As required by payment industry regulations, Adyen must verify the users in your platform 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. On this page, we describe:
When does Adyen verify users
Adyen verifies users before allowing them to do any action on your platform. These actions are called capabilities . The verification result determines if a user is allowed to use capabilities.
The following are the events that trigger verifications. For some events that are triggered after users are already allowed to use capabilities, Adyen might set a deadline to give them enough time to resolve verification issues.
When you request capabilities for your user
In the design phase, you set the default capabilities for your platform. 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 verifications, 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.
In case the updated data fails verification, Adyen might set a deadline by which the user should resolve the issues. They are allowed to continue using the capabilities while the deadline is active.
If the user does not resolve the verification issues in a timely manner, their capabilities will be disallowed.
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, Adyen might add a deadline by which the user must provide additional required data. They are still 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.
The diagrams in the next section show the process and the corresponding verification and capability statuses.
How the verification process works
The following diagrams illustrate the process for events that trigger verifications.
The illustrated verification process is as follows:
- You create an account holder or request new capabilities for your user.
- Adyen asynchronously checks if there are verification requirements that your user must fulfill.
- If the verification fails, user can fix the issues by providing new or updated data.
If the verification is successful, the user is allowed to use the capability.
Adyen sends all verification-related updates through webhooks. If Adyen has verified the information but found reasons to not allow the capability, the verification status will be rejected and the capability will not be allowed.
