---
term: "Provider"
category: "Providers and rails"
url: https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/provider
source: Federated Banking™ glossary
---

# Provider

> A bank, payment provider, lender, card issuer or specialist service connected to a network.

A provider is an institution that supplies a financial capability: a bank holding accounts, a payment provider moving money, a lender offering credit, a card issuer, a foreign exchange provider, an identity service or a point-of-sale acquirer. In a federated network providers are interchangeable parts of the environment, so the organisation's product stays consistent.

Related terms: [Provider-agnostic](https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/provider-agnostic.md), [Failover](https://federatedbanking.com/glossary/failover.md)