Your users' legal entity type and operating country determine the required verification information you need to collect from your users. You can use Adyen's Hosted onboarding or build your own UI to collect information from your users.
The timing of when you need to collect this information depends on the verification type that applies to your case. After Adyen receives the information, the verification process starts automatically.
You can choose from the following types of onboarding:
- Hosted onboarding: Direct your users to a page hosted by Adyen, where Adyen manages the onboarding flow and user interface (UI). You can either have Adyen create the resources automatically by requesting them in your Customer Area (onboarding on invite), or create the resources yourself by making a few API calls (API-initiated hosted onboarding).
- API-only onboarding: Build your own UI and collect required user data. You make API requests to create resources and submit the user data to Adyen. This onboarding type gives you complete control over the user journey within your platform's environment.
Hosted onboarding
Hosted onboarding Postman flows
Try out Postman flows in your private workspace to test all the required API calls with your own credentials.
Hosted onboarding is our recommended solution for collecting the information needed to onboard your users. This option requires less integration effort, because your users provide their information directly on a page hosted by Adyen.
You can onboard the following legal entity types:
- Organization
- Individual
- Sole proprietorship
- Trusts (Only in Australia)
You can use hosted onboarding in the following locations where your users are operating.
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Guernsey
Hong Kong
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom (including Isle of Man & Jersey)
United States (including Puerto Rico)
Adyen offers two different ways to implement hosted onboarding:
- Onboarding on invite: In your Customer Area, request Adyen to create an account holder for your user. You then create a hosted onboarding link to redirect your users to enter their information. Choose one of the following options:
- Create a hosted onboarding link in your Customer Area to share it with your user after their account is created. Your user can securely access the hosted onboarding link with an SMS authentication. They then will be redirected to the Adyen-hosted page to provide their information.
- Integrate the View Verification Status component into your user interface (UI). This component automatically creates a hosted onboarding link, redirects your user to the Adyen-hosted page to provide their information, and shows their verification status.
- API-initiated: Create resources and a hosted onboarding link by making API calls to several endpoints. After you create the link to the onboarding page, redirect your users to enter their information.
Choose the option that best suits your use case.
Onboarding on invite allows you to onboard users without integrating APIs for hosted onboarding. All actions are performed in your Customer Area, requiring minimal manual work from you.
In your Customer Area, request Adyen to create an account holder for your user. You then create a hosted onboarding link to redirect your users to enter their information.
When you request an account holder, Adyen automatically creates all required resources and configures the default payment methods for your user.
Resources and payment methods
The required resources include:
- Account holder
- Balance account
- Business line
The payment methods and stores are only created after the receivePayments capability is allowed. This means you see information about the stores and payment methods in the Customer Area only after the user has completed the verification process.
By default, Adyen sets up the following payment methods based on user's country/region.
| Payment method | Country/region |
|---|
| Payment method | Country/region |
|---|---|
| Bancontact | BE |
| Cartes Bancaires | BE, NL |
| China UnionPay (CUP) | AT, BE, BG, CR, CY, CZ, CH, DK, FI, FR, GB, DE, GR, HK, HU, IT, IE, LT, LU, MT, NL, NO, PL, RO, PT, SG, SK, SL, ES, SE, US |
| Discover | All countries/regions |
| Eftpos Australia | AU |
| Girocard | DE |
| iDeal | NL |
| JCB | AT, BE, BG, CR, CY, CZ, CH, DK, FI, FR, GB, DE, GR, HK, HU, IT, IE, LT, LU, MT, NL, NO, PL, RO, PT, SG, SK, SL, ES, SE, US |
| Maestro | DE, ES, FR, NL |
| Mastercard | All countries/regions |
| Visa | All countries/regions |
After onboarding your user, you can add additional stores and request additional payment methods.
Hosted onboarding link
The following shows the possible options for creating a hosted onboarding link during the onboarding on invite flow.
You can create a long-expiry hosted onboarding link in your Customer Area to share with your user after their account is created. This option enables you to:
- Create a hosted onboarding link that remains active for 12 hours. You can then copy and share the link with your user.
- Provide the user's email address and mobile number to be used for authentication purposes. Note that only one combination of an email address and mobile number can be used for the account holder at any given time. You can update the user's contact details if needed.
- Authenticate the user using an SMS code sent by Adyen.
- Allow the user to request a new onboarding if the current link expires. A new link is automatically generated and sent by Adyen via email.
If you choose API-initiated hosted onboarding and generate a link using the LEM API, you need to:
- Configure the page settings to show the relevant PCI questionnaires that the user needs to sign.
- Handle the redirect to the hosted onboarding page.
- Set up your server to get updates about the verification status and results.
See the onboarding steps for API-initiated hosted onboarding.
Instant bank account verification in hosted onboarding
For some locations and legal entity types, your users can choose to instantly verify their bank account details in your hosted onboarding page. They are prompted to log in to their online banking environment and confirm their account details. Their bank account is then verified within seconds without them needing to provide a bank statement.
This feature is currently only available for the following locations and legal entity types.
| Country/region | Individuals | Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| Austria |  |
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| Denmark | |
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| Ireland | |
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| Italy | |
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| Latvia | |
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| Lithuania | |
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| Netherlands | |
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| Norway | |
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| United States | |
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To see an example of the entire hosted onboarding flow, you can watch a video here:
API-only onboarding
With API-only onboarding, you need to build the UI for your platform where you collect data from your users. You then need to submit the collected data to Adyen by making requests to the Legal Entity Management API and the Configuration API. You can onboard users operating in any of the countries and regions where Adyen for Platforms is supported.
To build your integration more quickly, you also can embed the Onboarding components into your UI to let your users enter their data. The component then uses the entered data to create the relevant resource. This means you do not need to make an API request to create the resource yourself.