A computer-implemented method of maintaining continuity of transaction data associated with a merchant within a payment card network includes identifying new merchant IDs and associated new merchant information from a database, the new merchant IDs and associated new transactions generated after a predetermined timestamp; and identifying discontinued merchant IDs and associated discontinued merchant information from the database, the discontinued merchant IDs associated only with older transactions generated before the predetermined timestamp and thus appearing to have been discontinued after the predetermined timestamp. The method further includes linking a new merchant ID to a discontinued merchant ID based on continued loyalty of payment card holders, the linked pair of new merchant and discontinued merchant ID having common payment card accounts associated therewith, thereby maintaining continuity of transaction data associated with the merchant corresponding to the linked pair of new and discontinued merchant IDs.