Merchant File

A merchant file, known commonly as a terminated merchant file (TMF), is a file containing important details about a merchant whose payment processing privileges were revoked. The file contains information like the merchant’s bank account number, business name, contact information, and merchant ID.

Crucially, TMFs contain details about the merchant’s processing history. Transaction data like amounts, consumer details, acceptable payment methods, and timestamps are included in a TMF, as is a reason code that specifies why a merchant was terminated.

Acquirers use details from a TMF to determine whether or not a merchant is eligible for payment processing privileges. In practice, TMFs function as industry-wide blacklists, so a previously terminated merchant may have a difficult time establishing a merchant account with another acquirer.