Match is a watch list for acquirers and mid providers with Mastercard also named MasterCard Alert to Control High-risk Merchants. It’s used to track history of all companies so they can minimize risk on their end. As well as MATCH having codes for termination, there is also MCC codes which is used to identify merchants.

MATCH is mandatory usage for acquirers in order to step into a agreement with any merchant. Overview in MATCH gives acquirers the overview of former closure reasons, and will help access risks and see if there is basis for an agreement. If acquirer takes a merchant in, it then helps them figuring out future terms.

Mastercard has made a API functional where acquirers can get all MATCH data live and in real-time. This makes it easy for acquirers to find data about merchants, and harder for bad merchants to get high risk merchant accounts.

MATCH REASON OVERVIEW

MATCH has reason codes for all terminations, which means even YOU is mentioned if you’ve ever been terminated. Here is the overview of them:

MATCH Reason Code	Detail	Description
01	Account Data Compromise	A situation that either directly or indirectly results in unauthorized access to or disclosure of account data.
02	Common Point of Purchase (CPP)	Account data is compromised by the merchant, then used to complete fraudulent purchases at other merchant locations.
03	Laundering	The merchant presented transaction records to the acquirer that were not valid transactions of sales of goods or services between the merchant and a bona fide cardholder.
04	Excessive Chargebacks	The number of chargebacks in any single month exceed 1 percent of sales transactions in that month, and those chargebacks totaled $5000 USD or more.
05	Excessive Fraud	The merchant experiences fraudulent transactions of any type meeting or exceeding the minimum reporting standard of a fraud-to-sales dollar volume ratio greater than 8 percent in a calendar month, and the merchant experienced 10 or more fraudulent transactions totaling more than $5000 USD in a calendar month.
06	Reserved for Future Use	–
07	Fraud Conviction	The principal owner or partner of the merchant was convicted of criminal fraud.
08	MasterCard Questionable Merchant Audit Program	The merchant fulfills the criteria set forth in the MasterCard Questionable Merchant Audit Program.
09	Bankruptcy/Liquidation/Insolvency	The merchant either is unable or will likely become unable to meet its financial obligations.
10	Violation of Standards	The merchant violated one or more standards and procedures required in transactions where payment cards are used.
11	Merchant Collusion	The merchant participated in fraudulent and collusive activity.
12	PCI Data Security Standard Noncompliance	The merchant did not comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard requirements.
13	Illegal Transactions	The merchant participated in illegal transactions.
14	Identity Theft	The identity of the merchant or its principal owner were unlawfully assumed for the purpose of unlawfully entered into an agreement.

MATCH – How it works and helps

MATCH is a forced function from Mastercard and all acquirers has to use it when being approached by a merchant. 

• Add and search for information regarding up to five principal and associate business owners for each merchant.
• Designate regions and countries for database searches. Determine whether they want to receive inquiry matches and the type of information the system returns.
• Add the name of the service provider associated with signing the merchant. Submit and receive bulk data using batch and/or import file operations.
• Add and search for information regarding Merchant Universal Resource Locator (URL) website addresses.

What happens when are acquirer submits a request? MATCH then searched on submitted data and sees if there are any MATCHES and what reason they were terminated for. They search as far back as 5 years and any data found on merchants searching will be shown to acquiring bank.

If an acquirer are using the MATCH database to search for a US-based merchant, fields used are address, city, state. For non US merchants, it will be street, city, and country used instead. If inquiries are about ecommerce merchants, acquirers must provide the merchant’s URL, or website address.

How to remove a merchant from MATCH

Mastercard has two reasons to remove a merchant.

• If the acquirer has submitted the merchant by error to the MATCH list
• If the merchant was a code 12 and is now PCI compliant then the acquirer has to submit a removal request

Chargebacks prevention is needed for all high risk merchants as one of the biggest reasons for submission is excessive chargebacks. Anything above 1% or 75 chargebacks per mid will mean submission for MATCH.