Square
- Company role:
- Online payment gatewayLendingPOS provider
Both a Visa and Mastercard principal acquirer and a payment facilitator — and, by its own admission, a participant in eftpos but not a member.
About Square
Square is the most structurally interesting entry in the Australian market, because it is genuinely two things at once. Its own Australian payment terms state that Square is the acquirer for credit, debit and prepaid processing over the Visa Merchant Direct Exchange and Mastercard Interface Processor networks and is a member of Mastercard and Visa — while also stating that Square is a payment facilitator toward its merchants.
The same terms include a line worth knowing: although Square is a participant in eftpos, Square is not a member of eftpos. That is corroborated structurally — Square is absent from the AP+ scheme member list and appears in AusPayNet only as a payment service provider member rather than a participant.
So Square is a Visa and Mastercard principal acquirer, an eftpos non-member, and a payment facilitator commercially. Anyone filing it as simply a PayFac, or simply an acquirer, has it wrong. Its parent Block changed its NYSE ticker from SQ to XYZ in January 2025.
Square products
Reseller or PayFac
Merchant facility
Square sells a merchant facility under somebody else’s acquiring licence rather than holding one of its own. That is not a knock on it — it is usually quicker to get started on — but it is worth knowing which you are signing.
Payment gateway
Square
Online payments bolted to the same account as the card reader — one balance, one dashboard, and no way to separate the gateway from the acquiring.
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Official site: squareup.com
Compare Square on cost
A profile tells you who a company is. The comparison tells you what it charges.