The Bad Merchant Database is Free, But Not the One You’re Thinking Of

Now you can find out if merchant cash advance and business loan applicants have engaged in suspicious activity with other funders for FREE.

For years, the only way to access such a database was through the Small Business Finance Association (SBFA but formerly known as NAMAA) and doing that hasn’t exactly been cheap or easy. As the SBFA describes itself as a not-for-profit trade association representing organizations in the United States and Canada, acceptance comes with adherence to certain trade association rules and fees often too high for smaller companies.

Just about every merchant cash advance company is aware of the SBFA’s shared database of bad actor merchants. It’s widely viewed as the biggest benefit to being an association member. It’s exclusive, almost too exclusive, many would say.

Enter DataMerch, the startup that’s disrupting it all by making the system open to funders… for FREE. Founded by merchant cash advance veterans, the company’s co-founders have replicated a product that the industry loved, but many could not afford or be accepted into.

deBanked has learned that DataMerch already has an active community of funding companies submitting suspicious merchant activity to the database.

Naturally, DataMerch’s tech-based platform made it a suitable fit to integrate the deBanked’s news feed into its member dashboard. The companies announced completion of the integration earlier this morning.

To sign up for DataMerch, contact support@datamerch.com

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.