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About KYC Verification
Some Marqeta card programs require account holders to pass Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification before being allowed to transact. For example, KYC verification is required for reloadable cards because of regulatory mandates.
For more information about account holders, see About Account Holders.
For information about performing KYC verification tasks using the Marqeta platform, see KYC Verification.
What is KYC verification?
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Know Your Customer means that you must ensure that your customers are who they say they are. Regulations such as the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering law (BSA/AML) require that financial institutions handling your funds perform identity verification to help limit suspicious or fraudulent activity. When this verification process is applied to a business, it is referred to as Know Your Business (KYB).
KYC verification answers these important questions:
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Is the individual (represented by the
userresource) or company (represented by thebusinessresource) who or what they claim to be? -
Does the individual or company have a history of suspicious or fraudulent activity?
When is KYC verification required?
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KYC verification is required for user and business account holders when:
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The account holder’s card is reloadable.
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The account holder can access cash from their card, such as by ATM or cashback.
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The account holder can transact internationally.
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The card’s account balance exceeds $1000 USD.
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Funding for the holder’s account could come from somewhere other than the program funding source, such as by ACH or direct deposit.
Additionally, Marqeta must perform KYC verification on the proprietor or an officer of a business during the onboarding process. For privately held companies, Marqeta must perform KYC verification on all beneficial owners. A beneficial owner is a person who owns 25% or more of the company.
What information is required for KYC verification?
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To perform KYC verification for an individual (including sole proprietors, business officers, and beneficial owners), you must provide the following information in the relevant user resource:
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First and last name
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Address (PO Boxes are not acceptable)
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Street address
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City
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State
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Postal code
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Country code (ISO alpha-2 format)
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Date of birth
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Social Security Number (SSN)
For detailed information about the user resource, see Users.
To perform KYC verification for a company, you must provide the following information in the relevant business resource:
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Legal business name
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Fictitious business name ("Doing Business As" or DBA)
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Business office address (PO Boxes are not acceptable)
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Street address
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City
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State
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Postal code
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Country code (ISO alpha-2 format)
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Business phone number (for example, +15105551212)
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Date the business was established
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Incorporation type of the business
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State in which the business is incorporated
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Taxpayer identification number for the business
For detailed information about the business resource, see Businesses.
How can I perform KYC verification?
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To perform KYC verification for an individual or company, first ensure that you have provided the required information in the relevant user or business resource as described in the preceding section.
After you have provided the required information in the relevant resource, you can perform KYC verification by sending a POST request with the relevant user_token or business_token to the /kyc endpoint.
For detailed information about performing KYC verification using the Marqeta platform, see Perform KYC.
To view the results of your requested KYC verification, send a GET request to the /kyc/{token} endpoint, where {token} is the relevant user_token or business_token.
For detailed information about retrieving KYC verification results, see Retrieve KYC result.
KYC can be performed twice on any given individual or company account holder.
You can view a list of all KYC verification results for a user by sending a GET request to the /kyc/user/{usertoken} endpoint.
For more information, see List KYC results for user.
You can view a list of all KYC verification results for a business by sending a GET request to the /kyc/business/{business_token} endpoint.
For more information, see List KYC results for business.
What happens if KYC verification fails?
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If an individual or company fails KYC verification, Marqeta escalates the verification to the KYC provider.
If supported by the KYC provider, the Marqeta platform provides the option to present user account holders with challenge questions after they initially fail verification.
Challenge questions allow a higher percentage of users to pass KYC.
Challenge questions are defined by the KYC provider and returned in the KYC verification response. Challenge questions might include verifying a street address associated with the account holder, for example.
If the KYC verification result for a user returns with a questions field, you can send a PUT request to the /kyc/{token} endpoint to update the KYC verification request with answers to the challenge questions.
You must obtain the answers to the challenge questions from the user.
For detailed information about updating a KYC verification request with answers to challenge questions, see Update KYC with answers.
You cannot present business account holders with challenge questions.
For business account holders and user account holders for whom challenge questions are not supported, Marqeta performs a manual review.
In such cases, the account holder may be required to provide additional documents as proof of identity.