Payment facilitator (PayFac)

Roles that need it

• Payments Partnerships Manager (Acquiring & Gateways)
• Merchant Underwriting & Risk Analyst
• Merchant Acquiring Sales Executive

Skills it belongs to

• Merchant acquiring and payment processing

Related concepts

• Merchant acquiringMerchant acquiring is the service of contracting with merchants to accept card and other electronic payments, processing those transactions and paying the funds to the merchant. The acquirer bears the merchant's credit risk, such as chargebacks after a merchant fails, so it underwrites merchants and may hold reserves. PSD2 lists acquiring as a payment service.
• Payment gatewayA payment gateway is the technical service that captures payment details at an online or in-store checkout, encrypts them and routes them to the acquirer or processor for authorisation, then returns the result to the merchant. Gateways often add tokenisation, fraud screening, 3-D Secure and support for local payment methods.
• Rolling reserveA rolling reserve is a share of a merchant's card sales, for example 10%, that the acquirer holds back for a set period, such as 90 or 180 days, before paying it out. It protects the acquirer against chargebacks, refunds and fines it may have to cover if the merchant cannot pay, and is common for new or high-risk merchants.

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2), EUR-Lex (external site) accessed 31 Oct 2026

Updated 31 Oct 2026.