Requesting Counterparty User Information

If you are building an UMA implementation for a regulated financial institution, you may need to collect certain information about the counterparty user to perform pre-transaction screening and compliance checks. The UMA protocol facilitates this exchange of information via the requested payer and payee data fields.

By default, UMA requires counterparties to exchange:

For sanctions screening checks, in accordance with your jurisdiction and regulatory obligations, we recommend requesting (and be willing to provide):

Important: Only require the minimum information you absolutely need. Making fields mandatory can limit compatibility with counterparties. As a good rule of thumb, only request information you'd be willing to provide yourself. If a data field isn't essential for your regulatory obligations or use case, avoid making it required. If you would like some information but don't need to block the transaction on having it, it should be marked as optional.

The resulting payerData may look something like the following:

{
  "payerData": {
    "name": { "mandatory": true },
    "birthDate": { "mandatory": true },
    "countryOfResidence": { "mandatory": true },
    "email": { "mandatory": false },
    "phoneNumber": { "mandatory": false }
  }
}

We strongly recommend following the standard format shown below when sharing information with counterparties, and when handling information that you receive from counterparties. Failure to do so may result in your counterparty rejecting the transaction.

There may be cases where you require more information than the standard recommendation. The UMA Protocol is flexible to accommodate these needs, but note that not all VASPs may have access to or be willing to share additional information. Requiring extensive information may limit the number of eligible counterparties in the UMA network.

Examples of additional information that can be requested:

{
  "line1": "123 Main St",
  "line2": "Apt 4B",
  "city": "Los Angeles",
  "state": "CA",
  "country": "US",
  "postalCode": "12345"
}