Business Identification Guide (BKYC)

This guide explains how to integrate Solaris' Business Know Your Customer (BKYC) as a standalone product, including the mandatory information you must collect from your customers and the necessary endpoints and webhooks you must integrate into your solution.

Introduction

Product overview

What is BKYC?

Solaris' BKYC solution uses RESTful APIs to perform a series of identification and compliance checks for business customers.

How does BKYC work?

The business identification consists of two asynchronous processes:

• Legal identification: Solaris' Banking Operations team verifies the completeness and accuracy of the data submitted by the business customer and ensures that all legal representatives and ultimate beneficial owners are disclosed and linked to the business.
• Video identification(s): All of the business' legal representatives and authorized persons must undergo a video identification session with IDnow to validate their data against their identification documents.

Business identification overview

Onboarding a business involves collecting information and creating multiple resources using Solaris's API. This section describes the various legal entities and natural persons involved in onboarding a business, as well as the information you need to collect.

Business information

When you onboard a business, you must collect two different streams of information:

• Business information: Information about the business' legal entity, including the business name, registration number, tax information, business activities, etc.
• Person information: Information about all natural persons that run and/or legally represent the business. A business could involve multiple natural persons assigned to different roles. These roles include legal representatives, beneficial owners, signees, and authorized persons.

Business identification

Based on the information provided, businesses go through two types of identifications:

• Legal identification: Done by Solaris to identify the legal entity.
• Video identification: Done by our video identification service provider, IDnow, to identify the natural persons behind the business. Please note that only natural persons assigned to specific roles require video identification.

Business entities and roles

Legal person/entity

A company or a business includes a juridical person (the legal entity) and the natural person(s) who own and/or legally represent the business.

A legal person is a person or entity that can perform different legal actions on behalf of the business, such as entering into contracts, owning property, etc. There are two types of legal persons:

• Human legal persons (i.e., natural persons)
• Non-human legal persons, also known as juridical persons. This could be a corporation or a company. The law treats non-human legal persons as people.

Business

On Solaris's system, a business is a company's juridical person (the non-human legal person). A business must have at least one natural person attached to it, assigned to a specific role.

The natural persons attached to the business don't own the account. Instead, the business is the account holder, and a business can have multiple accounts.

Roles

The legal persons behind the business are assigned to different roles. Each person attached to a business plays at least one role: a legal representative, a beneficial owner, or both. A person could also act as a signee or an additional authorized person on the account.

The following roles are available on Solaris's system:

• Legal representative
• Ultimate beneficial owner
• Signee
• Authorized person

System prerequisites

Before starting the business identification process, you must implement the following requirements:

1. Technical setup:

Set up your environment and get your authentication keys. For step-by-step instructions, check the Technical setup guide.

2. Legal and compliance screens:

Build the necessary legal and compliance screens in your sign-up flow to collect your customers' consent to the necessary legal and compliance requirements. The Legal and compliance screens guide contains step-by-step instructions on how to create these screens and what they must contain.

Record the customer's consent on each screen as a UTC timestamp (e.g., 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z). Afterward, you must pass each timestamp in its respective field to Solaris.

• Collect the customer's consent to Solaris' Terms and Conditions and store the timestamp in the terms_conditions_signed_at field.
• Collect the customer's consent to data processing and store the timestamp in the data_terms_signed_at field.

Webhooks

Solaris recommends subscribing to the following webhook events to better automate your processes. For detailed instructions on implementing Solaris webhooks, check the webhooks documentation.

• BENEFICIAL_OWNER
• BUSINESS_CHANGED
• BUSINESS_DELETED
• BUSINESS_IDENTIFICATION
• IDENTIFICATION
• LEGAL_REPRESENTATIVE
• PERSON_CHANGED
• PERSON_DELETED
• PERSONMOBILENUMBER_CREATED
• PERSONMOBILENUMBER_DELETED

Integration flow

The following diagram gives an overview of the integration flow for BKYC stand-alone product:

Integration steps:

Identify business customers by completing the following steps:

Business registration

1. Collect the mandatory business data in your sign-up flow, and create a business resource for your customer by completing Step 1.
2. Upload the required business documents by completing Step 2.

Business natural person(s) registration

1. Collect the mandatory data from each of the business' legal representatives, including the consent to the legal and regulatory requirements in your sign-up flow, and create a person resource and assign the legal representative role to this person by completing Step 3.
2. Collect the mandatory data from each of the business' beneficial owner(s) in your sign-up flow, and create a person resource and assign the beneficial owner role to this person by completing Step 4.

Step 1: Collect business data and create business resource

In this step, you must collect the mandatory data points from the customer in your sign-up flow, including all the timestamps of the business's consent to the legal and compliance screens.

Afterward, you must pass all the data points to Solaris by creating a business resource to represent your customer.

API reference

For a complete list of endpoints, properties, and examples related to the business resource, visit the following links:

• Business resource API reference:

  • POST Create business
  • GET Retrieve business
  • PATCH Update business

Related webhook events

• BUSINESS_CHANGED
• BUSINESS_DELETED

POST Create business

This endpoint creates a business resource for your customer. Add the following mandatory data points you've collected from the customer in the request body of this endpoint:

Request URL

POST /v1/businesses

Response

The API call returns a business object with a unique business_id, which will be used to reference the created business in the remaining steps of the onboarding process.

Click here to view the full API reference.

Automatic data collection (Optional)

Simplify your customers' onboarding process by opting for the automatic data collection feature. With our external service provider, Business Registry, customers can enter the country and company name, and the remaining business data fields will be automatically filled out.

GET Search for business commercial registration

The customer enters the company's name and country on your frontend and you pass this information using the following endpoint to automatically fetch the business' registration_issuer and registration_number:

Request URL:

GET /v1/commercial_registrations/search_by_name?country={{}}&name={{}}

Example response

{
  "name": "FLOOR 13 GmbH",
  "registration_number": "HRB 198673",
  "registration_issuer": "AMTSGERICHT MÜNCHEN"
}

Click here to view the full API reference.

GET Automatic business data collection

Use the following endpoint to automatically retrieve the remaining business details after obtaining the registration_issuer and registration_number from the response of the previous endpoint:

Request URL:

GET /v1/commercial_registrations/find?registration_number={{}}&registration_issuer={{}}

Example response

{
  "name": "FLOOR 13 GmbH",
  "address": {
    "country": "DE",
    "postal_code": "86919",
    "city": "Utting a.Ammersee",
    "line_1": "Seestraße 9",
    "line_2": ""
  },
  "legal_form": "GMBH",
  "tax_country": "DE",
  "registration_number": "HRB 198673",
  "registration_issuer": "AMTSGERICHT MÜNCHEN",
  "registration_date": "2012-05-09",
  "registry_updated_at": "2015-11-17",
  "legal_representatives": [
    {
      "first_name": "Stefan",
      "last_name": "Schneider"
    }
  ]
  "commercial_registry_industry_key": [
      "66190 - Sonstige mit Finanzdienstleistungen verbundene Tätigkeiten",
      "70109 - Sonstige Verwaltung und Führung von Unternehmen und Betrieben",
      "70220 - Unternehmensberatung",
      "73110 - Werbeagenturen"
  ]  
}

Click here to view the full API reference.

Foreign companies examples

If the company is not registered in Germany, you can still use this service for companies in other countries. The following examples describe how to find the business registration details for a French company.

GET Search for business commercial registration (France)

Request

GET v1/commercial_registrations/search_by_name?name=PARISOL&country=FR

Response

{
  "name": "PARISOL",
  "registration_number": "513 937359",
  "registration_issuer": null
}

GET Automatic business data collection (France)

Request

GET  /v1/commercial_registrations/find?registration_number=513937359&country=FR

Response

{
  "name": "PARISOL",
  "address": {
    "country": "FR",
    "postal_code": null,
    "city": "NANTERRE",
    "line_1": "RUE D ARRAS 18",
    "line_2": ""
  },
  "legal_form": null,
  "tax_country": "FR",
  "registration_number": "513 937359",
  "registration_issuer": null,
  "registration_date": "2009-07-27",
  "registry_updated_at": null,
  "legal_representatives": [
    {
      "first_name": "Stefan",
      "last_name": "Schneider"
    }
  ]
}

Step 2: Upload business documents

In this step, you must create document resources for all the required documents you've collected from the business in your sign-up flow and attach each one to the business. These documents are required for the business identification step.

The required documents depend on different factors, such as the business's legal form, sector, etc. Check the appendix for a list of required documents per legal form.

API reference

For a complete list of endpoints, properties, and examples related to the business document resource, visit the following links:

• Business Documents API Reference Documentation:

  • POST Create a business document
  • GET Retrieve a business document
  • GET Download business document
  • PATCH Update a business document
  • DELETE Delete a business document

POST Upload a document

This endpoint uploads a document and links it to the business with the business_id specified in the request URL.

You have to add the following properties to the request body:

• document_type: The document type. For a list of possible values, check the API reference.
• file: The file to be uploaded.

Request URL

POST /v1/businesses/{business_id}/documents

Click here to view the full API reference..

After creating a business resource and uploading the required documents, you must create the natural person(s) associated with the business and assign them to their respective roles. The Solaris system represents a natural person using two resources: a person resource that contains their data, and a natural person resource associated with the respective business resource.

Step 3: Create Legal Representative(s)

In this step, collect the mandatory data points from the business' legal representative(s) and create a person object for each representative. Then create a legal_representative resource and link it to the corresponding person object.

What is a legal representative?

Legal representatives can be natural persons (individuals) or legal entities (businesses) appointed by a company to act on its behalf. The legal representative(s) of a company may be, for instance, its general manager(s) or its managing director(s). The names of a business' legal representatives (Gesellschafter) are usually recorded in the company's commercial register.

Legal representatives as legal entities

A business' legal representative could be a legal entity instead of a natural person. For example, the legal representative of a GbR company could be another GmbH or AG company.

In this case, you must do the following:

• Collect the business data of the legal entity acting as the legal representative and create a business resource for it.
• The natural persons who are the legal representatives of this legal entity are then the ones who will go through the KYC flow.

Create person resource(s) for each legal representative

For each of the business' legal representatives, you must collect the following mandatory information and call the following API endpoint:

POST Create person

This endpoint creates a person resource for the business' legal representative. Add the following mandatory data points you've collected from the customer in the request body of this endpoint:

Mandatory properties:

• salutation
• first_name: (including all middle names as printed on the ID document)
• last_name: (including all middle names as printed on the ID document)
• birth_date
• birth_city
• birth_country (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes)
• nationality (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes)
• address (Street, Number, City, Postal Code, Country, State).
• mobile_number The mobile number will be verified during the identification process.

Request URL

POST /v1/persons

Response

The API returns a person object with a unique id. You will use this id in subsequent API calls as the value of person_id throughout the remainder of this guide.

Click here to view the full API reference

Create legal representative resource(s)

For each person resource you created in the previous step, you must create a legal_representative resource and set the value of its legal_representative attribute to the id of the person resource.

Optional attributes

• type_of_representation: Indicates whether this legal representative can make decisions alone or jointly with other legal representatives. This attribute is optional. Possible values are ALONE, JOINT, or OTHER.
• power_of_attorney_confirmed_at: In case of JOINT representation, legal representatives need to confirm the power of attorney's timestamp in the power_of_attorney_confirmed_at attribute.

POST Create legal representative

This method creates a legal_representative resource on the business and binds a person to the business as a legal representative.

Request URL

POST /v1/businesses/{business_id}/legal_representatives

Response

The API returns an object containing the details of the new legal_representative resource, including its unique id. Note that calling this endpoint successfully will trigger the LEGAL_REPRESENTATIVE webhook event.

Click here to view the full API reference.

Step 4: Create Ultimate Beneficial Owner(s)

In this step, you must do the following:

• Collect the mandatory data points from the business' beneficial owner(s) and create a person object for each beneficial owner.
• Create a beneficial_owner resource and assign it to its corresponding person object.
• Include the definition of the beneficial owner in your UI.

What is a Beneficial Owner?

The Beneficial Owners (BO) are natural persons who, directly or indirectly, own more than 25% of a company's shares.

According to the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG), a Beneficial Owner is a natural person who:

• Ultimately owns or controls the business.
• On whose behalf a transaction is ultimately carried out.
• On whose behalf a business relationship is ultimately established.

Beneficial owner legal definition

Please ensure that the beneficial owner's full definitions and the checkbox are available to your customers in your sign-up flow.

Full definition in English

The ultimate beneficial owner in the sense of the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG) is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the contracting party, or on whose behalf a transaction is ultimately carried out or a business relationship is ultimately established. This particularly includes: 1. In case of legal persons, foundations without legal capacity and, in the case of other companies, any natural person who directly or indirectly holds more than a 25% share of the capital, controls more than 25% of the voting rights or exercises control in any comparable manner (+). Establishing the identity of the beneficial owner can be waived, though, for companies that are listed in an organised market in the EU with in accordance with Sec on 2 para. 5 of the Securities Trading Act or, in case of listed companies from a third country, if they are subject to EU-equivalent transparency requirements regarding voting rights or equivalent international standards; 2. In case of foundations or other legal arrangements with legal capacity (or similar) used to manage or distribute assets or property as trustee (trust management), or through which third parties are instructed with the management or distribution of assets or property, the ultimate beneficial owner is:

• any natural person who is a trustor/settlor, trustee or protector, if applicable
• any natural person who is a member of the board of the foundation,
• any natural person designated as a beneficiary,
• the group of natural persons in whose favour the assets are mainly to be administered or distributed, provided that the natural person who is to be the ultimate beneficial owner of the assets or property has not yet been determined
• any natural person who, by any other means, directly or indirectly exercises control over the asset management or property or the distribution of income.

3. In the event of acting on behalf of another party, the ultimate beneficial owner includes the party upon whose initiative the transaction is performed. If the contracting party acts as a trustee, he also acts on behalf of another party. (+) Indirect control exists particularly if corresponding shares are held by one or more associations pursuant to Sec on 20 para. 1 GwG which are controlled by a natural person. Control exists particularly if the natural person can directly or indirectly exert a controlling influence on the association pursuant to Sec on 20 para. 1 GwG. Sec on 290 para. 2 to 4 German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch - HGB) applies mutatis mutandis to the existence of a controlling influence. If, after extensive audits have been performed and without the facts according to Sec on 43 para. 1 GwG applying, no natural person has been identified or if there is any doubt that the identified person is the ultimate beneficial owner, the ultimate beneficial owner shall be the legal representative, managing partner or partner of the contracting party.

Full definition in German

Wirtschaftlich Berechtigter im Sinne des Geldwäschegesetzes, ist die natürliche Person, in deren Eigentum oder unter deren Kontrolle der Vertragspartner letztlich steht, oder auf deren Veranlassung eine Transaktion letztlich durchgeführt oder eine Geschäftsbeziehung letztlich begründet wird. Hierzu zählen insbesondere: 1. Bei juristischen Personen, außerrechtsfähigen Stiftungen und bei sonstigen Gesellschaften jede natürliche Person, welche unmittelbar oder mittelbar mehr als 25 Prozent der Kapitalanteile hält, mehr als 25 Prozent der Stimmrechte kontrolliert oder auf vergleichbare Weise Kontrolle ausübt(2). Auf die Abklärung des wirtschaftlich Berechtigten kann aber verzichtet werden bei Gesellschaften, die innerhalb der EU an einem organisierten Markt im Sinne des § 2 Abs. 5 des Wertpapierhandelsgesetzes notiert sind, oder bei börsennotierten Unternehmen aus einem Drittstaat, wenn sie dem Gemeinschaftsrecht entsprechenden Transparenzanforderungen im Hinblick auf Stimmrechtsanteile oder gleichwertigen internationalen Standards unterliegen; 2. Bei rechtsfähigen Stiftungen und Rechtsgestaltungen, mit denen treuhänderisch Vermögen verwaltet oder verteilt oder die Verwaltung oder Verteilung durch Dritte beauftragt wird, oder diesen vergleichbaren Rechtsformen zählt zu den wirtschaftlich Berechtigten:

• jede natürliche Person, die als Treugeber, Verwalter von Trusts (Trustee) oder Protektor, sofern vorhanden,
• jede natürliche Person, die Mitglied des Vorstands der Stiftung ist,
• jede natürliche Person, die als Begünstigte bestimmt worden ist,
• die Gruppe von natürlichen Personen, zu deren Gunsten das Vermögen hauptsächlich verwaltet oder verteilt werden soll, sofern die natürliche Person, die Begünstigte des verwalteten Vermögens werden soll, noch nicht bestimmt ist,
• jede natürliche Person, die auf sonstige Weise unmittelbar oder mittelbar beherrschenden Einfluss auf die Vermögensverwaltung oder Ertragsverteilung ausübt.

3. Bei Handeln auf Veranlassung zählt zu den wirtschaftlich Berechtigten derjenige, auf dessen Veranlassung die Transaktion durchgeführt wird. Soweit der Vertragspartner als Treuhänder handelt, handelt er ebenfalls auf Veranlassung.

Create person resource for each beneficial owner

For each of the business' beneficial owners, you must collect the following mandatory information and pass it to Solaris in the request body of the following endpoint:

POST Create person

This endpoint creates a person resource for the business' beneficial owner. Add the following mandatory data points you've collected from the customer in the request body of this endpoint:

Mandatory properties:

• salutation
• first_name: (including all middle names as printed on the ID document)
• last_name: (including all middle names as printed on the ID document)
• birth_date
• nationality (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes)
• country: Country of residence. (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes).

Request example:

POST /v1/persons
{
    "salutation": "MR",
    "first_name": "Max",
    "last_name": "Mustermann",
    "nationality": "DE",
    "birth_date": "1982-06-20"
}

Response

The API returns a person object with a unique id. You will use this id in subsequent API calls as the value of person_id throughout the remainder of this guide.

Click here to view the full API reference

Additionally, you need to clarify whether there is an additional agreement that allows an external person or business to have a right of ownership. To collect this information, display the following question to your customers as a check box during the sign-up process:

Are there contracts or agreements concluded outside the company register which reflect a possible ownership based on voting rights distributions?

If the customer checks this box, they must provide supplementary documentation to reflect the ownership. The required documents have the document type: SHARE_HOLDERS_AGREEMENT. Additionally, you need to store the response and timestamp of the customer's response and provide it when requested by Solaris.

Create beneficial owner resource(s)

For each person resource you created in the previous step, you must create a beneficial_owner resource. You must provide values for the following properties:

• person_id: The id of the person resource you just created.
• voting_share
• fictious

POST Create beneficial owner(s)

This method creates a beneficial_owner resource on the business and binds a person to the business as a beneficial owner.

Request example:

// POST /v1/businesses/{business_id}/beneficial_owners
{
  "person_id": "dc1a6812a14f6cc338cd084208535bcdcper",
  "voting_share": "70.50",
  "fictitious": "false",
  "relationship_to_business": "DOMINANT_INFLUENCE_OVER_SHARE_CAPITAL"
}

Response

The API call returns an object containing the details of the beneficial_owner resource, including its unique id. Note that calling this endpoint successfully will trigger the BENEFICIAL_OWNER webhook event.

Click here to view the full API reference.

Step 5: Complete the business identification (BKYC)

In this step, you will trigger the process of verifying the identities of the business legal entity and the legal representative(s) on the business account.

API reference

For a complete list of endpoints, properties, and examples related to business identification (BKYC), visit the following links:

• Business identification API reference:

  • POST Create business identification
  • GET Retrieve business identification

Related webhook events

• BUSINESS_IDENTIFICATION
• IDENTIFICATION

POST Initiate business identification

Call this endpoint to initiate the business identification process, which automatically triggers both the legal identification of the business and the video identification of applicable natural person(s). You have to specify the identification method in the request body. The default method is idnow.

Request URL

POST /v1/businesses/{business_id}/identifications

Response

The API response returns an identification object with a unique id representing the business identification resource and its overall status. Additionally, the payload contains individual identification objects for the video identification sessions of legal representatives, including their respective resource id, IDnow status, reference, and url for completing the process.

The payload also provides information on the legal identification process, including its dedicated legal_identification_status. You must call the API to monitor the progress of this process, particularly the legal_identification_missing_information field, where Solaris will highlight compliance questions requiring answers from the business.

Click here to view the full API reference.

Manual video identification

Your solution might need to trigger video identification manually in the following cases:

1. New legal representatives are found during the legal identification process. In this case, you'll receive a webhook notification from the event legal_representative, which includes the legal_representative_id of the discovered legal representative. Afterward, initiate a video identification with IDnow and trigger the identification session by redirecting the legal representative to the provided URL.
2. If any of the initially triggered video identifications fail, manually trigger a new identification.

API reference

For a complete list of endpoints, properties, and examples related to customer identification (KYC), visit the following link:

• Customer identification (KYC) API reference

Related webhook events

• IDENTIFICATION

POST Create identification

Call this endpoint to create an identification resource for the person specified in the request URL, and add the following properties to the request body:

• method: The identification method to use. In this case, set the value to idnow.
• language: The customer's preferred language for the identification process. Possible values are EN and DE.
• proof_of_address_type: The type of document submitted by the customer as a proof of address. This field is mandatory if the customer's identification document does not include their address.
• proof_of_address_issued_at: The date when the proof of address document was issued. This field is mandatory if the customer's identification document does not include their address. It may not be older than 6 months.

Request example

POST /v1/persons/{person_id}/identifications
{
  "method": "idnow",
  "language": "DE",
  "proof_of_address_type": "GAS_BILL",
  "proof_of_address_issued_at": "2022-09-21"
}

Response example

The API call will return an identification object with a unique id (i.e., identification_id) and an initial status of created.

{
    "id": "6dc54352d6793a892e0702850d07b831cidt",
    "reference": null,
    "url": null,
    "status": "created",
    "completed_at": null,
    "method": "idnow",
    "proof_of_address_type": "GAS_BILL",
    "proof_of_address_issued_at": "2022-09-21",
    "language": "DE",
    "iban": null,
    "terms_and_conditions_signed_at": null,
    "authorization_expires_at": null,
    "confirmation_expires_at": null
}

Click here to view the full API reference.

GET List supported documents for a person identification

The purpose of this endpoint is to provide you with a list of supported identification documents per issuing country. You can use this endpoint to inform your customers of the required documents before starting the identification process.

The API call returns an array of document types with the corresponding issuing countries listed as ISO country codes (ISO-3166-1 alpha 2). If a customer provides a document type that is not supported, their identification process will fail.

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/identifications/{id}/supported_documents

Click here to view the full API reference

PATCH Request person identification

Call this endpoint to trigger the identification flow with IDnow for the specific customer.

Request URL

PATCH /v1/persons/{person_id}/identifications/{id}/request

Response example

The API call returns the identification object with the status pending. The status will remain pending until the customer completes the identification. Additionally, the payload includes the following key properties:

• url The URL to which you must redirect the customer to complete the identification. Valid for 14 days.
• reference: An internal IDnow identification token for the session (format: ABCDEFGH). Do not share this with the customer under any circumstances.

{
    "id": "6dc54352d6793a892e0702850d07b831cidt",
    "reference": "TST-KCCEY",
    "url": "https://go.test.idnow.de/solarisbankvideoidentsandbox/identifications/6dc54352d6793a892e0702850d07b831cidt",
    "status": "pending",
    "completed_at": null,
    "method": "idnow",
    "proof_of_address_type": "GAS_BILL",
    "proof_of_address_issued_at": "2022-09-21",
    "language": "DE",
    "iban": null,
    "terms_and_conditions_signed_at": null,
    "authorization_expires_at": null,
    "confirmation_expires_at": null,
    "estimated_waiting_time": 60
}

Click here to view the full API reference.

IDnow video identification session

Your customer will now be redirected to an IDnow-branded landing page, where they consent to IDnow's Terms & Conditions and confirm that they have a valid ID document for the video identification. They must also provide a valid mobile number, which the IDnow agent will verify during the call using an SMS OTP.

Customers may choose to conduct the call with a German- or English-speaking IDnow agent. When the video identification call begins, the agent will greet the customer on behalf of either you or Solaris (depending on your agreement with Solaris). The agent will then verify the customer's mobile number, first name, and last name. If there are any missing data properties, the agent will provide these as well, and they will be added to the customer's person resource.

GET Retrieve person identification

Once the identification completes successfully, call this endpoint to retrieve the finalized person identification. If you use the include_documents filter, the API will also return the documents submitted by the customer during the process. To download any of these documents, use the document's unique id to call the document download endpoints.

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/identifications/{id}

Click here to view the full API reference.

Other identification endpoints

• GET Index identifications for a person
• POST Upload documents for a person identification
• GET List the IDnow attempts of a person identification
• GET List IDnow legitimation data.

Compliance questions

During the legal identification process, Solaris' legal and compliance team may require additional information from your customers, including answers to certain compliance questions and/or additional documents to be uploaded.

How to identify compliance questions and documents?

1. If Solaris needs further clarification during the business identification, you will receive a notification on the BUSINESS_IDENTIFICATION webhook.
2. Call the GET Retrieve a business identification endpoint to retrieve the required details.

Only compliance questions

If Solaris has compliance questions for the business, the field legal_identification_missing_information will contain only COMPLIANCE_QUESTIONS as a value. In this case, customers can simply provide answers to the questions on your frontend. Additionally, we recommend to have document upload set as optional to enable the customer to add supporting documents.

Example payload

{
  "legal_identification_status": "information_required",
  "legal_identification_status_missing_information": "COMPLIANCE_QUESTIONS"
}

Both compliance questions & documents

If Solaris requires both answers to compliance questions and documents from the business, the field legal_identification_missing_information will contain COMPLIANCE_QUESTIONS and a document_type enum, e.g., FOUNDATION_DOCUMENT or any other document_type. In this case, customers need to provide answers to the questions on your frontend. Additionally, they need to upload the required document type specified in the payload. You should have document upload set as mandatory on your frontend and submit the document to Solaris using the POST Create a Business Document endpoint.

Example payload

{
  "legal_identification_status": "information_required",
  "legal_identification_status_missing_information": 
  [
    "COMPLIANCE_QUESTIONS",
    "FOUNDATION_DOCUMENT"
  ]
}

How to retrieve compliance questions and provide answers?

In case your customer must answer compliance questions, you need to call the following endpoints to retrieve the questions and allow to the customer to answer them on your frontend:

GET Retrieve compliance questions

To get the compliance questions, call the following endpoint:

Request URL

GET /v1/businesses/{business_id}/identifications/{business_identification_id}/legal_identification/questions

Response example

The API call returns an object that includes the question(s) with a unique ID and the corresponding text. You must redirect these questions to your customers and retrieve their answers as part of your workflow. You should also provide a dedicated page for answering all questions separately.

{
  "question_id": "ebb463137becc09788dfe21fc066e670qstn",
  "question_text": "Please provide the license for security / guarding services (Bewachungsgewerbe): § 34a GewO",
  "legal_identification_id": "14eb210435e09ab7f6a06c8b9b86ce27lid",
  "business_identification_id": "4c74c804eaea5d2a2d64ef400a27a4d3bid",
  "business_id": "880bbac68a34add190786b9c74f4c82fcbiz",
  "answer_id": null,
  "answer_text": "string",
  "asked_at": "2021-07-16T13:38:06.000Z",
  "answered_at": null
}

Click here to view the full API reference.

Create answers for compliance questions

After receiving the compliance question answers from the customer, call the following endpoint to share them with Solaris. Note that you must make a separate API call for each answer.

Request URL

You have to provide the question's answer in the request body of this endpoint.

POST /v1/businesses/{business_id}/identifications/{business_identification_id}/legal_identification/questions/{question_id}/answers

Click here to view the full API reference.

PATCH Update business legal identification

Call this method to update the legal identification and mark it as ready to resume the identification process after adding all answers to the compliance questions. This endpoint changes the legal_identification_status from information_required to pending when called.

Request URL

PATCH /v1/businesses/{business_id}/identifications/{id}/legal_identification/mark_as_ready

Click here to view the full API reference.

Identification statuses

There are three different statuses related to the business identification process:

1. Solarisident status

The Solarisident process includes both legal identification and the video-identification. It's represented on the system with the property status, which is automatically set to created when creating a business identification.

Successful legal identification and video identification(s) set the status of the business identification (solarisident) to successful.

Check the appendix for more information about the different status values and descriptions.

2. Legal identification status

The legal identification process is represented by the legal_identification_status property. When a business identification is created, this value is automatically set to created.

Check the appendix section for more information about the different status values and descriptions.

Video identification process

The API returns a unique video identification object for each natural person undergoing video identification. This includes the status property, which is the IDnow status. The property has an initial value of pending and keeps this value as long as the corresponding legal representative has not video-identified with IDnow.

Check the appendix for more information about the different status values and descriptions.

What's next?

Congratulations! You've successfully completed the business identification process (BKYC).

Check the appendices below for additional information on enums and testing data.

For an overview of Solaris' Customer KYC products, check the overview page.

Useful resources

Check the following links for additional related guides and API reference documentation:

• Business identification API reference
• Customer identification (KYC) API reference
• Video Identification guide
• Business Documents API Reference Documentation

Appendix I: Enums

CRS company type

The field crs_company_type is required to collect the mandatory tax information and create the business tax_identification resource. The following table includes the possible values for this field and their descriptions:

Document types

The following table includes the possible values for the field document_type and their descriptions.

Idnow status

The following table includes the possible values for the field status for the video identification process carried out by IDnow and the related description of each status.

IDnow provides a reason whenever the identification has a canceled or aborted status. No reason can be disclosed for the final failed status.

Tax country

The following tables includes the possible values for the field tax_country:

Sector

The following are the possible values for the field sector.

• ECONOMICALLY_SELF_EMPLOYED
• ECONOMIC_DEPENDENT
• FOREIGN_COMPANIES
• FOREIGN_ECONOMIC_DEPENDENT
• FOREIGN_PRIVATE_INDIVIDUAL
• FOREIGN_SELF_EMPLOYED_PRIVATE_PERSON
• GERMAN_BANKS
• MUNICIPALITY_AND_MUNICIPALITY_ASSOCIATION
• OTHER_COMPANIES_WORKMAN
• OTHER_COMPANIES
• OTHER_PRIVATE_INDIVIDUAL

Legal form

The selected value for the field tax_country influences the accepted values for the field legal_form. The following are the possible values for the field legal_form per each tax_country.

Austria (AT)

• AT_SE
• AT_OHG
• AT_KG
• AT_AG
• AT_GESMBH
• AT_EG
• AT_GBR
• AT_EV
• AT_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• AT_SELF_EMPLOYED
• AT_AMT
• AT_KOR
• AT_STIFTUNGEN
• AT_GMBH
• AT_GMBH_CO_KG

Belgium (BE)

• BE_SNC
• BE_SCS
• BE_SA
• BE_SPRL
• BE_SE
• BE_SCA
• BE_SC
• BE_SCRI
• BE_SEP
• BE_SF
• BE_SPRLU
• BE_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• BE_SELF_EMPLOYED

Bulgaria (BG)

• BG_AD
• BG_OOD
• BG_KDA
• BG_KD
• BG_SD
• BG_SELF_EMPLOYED
• BG_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP

Croatia (HR)

• HR_DD
• HR_DOO
• HR_JDOO
• HR_KD
• HR_JTD
• HR_SELF_EMPLOYED
• HR_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• HR_ORTA

Czech Republic (CZ)

• CZ_AS
• CZ_SRO
• CZ_KS
• CZ_VOS
• CZ_DRUZSTVO
• CZ_FYZICKA_OSOBA
• CZ_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• CZ_SELF_EMPLOYED

France (FR)

• FR_AE
• FR_EI
• FR_SNC
• FR_SCS
• FR_SA
• FR_SAS
• FR_SARL
• FR_SE
• FR_SCA
• FR_EURL
• FR_SC
• FR_SCOP
• FR_SELARL
• FR_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• FR_SELF_EMPLOYED

Germany & others

Solaris accepts the following legal forms for companies in Germany and other countries that are not specified in our system:

• AG
• EG
• EK
• EV
• NEV
• GBR
• GMBH
• GMBH_CO_KG
• GMBH_I_GR
• KG
• KGAA
• LTD
• MUNICIPALITY
• MUNICIPAL_COMPANY
• NONE
• OHG
• PARTG
• PRIVATE_PERSON
• SAVINGS_BANK
• SE
• SELF_EMPLOYED
• SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• UG
• UG_I_GR
• FOREIGN_CORPORATION
• ADOR
• AMT
• KDOR
• STIFTUNGEN
• SECOKG
• AGCOKG

Hungary (HU)

• HU_NYRT
• HU_KFT
• HU_BT
• HU_KKT
• HU_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• HU_SELF_EMPLOYED
• HU_ORTA

Italy (IT)

• IT_SE
• IT_SNC
• IT_SAS
• IT_SPA
• IT_SRL
• IT_SAPA
• IT_SCPA
• IT_SCARL
• IT_SCOP
• IT_SS
• IT_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• IT_SELF_EMPLOYED

Luxembourg (LU)

• LU_SNC
• LU_SCS
• LU_SA
• LU_SARL
• LU_SE
• LU_SCA
• LU_SCSP
• LU_SARLS
• LU_SC
• LU_SCOP
• LU_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• LU_SELF_EMPLOYED
• LU_SECA
• LU_ASBL
• LU_FON
• LU_SP

Poland (PL)

• PL_SA
• PL_SPZOO
• PL_SE
• PL_SKA
• PL_SPK
• PL_SPJ
• PL_SELF_EMPLOYED
• PL_OTHER

Portugal (PT)

• PT_SNC
• PT_SC
• PT_SA
• PT_LDA
• PT_SE
• PT_SUNI
• PT_EIRL
• PT_SCIV
• PT_COP
• PT_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• PT_SELF_EMPLOYED

Romania (RO)

• RO_SA
• RO_SRL
• RO_SCA
• RO_SCS
• RO_SNC
• RO_SELF_EMPLOYED
• RO_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP

Serbia (RS)

• RS_AD
• RS_DOO
• RS_KD
• RS_OD
• RS_SELF_EMPLOYED
• RS_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP

Slovenia (SI)

• SI_DD
• SI_DOO
• SI_KDD
• SI_KD
• SI_DNO
• SI_SELF_EMPLOYED
• SI_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP

Spain (ES)

• ES_SRC
• ES_SC
• ES_SA
• ES_SAS
• ES_SRL
• ES_SE
• ES_SCA
• ES_SLNE
• ES_SAU
• ES_SLU
• ES_SPRO
• ES_SCOP
• ES_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• ES_SELF_EMPLOYED

Switzerland (CH)

• CH_DE_AG
• CH_FR_SA
• CH_IT_SA
• CH_DE_GMBH
• CH_FR_SARL
• CH_IT_SAGL
• CH_SE
• CH_DE_KOMAG
• CH_FR_SCA
• CH_IT_SACA
• CH_DE_KG
• CH_FR_SCM
• CH_IT_SAC
• CH_DE_KIG
• CH_FR_SNC
• CH_IT_SNC
• CH_DE_EG
• CH_FR_SS
• CH_IT_SS
• CH_SELF_EMPLOYED
• CH_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• CH_DE_KMG

The Netherlands (NL)

• NL_VOF
• NL_CV
• NL_NV
• NL_BV
• NL_SE
• NL_CVOA
• NL_COPV
• NL_MTS
• NL_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• NL_SELF_EMPLOYED
• NL_VERENIGING
• NL_STICHT

Turkey (TR)

• TR_ADI_SIR
• TR_AS
• TR_LS
• TR_KOM_STI
• TR_KOLL_STI
• TR_SELF_EMPLOYED
• TR_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP

United Kingdom

• GB_SE
• GB_PARTNERSHIP
• GB_LP
• GB_PLC
• GB_LTD
• GB_COPS
• GB_UAS
• GB_PRCU
• GB_PUCU
• GB_SOLE_PROPRIETORSHIP
• GB_SELF_EMPLOYED

Sector, tax country, and legal form mapping

Please note that there are certain dependencies between the fields tax_country, sector, and legal_form. For example, based on the value selected for the field tax_country, certain values will be accepted for the field sector, and based on the value selected for the field sector, certain values will be accepted for the field legal_form.

The following sections give an overview of the mapping between these fields.

Tax country and sector mapping

The selected value for the field tax_country influences the accepted values for the field sector. The following table gives an overview about the mapping of values between the field tax_country and sector.

Sector and legal form mapping

The selected value for the field sector influences the accepted values for the field legal_form. The following table gives an overview about the mapping of values between the field sector and legal_form.

Legal identification status

The following table includes the possible values for the field legal_identification_status for the legal identification process of the business legal entity carried out by Solaris and the related description of each status.

NACE code

The Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, commonly known as NACE, is the industry standard classification system used in the European Union.

NACE uses four hierarchical levels:

• Level 1: 21 sections identified by alphabetical letters A to U;
• Level 2: 88 divisions identified by two-digit numerical codes (01 to 99);
• Level 3: 272 groups identified by three-digit numerical codes (01.1 to 99.0);
• Level 4: 629 classes identified by four-digit numerical codes (01.11 to 99.00).

The first four digits of the code, which is the first four levels of the classification system, are the same in all European countries. National implementations may introduce additional levels. The fifth digit might vary from country to country and further digits are sometimes placed by suppliers of databases.

For example, if the NACE code A 01.11 (Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds) would apply to the person/business, supply the value like such:

nace_code = "A 01.11"

Please visit this site for the list of values of NACE codes values you need to implement in your solution. The list is available in multiple languages.

NACE codes are mandatory for B2B and freelancer customers in Germany, Italy, and Spain. For France, NACE codes are excluded due to the usage of different coding system CODE NAF.

Solarisident status

The following table includes the possible values for the field status, which refers to the overall status of the business identification process (BKYC), including the legal identification of the business legal entity carried out by Solaris and the video identification of the business's natural persons.

Appendix II: BKYC required documents

The following table includes the required documents for identification for each legal form:

Appendix III: Testing samples for GET Search for business commercial registration

The following table includes testing samples for the GET Search for business commercial registration endpoint, including values for the fields country, registration_number, registration_issuer, and name.

Appendix IV: FAQ

Legal Representative FAQs

The company I am about to register is a „Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung“ (GmbH) – who is my legal representative?

The easiest and surest way to figure that out is to check your current register excerpt (Handelsregisterauszug). In there you'll find all the official legal representatives which you would need to tell us. As a further indication, these people also need to be listed in the Imprint of your website (Impressum).

The Legal Representative has sole representations rights – do I need to add the other legal representatives as well?

Yes. Even though this legal representative could conclude the process on behalf of the company alone in the following steps, Solaris would need the complete set of information for regulatory purposes. Therefore, please enter the information about all legal representatives associated with the business.

One of our legal representatives is currently unavailable – do we need to reach them to complete the process?

Yes. All legal representative(s) must be identified in a video identification session to complete the business identification process(BKYC).

Our legal representatives are about to change soon – shall I include the new ones already?

No; please submit the information as it is currently written in the official register. If you already know that these individuals will change, then please inform your Onboarding manager accordingly, and they will help sort things out.

Why do I have to submit all legal representatives here?

As a bank, Solaris is obliged to keep a record about the companies it works with and check whether the provided information is correct. Solaris makes every effort to keep the flow as smooth as possible. Nevertheless, the law stipulates that Solaris must collect this information for all legal representatives.

Ultimate Beneficial Owner FAQs

What is a “Beneficial Owner”?

A so-called “Beneficial Owner” is a natural person (a human) who owns directly or indirectly more than 25% of the voting shares of a legal entity today. Ultimately it is the person who benefits from the entered agreement and has the eventual decision power. It can never be another company, as Solaris would need to look up the owner of that company. There is a more detailed (legally-worded) definition here as well. It may significantly help cases with beneficial owners incorporated as trusts or other non-commercial entity types.

The company has no beneficial owners – how should I proceed?

It might be the case after a thorough investigation that nobody has directly or indirectly enough voting shares of the business. In that case, Solaris is required to take the legal representatives instead. Please enter their information accordingly.

I don't know the ownership structure of the company – how shall I proceed?

Ultimately, the ownership structure of a company is determined in the shareholder agreement (Gesellschaftervertrag), which has been signed at least when founding the entity. In the meantime, this may have changed but would need to be noted in an amendment or update of this contract.

Another company owns the company – what shall I do now?

Please submit the information of the natural person (human) owning your shareholders. If this is also another company (holding- or corporate-structure), you would need to follow the trail of indirect ownership until you either find an individual or the ownership is diluted under 25% ownership (through indirect ownership).

What do you mean by direct or indirectly & how do I calculate that?

Direct ownership refers to a natural person (individual) owning him-/herself voting shares in the business. Indirect ownership refers to somebody owning one entity that then owns a specific part of the business. It also qualifies if the entities are stacked into each other (several companies in between). Also, if one individual holds voting shares via different entities in the business, you would need to add up his/ her total indirect ownership to see whether the total engagement reaches more than 25%. When the shareholding structure is stacked over several hierarchies, you multiply the ownership-quotas of each entity to get the ultimate quota for the respective person.

Example:

Adello GmbH needs to provide its beneficial owners. Adello's shareholders are Peter 30% of shares, Susi 10% of shares, Anne 10% of shares, and Toscana GmbH 50% of shares. Toscana's shareholders: Hugo 75% of shares and Marie 25% of shares Direct beneficial owners of Adello: Peter Indirect beneficial owners of Adello: Hugo with 37,5% of shares (Toscana's share in Adello 50% x Hugo's ownership quota in Toscana 75%). Please note that Marie is not a beneficial owner as she has indirectly only 12,5% in Adello.

We have different kinds of shares – which shares are the decisive ones?

Please refer to the shares with decisive voting power as the beneficial owner is ultimately the person deciding the significant strokes of the company.

Does the UBO need to do something, for instance, sign something or perform a video identification?

No, please only submit the information of that person as stated in his/her official documents (ID card or passport). There is no further double-checking of that information. Therefore, the beneficial owner does not need to do anything during this identification process.