In The Region

Some merchants come to an an end that they will experience the term “terminated merchant account” by the merchant processing banks (also known as “acquiring” banks) they acquired due to the following notification: the merchant has been convicted of credit card fraud; the merchant deposited sales that were not authorized by cardholders, most typically in a card not present environment with reoccurring charges; the merchant deposited transaction that were for sales generated by another business (known as laundering.) Oftentimes, this seems like an innocent practice of one business owner helping another; it is a violation of Visa and MasterCard rules; the acquirer has received an excessive number of cardholder chargebacks due to the merchant’s practices, this is by far the most common reason for termination; as a result of an audit or investigation, the acquirer identifies the merchant as having excessive fraudulent activity; the acquirer concludes that serious violations of the merchant agreement could result in increased loss exposure to itself or the credit card community; the merchant deposited an excessive number of counterfeit sales; the acquirer learns from Visa USA or MasterCard International that the merchant has been identified as having excessive fraudulent activity.

When the banks acquirer notify these merchants of intent to terminate their merchant account due to the above notification, the acquirer is required to list their business and principal names on the terminated “MATCH” file. Once a merchant is on this list it is highly unlikely that future merchant account applications will be approved. The “tmf“, or MATCH list, is essentially a blacklist from which it is almost impossible to be removed.

However, there is still a solution for this merchant situation of facing termination. Deal with a company or an enterprise solution that focused on assisting merchants facing termination, merchants who have been terminated, or merchants looking to avoid termination. And some of them has their experiences and resources to MATCH which is the best the merchant can ask for.