ClearBank

API

GBP Accounts

GBP Payments

Multi-currency, FX, & SCT UK

Embedded Banking

Payment accounts

Payment accounts overview

Payment accounts are regular GBP accounts with more payment functionality than savings accounts. With a payment account, your customers can have direct debits and standing orders, and make day-to-day payments — among other features. They are suitable for Retail, Sole Trader, and business (Legal Entity) customers.

Payment accounts come in two subtypes: Current accounts and Transaction accounts:

  • Current accounts meet the definition of a Payment Account in both the Payment Account Regulations (PARs) and Payment Service Regulations (PSRs).
  • Transaction accounts also meet the PSR definition of a Payment Account, but they are less feature rich than a Current Account. For example, Transaction accounts do not support cash withdrawals.

Payment accounts are available to embedded banking partners by prior agreement with ClearBank. If you're interested in using this account type, please contact your Client Director.

Current accounts

Current accounts provide extensive payment functionality for customers. They support:

  • Issuance of a debit card against the account
  • Withdrawal of cash from the account
  • Execution of payments to third parties (refer to our FPS documentation)
  • Receipt of payments from third parties
  • Open Banking integration
  • Account switching

You can create a current account for a customer by calling our POST /accounts/sterling/v1/payment-accounts endpoint, and specifying "CurrentAccount" as the accountSubType.

Transaction accounts

Transaction accounts facilitate limited payment transactions for customers and are subject to fewer regulations. They support:

  • Execution of payments to third parties
  • Receipt of payments from third parties
  • Open Banking integration

You can create a transaction account for a customer by calling our POST /accounts/sterling/v1/payment-accounts endpoint, and specifying "TransactionAccount" as the accountSubType.

Endpoint

Create a Payment account

post/accounts/sterling/v1/payment-accounts

This endpoint is used to create a Payment (Transaction or Current) account.

Parameters

  • Authorization string, header, Required

    Your API Token, obtained from the ClearBank Portal.

  • DigitalSignature string, header, Required

    Signed hash of the body of the request. The hash is signed by your private key.

  • X-Request-Id string, header, Required

    A unique identifier for the request; valid for 24 hours, max length 83.

Request Payload (application/json)

  • ownerName string, Required

    The name used to identify the legal owner of the payment account.

    Minimum length
    0
    Maximum length
    140
    Pattern
    ^[^\|_\[\]<>^`~\\$]*$
  • sortCode string, Required

    The sort code that the account should be created under.

    Minimum length
    6
    Maximum length
    6
    Pattern
    ^\d{6}$
  • accountSubType string, Required

    The sub-type of the payment account.

    Enum array
    CurrentAccount, TransactionAccount
  • productId string, Required

    The product identifier of the account. It is used to determine the behaviour of the account.

    Pattern
    ^[a-fA-F0-9]{8}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{12}$
  • customers array, Required

    An array of customers that will hold the account. Use an array of size 1 to create an account for just one customer.

request

{
  "ownerName": "John Smith",
  "sortCode": "010203",
  "accountSubType": "CurrentAccount",
  "productId": "b391203e-2074-5220-b7ac-ff9320b15bdd",
  "customers": [
    "123278ab-05c5-5d8a-bba5-db43a578ee9f",
    "cf938d5b-c350-50a4-a4d1-cecb792ecdb6"
  ]
}
Code copied

Response (application/json)

  • 201 Created
  • 400 Bad Request
  • 404 Not Found
  • 422 Client Error

Created

{
  "account": {
    "accountId": "f5ef3805-d07b-5091-8d94-7a24be62a059",
    "productId": "b391203e-2074-5220-b7ac-ff9320b15bdd",
    "customers": [
      "123278ab-05c5-5d8a-bba5-db43a578ee9f",
      "cf938d5b-c350-50a4-a4d1-cecb792ecdb6"
    ],
    "accountName": "Payment Account",
    "ownerName": "John Smith",
    "iban": "GB12CLBK01020312345678",
    "bban": "CLBK01020312345678",
    "createdDateTime": "2024-01-01T12:34:56.789+00:00"
  },
  "halLinks": [
    {
      "name": "string",
      "href": "string",
      "templated": true
    }
  ]
}
Code copied

Bad Request

{
  "type": "../dictionary",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 100,
  "detail": "string",
  "instance": "../dictionary",
  "errors": {
    "property1": [
      "string"
    ],
    "property2": [
      "string"
    ]
  }
}
Code copied

Client Error

{
  "type": "../dictionary",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 100,
  "detail": "string",
  "instance": "../dictionary",
  "errors": {
    "property1": [
      "string"
    ],
    "property2": [
      "string"
    ]
  }
}
Code copied

Associated Webhooks

Webhooks