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Pay By Bank

Overview

Account Information Services (AIS) enables secure, real-time access to account data across financial institutions in the supported markets. You can retrieve and deliver account details instantly, view real-time balances, and access account activity for permitted accounts. This API supports both core and modern payment rails.

Capabilities

AIS is a unified solution that provides secure, real-time access to customer account information through a single API. With the AIS, you can:

  • Unified data access: Access account information services in the supported markets, including long-term account linking, account validation, and account information reports.
  • Long-term account access: Securely connect to consumer accounts for real-time access to account details.
  • Account information reports: Retrieve account information summary reports, including consumer payment account details, balances, and transaction history.

What you can build

Customer Onboarding

Instantly verify customer identity and account ownership during sign-up by securely connecting their bank accounts.

Account Validation and Verification

Confirm account details, status, and ownership in real-time to prevent payment failures and reduce fraud.

Linking Accounts for Payments

Securely connect and authenticate customer bank accounts as a payment method for Pay by Bank transactions.

Initiating Subscriptions

Validate and link customer accounts upfront to establish reliable recurring payment arrangements.

How it works

AIS offers you secure access to customer payment account information, such as account number and party information, in real-time through APIs.

The AIS API supports three key actions:

  1. Initiate consent: Submit a request for customers to provide access to their bank account information.
  2. Retrieve account information: Get real-time responses with requested account information directly from the customer’s financial institution.
  3. Receive real-time status updates: Enable callbacks for automatic status updates of account information requests, or manually check the status of requests.

The following diagram shows the high-level, end-to-end flow for AIS API calls.

Global AIS Diagram

Account Information Service (AIS)

Account Information Service enables clients to request customer account data through a consent-based flow.

  1. Client sends an account information request to the API Layer.
  2. API Layer routes the request to the Experience Layer to load the consent interface.
  3. Customer authorizes data sharing at their Financial Institution.
  4. Financial Institution authenticates the customer and shares the requested account information.
  5. API Layer returns the account information or exception to the Client.

Callbacks (Webhooks)

Callbacks allow asynchronous delivery of account information directly from the Financial Institution.

  1. Financial Institution authenticates and prepares the requested account information.
  2. API Layer receives the callback with account data from the Financial Institution.
  3. Client receives the account information or exception notification.

Retrieve Account Information

Retrieve Account Information allows clients to directly access customer account data with pre-authorized permissions.

  1. Client sends an authenticated request to the API Layer to retrieve account information.
  2. API Layer verifies the client's identity and authorization.
  3. Financial Institution validates permissions and shares the requested account information.
  4. API Layer returns the account information or exception to the Client.

Availability

AIS is available in North America (United States) and EU (United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and Austria). The following table details which features are available in each region.

AIS Availability
Feature Description U.S. EU
Continuous access Maintain long-term access to customer account data beyond initial authentication, enabling continuous balance monitoring and transaction tracking. ✔  
Manual account linking Allow customers to manually enter and verify their bank account details as an alternative to automated connection. ✔  
One-time access Retrieve account information and transaction data through a single authorization session without persistent access permissions.   ✔

How to

Initiate an AIS request

Initiate and send an AIS request.

Retrieve account information

Access customer account information securely.

Next steps

Complete the onboarding process to make sure you have everything you need. For more information, see Getting started.