Mastercard
Contents6
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| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1966 |
| Legal Structure | Public |
| Industry | Banking |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://www.mastercard.com/ |
Mastercard is an American multinational payment card services corporation, offering a range of payment transaction processing and other related-payment services.
Mastercard is an international corporation which operates a global financial network. Through this network, it facilitates electronic funds transfers (EFTs) using branded debit, credit and prepaid cards. As an intermediary between financial institutions and businesses, Mastercard supports payment processing by authorising, clearing and settling transactions.[1]
Consumer-impact summary
Market Control: Mastercard operates and maintains the MATCH database. The corporation's global outreach and market dominance allows to use this database to "blacklist" vendors that break their rules. The "rules" can be arbitrary, such as forbidding transactions that "may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks."[2]
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Mastercard category.
What is MATCH
MATCH stands for Mastercard Alert to Control High-risk Merchants system. MATCH is Mastercard’s database of Terminated Merchant Files (TMFs) that contain information about accounts that have been closed by credit card processors around the world for high chargebacks or violations of card brand rules.
Payment operators such as Visa and Mastercard, operate databases known as Terminated Merchant Files (TMFs) that contain information about accounts that have been closed by credit card processors around the world for high chargebacks or violations of card brand rules.
All payment processors must check these databases when accepting a new user, and must also add merchants to the database if they close the account and it meets TMF criteria.
Being placed on a TMF can have serious effects. While they’re only supposed to be informational tools during the account application process, many entities refuse to accept businesses or individuals listed on a TMF. For this reason, it’s important to be aware of TMF criteria and make sure you avoid becoming eligible.[3]
Consumer freedom limitations
Credit card processors using the MATCH system must submit vendors into the MATCH system that they end business with, as long as they meet the criteria.[4] This results in the vendor not being able to accept payments using any banks or payment processors that are partnered with Mastercard or use the MATCH system, effectively "blacklisting" them from using the world's main payment processors which can result in financial collapse of the vendor, as well as subsequently preventing consumers from buying from the vendor using payment methods that are most common and accessible.
See also
References
- ↑ "What is Mastercard? A guide to the card network". Stripe. 2025-08-15. Archived from the original on 25 Dec 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
- ↑ "Mastercard Rules" (PDF). Mastercard Rules. 3 June 2025. 5.12.7 Illegal or Brand-damaging Transactions. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 Jan 2026. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
- ↑ "High risk merchant lists". Stripe Docs. 2025-08-15. Archived from the original on 12 Dec 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
- ↑ "High risk merchant lists". Stripe Docs. 2025-08-15. Archived from the original on 12 Dec 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-15.