Create accounts

Before you can issue a card to a user, you need to create the following:

1. An accountHolder resource to represent the user's entity within the Balance Platform. This account holder will need to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) verification checks.
2. A balanceAccount resource to hold the funds of the account holder. All transactions using an Adyen-issued card are processed against the associated balance account.

In some scenarios, you might need to create multiple balance accounts for a single account holder. For example:

• A user requests additional cards to keep separate balances for their checking and savings accounts.
• A user requests additional cards with separate balances for their spouse or other family members.

Create an account holder

To create an account holder, make a POST /accountHolders request providing:

Parameter	Required	Description
balancePlatform		Your balance platform account.
description		Your description for this account holder. Free text, human-readable field for your support agent and other staff.
contactDetails.email		The account holder's email address.
contactDetails.phone.*		Object that contains the account holder's phone number. - phoneNumber: Full phone number in string format. - phoneType: Specify if Mobile or Landline.
contactDetails.address.*		Object that contains the account holder's address. The KYC requirements will depend on the country.
legalEntityId		A unique legal entity ID for the account holder, used as a reference for the KYC process. Contact our Support Team to get this ID.

Here is an example of how you can create an account holder.

curl https://balanceplatform-api-test.adyen.com/bcl/v1/accountHolders \
-u "ws@Company.YourCompany":"YOUR_WS_PASSWORD" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "balancePlatform": "YOUR_BALANCE_PLATFORM_ACCOUNT",
  "description":"{hint:Human-readable field for your support agents and other staff}S.Hopper - Staff 123{/hint}",
  "legalEntityId":"{hint:Unique legal entity ID. Contact our Support team to get this ID.}LE1249248458283{/hint}",
  "contactDetails":{
    "email":"s.hopper@example.com",
    "phone": {
        "number": "+315551231234",
        "type": "{hint:Mobile or Landline}Mobile{/hint}"
    },
    "address": {
      "city": "Amsterdam",
      "country": "NL",
      "street": "Brannan Street",
      "houseNumberOrName": "274",
      "postalCode": "1020CD"
    }
  }
}'

The response returns the new accountHolder resource, along with the unique account holder id.

{
    "balancePlatform": "YOUR_BALANCE_PLATFORM_ACCOUNT",
    "contactDetails": {
        "address": {
            "city": "Amsterdam",
            "country": "NL",
            "houseNumberOrName": "274",
            "postalCode": "1020CD",
            "street": "Brannan Street"
        },
        "email": "s.hopper@example.com",
        "phone": {
            "number": "+315551231234",
            "type": "Mobile"
        }
    },
    "description": "S.Hopper - Staff 123",
    "id": "AHA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0",
    "status": "Active"
}

After creating an account holder, you need to create a corresponding balance account to hold their funds.

Create a balance account

To create a balanceAccount resource, make a POST /balanceAccounts request providing:

• accountHolderId: The ID of the account holder to be associated with this balance account.
• description: A human-readable description for this balance account. You can use this field to help differentiate between multiple balance accounts under one account holder.

Here is an example for creating a new balance account for account holder with id AHA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0.

curl https://balanceplatform-api-test.adyen.com/bcl/v1/balanceAccounts \
-u "ws@Company.YourCompany":"YOUR_WS_PASSWORD" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "accountHolderId":"AHA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0",
  "description":"{hint:Human-readable field description}S.Hopper - Main balance account{/hint}",
}'

The response returns the balanceAccount resource. This also includes the balances array which contains information about the account's funds.

{
  "accountHolderId":"AHA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9J0",
  "defaultCurrencyCode": "EUR",
  "description":"S.Hopper - Main balance account",
    "balances": [
        {
            "available": 0,
            "balance": 0,
            "currency": "EUR",
            "reserved": 0
        }
    ],
  "id":"BAB8B2C3D4E5F6G7H8D9J6GD4",
  "status":"Active"
}

The balance account will have a zero initial balance. Before a user can use their card, you need to make sure that the balance account has funds. For more information, refer to Manage funds.