---
title: SP affiliations
description: A service provider (SP) affiliation is a SAML 2.0 specification that permits a group of service providers to make use of the same persistent name identifier for account linking.
component: pingfederate
version: 13.1
page_id: pingfederate:administrators_reference_guide:pf_sp_affiliat
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingfederate/13.1/administrators_reference_guide/pf_sp_affiliat.html
llms_txt: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingfederate/llms.txt
docs_for_agents: https://developer.pingidentity.com/build-with-ai/docs-for-agents.md
revdate: July 5, 2022
section_ids:
  related-links: Related links
---

# SP affiliations

A service provider (SP) affiliation is a SAML 2.0 specification that permits a group of service providers to make use of the same persistent name identifier for account linking.

SP affiliations are useful when multiple SPs share a business relationship in which users need services from each affiliated provider. By agreement among the affiliation members, the same pseudonym can be used to populate the `SAML_SUBJECT` of assertions sent to all of the SP partners contained in this affiliation.

|   |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| - | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|   | Each connection in the affiliation must be configured to use the same identity provider adapter instance for generating account links. For more information, see [Managing authentication source mappings](help_assertioncreationtasklet_idpadaptermappingstate.html). |

## Related links

* [Account linking](../introduction_to_pingfederate/pf_acc_link.html)