Within Dwolla, the sending party must always have a verified funding source. Since your Customer is the one sending funds, they will need to both add and verify their bank funding source before being eligible to send funds.
The destination party, or the party receiving funds, does not need to have a verified funding source to receive these funds.
There are multiple ways of adding a bank to a Customer with the Dwolla API. A simplified table below outlines the similarities and differences of each method.
Bank Addition Method | Will the bank be verified? | Required Information |
---|---|---|
API - Account & Routing Number | Optional - With Microdeposits | Bank Account and Routing Number |
Dwolla + Open Banking | Yes | Online banking credentials |
Drop-in components | Optional - With Microdeposits | Bank Account and Routing Number |
Dwolla + Plaid integration | Yes | Online banking Credentials |
Dwolla + Secure Exchange solution | Yes | Online banking credentials |
Other Approved Third-party Provider | Yes | Variable |
In this step, we will create and attach a verified funding source to your Customer using Dwolla's Open Banking solution with Visa, a leading Open Banking service provider that Dwolla partners with. This method will give your Customers the ability to add and verify their bank account in a matter of seconds by authenticating using their online banking credentials.
Once your Customer reaches the page in your application to add a bank account, you will use Open Banking with Visa to authenticate the user's bank account. This involves initiating an Exchange Session with Dwolla, guiding the user through the verification process with their bank, and then using the Exchange details to create a funding source in Dwolla.
To integrate Open Banking with Visa, we recommend checking out our integration guide. Additionally, if you would like to see a working example that verifies a bank using Open Banking with Visa and attaches it as a verified funding source to a Dwolla Customer, please check out our open-banking/visa integration example on our GitHub profile.
If you have an active webhook subscription, you should receive both the customer_funding_source_added
and customer_funding_source_verified
webhooks immediately following the request to Dwolla to add a funding source using Open Banking.
All funds transfers made using the Dwolla Platform are performed by a financial institution partner, and any funds held in a Dwolla Balance are held by a financial institution partner. Learn more about our financial institution partners.