Changes to verification requirements

As part of Adyen's ongoing efforts to maintain high verification standards and to comply with local regulations, we started requiring additional information as part of our sub-merchant onboarding procedures since July 15, 2021. The new requirements will be enforced for all platforms as of August 1, 2022. The new information allows us to verify data from sub-merchants better and to ensure compliance with regulations specific to each country of business.

On this page, you will learn about these updates and what you need to do to prepare for these changes.

New requirements

• Distinguish between types of shareholders
• Identify signatories
• Identify nationality of natural persons residing in Hong Kong or Singapore
• Collect principal place of business address
• Collect information about parent company
• Collect company Tax Identification Number depending on customer risk classification
• Stop collecting information about gender

Types of shareholders

Shareholders can be of two types:

• Owner: Individuals who directly or indirectly own 25% or more of the total shares, voting rights or other equity in the organization.
• Controller: Any individuals who exercise ultimate effective control in making decisions for the whole company. If such an individual cannot be identified, then members of senior management must be identified as controllers. We do not limit the number of controllers you can add, but we require that you provide at least one shareholder (owner or controller) for sub-merchants operating in the European Economic Area (EEA). For sub-merchants operating in non-EEA countries, we require that you provide at least one controller.
• Signatory: Officers or representatives who legally represent the organization towards Adyen and are authorised to enter a binding agreement with Adyen on behalf of their organization. All signatories must be identified.

Acceptable jobTitle values include:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Operating Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Chief Strategy Officer
• President
• Vice President
• Executive President
• Managing Member
• General Partner
• Managing Partner
• Partner
• Treasurer
• Director

If you need to use a different value, you can specify that value in the jobTitle field.

Signatories

We introduce signatories — natural persons that are authorized to act on behalf of or represent the sub-merchant in their relation towards Adyen. We require that such individuals are identified by providing their name, job title, residence address, date of birth, email address, and phone number. Depending on their country of residence, the signatory's ID information may also be required. We do not limit the number of signatories you can add but we require that you provide at least one.

Nationality of persons residing in Hong Kong or Singapore

For individual account holders, shareholders, and signatories that have an address in Hong Kong or Singapore, Adyen requires information about the nationality of the account holder.

Principal place of business address

If a business's principal place of business is different from its registered address accountHolder.address, Adyen requires this to be identified through the principalBusinessAddress field. The country of the principal place of business and registered address must be the same. The principal place of business address cannot be a PO Box.

Parent company information

For sub-merchants that are 100% subsidiaries of companies listed on public stock exchanges or other regulated markets, we require the following:

• stockExchange: The 4-character market identifier code, following the ISO Standard format. Here's a complete list of supported stock exchanges. For parent companies in the US, this means the companies are listed in the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE American, or NASDAQ.
• One of either stockNumber or stockTicker:
  • stockNumber is the ISIN, a 12-character alphanumeric code, and is defined in ISO 10383.
  • stockTicker is free format.

Company Tax Identification Number

Adyen requires the merchant to provide a Tax Identification Number (TIN) for all business sub-merchants that have processed more than USD 1,000. The following list contains TINs for each country.

For countries that have two TINs available, provide either one. For countries that are not listed, the Tax Identification Number and Business Registration Number are the same.

Gender information

Adyen will no longer require the gender field for individuals and shareholders.

Verification notifications

Signatories also go through the verification process similar to shareholders. We will keep you informed about the status through our ACCOUNT_HOLDER_VERIFICATION notifications.

Here are the examples of identity verification notifications:

Here are the examples of passport verification notifications:

What do I need to do

Here are the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the new verification requirements. Choose your implementation option and proceed with the corresponding instructions:

• Hosted Onboarding Page (HOP)
• Build your own implementation

Hosted Onboarding Page

Existing sub-merchants

For existing sub-merchants, we might request additional information from them during our periodic risk assessments. Notify your existing sub-merchants about the upcoming changes and start the verification process when requested by Adyen.

To check which information has been already provided, use the /getAccountHolder endpoint.

New sub-merchants

If you are onboarding a new sub-merchant using HOP, Adyen will take care of requesting the necessary information as described in Step 2 of the HOP integration page.

Alternatively, you can collect all the required information in advance and provide it when creating an account using the /createAccountHolder endpoint.

Build your own implementation

Existing sub-merchants

For existing sub-merchants, use the /updateAccountHolder endpoint to provide the above-mentioned required information when requested by Adyen.

To check which information has been already provided, use the /getAccountHolder endpoint.

New sub-merchants

If you are onboarding a new sub-merchant, proceed with the provided instructions:

1. Create an account holder.
2. Collect the above-mentioned required information.
3. Use the /updateAccountHolder endpoint to send this information to Adyen as described in Step 2.
4. Follow the rest of the steps from the Custom onboarding page.

Alternatively, you can collect all the required information in advance and provide it when creating an account using the /createAccountHolder endpoint. Then, skip steps 2 and 3.

See also