All Merchants processing on the Platform are required to have at least one U.S.-based bank account on file. Therefore, new Merchants are prompted to enter their bank account during the onboarding process. This document will guide you through the process of adding additional bank accounts for Merchants that are already boarded or integrating new bank accounts in the future.

Merchant Bank Account Types and Requirements

All Merchants boarded to the Platform are required to have an active U.S.-based bank account on file. A bank account serves two purposes for a Merchant:

Account for Deposits - A required bank account on file to receive deposits from Available Balance funds.
Account for Debits - A required bank account on file to be debited to cover Negative Balances owed.

Merchants can use one bank account on file for both payouts and debits, individual bank accounts for deposits and debits, or multiple bank accounts with unique, individual purposes.

Merchant Bank Account Validation

As a Payment Facilitator, the Platform validates any bank account submitted by a Merchant. This validation includes active status, type of account, & ownership and prevents funds from being sent to an incorrect bank account as the result of a typo or invalid information.

To perform the validation, the Platform uses Plaid to allow Merchants to link their bank account(s) for instant validation using a Portal lightbox to securely log in to their bank for integration.

For instances where a Merchant attempts to manually add new bank information or change existing bank information, follow the Manual Account Validation process below:

Manual Merchant Bank Account Validation

If a Merchant manually submits their bank account, they are required to submit documentation to Platform Risk for account validation.

When entering information in the Portal for a new bank account manually, like account and routing numbers, a file upload window at the bottom of the form requires a document file to be uploaded before the form can be submitted.

This can also be achieved using the API. See the steps below:

Click here to see API code examples for submitting supporting bank account documents.

Submit Bank Account Supporting Documents using the API

URL

POST https://api.payrix.com/noteDocuments

Header

Content-Type:application/json
APIKEY:{{private_api_key}}

Request Body

{
  "note": "{{Note_ID}}",
  "type": "PNG",
  "documentType": "voidCheck",
  "description": "Description of file"
}

Example Response

{
    "response": {
        "data": [
            {
                "id": "{{Document_ID}}",
                "created": "2024-08-18 13:22:51.2252",
                "modified": "2024-08-18 13:22:51.2252",
                "creator": "{{createdByUserId}}",
                "modifier": "{{createdByUserId}}",
                "note": "{{Note_ID}}",
                "custom": null,
                "type": "PNG",
                "documentType": "voidCheck",
                "name": null,
                "description": "Description of File",
                "status": "created",
                "inactive": 0,
                "frozen": 0
            }
        ],
        "details": {
            "requestId": 1
        },
        "errors": []
    }
}

Qualifying Bank Account Supporting Documentation is:

A Void Check,
A Bank Letter, or;
A Bank Statement.

New Bank Account/Update Approval Period

For new bank accounts or existing bank accounts having account or routing numbers updated, manual review of the supporting document(s) is required for approval and can take up to 5 business days.

Payment Funding Uninterrupted During Approval Period

During the 5 day manual review and approval period, all payments processed will still be funded to your Portal account’s available balance and will be ready for immediate withdrawal to your bank account, once validated.

Minor Updates to Existing Bank Accounts

For existing bank accounts, supporting documents are only required if the routing or account number fields are being updated.

Link a Bank Account with Plaid

With Plaid enabled Merchants will be prompted to go through the bank account linking process as they sign up.

This process will require the Merchant to submit their confidential online banking login and should only be completed by one of the Merchant’s users directly and not by anyone else on the Merchant’s behalf.

Linking a New Bank Account with Plaid

This process will require the Merchant to submit their confidential online banking login and should only be completed by one of the Merchant’s users directly and not by anyone else on the Merchant’s behalf.

Click here to see Portal steps for linking a new bank account with Plaid.

Step 1: Navigate to the Merchants page within the Management category.

Step 2: Click on the desired Merchant to bring up their Merchant Profile.

Step 3: Click the Banking tab on the left.

Step 4: Click the ADD NEW ACCOUNT button in the upper right-hand corner.

Step 5: Click the LINK ACCOUNT button in the lightbox and select the type of usage: Billing, Deposits, or All.

Step 6: Click the LINK NEW ACCOUNT button in the lightbox to reveal the Plaid integration lightbox.

Step 7: Complete each Plaid prompt:

Click the Continue button to accept the Plaid End User Privacy Policy
Click the Continue to Login button after selecting the information you’d like to share from the checkboxes available to redirect to your banking institution’s online account login.
Click each checkbox next to the banking account(s) you’d like to add to your Merchant account and click the Continue button at the bottom of the lightbox.
Click on the Terms and Conditions checkbox to acknowledge and accept the terms and information being shared. Then, click the Connect account information button.
Click the final Continue button to complete the process.

Notice of Tokenized Account Numbers (TANs)

Some banking institutions, such as Chase Bank, utilize a tokenized account number or TAN for each individual third party integration of a users bank account.

This security practice protects your original bank account and routing numbers by never allowing them to actually be seen by any third party integration.

This means that if your TAN is ever compromised, a new one can be generated after contacting Chase Bank as opposed to the more time-consuming process of closing and re-opening a new account.

As a result, you may notice upon completing an integration with Chase Bank that the account and routing number shown in the Portal will not match your original account and routing number.

This is expected. Contact Chase Bank or visit Chase Bank’s Developer article regarding TANs if you have further questions or concerns.

How to Manually Add a New Bank Account

If a Merchant’s bank is not eligible for use with Plaid, or if they wish to skip the Plaid process, they can also manually add a new bank account.

There are two methods available to manually add a new bank account:

Using the Portal to enter bank account information and upload documentation in the Merchant Profile.
Using the API to enter the information using the /accounts endpoint and submit documentation separately.

Note: Manually adding a bank account requires a manual review of supporting documents to approve the addition.

See the Manual Validation Process above for more information on qualifying support documents, and the manual review approval period timeline.

Manually Adding a New Bank Account in the Portal

The Portal uses the Banking tab within the Merchant Profile to update or add new bank account information to a specific Merchant. In instances where a Merchant’s banking institution does not currently integrate with Plaid, or the Merchant would like to manually add the account, this option is useful.

Click here to see Portal steps for manually adding a new bank account.

To manually add a new bank account in the portal, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Navigate to the Merchants page within the Management category.

Step 2: Click on the desired Merchant to bring up their Merchant Profile.

Step 3: Click the Banking tab on the left.

Step 4: Click the ADD NEW ACCOUNT button in the upper right-hand corner.

Step 5: Click the ADD ACCOUNT MANUALLY button in the lightbox and view the prompt below:

“Adding a new bank account will take up to 5 business to verify, you can continue to use your current bank account until your new account is confirmed

You will be required to upload a void check, bank statement, or bank letter to verify your account, Thank you for helping to keep your account safe.”

Step 6: Click Continue on the prompt, then click the ENTER ACCOUNT MANUALLY button.

Step 7: Enter the Type of bank account, Routing & Account Number, and Usage Options

Click ADVANCED OPTIONS to add an optional bank account name and description.

Step 8: Upload one of the qualifying support documents into the Upload and attach files field.

Step 9: Click the ADD button to complete the process.

Note: You will not be able to use this manually added account for up to 5 business days from update or creation.

Click here to view all fields and descriptions for the Add Bank Account form.

“Add Bank Account” fields & descriptions

Field	Required	Description
Type	Required	From the dropdown menu, select what time of bank account is being added. Valid Values: Checking Savings Corporate Checking Corporate Savings It is important to specify if a bank account is a corporate or personal account.
Routing Number	Required	Enter the 9-digit routing number associated with this bank account.
Account Number	Required	Enter the account number associated with this bank account.
Usage	Required	From the dropdown menu, select whether this bank account will be utilized for deposits, debits, or both (All).
Bank Account Name (Advanced Options)	Optional	You can give the new bank account a custom name to differentiate from other bank accounts on file.
Account Description (Advanced Options)	Optional	Use this field to give the bank account a custom description if desired.

Manually Adding a New Bank Account using the API

Bank accounts can also be manually submitted using the API by sending a POST request to the /accounts endpoint. In the body of the request, you will include the Entity ID of the Merchant, as well as the data for the below fields.

You can find the full description of this resource in our API Reference.

Click here to see API code examples for adding a new bank account.

Adding a new Bank Account - Example Code Snippet