If you are using Connect with Custom accounts, you will need to directly reach out and collect information from your connected accounts whenever verification requirements change. The easiest way to manage verification is to integrate Connect Onboarding, which lets Stripe take care of the verification complexity.
This article covers best practices for communicating with your connected accounts when you need to collect more information from them, as well as answers to a few common questions you may receive.
Here are a few considerations when creating an outreach plan.
Prepare your support team. Equip your support team with knowledge on how to answer inquiries from your connected accounts. Provide them responses to frequently asked questions.
Let your users know in advance. We recommend giving your Custom accounts ~6 weeks to provide additional required information. Build in time to account for people who may not be able to respond right away, or those that have changed their contact information and will require follow-up outreach.
Be clear. Compliance rules can be difficult to communicate. In this case, it’s helpful to consider including the following elements:
Context & rationale: Provide a reason for needing to collect more information.
Request: Ask for the specific information you need to collect.
Deadline: Reinforce when this information is due.
Next steps: Provide a clear action for your customers to take (commonly called a “call to action”).
Support outlet: Include a way to reach out with any additional questions (e.g., an email alias, help page, or phone number).
Set the right expectations. Global compliance requirements are evolving, so information requirements are often updated. If your connected accounts are concerned or have questions about needing to supply additional information, reinforce that this is expected and that there should be no issues with their accounts—you’re here to help them.
Here is an email template you can adapt as you reach out to your connected accounts:
Subject line: Please update your account information by [DATE]
Hello,
We’re reaching out to collect additional identity information for your business.
Please take a moment to update your information by [DATE]. This should take you less than 5 minutes. Payouts to your bank account will be paused if your information is not updated and verified by this date.
Why do I need to update information for my business?
Updating information about your business is required to help protect against fraud and stay current with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
How do I update my information?
We’ve listed the required information [IN YOUR DASHBOARD]. If you have any questions, please reply to this email, and we'll be happy to help.
Feel free to adapt any of these responses for any communications to your users.
In certain countries, we are required to collect, verify, and maintain information about a company’s owners or directors. These requirements come from government regulators and help promote transparency and prevent financial crimes.
No. Stripe account administrators can add information about a business’ beneficial owners on their behalf. If other members of your team would like to directly submit the required information, you will need to grant them administrator access to your Stripe account.
If you cannot update your account information by the deadline, payouts to your bank account and your ability to accept payments will be paused. We want to make sure that does not happen, so please let us know how we can help.
We are unable to provide extensions to the deadline. This should be a quick update—and we are here to guide you along the way. Please let us know how we can help.