Manage legal entities

A legal entity is an API resource that describes an individual or an organization on your Balance Platform. It contains information about your user, for example, the legal name, address, and tax information of the individual or organization. Adyen uses this information to perform verification checks as required by payment industry regulations.

The legal entity resource also contains the associations that the legal entity has with other entities on your platform. For example, most organizations need a signatory.

To manage legal entities, use the Legal Entity Management API.

This page contains instructions for common legal entity operations. These operations are part of a larger process which includes verification and onboarding steps.

Create a legal entity

Creating a legal entity is the first step in moving users though the onboarding and verification process. Adyen uses the details you include when you create the legal entity to verify the account holder that is linked to the legal entity.

The minimum required information for creating a legal entity depends on the location and entity type that you are onboarding. For a full list of details per region, check Required information.

To create a legal entity:

1. Make a POST /legalEntities request using the individual or organization details. The following example shows how to create an organization in the United States.

2. The response contains a generated legal entity id. Save this response because you need the ID to:

   • Initiate Hosted onboarding
   • Create an account holder
   • View a legal entity
   • Update a legal entity

View legal entity details

After creating a legal entity, you can view the resource at any time using the Customer Area, the Legal Entity Management API, or hosted onboarding.

Update a legal entity

When the details of your account holders change, you need to update the legal entity. For example, a business can change address or ownership. You can update a legal entity using the Customer Area, API, or Hosted onboarding.

Verification checks will be run again when legal entity details are updated.

Change legal entity type

Users sometimes sign up with an incorrect legal entity type. To change the legal entity type to the correct one, you can:

• API-only onboarding: make a PATCH /legalEntities/{id} request to update the legal entity type and then provide additional required information.
• Hosted onboarding: let your user change their legal entity type and provide additional required information in the UI.

All verification checks are run again after the legal entity type is changed.

You can only change the type of the main legal entity. If the type of an associated legal entity is incorrect, you need to create a new legal entity.

Retained information

When you change the legal entity type, the following information is retained:

• The legal entity id
• Transfer instruments
• Bank statement details
• Proof of industry
• Processed amounts
• Business lines

When changing between an individual and an organization legal entity, the following information is migrated:

• The country is migrated from the individual residentialAddress to the organization registeredAddress.
• The individual name is migrated to the organization legalName.

When changing between an organization and an individual legal entity, the following information is migrated:

• The country is migrated from the organization registeredAddress to the individual residentialAddress.
• The organization legalName is migrated to the individual name.

See also