MATCH list removal: what can and cannot be done

What the MATCH list is

MATCH — the Member Alert To Control High-Risk Merchants — is a database Mastercard operates and acquirers query. When an acquirer terminates a merchant for one of a defined set of reasons, they add that merchant to it. Other acquirers see the entry when the merchant next applies. It is often still called the TMF, or Terminated Merchant File, which was its previous name.

Three properties matter, and most of the confusion in this market comes from not knowing them:

• Only acquirers can see it. You cannot query your own status. Mastercard does not operate a consumer-facing lookup.
• Only the acquirer that listed you can remove the entry. Not Mastercard, not another acquirer, and not a consultant.
• It expires after five years, automatically, with no application required.

Who can remove a listing, and when

Only the acquiring bank that placed the listing can remove it, and removal is entirely at their discretion. Mastercard operates the database but does not adjudicate individual entries.

Beyond that discretion, there are two circumstances in which early removal is a recognised outcome rather than a favour:

1. The listing was made in error. If the acquirer added you incorrectly — wrong entity, wrong reason, a case of mistaken identity — they can and generally will correct it.
2. Reason code 12, PCI DSS non-compliance. Where the listing was for failing to meet PCI requirements and you have since become compliant, the listing can be removed on that basis.

Outside those two, you are asking the acquirer that terminated you to do you a favour with no obligation to agree. It happens. It is not something anyone can promise.

What nobody can do for you

Be direct about this, because it is where merchants lose money at their most vulnerable moment.

No third party can guarantee removal from MATCH. No third party can perform removal. There is no application process a consultant has access to that you do not, because there is no application process at all — there is only a request to the acquirer that listed you.

Services advertising MATCH removal for a fee are selling either a letter you could write yourself, or nothing. If someone tells you they have a relationship that gets listings removed, ask them to name the mechanism. There isn’t one.

Satora does not offer MATCH removal, and we would not introduce you to anyone who claims to. What we do is help you understand what your listing means and find providers that will consider a MATCH-listed merchant.

What the reason codes actually signal

The reason code attached to your listing matters more than the listing itself, because it tells a prospective acquirer what kind of risk you represent. Broadly, they fall into three groups:

Compliance and process codes — PCI non-compliance, for example — are the most recoverable. They describe a failure that can be demonstrably fixed, and code 12 specifically has a defined removal route.

Volume and ratio codes — excessive chargebacks, excessive fraud — are read as a performance problem. Recoverable, but you will be asked what changed. A concrete answer (new dispute alerts, changed refund policy, removed a bad affiliate, six months of clean processing since) is worth far more than an assurance.

Integrity codes — laundering, misrepresentation of the business, illegal transactions — are the hardest. Some acquirers will not consider a merchant with an integrity code at all, regardless of age.

Find out which code applies to you. If you were terminated, ask the acquirer in writing whether they listed you and under what code. They are frequently willing to tell you, and you cannot plan without knowing.

What to do instead of chasing removal

The practical strategy for a listed merchant, in order:

1. Establish the facts. Which acquirer listed you, which code, and on what date. The date starts a five-year clock you can plan around.
2. Check for an error. If the listing is wrong on the facts, that is your strongest route and it costs nothing to raise.
3. Fix the underlying cause, with evidence. Whatever the code describes, build a record showing it has been addressed. This is what an acquirer willing to consider you will ask for.
4. Apply to providers that board listed merchants. They exist. They price for the risk. The conversation goes better when you disclose the listing yourself rather than letting it surface in their checks.
5. Wait out the clock if you have to. Five years is a long time, but a listing from four years ago with a clean record since is a materially easier application than one from last month.

Disclose it yourself

The single most common avoidable mistake is not mentioning a listing and hoping it will not come up. It comes up — checking MATCH is a routine part of underwriting.

A merchant who says “I was listed in 2024 under excessive chargebacks, here is what happened, here is what changed, here are six months of statements since” is having a conversation about risk. A merchant whose listing is discovered has stopped having a conversation at all.