Terminated Merchant File, it has a new name now, however, it is a Black List of merchants hold by Visa and Mastercard for merchant who have breached the regulations of the same and who owns either the Acquiring bank, payment processor or the local bank money for the transactions processed. Once on this list you will almost never get off it! Thats the main reason for why no Nominee director which knows about how things works in the acquiring business will sign any merchant account application. It is the personal name, address and company that get "banned" / black listed.