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Introducing MCC Discovery: Assigning Merchant Categories in Seconds

Published by Danny Hakimian - CEO & Founder on
mcc

In the payments world the Merchant Category Code (MCC) is a foundational data point. It drives underwriting, risk scoring, fraud controls, pricing, and compliance – across every type of merchant – from e-commerce to restaurants, retail, and services. But for many financial institutions, assigning an MCC is still a slow, manual, and inconsistent process.

That changes today.

We’re excited to launch MCC Discovery, a new TrueBiz service that can predict the right merchant category code from just a business name and location.

Why MCC Discovery Matters

For merchant acquirers, processors, and fintechs, MCC assignment is often one of the first risk-critical steps in onboarding. But it’s messy:

  • Merchant-supplied data is unreliable: businesses often misclassify themselves, intentionally or not.

  • Manual review doesn’t scale: analysts spend valuable time Googling business names, checking websites, and cross-referencing lists.

  • Delays cost business: inaccurate or slow MCC assignment can block onboarding and create downstream compliance issues.

  • MCCs change over time: as businesses evolve, they may drift into an entirely new category unintentional…or sometimes nefariously. 

Unlike basic keyword matching or static databases, MCC Discovery analyzes real-time business intelligence from the merchant’s internet footprint to deliver highly accurate classifications even for ambiguous or evolving business models. MCC Discovery solves this by automating what used to take minutes (or hours) of analyst effort.

While MCC prediction has long been included in our Web Presence Review product, we launched MCC Discovery as a standalone service so teams can access fast, lightweight classification without needing the full 250+ data point review.

What Automated MCC Discovery Unlocks

  • Faster onboarding: Reduce merchant application processing time by up to 80%

  • Smarter underwriting: Improve risk models with accurate category signals and a more consistent approach to MCC classification.

  • Portfolio visibility: Get a cleaner view of your MCC distribution across thousands of merchants.

  • Enhanced compliance: Automatically flag businesses that may be operating outside their stated category.

How It Works

  1. Minimal input required: Simply pass a business name and location. If you have a website URL, add that too.

  2. AI-powered classification: Our models ingest the inputs, gather relevant context from the merchant’s internet footprint, and return the most likely MCC together with additional codes.

  3. Find general company information: Alongside the MCC you’ll also receive a plain-english description of the merchant, their full operating address, together with any webpages we think are closely associated with them.

  4. API-ready: MCC Discovery plugs directly into onboarding workflows, risk engines, and monitoring systems for full automation.

With just a name and location, you can get to the right MCC instantly without the back-and-forth.

Test it for free

MCC Discovery is available today as an API endpoint and in the portal for all TrueBiz customers. Whether you’re processing thousands of applications a month or just need better visibility into your merchant base, MCC Discovery helps you move faster and with more confidence.

For the rest of September, we’re running free tests for up to 5,000 merchants! 

If you’re interested in adding MCC Discovery to your workflow, reach out to your TrueBiz representative or book a demo here.