In banking, a facilitator is an intermediary who connects and coordinates parties in a financial transaction without directly participating as a lender or borrower. They make deals happen by bringing together the right people, structuring arrangements, and handling logistics.
Examples include mortgage brokers (connecting homebuyers with lenders), payment facilitators (PayFacs) like Stripe or Square (enabling merchants to accept card payments), and trade finance facilitators who arrange letters of credit between importers and exporters.
Payment facilitators have exploded in the fintech era. Instead of each small business setting up its own merchant account with a bank, PayFacs aggregate them under one master merchant account — making it fast and easy for anyone to accept payments. The global payment facilitation market processes trillions of dollars annually.