Executive Summary

Adopted by payments disruptors such as PayPal, Square, and Stripe, the payment facilitator, or payfac, model is shifting relationships between players in the merchant acquiring space and the merchants they serve. While there are drawbacks to the model, market dynamics are in its favor, as the number of payfacs—along with the payment volume they process—continues to grow.

3 KEY QUESTIONS THIS REPORT WILL ANSWER

1. What are payfacs, and how do they work?
2. What are the payfac model’s benefits and drawbacks for companies that employ it, and for their merchants?
3. How is payfacs’ growth affecting the rest of the payments ecosystem?

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report takes a deep dive into payfacs, explaining how they work, their appeal and downsides, how they are shifting the payments ecosystem, and what that means for incumbent payments players.

KEY STAT: Gross payment volume processed by payfacs will reach $4.013 trillion worldwide in 2025, per April 2020 estimates by payfac enabler Infinicept and AZ Payments Group.