---
term: "Participant"
category: "Networks"
url: https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/participant
source: Federated Banking™ glossary
---

# Participant

> Any organisation or person that takes part in a financial network, such as a merchant, bank, member or department.

A participant is anyone who sends, receives or oversees money inside a network: a buyer, a seller, a bank, a lender, a pension fund, a department, a patient or a member. Different participants see different things and may do different things, according to the rules the network sets. Every network is defined by who its participants are and what flows between them.

Related terms: [Closed network](https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/closed-network.md), [Permissioned](https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/permissioned.md)