A method for linking payment accounts includes: storing a plurality of account profiles, each profile including data related to a payment account including an account number and account data; encrypting the account number included in each account profile using a method of encryption to obtain an encrypted account number; receiving account linkage data, the data including a plurality of encrypted account identifiers, each identifier being indicated as being linked to another identifier, and each identifier being encrypted using the method of encryption; matching each of the encrypted account identifiers to an encrypted account number; and updating one or more account profiles to indicate a link to another account profile where the encrypted account number included in the profile being updated matches an encrypted account identifier that is indicated as being linked to an encrypted account identifier that matches the encrypted account number included in the other profile.