A payment facilitator processes payments for other businesses under its own acquirer contract, so a sub-merchant accepts cards without negotiating its own agreement with a bank.
Register with a sponsoring acquirer and reach PCI DSS Level 1. Obtain the licenses your model needs: a Money Transmitter License in the US, a PI or EMI license in Europe. Then build the platform, connect to the acquirer, and run merchant management yourself.
Square, Stripe, Adyen and PayPal. Each processes under its own acquirer contract and carries underwriting and compliance for the businesses on top of it.
It depends on the acquirer, the licenses your model needs, and how fast you can build. The payfac we built for a US startup reached production in under twelve months.
Who carries compliance and risk. A processor leaves each business to handle its own. A payment facilitator takes on underwriting, risk assessment and the compliance of every sub-merchant it signs.
