Account types

Connected accounts come in several types, each with different capabilities, onboarding requirements, and fund ownership models. Choosing the right account type is one of the first decisions you make when designing a connected account integration, because it affects what your customers can do, what compliance you need to implement, and what regions you can serve.

Business and individual accounts

Every connected account is either a business account or an individual account, depending on the type of customer your platform serves.

Business accounts are for platforms onboarding:

• Companies, corporations, or partnerships.
• Registered businesses with a legal entity.
• Merchants operating under a business structure.

Individual accounts are for platforms onboarding:

• Service providers operating as individuals.
• Consumers in card issuing or wallet use cases.

The business vs. individual distinction primarily affects what information you must collect during onboarding. Business accounts require company registration details and beneficial ownership information, while individual accounts require personal identity documents. See Compliance and risk overview for verification requirements per account type.

Account capability tiers

Beyond business vs. individual, connected accounts are also categorized by capability tier: ledger, withdrawal, and full. Each tier defines different rules about fund ownership, what the account can do, and what compliance it requires.

Ledger accounts

In a ledger account, funds remain the property of the platform rather than the account holder. The account is used to track balances and transactions in the platform's ledger.

Ledger accounts require minimal onboarding—light screening only, with no full identity verification required. This makes onboarding faster and broader geographic coverage possible. Ledger accounts suit marketplaces or platforms that retain ownership of funds while distributing them to participants, accepting the trade-off between simpler onboarding and reduced account capabilities. See Ledger account model for a sample integration.

Withdrawal accounts

In a withdrawal account, funds belong to the account holder. The account can receive and hold funds and make payouts to external bank accounts. Withdrawal accounts cannot accept payments from end customers.

Withdrawal accounts require full identity verification. They suit treasury and payout use cases in markets where full connected accounts are not available—for example, platforms handling payroll, vendor payments, or freelancer disbursements that need wider geographic coverage than full accounts support.

Full connected accounts

Full connected accounts provide the account holder with the most comprehensive capability set. Funds belong to the account holder. In addition to everything a withdrawal account can do, full connected accounts can accept payments from end customers and can be enabled for card issuing.

Full connected accounts require full identity verification and, for business accounts in payment acceptance use cases, payment activation verification as well. They are the right choice for marketplace sellers, merchants, and platform users who need the complete Airwallex financial services offering.

Comparison

* Card issuing for withdrawal accounts is available for specific use cases with additional approval. Contact your Airwallex account manager for details.

Choosing the right account type

The right account type depends on your use case, your desired geographic reach, and the level of compliance complexity you can support.

Ledger accounts are the simplest to implement and offer the broadest geographic coverage, but they limit your customers' capabilities and don't give them legal ownership of their funds. If your platform model requires customers to own their money—or if they need to accept payments or hold cards—ledger accounts are not the right choice.

Withdrawal accounts are appropriate when your customers need to own their funds and have the ability to withdraw them, but don't need payment acceptance. They are also a practical choice when full connected accounts aren't available in the regions you need to serve.

Full connected accounts are the most capable and are required for marketplace payments (where sellers are Merchant of Record), Banking as a Service products, and any scenario where connected accounts need to accept payments from end customers.

Regional considerations

Not all account types are available in all regions. The availability of each tier depends on the Airwallex legal entity that serves that market and the regulatory framework in place. See Regional availability for the full list of supported markets. For questions about which account types are available in a specific region, contact your Airwallex account manager.