Moov Account Types

Learn about the different types of Moov accounts and the basic requirements to start moving money.

Moov accounts fall into three categories based on how they interact with Moov’s platform and money movement flows: partner, business/merchant, connected, and individual. Moov assigns an accountID to all Moov accounts. Use this guide to understand Moov's account types and how to identify various ID use cases.

Connected account

Throughout our documentation, you may see the phrase connected account. A connected account is any account that is linked to another Moov account through shared scopes. A connected account can be a business or individual account.

A partner account can choose to grant scopes, such as transfers.read and transfers.write with any account onboarded via hosted onboarding.

Partner account

Partners are Moov’s direct customers—the platforms, SaaS providers, or marketplaces integrating with Moov’s API. Partners are responsible for initiating API calls, managing webhooks, and facilitating the overall user experience for their downstream users. An example of a partner account is a gig platform using Moov to pay their drivers and accept payments from customers.

As a partner, when you sign up for Moov, we'll create an account for you. Your partner account has different access to Moov's platform than other types of Moov accounts. A partner account:

• Holds Moov API keys and acts as the technical integrator
• Undergoes full underwriting and has a commercial agreement with Moov
• Controls onboarding, compliance flows, and payment initiation for users
• Provides embedded payments for users
• Functions as merchants if directly processing payments

Our API might explicitly ask for a partnerAccountID, or it might just ask for an accountID.

For example, when interacting with POST /accounts/{accountID}/transfers, you must specify your (partner)accountID.

Business accounts

The partner account creates and onboards additional Moov accounts. An example of a business account is a merchant that's a restaurant using a food delivery platform that runs on Moov to accept card payments. A merchant is typically the business end of the transaction, accepting payments or sending payouts.

The partner account is responsible for onboarding all merchant and connected accounts. If an account requires anything beyond the transfers capability, they must:

• Accept Moov's platform terms of service agreement
• Undergo the underwriting process
• Undergo Know Your Customer (KYC) verification

Merchant accounts may pay for processing directly, depending on their corresponding platform agreement with you (the partner) and Moov. You can set different processing fees per merchant.

Individual accounts

An individual account is an end-user or consumer who receives a payout or pays for goods and services. An example of an individual account is a delivery driver receiving payouts or a customer paying for a good or service through a merchant checkout flow.

Individual accounts:

• Represent the final party in a transaction flow
• Do not directly hold API credentials or control money movement
• May be charged processing fees (surcharges or transaction fees) depending on the partner or merchant’s configuration

Capabilities

You'll request access to capabilities when creating an account. Each capability has different requirements depending on whether the account is an individual or business. Familiarize yourself with capabilities requirements before creating an account (you can also request capabilities after account creation).

Click on the capability to view the requirements for each account type.

Depending on the capabilities requested for merchant Moov accounts, you may need to provide additional information about the account in order for Moov to start the automatic verification process.

Platform terms of service agreement

If an account requests a capability that requires acceptance of Moov's terms of service, you must display a link to the Moov platform agreement in your application. Use the terms of service Drop to collect user agreements.

Beneficial ownership

US state and federally regulated financial institutions are exempt from beneficial ownership requirements.

If you manually add accounts through the Dashboard or API, you'll be required to collect and send Moov beneficial ownership information.

Moov must verify beneficial ownership before a business account can send or collect funds. Owners are individuals who own 25% or more of the business. Moov also requires at least one control officer: someone with significant responsibility to manage the business, like an executive officer or director. Moov refers to these individuals collectively as business representatives.

Representatives can be created via the Dashboard or the API.

Dashboard

The Dashboard will bring you through the entire owner flow, which includes creating owners and providing ownership percentage. Once you finish the process, if any information is missing, you'll receive a notification in the Dashboard.

API

Use the POST representatives endpoint to create each owner. For each owner, set isOwner to true, as well as provide the ownershipPercentage. If a representative does not own ≥25% of the company, they are not considered a beneficial owner. You can set isOwner to false and leave the ownershipPercentage field blank.

Hosted onboarding

The easiest way to onboard accounts, and the only way to grant scopes, is through hosted onboarding in the Dashboard or API.

Hosted onboarding allows you to prefill information about accounts and send a secure link to the business or individual to complete. Depending on account type, capabilities, and processing history, they'll be required to provide various identity, ownership, and financial information.

Next steps

Familiarize yourself with Moov's capabilities and account requirements. When you're ready to create user accounts, see our create accounts or hosted onboarding guide.