Pay out to your users

After we process payments for your users, we hold the funds in their balance accounts until you pay them out to their verified bank account (transfer instrument). You can pay out your users in the following ways:

• On a schedule: You can set up an automatic payout schedule based on the timing and the amount held in their balance account.
• On demand: You can pay out when needed, on top of or instead of the scheduled payouts.

Scheduled and on-demand payouts are bank transfer requests that move funds from your user's (account holder's) balance account to their transfer instrument.

Requirements

Before you begin, take into account the following requirements:

Transfer priority

You can specify how fast you want the funds to arrive to your user's account by setting a priority in the payout request. A payout with a higher priority incurs higher fees. You can set the following priorities for payouts:

• Regular: Recommended for standard, low-value transactions to a recipient in the same region.
• Instant: Transfers funds instantly within the United States and the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
• Fast: Processes faster than Regular and incurs higher fees. Suitable for high-priority, low-value transfers in the same region.
• Wire: The fastest option, with the highest fees. Recommended for high-priority, high-value transfers in the same region.

Payout types

Adyen supports both local (within the same country and currency) and cross-border payouts.

Local payouts

Adyen supports local payouts to your users in all supported countries and regions. Local payouts can be processed by the local clearing system in the beneficiary's country. For example, USD in the United States and AUD in Australia.

The following priorities are supported for local payouts:

• fast
• instant
• regular
• wire

Cross-border payouts

Adyen also supports cross-border payouts. For example, a payout in CZK to a bank account in Slovakia. There are two exceptions:

• We do not support USD payouts to Canadian users with a US bank account.
• We do not support USD payouts to Hong Kong users with a US bank account.

Cross-border payouts are subject to various limitations since they may need to be processed through a network of correspondent banks. These limitations can include:

• The arrival time of the payout cannot be guaranteed.
• The payout is subject to lifting fees by the different correspondent banks.
• Geographic restrictions when using a bank account that is not in the user's country of residence. For example, when using hosted onboarding, users can only add a non-domestic bank account if they are a resident of the EU/EEA, Switzerland, or the UK.

Note that the only priority supported for cross-border payouts is crossBorder.

For a cross-border payout, make a POST /transfers request with accountIdentification.type NumberAndBicAccountIdentification and the user's account number/IBAN and BIC.

Payout countries, currencies, and priorities

See the following overview of supported countries, currencies, priorities, and bank account formats for bank details. Depending on the country or region, users can provide their bank details using the default bank account format or a custom value.

Transfer cut-off times

There are specific times during a business day, called cut-off times, when Adyen stops processing payouts for settlement within the settlement delay. Payouts initiated before the cut-off time are typically processed within the specified settlement delay, while those initiated after the cut-off time will be processed the next day within the specified settlement delay.

Adhering to cut-off times can help you maintain consistency and predictability of your financial activities.

Example cut-off times

Transfer statement description

A statement description is the text that your users see on their bank statements when they receive payouts, which helps them identify the transfer. Adyen passes the description that you provide to the recipient bank. Most banks show this description in the statement.

In some regions, banks combine the description and reference for beneficiary in a single field. This means that the number of characters visible in bank statements apply to both the description and reference for beneficiary combined. For example, consider a transfer request with the following values:

• description: Payment for service - June 30
• referenceForBeneficiary: Payment from [YOUR_COMPANY_NAME]

In this case, the information appears in the bank statement as follows:

• Payment for service - June 30 Payment from [YOUR_COMPANY_NAME]

If the length of the text exceeds the character limit of the bank statement, the text is truncated.

You can configure default descriptions by reaching out to our Support Team. You can override the default description when you make a transfer request.

Character limits

The following tables show the character limits for each combination of currency and priority that Adyen supports.

Testing

To test the payout flow, make a POST /transfers request, where the currency and priority of the transfer request matches the values shown in the following tables.