Using tokens to securely transmit account data

Connect platforms can use Stripe.js to securely collect account details from their users.

Before charges and payouts are enabled for connected accounts, Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements need to be fulfilled. This is completed by providing Stripe with identity verification information about your users, which we then verify. Account tokens and person tokens provide a secure and reliable way to perform this task. Tokens ensure that personally identifiable information (PII) doesn’t touch your servers, so your integration can operate in a PCI-compliant way. These tokens also allow Stripe to more accurately detect potential fraud.

Tokens can be used only for:

Legal entity details (information about the business or individual)
Person details
Indicating acceptance of the Stripe Connected Account Agreement

Tokens cannot be used for any other account information, including:

Configuration settings on the account (for example, payout schedules)
Non-sensitive info on the account (for example, support url, support phone number)
The country of the connected account

Tokens are created using Stripe.js or one of the mobile client libraries. The process is effectively the same as tokenizing payment details or external accounts. Your user’s information is sent directly to Stripe and exchanged for a token that can be used in create and update API calls.

French platforms must use account tokens, which are an alternative to the agent model for platform PSD2 compliance. The key benefit of tokens for French platforms is that information is transferred from the user directly to Stripe. Not having to store PII data is still a benefit, but not necessarily a requirement. For platforms in other countries, account tokens are optional but recommended.

Creating and using tokens

Tokens require both client-side and server-side code:

Create the HTML form that takes the user’s input.
Add JavaScript that sends the form data to Stripe, receives a token in return, and submits that token to your server.
Use the token in a server-side Stripe API call.

The example on this page shows how to use account tokens and person tokens. Both types are required when providing legal entity and person details for companies. If you onboard only individuals, you do not need person tokens. Instead, create account tokens and pass the individual hash on the Account object to provide the required information.

Step 1: Create an HTML form

The first step is to create an HTML form that collects the required information for the account and the person. This includes acceptance of the Stripe Connected Account Agreement.

Collecting account and person details

Create form elements to collect the required information, such as name, address, and anything else that’s required in the user’s country.

form.html

<form class="my-form" action="/create-person" method="post">
  <input type="hidden" name="token-account" id="token-account">
  <input type="hidden" name="token-person" id="token-person">
  <label>
    <span>Business Name</span>
    <input class="inp-company-name">
  </label>
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Business Address</legend>
    <label>
      <span>Street Address Line 1</span>

Presenting the Stripe Connected Account Agreement

Platforms must make clear to their users that processing of payments is provided subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. Indicating acceptance of the Stripe Connected Account Agreement is required when using an account token to create a new connected account.

We recommend you include language like the following, including links to both our agreement and your terms of service.

<p>By clicking, you agree to <a href="#">our terms</a> and the <a href="/connect-account/legal">Stripe Connected Account Agreement</a>.</p>

Step 2: Add JavaScript

Next, the page needs JavaScript that:

Interrupts the form submission.
Calls the stripe.createToken() method to request account and person tokens.
Sends the IDs of the received tokens to your server.

For simplicity, data validation and error handling are omitted in the below code, but remember to add both to your actual integration.

Provide to the stripe.createToken() method two arguments:

The value account or person, to specify the kind of token to create
A generic object of information

The JavaScript object provided as the second argument needs to parallel the structure of the Account or Person object you are tokenizing. Account tokens need either a top-level company or individual property, and person tokens need a top-level person property. Follow the object’s structure through all the required attributes. For example, line1 within address in the code block below is provided as person.address.line1.

To represent the user’s acceptance of the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, provide a top-level tos_shown_and_accepted property with a value of true (only account tokens are used for this).

You must still use tokens—to create or update a person—using server-side code. You can send the token ID to your server using whatever approach makes sense for your application (for example, an XHR request). For simplicity, this code example stores the token ID in a hidden form input and then submits the form.

script.js

// Assumes you've already included Stripe.js!
const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');
const myForm = document.querySelector('.my-form');
myForm.addEventListener('submit', handleForm);

async function handleForm(event) {
  event.preventDefault();

  const accountResult = await stripe.createToken('account', {
    business_type: 'company',
    company: {
      name: document.querySelector('.inp-company-name').value,
      address: {
        line1: document.querySelector('.inp-company-street-address1').value,
        city: document.querySelector('.inp-company-city').value,
        state: document.querySelector('.inp-company-state').value,
        postal_code: document.querySelector('.inp-company-zip').value,
      },
    },
    tos_shown_and_accepted: true,
  });

  const personResult = await stripe.createToken('person', {
    person: {
      first_name: document.querySelector('.inp-person-first-name').value,
      last_name: document.querySelector('.inp-person-last-name').value,
      address: {
        line1: document.querySelector('.inp-person-street-address1').value,
        city: document.querySelector('.inp-person-city').value,
        state: document.querySelector('.inp-person-state').value,
        postal_code: document.querySelector('.inp-person-zip').value,
      },
    },
  });

  if (accountResult.token && personResult.token) {
    document.querySelector('#token-account').value = accountResult.token.id;
    document.querySelector('#token-person').value = personResult.token.id;
    myForm.submit();
  }
}

Upon successfully receiving the tokens from Stripe, the JavaScript stores the token IDs in a hidden form input and then submits the form (to your server). The final steps are for your server-side code to use the tokens to create an account and a person.

Step 3: Create an account

Using the ID of the account token, create the account (the country and business type are provided outside the token).

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc: \
  -d country=US \
  -d type=custom \
  -d "capabilities[card_payments][requested]"=true \
  -d "capabilities[transfers][requested]"=true \
  -d account_token=ct_GcbCQ1lBFIx9RUe7YiEtiWfq

The date, ip, and user_agent attributes of the Account object’s tos_acceptance attribute are automatically populated by setting tos_shown_and_accepted to true in the token creation. (In a normal create account call not involving an account token, values for these must be specifically provided.)

Make sure to note the account ID that’s returned so that you can use it to create person objects for the account.

Step 4: Create a person

Create a person by providing the ID of the person token as the value for the person_token parameter (you also need the account ID the person is for). You can use the requirements hash on the Account object to determine what information needs to be collected and from which persons.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}/persons \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "first_name"="Jane" \
  -d "last_name"="Diaz" \
  -d "person_token"="pt_BcgCQ1lBFIx9RUe7YiEtiWfq"

Creating account tokens with the mobile SDKs

You can also create an account token with our Android or iOS SDKs. Note that currently only account tokens are supported on mobile. This is sufficient for creating an individual account, but you must use Stripe.js to create the person token that you need for a company account. Support for person tokens in the mobile SDKs will be available in a future release.

import UIKit
import Stripe

let companyParams = STPConnectAccountCompanyParams()
companyParams.name = company.name
companyParams.address.line1 = company.address_line_1
companyParams.address.city = company.address_city
companyParams.address.state = company.address_state
companyParams.address.country = company.address_country
companyParams.address.postalCode = company.address_postal_code

let accountParams = STPConnectAccountParams(tosShownAndAccepted: true, company: companyParams)

STPAPIClient.shared().createToken(withConnectAccount: accountParams) { (accountToken, error) in
    if let error = error {
        // display an error to your user
    }
    else {
        // use account token to create a Connect account server-side
    }
}

Handling a file upload

When a user needs to provide Stripe with a scan of an identity document (for example, a passport), you can also do this through an account token. However, the JavaScript required is a bit more complicated as the file must be sent to Stripe as part of an XHR request. In this flow, the JavaScript:

Interrupts the form submission.
If a file was uploaded, sends that to Stripe, receiving a file token in return.
Adds the file token ID to the generic object for the account token request.
Calls the stripe.createToken() method to request a token.
Sends the ID of the received account token to your server for use.

To begin, add a file element to the form. The uploaded file needs to be a color image (smaller than 8,000px by 8,000px), in JPG, PNG, or PDF format, and less than 10MB in size.

<input type="file" id="id-file" name="id-file" accept=".jpeg,.jpg,.png">

Next, in your JavaScript that handles the form’s submission, send the uploaded file to Stripe. This needs to happen before creating the account token.

const data = new FormData();
data.append('file', document.querySelector('#id-file').files[0]);
data.append('purpose', 'identity_document');
const fileResult = await fetch('https://uploads.stripe.com/v1/files', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Authorization': 'Bearer pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx
'},
  body: data,
});
const fileData = await fileResult.json();

Finally, include the returned file ID as the verification[document][front] value in the generic object provided to the createToken() call:

const result = await stripe.createToken('account', {
  person: {
    first_name: document.querySelector('.inp-first-name').value,
    last_name: document.querySelector('.inp-last-name').value,
    address: {
      line1: document.querySelector('.inp-street-address1').value,
      city: document.querySelector('.inp-city').value,
      state: document.querySelector('.inp-state').value,
      postal_code: document.querySelector('.inp-zip').value,
    },
    verification: {
        document: {
            front: fileData.id,
            },
        },
    },
  tos_shown_and_accepted: true,
});

Updating legal entity and person details

Tokens can be used to securely update an existing account’s legal entity and person information as well. Simply create the tokens you need using the same combination of HTML and JavaScript as above, and then perform an update account or update person call providing the new token ID.

Note that you must create and provide a new token when updating legal entity details previously set using an account token.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/{{CONNECTED_STRIPE_ACCOUNT_ID}} \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc: \
  -d account_token=ct_GcbCQ1lBFIx9RUe7YiEtiWfq

When using tokens for updates:

An existing value is replaced with a new value.
If no new value is provided, the existing value remains.
You cannot unset an existing value.
The tos_shown_and_accepted parameter is ignored and can be omitted.
You can use an account or person token for an update whether or not a token was originally used when creating the account or person.
If the account or person was originally created using an account token, you can only update values using another token.

For example, if an account is created with a token containing only a name and date of birth, you’d create a subsequent token containing only the address information and then perform an update account call to add the address details to the account.

Removing legal entity and person details

If you need to clear any legal entity or person details or explicitly set a value as null, you can only do so by providing empty strings as values in an update account or update person call. This is true whether you originally used a token or not. When removing information, you can only remove optional data (for example, the second line of an address). You can only update all other information, you can never remove it.

It is sometimes necessary to explicitly set an entity or person value as empty, such as when company[address][line2] needs to be set to null because the address doesn’t have an apartment, suite, or building number. In this case, you should also pass the null value using an update account call rather than using an account token.