As required by payment industry regulations, Adyen must verify the users in your marketplace before you can process payments, pay out their funds, and offer financial products to them. These verification checks are also called Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
During this process, Adyen verifies that your users provide accurate information about their businesses. Based on the results of the verification checks, Adyen decides if a user can perform any action on your marketplace. These actions are known as capabilities .
To see whether a user can use a specific capability on your marketplace, check the capability settings.
On this page, we describe:
When does Adyen verify users
Adyen verifies users before allowing them to use capabilities on your marketplace. The following are the events that trigger verification checks.
When you request capabilities for your user
In the design phase, you set the default capabilities for your marketplace. These capabilities are requested every time you onboard a new user and create an account holder for them. Adyen verifies the user and if they successfully complete the verification checks, they are allowed to use the capabilities.
If a user needs a specific capability that is not requested by default, you must request the additional capability. In some cases, this requires more verification.
When users change their data
When users change their data after they are already allowed to use capabilities, Adyen verifies them again.
If the updated data fails verification checks, Adyen may set a verification deadline by which the user needs to resolve the issues. The user is allowed to continue using the capabilities while the verification deadline is active.
If the user does not resolve the verification issues in a timely manner, their capabilities will be disallowed.
Note that balancePlatform.accountHolder.updated webhooks are only triggered for capability-related changes to the account holder. Data changes to the legal entity of the account holder do not trigger webhooks.
When users move to a higher tier (staggered verification)
In a staggered verification, you collect data from the user based on their tier. When a user moves to a higher tier, the capabilities related to paying out are disallowed. For the capabilities related to accepting payments, in the future Adyen might add a deadline by which the user must provide additional required data. They would be allowed to use capabilities related to accepting payments while the deadline is in place.
If the user does not take action in a timely manner, the remaining capabilities will be disallowed.
When Adyen requires data reviews
Adyen may occasionally require users to review their data to ensure that it is up-to-date. Once the user confirms that they reviewed it, Adyen verifies them again.
Adyen sets a verification deadline by which the user must provide their confirmation. They are allowed to continue using their capabilities while the deadline is active.
If the user does not take action in a timely manner, their capabilities will be disallowed.
Verification deadlines
Verification deadlines are only available in v3 and v4 of the Legal Entity Management API.
For the events mentioned above that require additional verification checks, Adyen may set a deadline to give users extra time to resolve any verification issues before certain capabilities are disallowed. This allows users to correct any missing or incorrect information to complete verification checks or fulfill their contractual obligations, such as accept Terms of Service.
The verification deadline is the final date by which all required information and documents must be submitted and verified by Adyen. Users are allowed to continue using the capabilities while the deadline is active.
The specific verification deadline varies depending on the capabilities involved. The following table outlines the standard verification deadlines for each capability.
| Verification deadline | Capability API name | Capability display name in the Customer Area |
|---|---|---|
| 30-day period |
sendToBalanceAccount |
Send funds to balance accounts |
|
sendToTransferInstrument |
Send funds to transfer instruments |
|
|
receiveFromTransferInstrument |
Receive funds from transfer instruments |
|
|
issueBankAccount |
Issue bank accounts |
|
|
sendToThirdParty |
Send funds to third-party bank accounts |
|
|
getGrantOffers |
Receive grant offers |
|
|
receiveGrants |
Receive grants |
|
| 60-day period |
receiveFromBalanceAccount |
Receive funds from balance accounts |
|
receiveFromPlatformPayments |
Receive funds from split payments |
|
|
receivePayments |
Receive payments |
|
|
issueCard |
Issue cards for payments |
|
|
useCard |
Use cards for payments |
|
|
useCardInRestrictedCountries |
Use cards for payments in restricted countries |
|
|
useCardInRestrictedIndustries |
Use cards for payments in restricted industries |
|
|
withdrawFromAtm |
Withdraw cash from ATMs |
|
|
withdrawFromAtmInRestrictedCountries |
Withdraw cash from ATMs in restricted countries |
|
|
receiveFromThirdParty |
Receive funds from third-party bank accounts |
Verification deadlines may be adjusted based on ongoing account monitoring and subsequent verification checks. In accordance with our internal due diligence processes, designed to ensure platform security and comply with regulatory obligations, a standard deadline could be shortened or removed in specific situations.
To get a specific date for verification deadline, you can either:
- Subscribe to the balancePlatform.accountHolder.updated webhook.
- View the details of the account holder in your Customer Area.
- Make a GET /accountHolders/id request.
The diagrams in the next section show the process and the corresponding capability verification statuses and capability settings.
How the verification process works
In the following diagrams, you can see the process for events that trigger verification checks and the relationship between capability verification statuses and capability settings.