Facts aboutTMF: You Must Know

Posted by mudit on March 30th, 2016

Whether you a student reading about intricacies of finance, a banker or a merchant; you

happen to come across the word TMF, credit card, etc. So considering this we have brought

forth an article which shall brief you about these terms and the companies dealing with it.

 What is TMF?

When the term TMF list terminated match file is used in case of banking and finance, it is

meant by a tool which is used by the companies who deal in processing of credit cards. With

this tool they screen the potential merchants before giving them the merchant account. It is

also known by the name MATCH list. It is managed as well as created by MasterCard. It is

nothing else but a database to accommodate the informations regarding the businesses as well

as their owners who have lost the privileges for credit card processing. The MATCH list is used

for verification.

 What is the purpose?

The match list credit card processors share the TMF in order to screen the merchants and stop

them from opening accounts with different credit card processors in case they have excessive

charge backs or high risk accounts. This is also used for preventing merchant collusion, fraud as

well as money laundering. For example if a merchant has high risk account and he applies for

the fresh account with different credit card company the match list credit card processor will

not let him account open with the that company. In other words, your request will be declined

because his name appears in MATCH list.

 Can the Credit Card request processed when name appears in MATCH list

When an applicant applies for the credit card the bankers verify that whether the applicant has

any record of being terminated. On the basis the justification provided by the applicant the

acquiring bank has the power to remove or add from or to the MATCH database. In certain

cases, it may be possible that name of the merchant has appeared in the MATCH list on wrong

or inaccurate information. This leads to disputes also. So, the correct justification on the part of

merchant is necessary.

If after the justification the bank is justified, the match list credit card processors remove the

date about suspected merchant and he may get the credit card. The discretion of acquirer is,

thus, very important. In taking the decision the acquiring bank is authorized to contact and

verify from previous bank about the merchant.