What is the Mastercard MATCH list?

The Mastercard MATCH list is a shared database of merchants that acquiring banks have terminated for certain reasons. Mastercard's current rulebook spells the name out as the Mastercard Alert To Control High-risk Merchants system. Today acquirers use it through MATCH Pro, which Mastercard says lets an acquiring partner look up whether another acquirer has terminated a merchant in the past and the reason for that termination.

People call it a blacklist. We think "termination record" is closer. It doesn't approve or decline anyone on its own; it tells the next bank what happened last time, and the next bank has to look. This guide covers how a business ends up on MATCH, how acquirers use it, how long a listing matters, and what to do if you think you're on it. Where Mastercard's details aren't public, we say so rather than guess. Rules are current as of October 2026.

What is the Mastercard MATCH list?

It's Mastercard's system for sharing merchant terminations between acquirers. When an acquiring bank ends a merchant relationship for one of the reasons in Mastercard's rules, it records the merchant in MATCH. When any acquirer considers a new merchant that will take Mastercard, it checks MATCH first.

A record holds more than the business name. Mastercard says the acquirer's addition includes information on the merchant and its principal owners, plus the reason code that applies. The acquirer files it under the member ID through which the merchant's activity ran, and the reason is a two-digit numeric code explaining why the relationship ended.

Two things it is not:

• A credit report. It records a termination by an acquirer, not your payment history with lenders.
• A chargeback monitoring program. Mastercard runs those separately; its current Security Rules and Procedures describe an Excessive Chargeback Program with its own tiers for active merchants. Being monitored means your acquirer is watching. A MATCH listing means an acquirer already ended the relationship.

Why do acquirers share terminations through MATCH?

Because the acquirer pays when a merchant can't. The OCC's handbook for bank examiners calls chargeback credit risk a significant risk to an acquiring bank's earnings and capital. Visa's dispute guide adds that when a valid dispute arrives and the merchant's account can't cover it, the acquirer must cover the loss itself.

So a bank that has just closed a merchant over fraud or disputes knows something the next bank would want to know before taking on the same business. MATCH is how that knowledge travels between banks that otherwise compete for the same merchants, and Mastercard makes the check a requirement rather than a courtesy.

It also tells you who isn't on the list. A merchant that leaves for a better rate, sells the business, or closes a shop hasn't been terminated by its acquirer at all, so the reporting rule never comes into play. MATCH is about acquirer terminations for the reasons Mastercard's rules name.

How does a merchant get on the Mastercard MATCH list?

An acquirer terminates the merchant agreement for a reason that Mastercard's rules say must be reported, then adds the merchant to MATCH. The sequence looks like this:

1. The acquirer decides to end the merchant relationship.
2. It checks whether the reason is one that Mastercard's rules require it to report.
3. If so, it submits an addition record within five days of the decision to terminate, according to Mastercard's MATCH Pro page.
4. The record goes in with the merchant's details, its principal owners, and the reason code.

The obligation itself sits in Mastercard's Security Rules and Procedures: when an acquirer terminates a merchant for one of the listed reasons, it has to add that merchant to MATCH, and the rule reaches the submerchants of a payment facilitator as well.

What we can't give you is a verified list of today's reason codes. We couldn't confirm the current list in a public Mastercard document, and we'd rather send you to the source than reprint a list from someone's blog. If your account was closed, the reason code your acquirer used is the one that matters, and the acquirer is the one to ask.

How do acquirers use the MATCH list when you apply?

Every acquirer signing a merchant that will accept Mastercard has to run a MATCH inquiry first, and for an online business the inquiry has to include the website address (Mastercard Security Rules and Procedures). It shows up in US bank guidance too: a May 2007 paper on merchant underwriting posted by the FDIC lists a MATCH check among its recommended screening steps (FDIC).

Mastercard's documentation describes two kinds of search:

Both rows come from Mastercard's MATCH Pro use cases. The retroactive search is easy to miss. It means the check isn't a single moment at signup; for most of a year afterward, your new bank can learn about a termination that was recorded later.

A match gives the new acquirer the history. How much weight it gives that history is part of its underwriting, along with your statements, your owners' credit, and how your business has changed since.

How long does a business stay on the MATCH list?

Plan on five years. Mastercard's documentation says a termination inquiry searches merchants that other acquirers added during the past five years, so that's the window a new acquirer is looking at when you apply. We couldn't confirm in a public Mastercard document exactly how and when old records are removed, so treat five years as the period that affects your applications, not as a promise about deletion.

Five years is a long time in the life of a small business. That's the strongest argument for dealing with chargeback and fraud problems while your current account is still open.

What does a MATCH listing mean for your next merchant account?

Expect a harder application. What a new acquirer does with a listing is its own underwriting decision, made under its own risk policy, so plan for more questions and possibly a decline or tougher conditions such as a reserve or a volume cap. Our guide on how to get a merchant account explains those outcomes.

Two things to keep in mind:

• The record names people, not only a company. Because the addition includes the principal owners, a listing is tied to the people who ran the business, not just to the old legal entity.
• Payment facilitators are covered. Mastercard's rules apply MATCH reporting to a payfac's submerchants, so moving from a merchant account to a payfac doesn't take you outside the system.

Here's what an honest reapplication can look like. Say an online home goods store in Tampa had its account closed two years ago after fraud chargebacks spiked during a holiday rush. Its owner applies with a new provider and discloses the termination on the application, with a short letter: what happened, the order screening it added since (address checks, security codes, limits on repeated attempts), and twelve months of statements from its current provider showing low dispute levels. The MATCH inquiry returns the listing either way. The difference is that the underwriter reads the store's explanation first.

What should you do if you think you're on the MATCH list?

Start with the acquirer that closed your account. MATCH Pro is a tool for acquirers, so the bank that filed the record is your best source for what it says.

1. Ask the acquirer, in writing, whether it added your business to MATCH and which reason code it used.
2. Get a copy of the termination notice and reread the termination section of your merchant agreement.
3. If the record is wrong, such as the wrong business, the wrong owner, or a reason that doesn't match what happened, raise it with that acquirer in writing. It filed the record under its own member ID.
4. Fix the cause. If it was chargebacks, our guides on your chargeback ratio and how to prevent chargebacks are the place to start. If it was a data security issue, start with what PCI compliance is.
5. Disclose the termination on your next application, with evidence of what changed. An underwriter who finds a listing you didn't mention has a second problem to think about: whether the rest of the application is accurate.
6. Keep your final payouts and any reserve from the old account in view. Closing cleanly matters even when the relationship ended badly.

Be skeptical of anyone who promises to make a listing disappear. An acquirer filed the record in Mastercard's system, and the honest path runs through that acquirer.

How do you keep a merchant account in good standing?

Keep your acquirer comfortable, month after month. The numbers that worry an acquirer, disputes and fraud above all, show up in your own reports first, so you can see trouble coming if you look.

• Track your dispute ratio monthly. Visa's monitoring program flags a US merchant at 150 basis points when it also has at least 1,500 fraud reports and disputes in the month (Visa), and your acquirer may act long before that.
• Keep card-not-present fraud down. Once a merchant's card-not-present fraud passes 100 gross basis points, Mastercard's security rules require its acquirer to act, which for e-commerce means capturing the CVC 2 code or becoming Mastercard Identity Check enabled.
• Sell what you were approved to sell. Tell your processor before you add a product line, a sales channel, or a big promotion.
• Answer your acquirer's questions quickly and completely, especially after a spike.
• Stay current on PCI compliance and report a suspected breach right away.
• Close accounts on purpose, in writing, rather than letting them lapse. Our merchant ID guide covers a clean switch.

Think of a subscription box company in Salt Lake City that changes its renewal emails and sees disputes double the next month. The owner who spots it in the monthly numbers, reverts the change, and calls the processor before the processor calls them is having a very different conversation from the one who learns about it from a termination letter. Our page for ecommerce businesses covers subscription billing.

Clearo's online payments include fraud screening with AVS, CVV checks, and velocity rules, and our payment processing comes with chargeback management tools and PCI compliance support. These rules apply across the United States, whichever bank holds your account. Our page on merchant accounts for US and Canadian businesses covers what comes with a Clearo account.

Your next step

If your disputes or fraud are climbing, the time to act is while your account is open. Send a recent statement for a free statement review and we'll show you where your chargebacks and fees stand. If an account of yours was closed and you want to understand what happened before you apply again, contact us and we'll talk it through plainly.