standards (10): describe every product and sales channel accurately on your application, and tell your processor before you add new ones. Never run another business's sales through your account.

Talk to your processor early when numbers rise. A bank that sees a plan is more likely to work with you than to close the account.