For a business owner, selecting the best and most cost-effective method of accepting customer payments can be confusing and overwhelming, particularly as the range of payment options continues to grow.

A payment aggregation solution offers a platform the ability to act as a master merchant and instantly onboard application sub-users. These users can complete a simple form and in minutes begin accepting payments.

The decision to become a Payment Aggregator or Payment Facilitator (Payfac) has massive implications for a SaaS application provider.

For the SaaS provider, the potential advantages of becoming a Payment Aggregator can be compelling. The Payment Aggregator model can seem very attractive, both for ease of onboarding and potential revenue generation.

Payment Aggregation, or Payment Facilitation (Payfac), allows a SaaS company to act as a master merchant for its users. The SaaS provider onboards its clients via a fairly non-intrusive application process, and this easy, fast onboarding makes it simple for the SaaS company’s users to begin accepting customer payments very quickly.

Becoming a Payment Facilitator, Payment Service Provider [PSP] or Payment Aggregator.

In Payment Aggregation, being a Payment Facilitator can be thought of as being a Master Merchant, facilitating credit and debit card transactions for sub-merchants within your payment ecosystem. Becoming a PSP (also known as PayFac) lends itself well to some businesses that fall into the software provider classification. However, with the many advantages come some unique challenges.

The number of SaaS companies looking into payment processing on behalf of their customers is growing rapidly. More and more companies are looking at Payment Aggregation | Payment Facilitation as an attractive option to provide a service that offers fast, easy onboarding for their customers and generate new revenue streams in the process.  

Payment aggregation or payment facilitation allows one entity, or master merchant, to process or facilitate payments on behalf of sub merchants.

Recently, PYMNTS, a leading payments and commerce industry news site published a piece on PayFacs based on an interview with WePay co-founder Richard Aberman.

Hyperbole aside, we want to examine Mr. Aberman’s view and provide some balance to the conversation for companies exploring payment facilitation.

So you want to be a PayFac? The 1 question you must answer

If you’ve considered becoming a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) for your SaaS customer base, you’re familiar with the term “KYC,” or Know Your Customer. As the payment processing industry continues its trend of explosive growth, however, KYC might be more accurately termed “CYA.”

Payment Aggregation, or Payment Facilitation (Payfac) offers SaaS companies the ability to provide another layer of service to their users by acting as a Master Merchant for ACH payment processing. For tech-savvy SaaS platforms that have the resources to deal with compliance and risk mitigation issues on behalf of their users, Payfac is an attractive option.